The Run Read online

  The Run

  A Novel

  Stuart Woods

  This book is for Melody Miller

  Contents

  1

  United States Senator William Henry Lee IV and his wife,…

  2

  As they approached Camp David, it began to snow, and…

  3

  The vice president took a sip of his coffee and…

  4

  Will took off from College Park Airport and called Washington…

  5

  They were met at the Warm Springs airport by Henry,…

  6

  By midmorning they were up and dressed and had stopped…

  7

  Will left the farm and drove into Delano, to his…

  8

  Christmas dinner at the Lee farm was much the same…

  9

  Will and Kate returned to Washington after Christmas, and Kate…

  10

  On New Year’s Eve Will and Kate threw a dinner…

  11

  On New Year’s morning, Will arrived at his hideaway office…

  12

  Kate looked at him across the kitchen table. “How do…

  13

  Will had already made coffee in his hideaway office when…

  14

  Will and his little core of a campaign staff worked…

  15

  Will picked up the phone and called the vice president’s…

  16

  Will was discussing Joe Adams’s TV address with Tim, Kitty,…

  17

  Will and Kate sat before a blazing fire in his…

  18

  Will worked on a combination of Senate and campaign business…

  19

  Will stood on the Capitol steps in the still, cold…

  20

  Zeke Tennant woke habitually at dawn, and Sundays were no…

  21

  It was Will’s third Sunday-morning television program. He sat behind…

  22

  Will stood at the factory gate, freezing his ass off…

  23

  The anchorman gazed into the camera, rustled the useless papers…

  24

  It was midnight, and ninety-eight percent of the ballots in…

  25

  Zeke Tennant got down from the pickup truck at the…

  26

  Will let himself into the Georgetown house. A Secret Service…

  27

  Terry Cogan drove through the flat south Georgia countryside toward…

  28

  Will and Kate were delivered to the White House by…

  29

  Before dawn, Will kissed a still-sleeping Kate good-bye, went downstairs,…

  30

  Senator Frederick Wallace strolled down a Capitol hallway toward his…

  31

  Zeke Tennant read the syndicated column in the Las Vegas…

  32

  Freddie Wallace let himself into his hideaway office and found…

  33

  Zeke checked out of his room at La Fonda around…

  34

  Ed Rawls was released from solitary confinement one week to…

  35

  Will stood and looked at his campaign airplane. It was…

  36

  Zeke Tennant drove west across New Mexico and Arizona. He…

  37

  As his campaign airplane approached Los Angeles, Will picked up…

  38

  As the 737 landed, Will looked across a taxiway into…

  39

  The motorcade turned into the back drive of the Bel…

  40

  Zeke presented himself for work as requested, and Hiller, who…

  41

  Freddie Wallace answered the door himself at his Georgetown home.

  42

  Will stood before the California delegation, the largest and, from…

  43

  Zeke crept out of Rosa’s bed and, leaving his clothes…

  44

  Will pulled his black bow tie tight and examined it…

  45

  By the time they were on dessert, the noise level…

  46

  If Will had felt busy before, the tempo of his…

  47

  The Secret Service car drove up Sunset Boulevard, past the…

  48

  They all sat down to breakfast at eight o’clock. Will…

  49

  Will waited for the governor of California to come on…

  50

  Will and his inner circle of around two dozen people…

  51

  Zeke waited in line with the other workers while the…

  52

  While the convention was nominating George Kiel for vice president,…

  53

  The van drove slowly down the street, past the row…

  54

  Will and Kate were filing into the National Cathedral for…

  55

  Zeke logged on to the Internet and did a search…

  56

  Will stared out the window of the Boeing at the…

  57

  Zeke Tennant was driving north through Virginia toward Washington when…

  58

  Kitty put down the newspaper, from which she had been…

  59

  As the Boeing set down at Van Nuys airport, Will…

  60

  Kitty put down the Washington Post. “Well, that’s depressingly close…

  61

  Zeke prepared carefully. First, he dressed in civilian clothing and…

  62

  Will followed a young woman to the wings at stage…

  63

  Agent West stood in the open doorway between the lobby…

  64

  Will looked out the window of the Boeing as it…

  65

  Will, Kate, Peter, and Will’s parents walked into the hotel…

  66

  Will came awake very slowly in the darkened room. Kate…

  67

  Will Lee stood coatless in the bright January sunshine on…

  Author’s Note

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Praise

  Other Books by Stuart Woods

  Copyright

  About the Publisher

  1

  United States Senator William Henry Lee IV and his wife, Katharine Rule Lee, drove away from their Georgetown house in their Chevrolet Suburban early on a December morning. There was the promise of snow in the air.

