[FOUR]
The Oval Office
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C.
1805 15 June 2007
“Thank you for seeing me on such short notice, Mr. President,” Secretary Cohen said. “But you said you wanted to see Colonel Naylor’s reports as soon as they arrived.”
“Actually, Madam Secretary,” Robin Hoboken said, “what the President said was that he wanted to see Colonel Castillo’s reports as soon as they arrived.”
“I stand corrected,” Cohen said.
“How’d you know I’d be here?” President Clendennen asked. “I just got back three minutes ago.”
“When I called earlier, when I first received these messages, Mr. President, I was told you were unavailable, not that you had gone somewhere.”
“Belinda-Sue’s mother, that saintly old woman,” the President said, “is very ill. She wanted to see me. I could not, of course, turn her down. God alone knows how long she’ll be with us. But I could not in good conscience ask the American taxpayer to pay the enormous expense of my going down to Biloxi in the 747 on a personal matter. So I went, very quietly, in a Gulfstream, taking only Robin and Mulligan with me.”
“How is the First Mother-in-Law?” Natalie asked.
“Not well, but with prayer there’s always hope,” the President said. “Now let me see Colonel Castillo’s report.”
“She doesn’t have Colonel Castillo’s report, Mr. President,” Robin Hoboken said. “She said she had Colonel Naylor’s report.”
“And Mr. Whelan’s redacted news story,” Cohen said.
The President read both.
“Well,” he said, “to judge from this, and other information I have, I think it would be fair to assume my Out of the Box Operation is starting to take shape. Wouldn’t you agree, Madam Secretary?”
“‘Other information,’ Mr. President?”
“Natalie,” he said condescendingly, “I learned a long time ago that the more people who know a secret, the less chance there is that it will remain a secret. Right now, you don’t have the Need to Know about my other information.”
“May I ask, sir, if your other information might result in something that would require my services in the next twenty-four hours?”
“The President just told you, Madam Secretary, that you don’t have the Need to Know,” Robin Hoboken said.
“Why do you ask, Madam Secretary?” the President asked.
“I’d like to run down to the Greenbrier and play a little golf, Mr. President.”
“For how long?”
“I would be back tomorrow afternoon no later than five, sir.”
“Sure, go ahead. All work and no play makes Jack… in this case, Natalie, of course… the dull girl, as I always say.”
“Thank you, Mr. President.”
“Did you know, Natalie, that during the Cold War, they had a great big underground place at the Greenbrier where Congress could meet in case the Russians nuked Washington?”
“I’ve heard that, Mr. President.”