Hazardous Duty (Presidential Agent 8)

“Give me just a minute to look that up, Mr. President,” Hoboken said.

“How are we going to talk about this if you don’t have copies of it before you?” the President inquired of the three senior officials.

“Mr. President,” Truman Ellsworth said, “if you’ll look toward the h

ead of Colonel Castillo’s report, it says ‘Duplication Forbidden.’”

“Let me tell you something, Mr. Ellsworth,” President Clendennen said. “I’m POTUS and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces. No lousy little lieutenant colonel like this man Castillo is going to tell me I can’t make copies of any damned piece of paper I want.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Hoboken,” the President ordered, “make copies of this for everybody.”

“Yes, sir, Mr. President. Before or after I look up ‘suitably redacted’?”

“‘Suitably redacted’ can wait,” the President said, “since we don’t even know what that means.”

Three minutes later, Robin Hoboken passed out copies of Danton’s story.

He got through the first two paragraphs…

SLUG: OPERATION OUT OF THE BOX

TAKE ONE

BY ROSCOE J. DANTON

WASHINGTON TIMES-POST WRITERS SYNDICATE

DAY ONE—JUNE 11, 2007

BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA

THIS REPORTER FLEW OVERNIGHT FROM WASHINGTON TO “THE PARIS OF SOUTH AMERICA” CARRYING ORDERS FROM PRESIDENT JOSHUA EZEKIEL CLENDENNEN TO LIEUTENANT COLONEL ¦¦¦¦¦¦ “EMBEDDING” ME WITH “OPERATION OUT OF THE BOX” FOR THE DURATION OF THE TOP SECRET OPERATION.

THE PRESIDENT DECIDED HE NEEDED A FRESH, AND VERY EXPERIENCED, EYE TO HAVE A LOOK AT TWO PROBLEMS: THE MEXICAN DRUG CARTELS AND THE SOMALI PIRATES. HE DECIDED THAT ¦¦¦¦¦¦, A RETIRED LEGENDARY SPECIAL OPERATOR AND INTELLIGENCE OFFICER, WAS TO BE THAT EYE, REPORTING DIRECTLY AND ONLY TO HIM, AND RECALLED ¦¦¦¦¦¦ TO ACTIVE DUTY. PRESIDENT CLENDENNEN ALSO DECIDED THAT EMBEDDING WHAT HE DESCRIBED AS “A WELL-KNOWN JOURNALIST OF UNQUESTIONED INTEGRITY” WITH COLONEL ¦¦¦¦¦¦ WAS THE BEST WAY TO BRING, WHEN THE TIME CAME, THE FULL STORY OF OPERATION OUT OF THE BOX TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE, AND HUMBLED THIS REPORTER BY SELECTING ME.

“What the hell are these black boxes all over this?” President Clendennen then demanded.

“Mr. President,” Secretary Cohen explained, “those are redacting marks showing what has been redacted.”

“I’ll be damned. And you didn’t know that, Hoboken?”

“I will from now on, Mr. President,” Hoboken said firmly.

The President resumed reading:

THE ONLY RESTRICTION ON THIS REPORTER’S REPORTING, THE PRESIDENT TOLD ME, WAS THAT MY STORIES WOULD HAVE TO UNDERGO VETTING BY INTELLIGENCE OFFICERS SO AS TO ENSURE OUR ENEMIES LEARNED NOTHING OF VALUE FROM THEM, AND THAT I WOULD PUBLISH NOTHING UNTIL OPERATION OUT OF THE BOX WAS CONCLUDED.

ON THIS REPORTER’S ARRIVAL IN BUENOS AIRES, I WAS INFORMED THAT THE U.S. EMBASSY HAD NO IDEA OF COLONEL ¦¦¦¦¦¦ LOCATION. THIS REPORTER PERSEVERED, HOWEVER, AND LEARNED THAT THE LEGENDARY INTELLIGENCE OFFICER WAS IN BARILOCHE — A SKI RESORT SOMETIMES CALLED “THE VAIL OF ARGENTINA” — AND GOT HIM ON THE TELEPHONE.

COLONEL ¦¦¦¦¦¦ WAS NOT AT ALL PLEASED TO LEARN OF MY MISSION, BUT HE IS A SOLDIER, AND JOSHUA EZEKIEL CLENDENNEN IS THE COMMANDER IN CHIEF, AND COLONEL ¦¦¦¦¦¦ HAD NO CHOICE BUT TO OBEY HIS ORDERS.

“Goddamn right he didn’t,” the President said.

“Sir?” Truman Ellsworth asked.

“If that black redact-whatyoucallit stands for Castillo, as I strongly suspect it does, goddamn right he had no choice but to obey his orders. That’s what I told you when you showed a certain lack of enthusiasm for Operation Out of the Box.”