One of the veterans, a weathered man Hayes called Captain Miller, had served under Vance decades ago, when the Senator was still a Colonel in the infantry.

“He treated the men under him like line items,” Miller said quietly.

“Numbers on a page.

He cared about publicity, and about results that made him look good, and about nothing else that I ever saw.

There were meetings in his office, late, men in suits coming in through the side door.

The files always had numbers on them instead of names.” He shook his head.