Balance of Power

    Thoughtful, Callister adjusted his glasses. "It won't be easy. Even if I think it's worth it, I'd have to persuade our British parent and my own board of directors. For that I need total secrecy." He stood, restless. "If this gets out before we're ready, any deal's dead. The SSA would have no choice but to destroy us."

    "Any leak on my side," Kerry answered softly, "and the leaker will envy Martin Bresler."

    For an instant, Callister stared at him. "I believe you."

    "Well, then?"

    Silent, Callister gazed at the valley beneath them. There were voices, and then Lara and her family appeared on the trail to the patio, Marie running ahead.

    Reaching the patio, she briefly glanced at Callister, then ran up to Kerry. "We're going swimming," she informed him. "Will you go?"

    "Absolutely." He nodded toward Callister. "Marie, this is Mr. Callister."

    Callister smiled. "Hello, Marie."

    Managing a faint "hi," Marie sought refuge from her shyness by sitting in Kerry's lap. "Hello," Lara said from behind them.

    As Callister turned, Kerry noticed—as he often did—the effect Lara's beauty and self-possession induced in others. When she extended her hand, he took it with a certain deference. "I'm George Callister," he said. "I think I'm supposed to say 'congratulations' to the President, but 'best wishes' to you."

    "That sounds about right," Kerry observed. "Or maybe just 'good luck.' "

    Lara smiled at Callister. "Thank you," she said and then, in turn, introduced Inez, Mary, and a somewhat subdued Joan Bowden.

    Callister greeted them, then allowed that he was needed elsewhere, and that they should enjoy their afternoon. "We intend to," Inez told him. "This is quite an experience."

    "For me, as well," Callister answered dryly.

    With that, he said goodbye to Lara's family. Kerry walked him to his car, two Secret Service agents trailing at a distance.

    "You have a nice family," Callister remarked. "Though I hope they forget they ever saw me here."

    From his tone, Kerry inferred that "family" carried great weight with George Callister. "Do you have children?" he asked.

    "Two. A boy, seventeen, and a girl, thirteen. And neither one much trouble." Stopping near his car, Callister added, "If it comes out that I was here, think you can get them police protection?"

    Though this was offered with a smile, its undertone was not as jocular. "From some maniac with a gun?" Kerry answered. "It's quite a world we live in, isn't it."

    Callister considered this, and then extended his hand. "I'll see what I can do, Mr. President."

NINETEEN

Shortly after five on the next afternoon, Kit Pace asked to see the President.

    It was a crowded day—a new tax bill; a meeting with civil rights leaders—and a long one: at nine that evening, the President and Lara would sit for a live interview on ABC. Though Kerry waved her to a chair, Kit elected to stand. "The other shoe's dropped," she said bluntly. "Carole Tisone from the Chronicle called.

    "She's got the whole story—everything on Joan and Bowden, your various conversations with the D.A. . . ."

    "Will she run it?" Kerry interrupted.

    "Yes." Kit's face and voice betrayed her frustration. "I took her through it all, off the record—protecting Joan's privacy, giving her marriage a chance, letting Bowden work out his problems in peace. When none of that worked, I argued that you and Lara shouldn't be harried for looking out for her sister like any decent family would, especially on the eve of your wedding . . ."

    "Oh," Kerry said, "that

only makes the story more compelling."

    "Apparently so—they're running this tomorrow, regardless of what we say. We've got only a few hours to respond. You and Lara will have to decide how and where."

    "That's up to Joan, not us. But just for the hell of it, what do you suggest we do?"

    "Get it over with, Mr. President." Pausing, Kit sat down. "I know how you feel. But if you say nothing, the story will keep going until we're forced to comment. Just as bad, the story is what the Chronicle says it is—intervention by a President in the criminal justice system—rather than what we know it is."

    Chin propped on his hand, Kerry allowed himself a moment of depression, contemplating how unfair this was to Joan, and how it might affect her. "We'll talk to her," he said with quiet anger. "But first, get me the publisher of the Chronicle. Before they run this, he's going to have to tell me why."

• • •

    Less than four hours later, Kerry and Lara sat with Taylor Yarborough of ABC in the Library, surrounded by cameras and sound equipment.

    It was ten minutes before the interview. Taylor, Lara's friend and former colleague, chatted easily with Kerry and Lara about her children, mutual friends, the oddity of getting married in quite so public a fashion.