The White House Connection

'That's a coincidence. Tim Pat Ryan got it the same way the other day.'

'Is that a fact?' the Senator said. 'Mind you, he was a true gangster, that one.'

'What about Kelly and Cassidy?'

'I haven't talked to them in a couple of months. Maybe I should – ' A door crashed open in the background, and there was drunken laughter. 'My God, here they come. I'll be in touch,' and he rang off.

Blake had arranged an Air Force plane for the following morning. The brief flight was uneventful. The weather was squally, March again, but the young major in charge of transportation was all efficiency.

'The chief of staff is with the President at Nantucket, sir. He ordered us to send you on your way by helicopter.'

'Beach landing?' Blake asked.

'That's it, sir.'

'Hell, I did enough of those in ' Nam.'

'Before my time, sir. If you'll come this way I've got sandwiches and coffee. Departure thirty minutes from now.'

He held his umbrella high and Blake followed him across the tarmac.

The old clapboard house on Nantucket had been in the Cazalet family for years. It held every possible memory for the President. Childhood, school vacations, and twice, it had been a place to grow strong again after being wounded in Vietnam. Other, bitter memories were there, too: his wife's slow demise from leukaemia and then the terrorist threat following his discovery of a wonderful daughter late in life – the Comtesse Marie de Brissac, now in Paris teaching art at the Sorbonne.

He had always loved the beach in any kind of weather, was walking there now with Henry Thornton and a Secret Service man, Clancy Smith, trailing them, the President's flatcoat retriever, Murchison, pounding in and out of the water. They all wore storm coats against the wind, which was blowing hard.

The surf roared in, it was good to be alive and Washington was far away.

The President stopped and waved his hand twice, and Clancy, who knew what that meant, shook a Marlboro from his pack, lit it inside his coat and passed it across.

'I've said it before,' Thornton told him. 'Do that on television and you'll lose votes.'

'It's a free country, Henry. It may not be healthy, but it doesn't make me a bad person.' He leaned down and fondled Murchison's ears. 'Now if I beat this wonderful dog – that would be different.'

There was a roaring in the distance. Clancy listened via his earpiece. 'Helicopter coming in, Mr President. It's Blake Johnson.'

'That's good,'Jake Cazalet said. 'Let's find out what happened in Ireland,' and he led the way along the beach to the distant house.

In the living room, Blake sat opposite the President and Thornton leaned by the fireplace. 'The Prime Minister and I had a conversation on this matter, as you know, but the whole thing seemed so implausible. The man Barry, for example.'

'Only too real, sir, and boasted about his sources, which have to be in the White House. The plain fact is Barry knew who I was, knew I worked for you.'

'Knew everything, it would seem. But leaks from my White House? I can't believe it.'

'It happens all the time, Mr President. Ask any journalist about his sources,' the chief of staff said. 'There's no reason to think we're immune.'

'And so much information is accessible,' Blake said. 'Everything's on the computer these days. We've got all kinds of safeguards in place, but I can access the CIA at Langley if I need to, and I'm sure that if they really try hard, they could access the Basement files. Even this conversation is being recorded.'

'Oh, God, that's right – that security thing you had to install, right?' the President asked.

'Correct, sir, and it is linked by direct line to Washington.'

'Coded, of course,' the chief of staff said with some irony.

'Supposedly picked up by the Records Department at the White House and filed as indicated.'

'On a computer,' Thornton said. 'And the curse of the system is that there are a lot of people around who can access any computer known to man.'

'And there are a lot of people employed at the White House,' Cazalet said. 'Although this Connection of Barry's implies an Irish dimension or some sort of IRA sympathy.'

'But, Mr President, that covers a lot of possible ground,' Thornton said. 'Even my mother was Irish-born. She came from County Clare as an infant. It was my father's family, the Thorntons, who were English.'

'My grandmother on my mother's side was a Dublin woman.' Cazalet smiled and turned to Blake. 'What about you?'

' Mr President, Johnson is English enough, but I take the chief of staff's point. It's always been said that around forty million people in the country's population are of Irish stock. If you consider people like yourself and the chief of staff who have some sort of Irish past in their family history, then God knows how many it touches.'

'A considerable proportion of the White House staff, I should think,' Thornton put in.

'You can say that again. Needless to say, I'll leave no stone unturned. However, I've left the really bad news till last.'

'You mean it gets worse?' The President shook his head. 'Better get on with it, Blake.'

As Blake gave his account of the lives and deaths of the Sons of Erin, the President and the chief of staff sat horrified.

When Blake was finished, Cazalet said, 'This passes belief. Is the Prime Minister in possession of all these facts?'

'Not all, Mr President. Brigadier Ferguson felt he should wait until I'd completed my investigation.'

Cazalet sat there, frowning, then turned to Thornton. 'A drink is very definitely indicated here. Make mine a Scotch and water, no ice. You gentlemen feel free to indulge yourselves.'

He went and opened the French window and breathed deeply in the cold air. Thornton gave him his Scotch. 'May I make a point?'

'Please do.'

'I think we're shying away from Senator Cohan here.'

'Explain.'

'There's an implication of some mysterious Connection presumably passing out choice items of information on the Irish situation to the Sons of Erin, and a strong suspicion that Tim Pat Ryan was their connection in London.'

'So?' Cazalet said.

'These were bad guys, Mr President. They must have been if they were involved with Jack Barry. Which means that Senator Cohan is a bad guy.'

'I'd already thought of that,' the President said. 'Could he be the Connection?'

'I doubt it,' Blake said. 'If he were, why go public by being a member of the dining club?'

'That makes sense.'

Cazalet frowned, and Thornton said, 'What do we do?'

'Officially, nothing,' the President said. ' Cohan'll deny any involvement and proof would be difficult.'

'Can you forbid him to go to London?'

'What for? If he's a target, he's a target in both London or New York. Besides, despite what he says in the papers, his visit is not on my behalf. It's to make him look good to the voters.'

'So what happens?' Thornton asked. 'What do we do?'

The President turned to Blake. 'First, tell Ferguson to inform the Prime Minister of the recent turn of events. I'll discuss it with the PM at an appropriate time.'

'And Senator Cohan?'

'What's that fine old British phrase Dillon uses? Put the boot in?'

'That's it, Mr President.'

'Well, put the boot into Senator Cohan. Frighten him, send him running, watch every move. With luck, something might turn up.'

'At your command, Mr President. I'd better get back. I held the helicopter over.'

'It can wait. Lunch, gentlemen, and then you can return to a troubled world, Blake.'

It was some three hours later that Senator Michael Cohan received a phone call at his New York office.

'It's me,' the Connection told him. 'With some bad news, Senator. I'm afraid the Sons of Erin have fallen upon bad times. They're all dead. Brady, Cassidy, Kelly, Ryan. All dead. And interestingly enough – all killed by the same gun.'