Admittedly, it was an unfortunate set of circumstances that were removing David from office. Keller would never wish anything like this on Elizabeth Barrett—he had met her several times, and thought her a fine young person. Attractive, but probably not beautiful. Smart enough, but certainly not a genius. Just a nice girl from a very rich family whose dad happened to be the President.

Elizabeth had done a very silly thing. And the Secret Service had probably been lax in their protection of her. They had relied too much on the school’s security, and they had underestimated what a bored teenage girl might do to experience a little excitement and a little romance.

Keller hoped that they were able to retrieve Elizabeth safe and sound. But her antics had caused something of a disaster—which by the way, was likely to set off a chain of catastrophic violence that would impact thousands of innocent people, people whom irresponsible young Elizabeth would never meet or even imagine.

And her antics had opened an opportunity to remove from the highest office in the land a man who was unfit to occupy that office. In the end, this was a good thing, no matter what happened to Elizabeth. It was not an opportunity that should be allowed to go to waste.

Okay. That settled it.

Keller climbed out of the car and set out walking at a brisk pace. Within a few moments, he was at the bottom of the hill and crossing the Francis Scott Key Bridge along the pedestrian sidewalk, heading across the Potomac River toward the Arlington neighborhood of Rosslyn.

On the bridge, the six lanes were quiet. Now and then, a car passed. Up ahead, to his south, the tall office towers of Rosslyn loomed. Even this time of night, there were many, many lights on.

Halfway across the bridge, Keller stopped. He pulled out a small cellular telephone and flipped it open. It was a burner phone—he had purchased it anonymously for cash with prepaid minutes loaded on it.

It was breezy out here on the bridge. Someone with a camera and a high-powered telephoto lens could watch him, but it would be very hard for anyone to overhear him speaking. It would also be hard to intercept a phone call that no one was expecting, from a phone that had never been used before. And naturally, it would be impossible to trace from where the call had come.

He dialed a number, one that very few people had.

After a couple of rings, a voice picked up.

“Hello?”

“Hi,” Keller said. “Do you know who this is?”

“Of course,” the voice said. “I was staying up, watching the TV news, and waiting for your call. I was beginning to think it wasn’t going to come.”

Keller shook his head and smiled. “Here it is.”

“Good. What do you have?”