"If Lorimer goes down where?" the President of the United States asked as he walked into the breakfast room heading for the coffee service.
"Good morning, Mr. President," the secretary of State, the director of National Intelligence, and Lieutenant Colonel Castillo said almost in unison.
"Good morning," the President said as he poured himself a cup of coffee. Then he turned. "I'm especially glad to see you, Charley. You have this wonderful ability to show up at the exact moment I need you. When did you get back?"
"Last night, Mr. President."
"'If Lorimer goes down there' what?" the President asked.
Natalie Cohen said, "Ambassador Lorimer's home in New Orleans is under the water, Mr.-"
"His and several hundred thousand other people's," the President interrupted. "My God, what a disaster!"
"-and he called me and asked for directions to his son's ranch in Uruguay in which, or at which, he intends to live until he can get back in his home."
"And that poses problems?"
"It may, sir," Montvale said.
"How bad problems?" the President asked.
"Not catastrophic, Mr. President," Montvale said, "but potentially dangerous."
"I can't imagine why the hell…yeah, now that I think about it, I can imagine why he'd want to go down there. Far from the mess in New Orleans, and it's cheap-right, Charley?-to live down there."
"Yes, sir, it is."
"If it's not going to cause catastrophic problems for us, I don't think it's any of our business what he does," the President said. "We have other problems to deal with. Aside from Katrina, I mean."
"Sir?" Natalie Cohen asked.
The President sipped his coffee, then said, "Two days ago, the mayor of Chicago called me. Now, I know you two are above sordid politics, but I'll bet Charley can guess how important Cook County is to me. Right, Charley?"
"I think I have an idea, Mr. President," Castillo said.
"And knowing that, you'll all understand why I responded in the affirmative when the mayor asked me to do him a personal favor."
"Yes, sir," the three said, chuckling almost in unison.
"And when I heard what favor he was asking, I was glad that I had replied in the affirmative, because it pissed me off, too. If I'd known about this, I would have taken action myself."
"Known about what, Mr. President?" Montvale said.
"You're the director of National Intelligence, Charles," the President said, "so I am presuming you (a) know what's going on in Paraguay and (b) have a good reason for not telling me about it."
"I'm afraid I don't know what you're talking about, Mr. President," Montvale said.
"You have any idea what I'm talking about, Natalie?"
"I'm afraid not, Mr. President."
"Well, then, let me tell you," the President said. "What the drug cartel down there has been doing is kidnapping our agents and then either turning them into junkies or giving them fatal overdoses of what we euphemistically call 'controlled substances.' Are you learning this for the first time, Charles?"
"No, sir. Of course, I'm aware of the situation-"
"Natalie?"
"I've heard of the abductions, Mr. President, but not about the…uh…business of making the agents drug addicts."