"Gabe, please," Carol replied. "I understand why you're upset. We debated how and when to tell you what had been happening, but with all the tests coming out negative, and no attacks for a few weeks, Drew thought we'd be better off hoping the whole matter was a thing of the past. He really needed you, Gabe. Then and now."

"So that's why he lied to me? That's why you lied to me? Because you all needed me?"

Gabe glanced down to see the president's reaction, but Andrew Stoddard, eyes closed, was lying motionless, breathing coarsely, and had clearly not heard a word. Reflexively, Gabe reached down and checked his pulse. One hundred and regular.

Then suddenly Gabe found himself reflecting upon the meeting with Drew in Wyoming. There was time then, plenty of time, for Gabe to tell his longtime friend about the self-prescribing he had been doing—about the pain pills and the antidepressants. He hadn't said anything to the president for the same reason he had never said anything to his former AA sponsor—the same reason he had gradually cut back on his meetings until he stopped going altogether. He was ashamed—not frightened, not worried he was heading for an alcohol relapse like so many warned at the meetings—just ashamed of his weakness and maybe of his foolhardiness and denial as well.

Whatever the reason, he had lied by omission just as Carol and Latti-more had been lying since his arrival in D.C. Just as Drew had done back in Tyler. Different stripes, same zebras.

"The episodes haven't all been the same," Carol said, maintaining her composure against Gabe's onslaught. "The second one happened at a press conference. Jim was there, and so was Magnus. The moment Drew's color changed and his speech became disjointed, they got him off the stage. The whole thing didn't last half an hour. There were more audio and visual hallucinations than there were today, but no rocking. That was when Jim had him brought to the presidential suite at Bethesda Naval. After all the tests were negative, including an evaluation by a team of neurologists, the diagnosis was made of atypical migraine. I'm surprised you didn't read about the whole thing in the papers or else hear about it on TV."

Gabe's smile was mirthless.

"I don't own a TV that works with any reliability, and the only newspaper I ever read is the Tyler Times. Life has been much easier that way."

"I guess that's why you never asked us about the atypical migraines," Lattimore said.