In the residence storage room, the stranger in army fatigues was filling the balloons under the watchful eye of the marine corporal.
Boy, that’s one ugly customer, the corporal thought to himself. Whew!
The corporal could not understand why the white balloons were being filled from one cylinder, the red balloons from a second cylinder, and the blue ones from a third. Why not use each cylinder until it’s empty? the corporal wondered. He was tempted to ask, but he did not want to start a conversation. Not with this one.
Through the open door that led to the ballroom, the corporal could see trays of hors d’ouevres being carried out of the kitchen into the ballroom and set on tables along the sides of the room. It’s going to be a great party, the corporal thought.
Mary was seated in her office, facing Mike Slade and Colonel McKinney.
“Let’s start at the beginning,” Colonel McKinney said. “On Inauguration Day, when the President announced that he wanted to open relations with every iron curtain country, he exploded a bombshell. There’s a faction in our government that’s convinced that if we get involved with Romania, Russia, Bulgaria, Albania, Czechoslovakia, et cetera, that the Communists will destroy us. On the other side of the iron curtain there are Communists who believe that our President’s plan is a trick—a Trojan horse to bring our capitalist spies into their countries. A group of powerful men on both sides had formed a supersecret alliance called Patriots for Freedom. They decided the only way to destroy the President’s plan was to let him start it, and then sabotage it in such a dramatic way that it would never be tried again. That’s where you came into the picture.”
“But—why me? Why was I chosen?”
“Because the packaging was important,” Mike said. “You were perfect. Adorable you, from Middle America, with two adorable kids—all that was missing was an adorable dog and an adorable cat. You were exactly the image they needed—the ambassador with sizzle—Mrs. America with two squeaky-clean kids. They were determined to have you. When your husband got in the way, they murdered him and made it look like an accident so you wouldn’t have any suspicions and refuse the post.”
“Oh, my God!” The horror of what Mike was saying was appalling.
“Their next step was your buildup. Through the old-boy network, they used their press connections around the world and saw to it that you became everyone’s darling. Everybody was rooting for you. You were the beautiful lady who was going to lead the world down the road to peace.”
“And—and now?”
Mike’s voice gentled. “Their plan is to assassinate you and the children as publicly and as shockingly as possible—to sicken the world so much that it would put an end to any further ideas of detente.”
Mary sat there in stunned silence.
“That states it bluntly,” Colonel McKinney said quietly, “but accurately. Mike is with the CIA. After your husband and Marin Groza were murdered, Mike started to get on the trail of the Patriots for Freedom. They thought he was on their side and invited him to join.
“We talked the idea over with President Ellison, and he gave his approval. The President has been kept abreast of every development. His overriding concern has been that you and the children be protected, but he dared not discuss what he knew with you or anyone else because Ned Tillingast, head of the CIA, had warned him that there were high-level leaks.”
Mary’s head was spinning. She said to Mike, “But—you tried to kill me.”
He sighed. “Lady, I’ve been trying to save your life. You haven’t made it easy. I tried every way I knew how to get you to take the kids and go home where you’d be safe.”
“But—you poisoned me.”
“Not fatally. I wanted to get you just sick enough so that you’d have to leave Romania. Our doctors were waiting for you. I couldn’t tell you the truth because it would have blown the whole operation and we would have lost our chance to catch them. Even now, we don’t know who put the organization together. He never attends meetings. He’s known only as the Controller.”