By the time she had been able to surrender and doze off, Alison had decided that no matter what she said about the inhaler, Griswold was unlikely to believe her. Sooner or later, regardless of what she divulged—truth or lie—he was going to kill her. By torturing her the way he had, he had more or less crossed the line and had left himself no other option. At the very least, she decided, with nothing to lose, she should do what she could to unsettle him—to drag things out and to make him wonder if she might not be the only one who knew about him.

When she opened her eyes again, the monster was there, staring down at her, still dressed in his shirt and tie and black Secret Service suit.

"Long day?" he asked.

"Go to hell."

"I don't know why, but for some reason I don't think you like me."

"Being a pervert pedophile and a sadist would be enough to accomplish that, but you're a traitor, too."

Nearly submerged beneath the fleshy folds of his brows, Griswold's eyes flashed.

"Why would you say that?"

"You know why."

"Tell me."

"Go to hell."

Griswold filled the large syringe with his torture drug.

"Tell me," he said sweetly, inserting the needle into the rubber port on the IV tubing.

"I've been workin' on the railroad," she sang as loudly as her stressed vocal cords could manage, "all the livelong day. I've been—"

Smiling in a most unsettling way, Griswold pulled the needle out and set the syringe aside.

"I've got a better idea," he said, suddenly looking very full of himself.

Theatrically he reached into the inside breast pocket of his suit coat and produced an Alupent inhaler.

The Alupent inhaler, Alison hoped edgily.

She pressed her lips together, testing how vigorously she was going to be able to resist.

"I think it's time," Griswold said, "that you and our fearless leader developed a common bond. I don't have the time or, frankly, the interest in explaining this little beauty to you, but it sure will be fun to see how you handle it—now and in the near future."

I knew it! Alison thought. The inhaler! I knew it, I knew it, I knew it.

"You are really slime."

"Actually," Griswold said, "I sort of like the big guy. I voted for him, and I never would have agreed to go along with this if I hadn't been—"

"Threatened with exposure because of this little baby-love peccadillo you've got going on here. That was your biggest sin of all—leaving yourself open to blackmail and extortion. Griswold, you are just so stupid."

"That's why I'm standing here and you're lying there," he said, seeming a bit rattled.

"What goes around comes around. You'll get yours. Who's blackmailing you? What's in that inhaler?"