Oath of Honor

“That’s your job. In the meantime, we need to button down

everything on our end. I want you to watch communications carefully.

Make sure our analysts are looking for anything, no matter how small,

that gets picked up from sources under surveillance.”

She nodded sharply. “You got it.”

“She’s due for a polygraph. Pick her up and take her over. Sit in

on it.”“I’m not certified—”

“I know—Preston will run it. You can play backup.”

“Yes, sir.”

“And for now, all of this is just between us.”

“Yes, sir,” Evyn said softly. She didn’t want to believe that anyone

inside the White House could be compromising the president by

inadvertently mishandling information. But to do it willfully? To her,

there was no greater sin. Wes couldn’t think her capable of that, could

she?

v

Wes left Lucinda’s office and walked out into the waiting area.

Evyn Daniels stood with a stone-faced man in a dark suit who regarded

her with unsmiling eyes. Wes looked at Evyn. “Good morning, Agent

Daniels.”

“Captain,” Evyn said politely, nothing but professional friendliness

in her eyes. “This is Agent Preston.”

Wes quickly squelched a wave of disappointment at the formal

tone. Business as usual. Last night was a thing of the past, and after

what Lucinda had just told her, business as usual was all there could be

for her with anyone on the job. She wasn’t here to make friends. She

nodded to Preston. “You’ll be doing the testing?”

• 69 •

RADCLYfFE

“That’s right,” Preston said. “If you come this way, we’ll tell you

about it once we get settled.”

Wes followed them down the hall and into a small room with

several windows that looked out over another expanse of lawn studded

with rose bushes. The room was crowded with a conference table, eight

chairs, and a row of bookshelves underneath the window. A file cabinet

stood in one corner and a polygraph machine rested in the center of

the table. She sat down across from it. Evyn and Preston sat facing the

machine.

“The way this works,” Preston said, “is that the test is given in two

parts—part one will cover some basic informational questions. Then

we’ll move on to part two with more focused questions. Have you ever

had a polygraph?”

“No.”

“Is there anything you want us to know now before we start the

test?”“I assume you’re referring to anything which I feel would

disqualify me for this position?”

Preston answered before Evyn. “We find it’s best not to try

to outthink or rationalize whether or not there is a right or wrong

answer.”

Evyn added, “Just answer each question to the best of your ability.

If there’s something in the past you think may hamper or confuse your

answers, you should tell us. That will actually help us interpret the test

to your benefit.”

“There isn’t.” Wes hadn’t expected to see Evyn until later, and

this wasn’t the way she had hoped their next encounter would come

about, but Evyn was here to do her job and so was she. In a way, she

was relieved. There could be no ambiguity about what was happening

between them. Nothing. Only business.

“All right,” Preston said. “We’re going to go through some basic

questions first.”

Wes knew the basics of the polygraph. She understood that

some questions were designed to elicit a yes-or-no answer, and those

responses formed the baseline comparators for other answers. She also

knew it was best not to try to figure out which questions were the critical

comparators. “I’m ready.”

Preston made some notes while Evyn connected the galvanic

• 70 •

Oath Of hOnOr

skin recorder to Wes’s right arm. Wes was aware of sweating slightly.

Unusual for her. Even under the tensest conditions, she rarely perspired.

She wasn’t concerned about the test, but she couldn’t shake the lingering

connection she felt to Evyn Daniels, and the disorienting effect of her

presence.

“All right, Dr. Masters,” Preston said, making a mark on a

scrolling roll of paper. “We’re going to begin. Is your name Captain

Wesley Masters?”

“Yes.”

Preston alternated asking her routine questions—her term of

service, her duty stations, her field experience—interspersed with

pointed questions.

“Have you ever been arrested?”

“No.”

“Have you ever used illegal drugs, recreationally or in conjunction

with an assignment?”

“No.”

“Have you ever met with foreign nationals hostile to the U.S.?”

“No.”

“Have you ever met with known terrorists?”

“No.”

“The Ku Klux Klan, the American Nazi Party, the American

Christian Army?”

“No. No. No.”

She answered no so many times she began to feel as if she was

revealing she had no life outside her job. But then, she didn’t.

Finally, Preston turned off the machine and Evyn sat back. She

gave Wes the slightest smile, and for some reason, Wes’s uneasiness

disappeared.

“We’ll let you know the results as soon as they’ve been analyzed,”

Preston said.

Wes rolled her shoulders and stretched her neck. “Good, thank

you. I wonder if you could tell me how to get to the medical offices

from here.”

“I’ll take you,” Evyn said.

“And someplace to eat?”