The Washington Decree by Jussi Adler-Olsen & Steve Schein

Author:Jussi Adler-Olsen & Steve Schein
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2018-08-06T16:00:00+00:00

* * *

—

After the meeting, Wesley joined Chief of Staff Burton in his office. Burton informed his secretary that they wished not to be disturbed, that they had a lot to do and not much time. Then he slammed the door and stood before Wesley, hands at his sides.

“Okay, first we’ll discuss things, then we’ll write. I suppose you know you’re navigating along the very edge of the cliff right now, don’t you, Wesley?”

“I am?”

“Well, Jansen and Sunderland do need you. No one writes better than you do. What flows from your pen is sheer brilliance—but be careful. You are under surveillance.”

“Yes, and you as well. We all are—don’t forget it.”

Burton sat down and folded his well-worn hands. Hands that had stretched towards heaven in prayers that his father come home safely from Vietnam. Hands that had picked fruit throughout the Midwest to earn enough to feed his small brothers and sisters and tormented mother. Hands that had shook the hand of everyone Wesley admired. “You believe you know something, don’t you, Wesley? Something about who rides the high horse and who slogs along behind, in the mud.”

“I just know that everything you’re saying now is being recorded, and that Sunderland hears all that his people choose to discuss.”

“I see! So that’s what you think you know? Okay, then . . .”

Burton cupped his hands in front of his mouth like a funnel. “Is it really true, what Wesley’s saying, Mr. Vice President?” he yelled into thin air. Then he shook his head. “You’re so young, kid,” he said, poking around in a stack of papers. He pulled forth a light-blue, lined sheet of paper with writing on it and thrust it towards Wesley.

It wasn’t hard to recognize Donald Beglaubter’s block-letter handwriting. A hand just as childlike and clumsy as its executor had been mature and gifted.

The paper contained a list of names, more or less in order of rank. All were members of the government or important public officials, and next to each name stood a list of occurrences—not all of which Wesley was familiar with—but each one an instance that gave the same unpleasant feeling.

It read:

PERSON:

EVENT:

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