My cuz’s boyfriend is an intern in the White House, so I think he can get this to you. I heard on the radio that papers were missing from your car. Must be heavy shit time, and figured these might be them. Fuck the State!

At the end of the note was a capital A enclosed within a circle. Anarchy, Addis thought. The kid at the copy shop. The little shit had kept a set for himself. “Fuckin’ A,” Addis muttered. All that’s missing is the ICEMAN report—what Julia Lancette had gone looking for.

He placed the papers back in the envelope. He hiked up a pant’s leg, wrapped the envelope around his leg, and taped it in place. He then pulled the pant’s leg over the envelope.

Addis turned on the television. The Roosevelt Room was crowded: Cabinet members, congressional leaders, including Senator Hugh Palmer. The message was clear: Mumfries is the favored, Margaret a far-shot. The President was talking. Addis kept the sound off. Grayton and Kelly were standing behind Mumfries. It seemed as if Kelly was patting the side of his jacket. Was he looking for the cell phone?

Addis called the Associated Press news desk and said that he would be holding a press conference outside the West Wing as soon as the President departs.

“What’s the subject?” the desk editor asked.

“I’m announcing my resignation.”

“Why?”

“Personal reasons.”

He noted that if he were late for the press conference, the service should contact Jake Grayton, deputy director of the FBI, and ask about Addis’s whereabouts. “At the moment, it seems, Mr. Grayton is attempting to detain me in my office.”

He called CNN and several newspapers and newsmagazines.

The President was now standing. People around him were clapping.

Addis wondered if this cell phone stored the numbers he had just called. He reached into the small refrigerator for the can of Coke that Amy from Computer Services had brought him earlier. From one of the boxes—

At least, I won’t have to unpack

—he grabbed the oversized commemorative beer stein he had received during the Berlin trip and poured the soda into the glass.

The President was leaving the Roosevelt Room. CNN switched to a shot of the helicopter on the White House lawn.

Addis turned on the cell phone. He dropped it into the stein. The soda fizzled and hissed.

“Ca-runk,” he said, recalling the term Kelly had used. Tossing armadillos to alligators.