“But why me? Why was I chosen?”
“Because the packaging was important,” Mike said. “You were exactly the image they needed-Mrs. America, with two squeakyclean kids. They were determined to have you. When your husband got in the wa . way, they murdered him and made it look like an accident so you wouldn’t have any suspicions and refuse the post.”
Mary could not speak. The horror of what Mike was saying was too appalling.
“Their next step was your buildup. They used their press connections around the world and saw to it that you became everyone’s darling-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 shockingly as possible-to sicken the world so much that it would put an end to any further ideas of ddtente.”
Mary sat there in stunned silence.
“That states it bluntly but accurately,” Colonel McKinney said quietly. “Mike is with the CIA. After your husband and Marin Groza were murdered, Mike started to get on the trail of Patriots for Freedom. They thought he was on their Ode 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 Tillingest, 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 Remania. Our doctors were waiting for ‘you in Frankfurt. I couldn’t tell you the truth, because it would have blown the whole operation. Even now, we don’t know who put the organization together. He never attends meetings. He’s known only as the Controller.”
“And Louis?”
“The doctor was one of them. He was Angel’s backup. He was an explosives expert. A phony kidnapping was set up, and you were rescued by Mr. Charm.” Mike saw the expression on Mary Is face. “You were lonely and vulnerable, and they worked on that.
You weren’t the first one to fall for the good doctor.”
Something bothered Mary. “But Mike, why did you kill Louis?”
“I had no choice. The whole point of their plan was to murder you,and the children as publicly and spectacularly as possible.
Louis knew I was a member of the Committee. Poisoning wasn’t the way you were supposed to die. When he figured out that I was poisoning you, he became suspicious of me. I had to kill him before he exposed me to the Committee.”
Mary sat there listening as the pieces of the puzzle fell into place. The man she had distrusted had poisoned her to keep her alive, and the man she thought she loved had saved her for a more dramatic death. She and her children had been used. I was the Judas goat, Mary thought. All the warmth that everyone showed me was phony. The only one who was real was Stanton Rogers.
Or was he? “Stanton,” Mary began. “Is he-“
“He’s been protective of you all the way,” Colonel McKinney assured her. “When he thought Mike was the one trying to kill you, he ordered me to arrest him.”
Mary looked at Mike. He had been sent here to protect her, and all the time she had looked on him as the enemy. Her thoughts were in a turmoil. “Then Louis never did have a wife or children?”
“No.”
Mary remembered something. “But I asked Eddie Maltz to check, and he told me that Louis was married and had two daughters.”
Mike and Colonel McKinney exchanged a look.
“He’ll be taken care of,” McKinney said. “I sent him to Frankfurt. I’ll have him picked up.”
“Who is Angel?” Mary asked.
Mike answered, “He’s an assassin from South America. He’s probably the best in the world. The Committee agreed to pay him five million dollars to kill you.”
Mary listened to the words in disbelief.
Mike went on. “We know he’s in Bucharest, but we don’t have a single description of Angel. He uses a dozen different passports.
No one has ever talked directly to him. They deal through his mistress, Neusa Mufiez. The various groups in the Committee are so compartmentalized that I haven’t been able to learn what Angel’s plan is.”
“What’s to stop him from killing me?”
“Us,” said Colonel McKinney. “With the help of the Remanian government we’ve taken extraordinary precautions for the party.
We’ve covered every possible contingency.”
“What happens now?” Mary asked.
Mike said carefully, “That’s up to you. Angel was ordered to carry out the contract at your party tonight. We’re sure we can catch him, but if you and the children aren’t at the party . .
“You’re asking me to set myself up as a target?”
Colonel McKinney said, “You don’t have to agree.”
I could end this now, Mary said to herself. I could go back to Kansas with the children and leave this nightmare behind. Angel would forget about me. She looked up at Mike and Bill McKinney and said, “I won’t expose my children to danger.”