Suddenly he focused on the voice in his earpiece: “We are just picking up news from the BBC’s correspondent in Ukraine of an attack on a primary school in Donetsk, capital of the separatist republic in eastern Ukraine . . . It appears that over eighty children have been killed in a rocket attack, which the Kremlin is claiming was fired by the Ukrainians. The Russians are saying that this is a direct attack on their people and must be punished. This places the ceasefire in Ukraine in serious jeopardy . . .”

Bear did not need to hear more. First he slowed to a gentle jog, getting his breath back as he did so. It was never a good move to sound anything but measured and in control when he spoke to his boss. Next he punched a name in the Favorites list on his phone.

Moments later, Abe MacWhite, the President’s National Security Adviser, answered. “Got it, Bear,” was his drawled response. “I’ve heard the news from Ukraine. I’ll be in the office by 0600 hours. I’ll want to see the CIA and NSA reports and who they think is responsible when I get in.”

“Roger, Sir,” said Bear. As he started to run back home, he called the duty officers in America’s two principal overseas intelligence agencies, the Central Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency, followed by the White House car pool. Calls finished, he accelerated into a sprint, relishing the pain in his legs and the burning in his lungs. If this incident in Ukraine developed as he thought it might, it could well be many days before he next had the luxury of an early morning run.

Forty-five minutes later, after a quick shower and a change into his day uniform, crisply pressed by him the night before, a hurried farewell kiss to his wife Tonia, still drowsy in bed, a look at his still-sleeping children and a rapid dash by car into the White House, Bear was at his desk in the West Wing with his first coffee of the day. As he sipped it, he studied the CIA and NSA reports on the attack on the school in Donetsk, conscious that the time for quiet reflection would end the moment his boss arrived.

Then General Abe MacWhite walked into the outer office where Bear was sitting. A four-star general and Commander-in-Chief, Special Operations Command before retiring from active military duty and in his younger days, a feared Delta Force operative, MacWhite was well over six foot tall, as rangy as a Wyoming cowboy.