And a story, however expensive, however widely believed, has one fatal weakness that no amount of money can fix.

It can be true, or it can be false.

His was false.

And I had come to prove it.

A man who had gotten away with everything and was about to be rewarded for it with high office.

Beside me walked Marcus Vance, calm and immaculate in a dark suit, a slim folder of his own tucked under his arm.

We had timed our arrival carefully.