  Kate sipped coffee from an insulated mug and yawned. “Tell me again why we drive this enormous fucking car,” she said.

  Will laughed. “I keep forgetting you’re not a politician,” he said. “We drive it because it is, by my reckoning, the least offensive motor vehicle manufactured in the state of Georgia, and because Georgia car workers and their union have shown the great wisdom to support your husband’s candidacy in two elections.”

  “Oh,” she said. “Now I remember.”

  “Good. I’m glad I won’t have to put you in a home right before Christmas.” He looked in the rearview mirror and saw another Suburban following them. “They’re there,” he said.

  “They’re supposed to be.”

  “How did they know?”

  “Because I called them last night and gave them our schedule.”

  The week before there had been a terrorist attack on CIA employees as they had left the Agency’s building in McLean, Virginia, and certain Agency officials had been given personal protection for a time; Kate Rule was the deputy director for Intelligence, chief of all the CIA’s analysts, and was, therefore, entitled.

  “Oh,” Will replied, sipping his own coff
ee and heading north toward College Park, Maryland, and its airport. “They’re not going to follow us all the way to Georgia, are they?”

  “I persuaded them that wouldn’t be necessary.”

  “Good.”

  “It’s a little like having Secret Service protection, isn’t it?” she nudged. “Does it make you feel presidential?”

  “Nothing is going to make me feel presidential, at least for another nine years.”

  “What about the cabinet? If Joe Adams is elected and wants you for Defense or State or something, will you leave the Senate?”

  Joseph Adams was vice president of the United States and the way-out-in-front leader for the Democratic Party’s nomination for president the following year. “Joe and I have already talked about that. He says I can have anything I want, but he doesn’t really mean it.”

  “I always thought Joe was a pretty sincere guy,” Kate said.

  “Oh, he is, and he was sincere with the half-dozen other guys he told the same thing. But I don’t really have the foreign-policy credentials for State, and while I think I really could have Defense, I don’t want it. I don’t want to spend eight or even four years doing battle with both the military and Congress; the job killed James Forrestal and Les Aspin, and it’s ground up a lot of others.”

  “What about Justice? Your work on the Senate Judiciary Committee should stand you in good stead for that.”

  “I think I could have Justice, if I were willing to fight for it tooth and nail, and there’s a real opportunity to do some good work there.”

  “Well?”

  “I think I’ll stay in the Senate. Georgia’s got a Republican governor at the moment, and if I left, he’d get to appoint my replacement, and we don’t want that. Also, if Joe’s elected, three or four top senators will leave to join the administration, among them the minority leader, and I’d have a real good shot at that job. And if we can win the Senate back, then the job would be majority leader, and that is very inviting.”

  “It’s the kind of job you could keep for the rest of your career,” she said.

  “It is.”

  “But you don’t want to spend the rest of your career in the Senate, do you?”

  “You know I love the Senate.”

  “Will, you’ve been awfully closemouthed about this, but I know damned well you want to be president.”

  “One of these days, sure,” Will replied.

  “You mean after Joe has served for eight years?”

  “I’d only be fifty-seven. Why not? I might even appoint you director of Central Intelligence.”

  “Yeah, sure,” she said. “The world would fall on you.”

  “If Jack Kennedy could appoint Bobby attorney general, why couldn’t I appoint my wife to be head of the CIA?”

  “Well, it’s a nice thought, anyway,” she said.

  “Listen, here’s a thought; Joe’s going to owe me after the election, and if I’m not going to ask him for a cabinet job, I could ask him to appoint you DCI.”

  “Would you really do that?”

  “Let’s just say that I know the candidate well and have the highest confidence in her. It’s not as though you’re not supremely well qualified.”

  “Mmmmm. I like the sound of it.”

  “Of course, I’d want my back scratched a lot if I pull this off, and I mean that in the literal, not the figurative sense.”

  “I’ll start growing my nails now.” She laughed.

  “Promises, promises.”

  “I think about it sometimes,” she said.

  “Scratching my back? Less thought, more action!”

  “No, I mean your being president.”

  “And what do you think when you think about it?”

  “Mostly about what a huge pain in the ass being first lady would be.”

  “Oh, it might have its up side—weekends at Camp David, travel on Air Force One, that sort of thing.”

  “I’d have to make a lot of speeches, and you know how I hate doing that.”

