“Put it on speaker.”
They coexisted in tense silence as the phone rang until voicemail picked up with a message in Russian.
“Tell him to call you immediately.”
Gretchen left the message and ended the call.
“What were his other plans while he was here?” Nick asked.
“To generate support for his coalition.”
“And you never asked him who he was talking to about that?”
“He wouldn’t have told me. Secrecy is critical to his operation. Petrov has people everywhere.”
“And yet, he felt perfectly safe regularly visiting the home of the vice president of the United States?”
“It’s well known that we’re friends.”
“It wasn’t well known by me!”
Nick’s thunderous tone made her quake.
“I’m so sorry, Mr. President.”
“I just have to know what you thought was going to happen when you welcomed this foreigner, under an assumed name and a fake passport, into your government-provided home that’s under the control of the Secret Service?”
“I was seeing a longtime friend. I wasn’t engaged in any sort of diplomacy with him.”
“You’re required to report any contact with foreigners, and you were told that when you received your security clearance.”
“I’m sorry that I failed to do that, but there was no official business conducted.”
“So he didn’t discuss his plan to overthrow the Petrov regime, which is what we understand to be his ultimate goal?”
“He said he was working with a group inside Russia to bring about reforms. It’s well established that he and other groups are hoping for regime change.”
“What do you think his objective was in meeting with the vice president of the United States?”
“He… He said he needed all the friends he could get, that he feared for his life and that of his family back home in Russia.”
“And you never thought to question the full extent of what he was up to?”
“I listened, and I provided friendship the way I have for the more than twenty years I’ve known him.”
“When you were vetted for vice president, you never mentioned your close friendship with a Russian national. Why is that?”
“I hadn’t been in contact with him for quite some time at that point. I didn’t think it was relevant.”
“Why were you not in contact?”
“My ex-husband didn’t approve of my friendship with someone I’d dated in the past. He was threatened by our friendship, so I stepped back from it when I was trying to make the marriage work.”
“You were divorced by the time you were vetted, and the friendship still wasn’t mentioned.”
“We weren’t actively in touch then.”
“Ah, so you become the vice president, and suddenly your old pal Sergei is back on the scene. Ironic timing, no? Do you have any idea how spies work? He very well could’ve been cultivating you as an asset.”
