Sam and Josh met an angry Toby on the second floor of
the Capitol Building.
"Did Lillienfield assassinate anybody?" Zielger
demanded, as the trio stood near a window in a crowded
hallway.
Sam shook his head. "No."
"He took Leo's deal off the table," Josh interjected
impatiently.
Toby stared at the younger man for a long moment
before he rubbed a weary hand along the back of his
neck. "He can't take the deal off the table."
"He did."Sam replied grimly. "He's given us a twelve
hour deadline."
"What does he want?" Toby asked as he leaned against
the wall.
"He wants to kill Leo's career," Josh replied with a
shake of his head.
"There's more," Sam added gaining his boss's
attention.
Toby sighed. "Of course there is."
Sam handed him the newspaper. "He put an article about
Donna in the Post."
Ziegler glanced at Josh before opening the paper and
scanning the headline.
"Let the deadline pass," Toby stated quietly handing
the paper back to Sam.
Josh stared at the older man in disbelief. "You can't
mean that."
"If we give into his demands now, there will only be
more," Ziegler replied grimly, hating the fact that
Donna was a sacrificial lamb but it was the only way.
"If we ignore the story it'll be buried on the twenty
third page by Friday and forgotten by Monday."
Sam glanced at Josh. "There has to be a way to kill
this story."
Toby shook his head. "Not without giving credit to
Lillienfield's demands. I'm sorry, Josh."
Lyman opened his mouth to reply but quickly snapped it
shut knowing that whatever he said he'd regret later.
Instead he turned on his heel and stalked down the
hallway.
********
Donna sat in her car with her hand on the ignition key
not sure where to go. The rational part of her knew
she had to tell Josh immediately. But the other part
didn't want to go anywhere near the White House.
Donna leaned her head back against the headrest and
closed her eyes. God, how could she not have known who
Nick worked for? Josh would kill her when he found out
and she couldn't blame him.
Not after all the hell that Lillienfield had put Leo
through in the past month.
Opening her eyes Donna started the car and threw it
into drive. She had a lot of thinking to do and she
knew she couldn't do that at work.
********
Josh returned to his office still seething. He wasn't
just mad at Toby but at the whole entire mess. It was
only after he'd been in his office for a few minutes
that he realized that Donna wasn't at her desk.
In fact he didn't see her anywhere in the
communications bullpen.
Lyman stepped into the bullpen, a bad feeling starting
to creep up his spine. "Kathy, where's Donna?"
The young black haired woman looked up from her desk.
"Last time I saw her she was heading out for lunch."
"When was that?" Josh asked glancing at his watch.
Nearly noon.
"I think it was around ten," Kathy replied. "Want me
to page her?"
Josh frowned. Donna never took a two hour lunch. An
hour lunch maybe, but never two. "No, that's okay I'll
try her cell. Thanks, Kathy."
"No problem," Sam's assistant replied as she returned
her attention to her computer.
Josh retraced his steps to his office and closed the
door. He sat down behind his desk and snatched the
receiver. He dialed Donna's familiar number and waited. After
the third ring the operator came on:
/We're sorry but the cellular customer you have
reached is either out of range...../
Josh hit the disconnect button and redialed. After
getting the same recorded message Josh hung up and
tried her pager number.
As he hung up the phone Josh couldn't shake the
feeling that Lillienfield might have reached her
before he could.
**********
end of part 4 TBC