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Supervisory Special Agent Mulligan got in the front seat and the Yukon started off.
“What the hell is going on here?” Roscoe demanded.
“Actually, Mr. Danton, it’s the President who wants to see you. I didn’t want to say that where there was a chance I might be overheard.”
[TWO]
The Oval Office
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C.
1005 8 June 2007
“Good morning, Roscoe,” President Clendennen said cordially. “I really appreciate your coming here on such short notice.” Then he ordered, “Put Mr. Danton down, fellas, get him a cup of coffee, and then get the hell out.”
The Secret Service agents carried Roscoe to an armchair and dropped him into it. Supervisory Special Agent Mulligan held open the door as they left, then closed it after them, and crossed his arms as he leaned on it.
“I hope you didn’t have to interrupt anything important to come here, Roscoe,” the President said. “The thing is, Robin and I had what we think is a splendid idea, and we wanted to share it with you as soon as possible.”
Hoboken said: “I’m sure you remember asking me, Roscoe, if the President—you referred to him as ‘the leader of the free world’—had given me ‘anything else about his out-of-the-box thinking about his unrelenting wars against the drug trade and piracy, to be slipped to you when no one else was looking.’”
“Clearly,” Roscoe admitted.
“Well, Roscoe,” the President said, “no one’s looking now. Mulligan makes sure of that.”
“Now this is sort of delicate, Roscoe,” Hoboken said. “By that I mean if anything came out—by that I mean, if anything came out prematurely—in the interest of national security, the President would have to—by that I mean, I would have to, speaking for the President, as we don’t want to involve him at all—deny any knowledge of it at all. You understand that, of course.”
“I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about,” Danton confessed.
“What he means, Roscoe,” the President said, “is that this is just between us. Okay?”
“What is just between us, Mr. President?” Danton asked.
“My out-of-the-box thinking that you asked him about.”
“And what exactly is that?”
“What would you say if I told you that I have decided to enlist the services of Lieutenant Colonel Castillo in my war against the Mexicans and the Somalians.”
“Your war against the Mexicans and the Somalians?”
“What the President meant to say, Roscoe,” Hoboken interjected, “is the Mexican drug cartels and the Somalian pirates. President Clendennen has absolutely nothing against the Mexican or Somalian people. Quite the opposite—”
“Roscoe knows that, for Christ’s sake,” the President said. “So, what do you think, Roscoe?”
“What do I think about what?”
“About getting Colonel Castillo’s opinion of the Mexican and Somalian problems.”
“What the President meant to say—” Robin Hoboken began.
“Roscoe knows what I meant,” the President interrupted. “Well, Roscoe?”
“I would say you have two problems, Mr. President,” Roscoe said. “The first is to find Colonel Castillo, and then to get him to agree to do what you want him to do.”
