It was an inconvenience to have such a large piece of equipment with them, but one that could not be avoided. Unfortunately the larger tweeters’ size also meant that the Agents would often have to leave their relays behind when entering secure areas, but this was also unavoidable.

As Leong-Lam walked away, he left no marker, nor did he worry about the safety of the device. His subspace tweeter relay would be watched over night and day by a far more powerful guardian in orbit, ready to bring to bear a host of unpleasant defensive weapons if the buried relay were somehow discovered by an unfortunate field hand.

Chapter 9: Mr. Precedent

Except, perhaps, for the few people who work there every day, it really never gets old driving up to the White House. Pulling up the rear driveway to the parking lot after passing the security gate, Laurie found she could easily recall the giddy excitement she had felt the first time she came here.

It was just such a cool building, you would have to be half dead not to think so, and it wasn’t a dose of patriotism that was driving her. She had seen several seats of government around the world, not least of which the ex-viceroy’s palace in New Delhi, which now housed the entire Indian executive branch, such was its size and grandeur.

It was simply the surging power that emanated from places like this. That, and the fact that she was a part of that power.

Flashing her pass at the waiting Secret Service detail, she walked past them into the building proper and turned left along the row of offices leading to the West Wing. She had called Jim Hacker ahead of time and paraphrased what she intended to talk about. She was not foolish enough not to notify General Pickler that she was doing it either; he was not an enemy to be made if it could be avoided, and he was duly waiting when she arrived, his face passive.

She nodded at the somewhat familiar receptionist, then took a wild stab at her name, “Margaret, can you tell Mr…”

“He already knows you’re here, Dr. West,” the receptionist smiled at hearing her own name, “he will be with you shortly.”

Laurie quietly congratulated herself on successfully buttering up the receptionist, who was, after all, the gatekeeper to one of the most influential men in the world, and took a seat on the waiting room couch beside the general.

Jim Hacker’s office was linked to the bustling hub of activity that was the president’s staff center by a heavy wooden door, but he also had a separate corridor to the reception area. It would not do to have every one of his wildly varied daily guests coming through the president’s nerve center, both for their sake and his.