Hidden Empire (Empire 2)

"What is the President doing right now?" asked Cole.

"This is too much of a coincidence," said Cecily. "And I don't know what the President is doing, he doesn't check with me."

"But you can find out better than I can."

"You have a cellphone of your own in his pocket."

"Only when I'm on assignment. Yours he carries all the time."

"And what am I supposed to say to him?"

Wills called again, and now it was certain: All six of them were gone, off the base. "Get me some eyes in the sky keyed to my code only, and make sure they're cut off from any visuals or chatter," said Cole.

"Got it," said Wills.

Cole broke the connection and resumed with Cecily where he had left off.

"I think you could suggest to Torrent that he stop whatever public thing he's doing in the Rose Garden or the White House lawn and get into the most secure place in the White House, while alerting his staff."

"He won't do it, not just on my say-so."

"Tell him it's my say-so—and if he has one of those handheld EMP devices in the White House, he's going to need it. Preferably six of them."

"I can't—this is a terrible accusation to make against our friends, Cole! I can't accuse them like this!"

"I was watching them. They certainly knew I was watching them. Therefore they were also watching me."

"That's ridiculous. If they were, wouldn't you know it, just as they knew you were watching them?"

"I did know it," said Cole.

"Who? Who was watching you?"

"You were, Cecily," said Cole.

"I was not!"

"You didn't know you were, but think about it. Didn't you tell at least one of them that you and I were going to talk to Aldo Verus today?"

"I might have, but why wouldn't I?" asked Cecily.

"There you are."

"You didn't tell me not to!"

"And if I did, what would you have thought?"

"That you were crazy to suspect them."

"And what would you have done?"

Cecily thought for a long minute. "I probably would have talked about the situation with Drew. To see if he could get you and the boys to be friends again."

"And the result would have been the same," said Cole. "They would have known where I was going to be at a certain time today. Inside a highly secure facility, talking to Aldo Verus for hours and hours."

"So this is really Aldo Verus's conspiracy? Not theirs at all?"

"No," said Cole. "No, Aldo Verus has learned from Torrent, or Torrent has learned from him, or heck, maybe all rich and powerful and smart guys know how to work this way. There's no conspiracy, no plan, not with Torrent or with Verus, because plans can be discovered and conspiracies crack. They just set things in motion. Plant seeds. And then watch very closely to see when the time is ripe for them to turn the resulting turmoil to their own advantage. Torrent really means it when he says that he would have prevented certain deaths if he could have. Not because he ever ordered their deaths, but because he set in motion the events—all the events—that led there, without knowing for sure that that was where they'd lead."