Hazardous Duty (Presidential Agent 8)

“You called him Hackensack, which he doesn’t like, so he called you cretin. I’m not sure what that is, but what’s grease for the goose, so to speak. Say, ‘Yes, sir.’”

“Yes, sir, Mr. President,” both said in unison.

“Well, Robin, let’s hear this nutty idea of yours and get it out of the way.”

“Mr. President, I’m sure you share my confidence that Operation Out of the Box will be successful; after all, it is your idea.”

“That’s true,” President Clendennen admitted. “It’s obviously one of my better ideas.”

“And it would be a genuine shame if when Operation Out of the Box is successful that you didn’t get all the credit you so richly deserve for it.”

“Well, as my predecessor, Harry S Truman, said, ‘You can get a lot done if you don’t look for credit.’”

“President Truman didn’t say that, Mr. President,” Mulligan said. “President Truman said, ‘The buck stops here.’ That movie-star president… What’s his name?”

“Ronald Something,” Robin Hoboken said.

“Not ‘Something,’ Robin,” the President said. “His name was President Reagan.”

“His name was Ronald Reagan,” Mulligan said. “He was the President. He was the one who said you can get a lot done on credit.”

“Belinda-Sue says too much credit is what’s ruining the country,” the President said. “And, for once, she may be right.”

“I’m not talking about that kind of credit, Mr. President,” Robin Hoboken said.

“I wasn’t aware there was more than one kind,” the President said. “The kind I know is where you charge something, pay for it, and then can buy something else because your credit is good.”

“The kind I’m talking about, Mr. President,” Robin Hoboken said, “is where people recognize that you’ve done something good.”

“Like what, for example?”

“For example, coming up with an idea like Operation Out of the Box.”

“And how could I make that happen?” the President asked.

“What I was going to suggest, Mr. President, is that we take a photographer down to Fort Bragg and have him shoot you planning the operation to seize Drug Cartel International Airfield.”

“Try saying ‘take your picture,’ Robin,” the President said. “Having a photographer ‘shoot me’ makes me uncomfortable.”

“Yes, sir. Sorry, sir.”

“Why would I do that?”

“So that after Castillo and his Merry Outlaws seize Drug Cartel International, your political enemies—C. Harry Whelan, Junior, of Wolf News, for example—couldn’t say you were taking credit for something you had very little, if anything, to do with.”

“Stop calling them ‘Merry Outlaws,’ Robin,” the President said, then cleared his throat dramatically. “Start calling them ‘Clendennen’s Commandos.’”

“Sir?”

“You heard me. Clendennen’s Commandos!”

“Yes, sir.”

“That has a nice ring to it, Mr. President,” Mulligan said.

“Yes, it does,” the President agreed. And then his face clouded.

“I see a couple of problems with this, Hoboken,” he said. “Like, for example, if I go to Fort Bragg, everybody will know.”