Manhattan, Kansas

C.J. flashes back to a dimly lit hotel room in Manhattan, Kansas, pulse racing from campaign trail chaos—needle plunges into the President's arm, MS serum coursing through veins under flickering fluorescents and the low hum of distant highway traffic. Secrecy grips the air, heavy with stale coffee and the sharp tang of vulnerability, as this unassuming Heartland town cradles the administration's primal secret, its quiet streets echoing the first fracture in their armored facade.