To Kill the President: The most explosive thriller of the year

Maggie resumed her place on the couch. She wanted to ask what the two of them had been looking at on their phones, but restrained herself. She didn’t want to sound like a stalker. ‘Attractive, too.’

He smiled, leaned over and began tickling Maggie’s sides. Then he kissed her. ‘Maggie Costello, I do believe you’re jealous.’

‘Of course I’m not,’ Maggie laughed. ‘Nothing of the sort. The very idea …’

‘You sure?’ he said, reaching for the remote.

‘I’m sure. If only because the last thing in the world I’d want is to have that man as my father.’

‘Are we back on that again?’

‘Did I tell you what McNamara asked me to do today?’

‘Hold on.’ Richard had tuned to CNN. Above a ‘Breaking News’ caption was a live shot of protesters in Florida, clashing with men in uniform. He turned up the volume.

… escalated in the last hour or so. As you know, Kelly, officers of the new United States Deportation Force have been deployed across the state, part of the first phase of rounding up undocumented migrants. The USDF have come here in very big numbers and they’re armed. But as you can see, they’re meeting stiff resistance. Locals here in Miami have formed a human chain, insisting that they will not let the USDF pass. But you can see around me, Kelly, the officers are wielding nightsticks and they’re – hold on, whoa – they’re beating two men right in front of me. Press! We’re press! I’m sorry, Kelly, I don’t know if you can still hear me. Dave, our cameraman, is down. I’m just gonna keep … We’re press! CNN!… The USDF men are charging into this crowd now. They seem to be smashing the heads of anyone and everyone in their way. People are screaming and running and trying to get away. There are children here, Kelly …

Richard turned the TV off.

They were silent for a while until Maggie said, ‘“I cannot believe you work for that evil man.” That’s what Liz said.’

‘Look,’ Richard replied. ‘We’ve been over this. We can either be like everyone else in this country, sitting on the sofa, watching the news and doing nothing. Or we can stay where we are right now. On the inside. Where we can make a difference.’

She had clung to that line, parroting it to herself for months. She felt it more keenly than anyone could possibly know. She of all people needed it to be true. How else was she to make amends?

‘But what difference are we actually making, Richard? I mean, look.’

She grabbed the remote and turned the TV back on. It looked like a full-blown riot. A few of the protesters had started burning tyres. In the corner of the screen, she could see a USDF officer clubbing a man who lay unmoving on the ground.

Maggie stood up. ‘This is not right, Richard. Something’s going to crack, very soon. I can feel it.’

5 (#u330ce05c-f542-51fb-9975-ba187bd64ff5)

The Watergate Building, Washington, DC, Monday, 7.25pm

‘Here. Scotch, water, no ice. Let’s talk on the balcony.’

Robert Kassian let Jim Bruton steer him through the living room and outside. Bruton closed the door behind them, tight shut. ‘You can’t be too careful.’

It was a warm, May evening – in that precious interim between the bone-chilling Washington winter and the stifling, damp summer. He’d been here over ten years, but still Kassian didn’t care for this city. He dreamed often of moving back home to Cleveland or perhaps, who knows, California. But if the place was bearable at all, it was in springtime.

He looked at the glass dwarfed by Bruton’s hand, then down at his own. Physically, they were an odd match. They always had been. Bruton was a bear of a man. He’d played college football and, while the muscle tone had gone, the size had not. He was always the broadest, tallest man in the room. Kassian was perhaps an inch shorter than him, no more. But he was thinner and, he knew, with a fraction of his friend’s presence. Bruton spoke often and in a voice that demanded attention. Few would ever have guessed at their shared past.

Bruton spoke first. ‘So, tell me about New York.’

Kassian sipped from his glass and took in the view of the Potomac. The lights of the city were winking. ‘Not good, Jim. Not good at all.’

‘Did Zheng even understand what you were telling him?’

‘He understood. I’m not sure he believed me, but he understood.’

‘Will he get us the statement, from the North Koreans?’

‘I think so. Later tonight, he said.’

‘Has the President brought it up?’

‘At the briefing this morning, he mentioned it. The CIA briefer looked blank. I jumped in. I said we were still working on a translation.’

Bruton shook his head. ‘This is horrible.’

‘The good news is, there’s been nothing more out of Pyongyang. I think Beijing have told them to zip it.’

‘For five days.’

‘Exactly. Five days.’

‘And then?’

‘Then North Korea would have every justification, given what happened this morning, to launch a pre-emptive attack on the United States. And China can’t promise they won’t stop them.’

There was a moment of silence. They both looked towards the Kennedy Center, illuminated and shining. Inside, doubtless hundreds of well-dressed, well-paid members of the capital’s elite were blissfully unaware of how close they had come just sixteen hours earlier to being incinerated.

Bruton spoke first. ‘Even if Pyongyang come to Jesus, play nice, it still could happen again. With them or with someone else.‘

‘Of course it could.’

‘And next time we might not get so lucky.’

‘The War Room couldn’t pull the same stunt twice.’

The two men paused again. Kassian would think often of the moment that followed. Were they awed by the thought they were about to utter, by the weight of it? Or were they hesitating, wondering which one of them was going to say it out loud first?

In the end, it was Kassian. ‘The current situation is unsustainable.’

Bruton nodded.

Kassian went on. ‘At any moment, a civilization-ending decision could be made.’

‘And there’s not a blind thing we could do to stop it. We’re impotent.’

‘On this, his power is absolute. He’s the nuclear monarch.’

Bruton raised his eyebrows.

‘That’s the term of art apparently, you know in “the national security community”. Can you believe that? No one even hides it.’

‘So he has no obligation to discuss anything with us?’