Edge

clearance allowing him inside. I’d been wondering.
    “The committee’ll be holding hearings next month on domestic surveillance issues, Patriot Act, FISA warrants. It’s looking into possible privacy abuses and I’m doing some research for the senator.” He held up jovial hands. “We’re not suggesting anything’s wrong here. Just interviewing as many people as we can in federal law enforcement. Gathering information. You’re the senior protection officer in your organization and we’d like to interview you to see if you’ve been aware of instances in which there’s been, let’s say, carelessness in failing to apply for warrants for wiretaps on phone lines and emails in any agencies you’ve dealt with. The Bureau, the CIA, DEA, NSA, NRO, local law enforcement.”
    “I’d be happy to help but . . . well, I need to run this job now.”
    Alberts was nodding. “We know what you do here. The senator’s a friend of Aaron’s.” A glance toward my boss. “We don’t want to jeopardize any of your great work. It’s just that there’s a bit of time pressure.”
    “Why?” Ellis asked.
    “Any time committees start looking into things, the press invariably catches on and if they preempt us everybody loses.”
    I couldn’t disagree with that. “There are plenty of other people you could talk to here,” I suggested.
    “Oh, we want the star,” Alberts replied.
    My boss backed me up. “I’m afraid I agree it’ll have to be after this case is concluded.”
    Alberts wasn’t pleased but he took it in stride. “Three, four days, you think?”
    “Probably something like that,” I said. “But I can’t commit. It’s a very critical time for the family in my care. I’ll let you know as soon as I’m free.”
    “Sure, I understand,” Alberts said. Looking through me again, smiling that nonsmile of his. “Appreciate it.” He rose. With a nod to Ellis the man collected his briefcase. “And I meant that—about the good job you folks do.”
    After he left I asked Ellis, “The senator’s a friend of yours?”
    Ellis scoffed, shrugging his huge shoulders. “If you call going to somebody with hat in hand a friend, then I guess. Stevenson usually comes through with most of what I want for the budget. He’s to the right but it’s a thinking right. He’s smart and he’ll listen to the other side. We need more pols like him. Too much screaming in Congress. Too much screaming everywhere.”
    I recalled the turbulent demonstrations I’d just driven through. Each side really looked like they wanted to kill the other. I believed that was the gist of the Newsweek article, Senator Stevenson’s efforts to encourage bipartisanship in Washington.
    Good luck, I thought.
    I regarded my boss’s children’s artwork on the wall. A river dominated by a very large fish. A purple airplane. Rabbits.
    “And Alberts?”
    “Only met him once or twice. Typical Beltway pro: political action committees, fund-raising, aide for senators on the Finance Committee, Armed Services and now Intelligence, with Stevenson.”Ellis was shifting in his chair. “You’ll follow up?”
    “With Alberts? I suppose.”
    “I need you to, Corte. Keep the purse-string people happy . . . though you don’t look too happy about it.”
    “I can’t testify in a hearing. I’m only good because I don’t exist.”
    “Alberts knows that. He only needs leads to other agencies, the public ones.”
    “You know what ‘lead’ translates into in this line of work, don’t you, Aaron?”
    “Snitch?” my boss suggested.
    The very word I had in mind.

Chapter 14
    I RETURNED TO my office.
    Barbara said, “Your coffee was cold so here’s a new one. I just made it.”
    Ah. I thanked her and sipped. It was even worse than I’d remembered.
    I punched SPEED DIAL .
    “DuBois,” the voice chirped. “You’re in the building.”
    “For ten minutes or so. Can you come over here?”
    She appeared a moment later and I wondered how the job had disrupted her plans for the weekend.
    She had two cats and a boyfriend, who seemed like a regular, I deduced from snippets of conversation, but whom she didn’t live with. I’d never met him; I don’t socialize with colleagues. Her boyfriend was apparently always ready to come over to feed the animals and change the litter. I sometimes felt sorry for him. On the other hand, I wondered if he wasn’t better off in that sort of relationship with Claire duBois, rather than living with her, which