Chapter 2
CHAPTER
TWO
Rye, New York.
"Quite the setup," Nicolaus Toles commented. "Let's hope the work is as impressive as the setup."
Jim McCollum laughed. "Glad to know there's no pressure."
Toles sat on a swivel stool and rolled closer to McCollum's desk. "Talked to Bill lately?"
"No. He seems focused on other things."
"Mm."
"Nick?"
"I wonder what those other things might be," Toles said.
"Worried about something?" McCollum asked.
"Just keeping my eyes open."
"Mm. How is office life?" Jim asked.
"Not what I planned, as you know."
"But important," Jim said, gesturing to the lab. "We wouldn't get funding for this without you."
Toles chuckled. "The Broker," he muttered.
"Sounds fancier than a lynx."
Toles laughed. "I was the Rook. Now I'm a banker."
"Not a banker."
"Close enough, Jim."
McCollum swiveled away from his desk. "He trusts you—Bill."
"I think so."
"Do you trust him?"
"Do you?"
McCollum nodded. "Not the way I trust you. No."
"Mm. He's said something to you about Cassidy."
"Bill says all kinds of things," McCollum replied. "He thinks he's the tip of the spear."
"Mm."
"Nick?"
"Friendship is complicated in this business," Toles observed. "Edmond trusts him."
"And you trust Edmond."
"He is my best friend."
"As you said, friendship in our line of work carries complications," McCollum said.
Toles looked around the laboratory. Fluorescent lights hummed above sealed cabinets, stainless-steel worktables, and a row of labeled containers Jim had arranged with a precision that looked almost domestic until one understood what lived inside them.
"Is it safe?" Toles asked.
McCollum took a breath. Biotechnology always came with biohazards. There was always a price to this kind of research. A toll to be paid.
"Safety is an illusion," McCollum replied.
"Mm. But this carries more risk than altering the mind with substances or?—"
"It all carries risk. And it all holds potential."
Toles nodded.
"You know as well as I do that no conference of scientists drafting guidelines or prohibitions will prevent governments from scientific experimentation."
"That much is true," Toles agreed. "But DNA? I think we need a line of communication outside Bill's oversight."
McCollum stroked his chin. "A group within the company?"
Toles nodded.
"You don't trust Bill at all," McCollum observed.
"I trust him now."
McCollum regarded him steadily.
"He craves power," Toles said. "I'm not sure he has boundaries."
"And Edmond?"
Toles shook his head. "He's too close."
"And you trust me?"
"We have something in common, Jim."
"Which is?"
"We each have a daughter we would die to protect."
McCollum nodded.
"Bill believes everything in our lives belongs to our work. He can manipulate it all."
McCollum sighed. "Who do you trust to be part of this group?"
"Kapralov and Stratton."
McCollum blinked. "The governor?"
Toles nodded.
"Just the four of us?"
"For now. I would include Eva. It may compromise her."
"What about Jonathan? Has she told him?"
Toles shook his head. "It's best he believes Benjamin Krause is his father.
I understand what I'm asking. If we are caught, it would compromise us all.
I don't believe Bill Brackett has limits, Jim. Our boundaries may be questionable, but boundaries exist for us. I’m not sure they exist for Bill Brackett. "
McCollum leaned back in his chair. "What are you proposing?" he asked.
"We create a line of sight."
"That's not an answer."
"I'm not sure what else to call it." Toles glanced toward the laboratory's observation window.
A young technician moved between workstations, checking notes against a clipboard, unaware of what he was a part of.
"Bill believes oversight slows progress.
I believe the absence of oversight invites disaster. "
"And you think the four of us can provide oversight?"
"No," Toles said. "I think the four of us can provide a warning."
McCollum studied him for a long moment. "A warning to whom?"
"That depends on what we find."
Jim exhaled and swiveled toward the desk. "You understand what this sounds like."
"Yes."
"It sounds like treason."
"It's only treason if Bill is the country," Toles replied.
McCollum's gaze snapped back to him.
Toles smiled, but it didn't reach his eyes. "He isn't. No matter what he believes."
Jim rubbed a hand over his mouth. "And if Edmond finds out?"
Toles said nothing.
"And if Bill finds out?"
Toles looked toward the glass again. "Then we'll learn whether I'm right about him."
McCollum was quiet for several seconds. "You said this was about our daughters."
"It is."
"Then say it plainly."
Toles's jaw tightened. For the first time since he entered the lab, his usual calm faded just enough for Jim to see the real person behind the role he played.
"I don't know what Bill intends for Alexis," Toles said. "And I don't know what he intends for Cassidy. But he has started speaking about our children as if they are assets waiting to mature."
Jim went still.
"That," Toles said, "is my line."
"Then we have an agreement."
