“That’s probably a good thing. People don’t get to know us until they’re in a … Anyways, after forty-two years here, he finally left us. Down to Orlando. DisneyWorld and all that. Good man. Snatched long ago from Johns Hopkins. God knows what he would have done in the private sector. Helped pioneer the profiling of overseas leaders before he took over our shop. You can imagine what it’s like to take the reins from someone who’s been holding them for three decades. A bit overwhelming. And, I must say, a bit of a disaster. His secretary left with him. It’s as if they had devised their own system for everything in and everything out. Quite frankly, I’m drowning. But everyone knew this would happen, so I’m not worried. We’ll catch up.”

“I just wanted to see what—”

“Was happening with our response to your priority inquiry. We had to pull out a few memos, dust them off, to familiarize ourselves with SOP. I want to go by the numbers. And we have. Just completing our review as we speak. And we’ll be zipping off the report to you any minute now. Wonderful what they do with computer communications these days. Here, I can even give you the transmission number, right now.”

She scribbled it down.

A line of police officers ringed the White House. They wore helmets.

“I hope you’ll tell whoever you tell these things, Miss—or is it Ms.? Don’t mean to insult—that we made a good-faith effort to be on time. Would probably do better next week. Once the feet are wetter.”

“No, that’s fine,” she said. “I was just finishing up.”

“Very kind of you.”

“And what does your office do?”

“Good for you—that you don’t know. We’re the psychiatric wing of the Meds. One of our colleagues needs help. They come to us, not some outsider. Easier to talk to one who knows this world then one who doesn’t. People throughout the building think we tend to a bunch of crack-ups. But, mainly it’s routine. Marriage counseling. Stress relief. The occasional bout of depression. Some substance abuse. But there’s an entirely separate outfit for that. We couldn’t handle all of that. But I’m not asking for any special consideration. We play by the rules. If you must, report our late filing. Our defense is an easy one: a guide through the office that Dr. Killigren—an otherwise fine man and administrator—bequeathed us.”

“Okay, okay,” Lancette said into the phone. “Let me hang up and look for it.”

“Certainly. And though I’ve checked the regulations and know that an oral report is not deemed sufficient in these instances, I can give you a sneak preview: nada. But you’ll see.”