“None of us want him to go off the deep end just now, do we, Madam Secretary? Now
would be a very bad time for something like that to happen.”
“Now?” she asked, and then before he had a chance to reply, said, “Good morning, Mr. McCarthy,” got into the limousine, and gestured to the State Department security officer who was holding the door open to close it.
[THREE]
The Oval Office
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C.
1055 20 April 2007
“It took you two long enough to get here,” President Clendennen greeted Attorney General Stanley Crenshaw and FBI Director Mark Schmidt as they walked into the Oval Office.
“Mr. President,” Crenshaw said, “we quite literally dropped what we were doing when we got Douglas’s call saying you wanted to see us right away.”
“And what exactly was it that you quite literally dropped when Douglas called?”
“A discussion of the latest development in El Paso.”
“Let me get this straight,” Clendennen said. “Schmidt, there has been a development in El Paso that you were discussing with Crenshaw?”
“Yes, Mr. President.”
“Weren’t you listening when I told you I wanted to hear immediately of anything that happened?”
“Mr. President, I work for Attorney General Crenshaw,” Schmidt said, uncomfortably.
“You work for me, goddamn it!” the President said, furiously.
“Mr. President, I’m responsible,” Crenshaw said. “I told Director Schmidt to make me—”
“Well,” the President interrupted, “what is this latest development that you were going to tell me about when you finally got around to it?”
“It’s this, Mr. President,” Crenshaw said, and handed him a sheet of paper.
The President took it and read it:Transfer Instructions
At 0830 21 April put your guest and no more than two U.S. Marshals aboard an El Paso police helicopter at El Paso International.
File a local aircraft test flight plan and take off no later than 0845.
At 0900 contact Ciudad Juárez International with the message “Necessary to make a precautionary landing.”
Your aircraft will be met on landing, and the exchange of your guest for ours will be accomplished at that time.
Your aircraft will then be free to return to the United States.
“What the hell is this?” the President asked. “Where did it come from?”
“According to SAC Johnson, Mr. President, it was handed to one of the FBI agents on stakeout in the El Paso post office,” Schmidt said.
“Which suggests to me that the FBI agent didn’t succeed in being inconspicuous,” the President said. “Who handed it to him?”