The problem was that drugs of any kind, when destined for the president, had to follow a strict, immutable chain of custody. The prescription was given by the White House doc or nurse to the administrator of the medical unit, who then called it in to a specific high-clearance pharmacist, using any of half a dozen fictitious names. The pharmacist knew the drug was destined for the White House but had no idea if it was for the POTUS, another patient, or even the medical clinic in the Eisenhower Building next door. The pharmacist formulated the prescription and, if necessary, prepared multiple sealed containers, which were picked up by a White House driver. The driver signed for the drug and turned it over to the nurse in the White House medical office, who signed for it and put it in a locked medicine cabinet. The president's physician then retrieved the drug and administered it himself.

In the case of an inhaler, the president might be given one to keep in his residence bathroom. Other inhalers would be secured on Air Force One, on Marine One, in his personal physician's bag, and at Camp David. The president might use the inhaler on his own, but otherwise, its contents should be dispensed only by his physician or the doc covering for him.

The chain of custody would probably not stand up in a court of law, but it was a chain nonetheless, based in large measure on the assumption that none of those intimates handling any of the sealed packets would want to harm the president.

Alison had learned the unwritten protocol from a physician, who was both showing off and possibly flirting with her, but after just a few days in Washington it appeared that Gabe Singleton had yet to be brought up to speed on it. Admiral Wright had been away when Gabe arrived on the scene, so it was possible that during Gabe's orientation whoever took Wright's place had simply forgotten or neglected to cover the handling of meds. Perhaps the other medical office docs hadn't thought to mention it, either. It made sense, then, that having Treat Griswold produce an inhaler would have seemed quite natural to Gabe, who had yet to learn that no one except the president's physician should be dispensing meds of any kind to the man.

Perhaps, she thought, she should try to break through Gabe's fortress of mistrust and tell him, although it probably would be better if one of the other docs did it.

"Come on, Alison," Gerrity, the physician's assistant, called out. "I've got the rest of this stuff. We have to get down to the motorcade or we're going to be left here searching for a cab so we can get home and start searching for jobs."