CHAPTER 14 SIXTY SECONDS
Panic spread through the ballroom.
People pushed toward the exits.
Andrew grabbed the case.
“Don’t touch it!” I shouted.
“It has a pressure sensor.”
He looked at the timer.
Forty-eight seconds.
A former military security officer rushed over.
“We can’t move it.”
“Then clear the room,” Andrew said.
“There isn’t time.”
Andrew looked at me.
“Go.”
“No.”
“Mariana.”
“I said no.”
The officer opened the panel.
Two wires.
Red.
White.
Thirty seconds.
Andrew held the case steady.
His hands trembled.
“Which one?”
The officer hesitated.
“I don’t know.”
Twenty seconds.
Andrew looked at me.
“If this goes wrong—”
“Don’t.”
“I need to say it.”
“No.”
“I’m sorry.”
Ten seconds.
The officer cut the white wire.
The timer stopped at three.
The room went silent.
Andrew collapsed to his knees.
He was still gripping the case.
I knelt beside him.
His eyes searched mine.
“You stayed.”
“For everyone in the room.”
He gave a small, sad smile.
“Of course.”
Federal agents found Evelyn alive in a service tunnel.
Dane had forced her to carry the device.
She managed to escape before it detonated.
The bomb linked directly to a contractor used by Dane’s campaign.
For the first time, we had evidence that could not be buried.
Dane was arrested again.
This time, without bail.
The trial date was set.
Before the hearing, Margaret asked to see me.
She sat behind glass in the detention center.
She looked smaller without diamonds.
“I’ll testify against Dane,” she said.
“What do you want?”
“Protection.”
“For yourself?”
“For Andrew.”
I almost laughed.
“He doesn’t need your protection.”
“You don’t know what Dane has on him.”
My smile disappeared.
Margaret leaned closer to the glass.
“Your husband signed one of the original transfer documents.”
“That’s impossible.”
“He was sixteen.”
“He was sixteen and terrified.”
She slid a copy beneath the divider.
May you like
Andrew’s signature appeared at the bottom.
The document had authorized the clinic where my mother was imprisoned.