Toles took a breath and nodded. "I'll be in touch."
Present Day
The White House
"I thought Alex was headed to Connecticut next week?" Michelle asked.
Cassidy let out a small sigh. "She's leaving tomorrow instead of tonight. She'll be there for more than a week."
"It's not easy juggling everything on your own."
"No." Cassidy smiled faintly. "Travel has been part of her work for most of our marriage. I'd say you get used to it, but I never have."
"I get it."
"Is Mel on the road again?"
"Nope. Home this week. Probably because JD is headed to Marianne's."
Cassidy nodded.
"Cass?"
"Hm?"
"Is everything okay?" Michelle asked.
"You mean because Alex is leaving?"
Michelle nodded.
"Yes, but I think Alex is looking forward to seeing my mom almost as much as she is Dylan."
"Really?"
"Mm-hm. I'm sure she'll talk to Claire and my dad too. But I think she's eager to talk to my mom.”
"I don't mean to pry?—"
"No, it's okay. Alex has a complicated history with her parents."
"She seems so close to Helen."
Cassidy smiled warmly. "She is. I think they're closer now than ever.
But Alex still has this idea that she let both her parents down, her dad and her mom.
No matter what anyone says, she can't let it go.
" Cassidy paused. "She's close to my mom.
Sometimes it's just easier for Alex to talk to her than to Helen. "
"Yeah. I get that. Sort of."
Cassidy looked at her more closely.
"Not me," Michelle said quickly. "Mel. Her relationship with her folks is... Well, better than it was. Still strained. I go to my mom first. About almost everything."
Cassidy smiled.
"But Jonah? He goes to JD or Maureen." Michelle chuckled softly. "Marianne is super close to Maureen, too."
There was something in Michelle's voice—not jealousy, but something softer, maybe a bit sad.
"Shell?"
Michelle shrugged. "I don't know, Cass. I've always been really close with my mom."
"Yes, I know."
"Sometimes, I think maybe that makes people keep their distance from me."
"You mean Maureen?"
"Maybe. I don't know." Michelle sighed. "It's stupid."
"It's not stupid." Cassidy leaned back a little. "Well, I'm not a grandparent yet."
Michelle chuckled.
"But I think in blended families, people worry about doing too much or coming on too strong. They let you take the lead, even if it doesn't always feel like it."
Michelle considered the observation, then sighed.
"Maybe you should give Maureen a call," Cassidy suggested.
"We've never really done that. I mean, unless she's babysitting or something."
"In other words, unless she's babysitting."
Michelle shrugged. "Yeah."
"So maybe you should call her for the 'something'."
"Like what?"
Cassidy tried not to laugh. "Why don't you invite JD's parents down for a weekend when they don't have to babysit?"
"They'll think that's weird."
Cassidy couldn't help it and laughed. "That's probably just because it's something new. If you want to be closer to JD's parents, you have to take the first step, Shell."
Michelle looked down at her hands. "It's just... Losing my dad, Mom being—well, Mom being the president—it's different. Like everything is always moving. You know? Like I have to try to catch up to Mom, and I need to... I don’t know, Cassidy. Dad’s been gone for a couple of months, and I still can’t seem to believe it. Everyone talks about letting go."
Cassidy's expression softened.
"I don't even know what that means," Michelle said.
"Let go. People talk about it like it's just a switch you flip.
Like, one day you wake up and decide you're done being hurt, angry, or confused.
Or like it doesn't matter that they're dying...
or gone." She shook her head. "I wish it were that easy. "
"It isn’t easy," Cassidy said.
Michelle looked up.
"And anyone who tells you it’s easy is either lying or trying to sell you a slogan on a mug."
Michelle laughed despite herself.
Cassidy smiled, then grew serious. "Letting go doesn't mean you stop loving someone or stop wishing things had been different. Sometimes it just means you stop waiting in the same place, hoping the past will give you a better ending."
Michelle sighed.
"I did that with my father," Cassidy said. "For a long time."
"Really?"
Cassidy nodded. "I was angry. I still am. And I missed him. Sometimes I miss the version of him I thought I had. The one I imagined when I was a little girl, sitting on his workbench, asking him a thousand questions while he acted like he didn't love every minute of it."
Michelle smiled. She's watched all the kids do the same thing with Jameson dozens of times.
“Call Maureen,” Cassidy said. “Not because you need anything. Not because of the kids. Just call her. Ask how she’s doing. Invite her and Duncan down for a weekend. It doesn’t have to be dramatic.”
“Everything in this family is dramatic.”
“Fair point. But it doesn’t have to start that way.”
Michelle sat silently for a moment. “I just don’t want it to be weird.”
Cassidy shook her head and grinned.
“What? I don’t,” Michelle said.