Ann spoke up. “Kate is not known for making stupid statements or behaving stupidly,” she said. “Honk, on the other hand . . .”
“Don’t count on that happening this week,” Alpert said. “Honk won’t say a word that isn’t typed in great big letters into a teleprompter—you may count on that.” He cleared his throat. “I would advise Kate to do the same.”
“Kate hates prompters,” Ann said, “and she’s very good on her feet.”
“Maybe we can find a way to slip a blunder into Honk’s prompter,” somebody said.
“Don’t you even think about doing that,” Ann said. “First of all, Kate would fire you if you tried, and second of all, getting caught at it could throw the election to Honk, and then you’d have to go to a place where I could never find you.”
“I have an aunt in darkest Mexico,” the prankster responded.
“Do yourself a favor, and leave now.”
The woman raised both hands. “Just kidding.”
“Stop kidding and get to work. We’ve got to make these last days the smoothest and most credible of the campaign,” Ann said. “Keep it high-minded and keep it straight: no missteps, no pranks, and thus, no backfires. And above all, not a single leak to the press about this poll! Everybody clear on that? If this leaks, I’ll find out who did it and personally kill that person!”
There was a murmur in the room, and the group began to disperse.
“Good, now let’s get to work.” Her cell phone rang, and she recognized Stone’s number, stepped into her office, closed the door behind her, and drew the shades, signaling to the staff that she wished to be left alone. “Hi,” she said, trying to sound cheerful.
“You sound as though you’re trying to sound cheerful,” Stone said. “And you aren’t making it.”
“Oh, God,” Ann said, her voice quavering, “I’ve got the most awful feeling we’re going to lose this thing, and I can’t tell anyone but you.”
“What’s gone wrong?”
“Nothing has gone wrong, that’s what worries me.”
“You’re worried about nothing going wrong?”
“Not exactly. We just got a new private poll, a big one that cost us a lot of money, and we’re trailing Honk among independent likely voters by eight points, with only two percent undecided, and we can’t figure out why. Kate has been brilliant, but for some reason, the very people we’re counting on are drifting away from her. Don’t breathe a word of this to anybody!”
“Certainly not. This sounds like a bad poll to me. They must have made some sort of mistake in the sampling, or something.”
“From your lips to God’s ear,” Ann said. “Tell me some good news.”
“I bought a house in Paris.”
“That is good news! I’ll have somewhere to hide from the world next week!”
“You’re not going to need a hideout, but if you did, you’d like this one. It has a little mews all to itself, in the seventh arrondissement, just off the Boulevard Saint-Germain. It’s walled off from the world, but Paris is just outside the gates.”
“It sounds heavenly. Can I come right now? I won’t even pack, I’ll just go straight to the airport and disappear forever.”
“No, you won’t, you’ll go to work as if that poll didn’t exist, and you’ll win it.”