Stricken made a show of studying the various decorations in the Oval Office while they waited. Of course, he’d memorized every item in it the first time he’d been here, and could tell down to the individual paperclip what had been moved since his last visit, but gawking was expected behavior, and staring at the man on the other side of the Resolute desk while he waffled on policy would be considered uncouth.

The contract must have already been pulled out of the archives earlier, as a moment later it was placed in the President’s hands by a secretary who seemed very relieved to flee the Oval Office and Stricken’s gaze. He had that effect on the sensitive types.

The contract was written on old parchment and sealed in a glass box. The President held it awkwardly, like he wasn’t quite sure what to do with it. Stricken didn’t understand why he needed to see the original. Every man who’d sat in that chair had read it at some point. A copy would do just as well, but sentimental foolishness was to be expected from a leader who was governed by his feelings rather than his iron will.

While the President studied Ben Franklin’s scribbling and Franks’ X, Stricken mulled over his takedown strategies. He already knew he’d be given permission to detain Franks, as if he were just some human being that they could throw a bag over his head, toss him in a van, and redact his ass to Poland. This was Agent fucking Franks they were talking about here. The President didn’t have the balls to order Franks outright eliminated, so he’d take the middle road of locking him up for everyone’s safety. That had been a forgone conclusion before Stricken had ever requested this meeting. He’d been laying the groundwork for this moment for a few years. Of course, it was also a forgone conclusion that Franks would resist being stuck in a cage, so that freak of nature would die resisting, and permanently this time.

The President sighed as he finished reading the old parchment.

“Those are not idle threats, sir. If we violate that covenant, Franks fully intends to do everything he said there. He is that irrational and violent, which is why I need your blessing before I proceed.”

“Over two hundred years of service,” the President said as he put the contract down, discarding it like he’d been so quick to discard every other founding document he’d found inconvenient. “He’s saved this country, and maybe the whole world, more times than we can count.”