The line went dead.

She crushed the phone beneath the heel of her boot, then looked up as True MacDonald returned from the men’s room.

The big Highlander sat down next to her. “So, lass, have ye thought aboot my offer?”

“I accept, on one condition: I want to swim in the loch.”

“Like the wacky Polar Bear ladies? Sure. They meet every Sunday afternoon after church.”

“No. I want to go now.”

“Now? It’s dark outside, and the water’s damn near freezing.”

“A two-minute swim to cool my blood, big fella, then I’ll rock your world.”

“There exists a shadowy Government with its own Air Force, its own Navy, its own fundraising mechanism, and the ability to pursue its own ideas of the national interest, free from all checks and balances, and free from the law itself.”

—Senator Daniel Inouye, Iran-Contra hearings