  “Well, how about this? If Joe has already appointed you DCI, I could reappoint you. Then I could hire a first lady.”

  “Just run an ad, you mean?”

  “Why not?”

  “Well, I must admit, the idea of being appointed and then reappointed has its appeal, but the substitute wife doesn’t.”

  “I’m glad to hear it.” Will turned into the entrance of the little airport at College Park, which had been founded by the Wright Brothers and was located on the grounds of the University of Maryland. He drove down the taxiway to where his airplane was tied down, got out of the car, and unlocked the cabin door. The airplane was new, a Piper Malibu-Mirage, a six-seat, pressurized single-engine aircraft, loaded with the latest equipment. Will had traded his elderly Cessna for it a couple of months before, and it made trips back to Georgia a lot faster and more comfortable.

  He climbed in and lowered the rear seat backs, then stowed the luggage Kate handed him. She drove the Suburban back to the little office and parked it there.

  Will had nearly finished his preflight inspection when Kate returned. She started to say something, but her voice was drowned out by the noise of a large helicopter setting down on the grass nearby. Will recognized it immediately.

  So did Kate. “I thought the president had already gone home to California for Christmas,” she said.

  “I thought so, too,” Will said.

  The airstair door of the helicopter was lowered, but the engines were kept running. A young Marine officer in a crisp uniform left the craft and came jogging toward where Will and Kate stood.

  He ran up to them and saluted smartly. “Senator, Mrs. Lee.”

  “Good morning, Lieutenant,” Will said.

  “The vice president and Mrs. Adams would be honored if you would join them for breakfast at Camp David,” the officer said.

  Will and Kate looked at each other. “We were just about to take off for Georgia,” Will said.

  “The vice president instructed me to insist,” the Marine replied. “We’ll have you back here before noon, and our people will get you an expedited clearance to Georgia.”

  “We’ll need to change clothes,” Will said. There was no telling who might be there.

  “That won’t be necessary, sir; it will be just the two of you and Vice President and Mrs. Adams.”

  Will looked at Kate and shrugged. She shrugged back. He locked up the Mirage and followed the Marine back to the idling helicopter. A moment later they had taken off and were headed northwest across the Maryland landscape.

  Kate leaned over and spoke into Will’s ear. “You have any idea what this is all about?”

  Will shook his head. “Not a clue,” he said.

  2

  As they approached Camp David, it began to snow, and they could see nothing from the helicopter except whiteness. Kate squeezed Will’s hand.

  “I don’t like this,” she said. “How are they going to land?”

  “Don’t worry, they’ll get us in safely.”

  He was right. At around five hundred feet they could see the interstate highway, then a deep forest, and then the big chopper alit gently on the pad. Will had been to Camp David only once before, in summer, and the contrast was startling. The trees were bereft of leaves, and the summer golf-cart transportation had been replaced by a Secret Service Ford Expedition. It had not been snowing long, but already a broom machine was sweeping the roads and paths ahead of them. They drove past a number of buildings, then stopped before a large structure of timber and stone.

  “This is Aspen Lodge,” Will said, as they got out of the car. “It’s the president’s residence here.” A Secret Service agent escorted them up the path to the door, on which hung the seal of the vice president. He opened the door for them and ushered them in. Past the foyer they emerged into a large, luxuriously furnished living room, with deep sofas and chairs scattered artfully about. The walls were hung with fine paintings, mostly American landscapes, chosen by the pres
ident and first lady from the collection of the National Gallery of Art.

  “Vice President and Mrs. Adams will be with you shortly,” the agent said, then left them alone in the room.

  A Filipino butler entered. “Good morning, Senator, Mrs. Lee,” he said. “May I get you some refreshment?”

  “A V-8, please,” Kate replied.

  “Orange juice,” Will said.

  The man disappeared and returned with the juices. They stood in front of the huge fireplace and warmed their backsides while they waited.

  “This is quite a place,” Kate said. “No wonder presidents love it so much.”

  “If you were first lady, it would be yours,” Will whispered.

  “It’s too early in the game to start tempting me, Will; there’s plenty of time for that.”

  “Tempting you has always been one of my chief pleasures,” Will said.

  “I wonder what’s keeping Joe and Sue?”

  “They’re entitled.”

  As if on cue, the vice president and his wife entered the room from a rear hallway. “Will!” Adams said, ignoring the outstretched hand and embracing him. “It’s good to see you!”

  The women, who were less well acquainted than their husbands, touched cheeks and exchanged pleasantries.

  “Have you had breakfast?” the vice president asked.

  “Not really,” Will replied.