Oath of Honor

question at the top of my list too, and I wish I had an answer for you.

We don’t know. We really don’t.”

“How bad is it?”

“We’re not sure of that either—the whole picture is still coming

together.”

“Come on, Luce. Don’t play press corps with me. You have to

have some good ideas—this is the president’s inner circle we’re talking

about.”

“Believe me, I know.”

Lucinda’s tone was mild but her eyes flashed. She was pissed, all

right. Someone—or probably any number of someones—had to have

dropped the ball for something like this to even be possible. Blair said,

“Okay—best guess, then.”

“What we do know is domestic protests have escalated at every

one of his public venues, and we’ve observed a greater presence of

individuals from radical watch-list groups in the crowds. We don’t

publicize most of his calendar for exactly that reason—to limit his

exposure to hostiles. That, combined with what we’re picking up

from online communications, suggests extremist factions are gaining

advance intelligence.”

“So he’s the specific target? We’re not talking about national

security—we’re talking about his personal security being threatened,

is that it?”

“That’s what we think, yes. I wish I could tell you more.”

“Do you think there’s going to be an assassination attempt?”

Lucinda set her cup down carefully, aware that the china was

fragile enough to break if her grip was hard enough. She rested her

hands on the desktop. “Probabilities are high—higher than we’d like.

Yes.”

• 178 •

Oath Of hOnOr

Blair stood and set her coffee cup on the edge of Lucinda’s desk.

The icy blast of terror left her breathless. How could this happen—

here, in the most advanced, sophisticated country in the world? How

could they have let this happen? She paced to the wall of windows

that looked out on the gardens. The carefully tended shrubs and bushes

were nothing but shapeless mounds beneath snow. If she spoke now,

she’d probably regret what she had to say later, and she’d learned long

ago the only way to get information out of Lucinda was to keep a cool

head. Lucinda was so good at what she did because she couldn’t be

bullied into revealing information, or pressured into using her power

to influence the president’s decisions, or coerced into paving the way

for anyone who hoped to subvert channels. No matter that Blair had

served as her father’s confidant and official representative countless

times in countries all over the world—Lucinda still told her only what

she wanted her to know. And as much as that pissed her off, she trusted

Luce like she trusted few others—and Lucinda loved her father as much

as she did. Calmer, she walked back around the desk and dropped into

the chair. “Does he know?”

“Of course.”

“And he doesn’t care, right?”

Lucinda smiled. “He told me we have plenty of people whose task

it is to see he isn’t bothered. He intends to do his job and let others do

theirs.”

Blair rolled her eyes. “Doesn’t he drive you crazy sometimes?”

“Frequently.”

“And you can’t change him. Can you get him to change his

itinerary for a while? Travel less, limit his public appearances?”

“Even if it weren’t an election year,” Lucinda said wearily, “he

wouldn’t. If we don’t give in to terrorism, we can hardly give in to

vague threats and uncertain possibilities.”

“I take it that’s a direct quote?”

“More or less. It’s business as usual—which means we have to do

our jobs even better.”

“So you called Cam.”

“I need someone I can trust,” Lucinda said softly. “There isn’t

anyone I can name close to Andrew who I don’t trust—and that’s the

problem. Because it must be one of them. I need Cam on this, Blair,

I’m sorry.”

• 179 •

RADCLYfFE

“Why?” Blair asked, surprised. Lucinda never apologized for or

qualified any decision she made.

“I know it’s not what you want Cam to be doing, and you just got

married—”

“Cam decides for herself what she wants to do.” Blair laughed

and shook her head. “Okay, to be fair, she does think about what I

want, you’re right—and that still amazes me. That she would do that

for me.”

“You’re lucky.”

“I know.” Blair turned her wedding ring with her other hand, a

comforting reminder of what she knew in her heart. Cam loved her.

“All the same, she’d already decided to do this before she told me. You

knew she would.”

“I thought she would—and like I said, I know it’s not what you

would’ve wanted.”

“I don’t want Cam getting hurt. I don’t want my father getting hurt

either.” Blair rose. “That means you have two people to worry about,

because if anything happens to either one of them, I swear to God,

Lucinda, I’ll make someone pay.”

Lucinda studied her steadily, her deep gray eyes unblinking.

“Averill and I think the most likely source is in the military office—the

duty officers know his schedule in advance and are in a perfect position

to provide intel on last-minute changes, exit strategies, emergency

routes—everything.”

“You’ll tell Cam?”