Those ones were all good. Together, they painted a picture of a small-minded man who was coming apart at the seams. Here was a person in command of the greatest armed forces the world had ever seen, with his finger on the nuclear button, who was sitting in the Oval Office crying, and who was expressing an urge to kill many people.

He was also almost laughably self-absorbed during a major crisis, worrying about his reputation, and the things the press were saying about him. And the self-incriminating things he said only got worse. The hole he dug only grew deeper.

For example, there was this:

“If they have hurt her in any way, I don’t know what I’m going to do. If they hurt her, I want the entire world set on fire.”

Keller nodded and smiled. David Barrett sounded unhinged, a man going through a personal tragedy, who was rapidly becoming a threat to everyone on Earth. Plus there was this:

“I lie all the time. I have to. It’s part of the job.”

The man seemed to believe that part of his job was to lie. Of course, this was true, but it wasn’t something the American people would like to hear. And then there was this, a small subtle statement that was perhaps the most damning thing of all:

“I can take a pill. I can sleep some.”

The President, who was weeping, raging about the media, and threatening to set the world on fire—something that was well within his power to do—was also dependent on medication to sleep.

Lawrence Keller took a deep breath. It was amazing. He and his allies had wanted David out of office from almost the time the tall dope had wandered into it. He was a weak, uncertain President. He was swayed by random conversations—Keller often met with him in the morning, got his stance on a particular issue, and couldn’t be sure that it would still be the same by that afternoon.

It would be good to get David out of there. It would be good to replace him with someone stronger—someone like his current Vice President, Mark Baylor, for example. It would be good for the country, and it would also be good for Lawrence Keller, wouldn’t it? Yes. It would. Being Chief of Staff to a weak President was a good job. Many people would kill for such a job. But it wasn’t the best of all possible jobs, was it?

No, it wasn’t. What was a better job? Chief of Staff under a strong President, certainly. But also, Secretary of State, let’s say. Or Director of National Security. People made jumps like that sometimes.

Lawrence Keller was the type of man who could make a jump like that.