Crooked lawyer Derek Gilbertson is furious when he learns that a narco-sub has sunk off Key West taking down with it some $65 million in drug money he’d been trying to get out of the U.S. He teams up with Vlad Kucherov, a Russian club owner on South Beach, to get it back.

 

Slanetti, meanwhile, continues to blackmail members of Congress, bringing them over to the St. Clair side—but it’s slow work.

 

Handsome Matt Hawkins, newly arrived in Washington, meets Jack and attends a ball at the National Geographic Society where he meets socialite Patricia Vaughan. She’s estranged from her husband, the wealthy Jonathan Vaughan.

 

When lame duck President Norwalk asks Patricia for the first dance, all Washington is abuzz. She is stunned. While they dance, Norwalk says that he knows she’s sleeping with Congressman Neil Scott, and that he needs Scott’s support for Sam Houston St. Clair in the upcoming vote. “Get it for me,” he says.