"What do you think of this stuff, Cromartie, huh?" Griswold asked in a coarse whisper. "State-of-the-art liquid inhaled anesthesia—tasteless, odorless, rapid onset, long acting. Invented by our own people just for us field operatives. If you could get it over a water buffalo's mouth and nose, he'd be on the ground in half a minute. You don't know about it? Oh, sorry. I guess they don't tell snitch nurses, just the real agents. We're kept up on every new drug. As you'll see."

Quickly Alison's terror gave way to impotence and then to a strange detachment. She tried to hold her breath, to continue kicking backward against Griswold's shin. She drove her elbows against his barrel chest. She attempted to bite the hand that was forcing the cloth even tighter against her mouth, crushing her lips against her teeth.

Waves of dizziness and nausea made it impossible to continue struggling. She was going to throw up . . . throw up and aspirate and choke to death. She was . . .

The fear, helplessness, and intense nausea gave way to a giddy light-headedness and ennui, then, moments later, to blackness. The last things she heard, from the lips beside her ear, were Griswold's grunting breathing and guttural speech.

"They gave you up, Alison. . . . All I had to do was make one phone call and they gave you up. How's that for respect?"

CHAPTER 43

So, enter the hero."

The President of the United States, wearing a white terry-cloth robe and matching flip-flops, greeted Gabe in the living room of the White House residence. Even though it was only ten in the evening, two or three hours before Stoddard's bedtime, the weariness enveloping his eyes seemed even more pronounced than usual.

"Hero?" Gabe asked.

"Evon Mayo, Lily Sexton's assistant, called and told us what happened. She said the doctors told her your treatment in the woods might well have saved Lily's life. Apparently, in addition to her broken shoulder, she punctured a lung and was in danger of bleeding to death."

"There really wasn't that much I could do out there, but I make it a policy never to dissuade people from thinking I'm a hero."

"For some reason, I don't think I believe either part of that statement," Stoddard said.

"I stayed at Fauquier Hospital in Warrenton with her until they had inserted a chest tube, given her a unit of blood, and she was stabilized. For a small place—or even a big place for that matter—that hospital's really quite terrific. Reminds me of ours back home. If you could send out a presidential something or other to them, I know they'd appreciate it."

"Done," the president said without even writing a memo.

And Gabe had no doubt it would be.

"Good hospital or not," he said, "Lily wants university people to take care of her shoulder, and they have a helipad right next to the ER, so tomorrow morning if she's ready to travel, she'll be flown to Georgetown."