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one of the metal panels. “Secret Service!” he shouted. “Come out with your hands up!”

CHAPTER 4
    “EVERYONE , attention please! We need to evacuate the White House and the surrounding buildings immediately. Do
not
assemble at your fire-muster stations; just keep going. Get as far from the building as you can. Exit right now in an orderly fashion. Don’t stop to take anything; just get out. Move!”
    “ARE we sure he’s in there?” Agent Manny Cheung asked.
    “There were guards at the outside door the whole time,” replied the other Secret Service man, “and we’ve looked in the exhibit space and the restrooms. He’s got to still be in the elevator.”
    Cheung spoke into his sleeve. “Cheung to Jenks: make sure the elevator shaft is guarded at the top, in case he tries to ride up again.”
    “Copy,” said a voice.
    “Sir,” said one of the DC cops, “this is bullshit. There are three of us, and dozens more if we need them. Look at that door.” Cheung did so. It was an old-fashioned elevator, and the door consisted of two parts—butthey didn’t separate in the middle. Rather, the left part tucked behind the right part as the door opened, and both parts slipped into a pocket on the right side of the elevator shaft. “If we pull on the right-hand part in the middle, there, the left-hand part will draw away from the wall.”
    Cheung wondered at the wisdom of talking just outside the elevator; although the heavy door probably muffled the sound, whoever was inside could doubtless hear some of what they were saying. Nonetheless, the plan made sense. He nodded at the officer, who was the biggest of the three of them, easily six-five and 280 pounds. The man grabbed the right-hand panel by its edge, near the centerline of the door, and put his back into it, pulling it aside so that it slid with a grinding sound into the pocket hidden behind the beige wall. Cheung, the other Secret Service agent, and the other cop, had their guns trained on the left side, which was now showing a crack, then a sliver, then a strip of light from within. The big cop grunted and pulled again, hard, and the door opened to eighteen inches—but no gunfire hailed from the interior.
    Another yank, and the right-hand leaf was now all the way into its pocket, leaving the entire left-half of the elevator’s width open now, and—
    And there was no one inside.
    Cheung looked up, and—
ah hah!
There was a service door in the roof of the elevator. He tried to reach it but wasn’t tall enough. He gestured to the big cop, who had no trouble pushing the roof door aside. The cop then immediately stepped out of the way, and Cheung craned his neck to hazard a peek. It was dark in the shaft, but—Christ, yes, there was someone there, illuminated from below by light coming out of the elevator. He was shimmying up the thick cable.
    “Cheung to Jenks: the suspect is climbing the elevator cable. He’s about ten feet shy of the top.”
    “Copy, Manny,” Jenks replied.
    The elevator door started shuddering shut. Cheung wheeled around, going for the rubber bumper at its edge at the same time the tall cop moved for the “Door Open” button; they collided, and the cab lurched into motion—
    —and through the open roof Cheung could see the cable moving. There was a massive thud, and the cab shook violently. The assailant must have lost his grip and fallen the twenty feet or so he’d climbed. One of his arms flopped down through the roof hatch.
    There was no stopping the elevator’s ascent now, and Cheung hoped there was enough clearance to keep a downed man from being squeezed against the top of the shaft.
    But, yes, there
must
be enough clearance! The assailant must have entered the elevator yesterday, when it was announced that Jerrison would give a speech here, and had simply hauled himself up onto the cab’s roof and waited; doubtless when they did finally get to examine the roof, they’d find blankets and whatever else he’d needed to