James Patterson - The President Is Missing: A Novel

Chapter
1

T he House Select Committee will come to order

The sharks are circling, their nostrils twitching at the scent of blood. Thirteen of them, to be exact, eight from the opposition party and five from mine, sharks against whom Ive been preparing defenses with lawyers and advisers. Ive learned the hard way that no matter how prepared you are, there are few defenses that work against predators. At some point, theres nothing you can do but jump in and fight back.

Dont do it, my chief of staff, Carolyn Brock, pleaded again last night, as she has so many times. You cant go anywhere near that committee hearing, sir. You have everything to lose and nothing to gain.

You cant answer their questions, sir.

It will be the end of your presidency.

I scan the thirteen faces opposite me, seated in a long row, a modern-day Spanish Inquisition. The silver-haired man in the center, behind the nameplate MR. RHODES , clears his throat.

Lester Rhodes, the Speaker of the House, normally doesnt participate in committee hearings, but he has made an exception for this select committee, which he has stacked with members of Congress on his side of the aisle whose principal goal in life seems to be stopping my agenda and destroying me, politically and personally. Savagery in the quest for power is older than the Bible, but some of my opponents really hate my guts. They dont just want to run me out of office. They wont be satisfied unless Im sent to prison, drawn and quartered, and erased from the history books. Hell, if they had their way, theyd probably burn down my house in North Carolina and spit on my wifes grave.

I uncurl the gooseneck stem of the microphone so that it is taut, fully extended, as close to me as possible. I dont want to lean forward to speak while the committee members sit up straight in their high-backed leather chairs like kings and queens on thrones. Leaning forward would make me look weak, subservienta subliminal message that Im at their mercy.

I am alone at my chair. No aides, no lawyers, no notes. The American people are not going to see me exchanging hushed whispers with an attorney, my hand over the microphone, removing it to testify that I have no specific recollection of that, Congressman. Im not hiding. I shouldnt have to be here, and I sure as hell dont want to be here, but here I am. Just me. The president of the United States, facing a mob of accusers.

In the corner of the room, the triumvirate of my top aides sits in observation: the chief of staff, Carolyn Brock; Danny Akers, my oldest friend and White House counsel; and Jenny Brickman, my deputy chief of staff and senior political adviser. All of them stoic, stone-faced, worried. Not one of them wanted me to do this. It was their unanimous conclusion that I was making the biggest mistake of my presidency.

But Im here. Its time. Well see if they were right.

Mr. President.

Mr. Speaker. Technically, in this context, I should probably call him Mr. Chairman, but there are a lot of things I could call him that I wont.

This could begin any number of ways. A self-congratulatory speech by the Speaker disguised as a question. Some light introductory setup questions. But Ive seen enough video of Lester Rhodes questioning witnesses before he was Speaker, back when he was a middling congressman on the House Oversight Committee, to know that he has a penchant for opening strong, going straight for the jugular, throwing off the witness. He knowsin fact, after 1988, when Michael Dukakis botched the first debate question about the death penalty, everyone knowsthat if you blow the opener, nobody remembers anything else.

Will the Speaker follow that same plan of attack with a sitting president?

Of course he will.

President Duncan, he begins. Since when are we in the business of protecting terrorists?

We arent, I say so quickly that I almost talk over him, because you cant give a question like that oxygen. And we never will be. Not while Im president.

Are you sure about that?

Did he really just say that? The heat rises to my face. Not one minute in, and hes already under my skin.

Mr. Speaker, I say. If I said it, I meant it. Lets be clear about that from the start. We are not in the business of protecting terrorists.

He pauses after that reminder. Well, Mr. President, maybe we are parsing words here. Do you consider the Sons of Jihad to be a terrorist organization?