A look of irritation crossed Anita Crusoe’s features. How many times had she been forced into a security hold because some harmless crackpot had threatened to bring hell and fury to the Crusoe family, or some Secret Service agent had discovered a stray paper bag in her vicinity and called in a bomb-sniffing robot to disarm what turned out to be a tuna fish sandwich?

“Beth, is that necessary? I can’t imagine anyone knows we are here,” she said more plaintively than she’d intended.

Beth had reached for the TV remote. “You should see this, ma’am. Do you mind?” she said, turning on the television without waiting for a reply.

When Anita saw the story, her blood went cold.

On TV, a bright red banner screamed, “Breaking News: Anita Crusoe Hidden Video,” which rotated with another that read “New Video: FLOTUS with Mystery Lover.” She couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Surveillance footage taken from this house—including the bedroom—blasted out for the world to see. Suddenly she felt chilled, exposed. She reached for a blanket as she turned on Beth.

“Who did this? It’s one of your people!” She could hear her own voice rising in panic. “No one knows we’re here!”

Beth remained calm. “Not entirely true. My director knows we’re here, Mrs. Crusoe. If he didn’t, you’d be a missing person. There’d be a manhunt for you. He’s known since we arrived. Which means some at the White House know, too,” Beth said steadily. “Headquarters would have access to the camera feeds—”

“Camera feeds?” the First Lady asked, confused, enraged.

“Ma’am, you know we’re under full surveillance here. For your safety, we need eyes, but it’s a highly secure feed.”

“Apparently not,” Anita Crusoe spat back. She noticed Anthony shift uncomfortably in his seat.

Anthony! Poor Anthony. He was in the video, too. They had exposed him.

“Oh my god,” she turned to him. “I’m so sorry. I never imagined I’d get you caught up like this!”

He held up a reassuring hand. “Don’t worry about me. It comes with the territory, I’ll be fine. I’m only worried about you.” He turned to Beth. “What would you like us to do?”

“We’d like you to hold in this room until we’ve swept the house to ensure there’s no physical breach. My guess is someone took this from the feed. The director will have the cyber guys on that back at home. But we have to check.”

“Thank you, Beth,” Anthony said.

The First Lady was lost in thought.

Of course, someone took it from the feed. Patrick’s people did this. It was a warning shot. They wanted her to know how displeased they were that she stymied their plans. And they didn’t mind exposing her and her secrets to keep this under control.

How far would they go? she wondered.