“Yes, sir.”
“Nothing else?”
“No, sir.”
“I would take it amiss, Scott, if I found out that your pet shooter was there to do an end-run around Simeon Zetter. It would pain me to learn that he and his team put so much as a foot inside the Stebbins Little School. You understand me when I say that? We’re clear?”
“As glass, Mr. President.”
They studied each other, both wearing small smiles, both watching the other with cold eyes.
“Very well, Scott,” said the president. “Send him in.”
“Thank you, Mr. President.”
“Scott,” said the president with a gentler smile, “take a breath. This is over. We won. We saved the country, and you played your part. Be proud.”
“Yes, sir, I am,” lied Blair.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
THE OVAL OFFICE
THE WHITE HOUSE, WASHINGTON, D.C.
Sylvia Ruddy, the president’s chief of staff, came in as Blair left.
“Scott looks like he’s about to explode,” she observed. “Is he still trying to nuke Pennsylvania?”
“Fire bomb,” corrected the president, “but no. Not at the moment, anyway.” He told her about the flash drives.
“He wanted to send a team after Trout?”
“I nixed the idea.”
“Good.”
“However, I am letting him send a team in to do an independent evaluation of the integrity of the Q-zone.”
Ruddy made a face. “Simeon won’t like it.”
“Simeon works for me. He doesn’t have to like it. Besides, I actually do want to know. Scott’s right about one thing—we have to make sure we don’t spike the ball before we’re in the end zone. I want to believe this is over, but quite frankly, Sylvia, I’m scared out of my mind.”
“So is everyone,” she countered, “but don’t let Scott drive you crazy. He’s such an alarmist. He was an alarmist when he was the national security director and he’s an alarmist now. Maybe more so now. I told you that when you appointed him.”
“Maybe, but he’s been right more than he’s been wrong.”
“Sure. But when he’s wrong he’s all the way wrong. And he’s wrong on this. He’s overreacting to a situation that now requires careful handling and a great deal of subtlety.”
“I know.”
“And yet you gave him permission to release the hounds?”
“Hardly that. Scott will do what he’s told,” the president said firmly. “He may have his issues, but he’s still one of us.”
He handed her Blair’s amended speech. As she read it her face went white and then dark red. “This isn’t a speech,” she snapped, “this is you begging to be impeached and indicted.”
“I don’t see it that way.”