Washington, D. C., Wednesday…

Vladimir typed in a name in the search box and looked at the file that spread out on his computer screen. It was something he did every now and then, since a personnel file often gave him a clue to an exploitable weakness. He had once bribed a Boston city council member with two tickets to the BSO, a miniscule bribe for a very important vote. In spite of home theatre music systems and quality telecasts around the world, some people still preferred live music. In spite of their exorbitant price, the BSO's tickets were always sold out in advance before the beginning of the season. The councilman had made an off-hand remark to that effect in a local interview which Vladimir had seen.

The file he was looking at was more complex, though, because the man was more complex. Pierce Hamilton, Fulton's National Security Advisor, seemed to have no weaknesses to exploit.

The man was the most powerful person in Fulton's administration, excepting the President and Vice-President, of course. Hamilton was an ex-priest but he had never gone high in the Church hierarchy. True to his parish priest roots, he was concerned about the plight of the common man, a concern anyone that was a bishop or higher church prelate often lacked, even if they hypocritically pretended otherwise. As a result, Pierce Hamilton was a progressive liberal that worked well with John Fulton. He was a no-nonsense Massachusetts liberal and proud of it, once saying in an interview that if it weren't for Massachusetts liberals Americans would still be singing "God save the King".