Charlotte Kramer: Madam President Part 24

CHAPTER FORTY-THREE.

Melanie The plane was starting to feel claustrophobic, and Melanie worried that her perspective on the attacks might be too insular for her to be guiding so much of the president's decision making and shaping her public posture. She hadn't seen an instant of news coverage yet, and she wasn't sitting in the room with the rest of the president's national security team. She was stuck at forty thousand feet.

"Sit," Melanie mouthed at her communications advisor, who had appeared in the doorway while she was holding for the chairman of the joint chiefs. She wanted to give the chairman direction about the plans that Charlotte would expect from them. He came on the line and listened quietly while Melanie outlined what she needed. When she finished, he launched into a long response about the fruitlessness of drafting plans that he couldn't recommend in good conscience to the president.

"Bud, of course you can put your finger on the scale in terms of the final outcome, but she is going to want to understand her choices at a very detailed level. She'll want to know what each option would involve regarding troop strength, coalition possibilities, and logistical pros and cons. She will not rule out the harbor-and-support doctrine, and she will not want to rule out some extremely targeted military strikes."

Melanie listened as the chairman laid out a handful of reasons why the sort of war planning that she was looking for was complicated by the fact that Congress had been balancing the federal budget on the back of the military for the last five years. She listened patiently and then reiterated her request.

Something in his voice made Melanie pause.

"Bud, is there something that you're worried about that we haven't discussed?"

"Madam Secretary, folks around here are shaken. The last time this happened, we were pulling bodies out of our offices. This brings all of it back."

Melanie prided herself on being in touch with the morale in her building, but in this instance, she'd underestimated the emotional trauma that another attack on the capital would cause for everyone working at the Pentagon.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't need you to tell me that. Being trapped on the plane is impairing my capacity to appreciate how everyone there must be experiencing this day."

"No apology necessary, Madame Secretary. People understand that they have a job to do. I'll get a team together right away to start tweaking the plans that exist already for your review later tonight."

Melanie hung up and turned her full attention to her spokesman. "What are you hearing?" she asked.

"We're starting to get calls about our coordination with allies and intelligence sharing."

"Send all of that to State and CIA today."

"I did."

"What else?"

"Our press is asking if you will come to the back of the plane and read out some of your meetings and calls."

"Not now. I'm crashing on the president's speech, and I have something that I need your help with."

She wanted her spokesman to be prepared to release the statement she'd worked up from her and on behalf of the Pentagon that could be released as soon as the news broke about Warren's death.

He took out a pen and a pad. "Madam Secretary, there's something sensitive that I'm going to need your guidance on."

"In that case, you go first."

"The first thing you need to know is that this didn't come from our traveling press. It came from the CBS Pentagon producer back in D.C. My deputy pa.s.sed it along."

"What is it?"

"Patty Siebel, the off-air, said that she is hearing that the president, quote, stormed out of the PEOC earlier today against the advice of the Secret Service, end quote, and while the continuity-of-government plans and procedures were still in place."

Melanie nodded.

"And that she refused to relocate to a more secure location even after the Secret Service and her husband urged her to do so," he added.

"That's it?"

"Yeah."

"OK."

"How do you want me to handle this?"

"Don't do anything. Let me make a couple of calls."

The leak would be extremely damaging to the president. As Melanie had warned Charlotte hours earlier, it would make her look emotional and unprofessional. While it was debatable that what she'd done const.i.tuted storming away, it was a fact that she'd left the bunker at a time when the Secret Service would have preferred her to stay in the PEOC or relocate to a more secure place than the White House.

"How did Patty describe her source?"

" 'A senior administration official familiar with the goings-on in the PEOC,' " he read from his notepad.

"The source isn't claiming to be a witness?"

"Not explicitly. She just said 'familiar with the goings-on.' "

"Give me a minute."

"Thanks. What did you have for me?" he asked.

"It can wait."

He turned to leave, but Melanie stopped him and closed the door to her cabin.

"The president did leave the PEOC for a few minutes early in the day. No attacks were under way, but it was premature for her to leave the safety of the PEOC. She returned after spending about ten minutes in the Oval Office."

"Thank you for telling me," he replied.

As soon as he left her cabin, Melanie called Sam. "Is she there?"

The president picked up immediately. "I was about to call you. The Carmichaels were unbelievable."

"I need to ask you about something first. The CBS Pentagon producer just got a tip from a senior administration official that would suggest that we need to tighten the circle of partic.i.p.ants for future NSC meetings."

"What kind of tip?"

"A senior administration official told someone at CBS that you may have violated security protocols by leaving the PEOC while the continuity-of-government plans were still in place."

"Why would someone discuss my movements with the press today, of all days?"

"I'm not sure. It's probably some deputy a.s.sistant secretary trying to show a reporter how in the loop he is. Why don't you have Sam send me a list of all of the partic.i.p.ants, and we'll get the agencies to submit partic.i.p.ant lists, too. Maybe some jacka.s.s at the State Department is trying to become famous."

"I thought the call came from a Pentagon reporter?"

"It did, but it's a rookie-leaking tactic to call a reporter who doesn't cover your princ.i.p.al."

"What do you really think is going on?"

"I'm not sure, but I'd like your permission to limit the number of people who get a draft of the speech and who partic.i.p.ate in the next NSC meeting."

"Yes, of course. Is there any way to figure out who it was?"

"It's more important that it doesn't happen again."

"I agree."

"I'm going to handle it, Madam President. Don't worry. I'm going to call Dale now to enlist her help."

"Is she up for it?"

"I'm about to find out. I wanted your permission to take the lead."

"Permission granted."

"Thank you, Madam President. I'll call you back in a few minutes. I want to hear about the Carmichaels."

CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR.

Dale Marguerite!" Dale called from her office.

Marguerite appeared in her doorway.

"Where are Lucy and Richard?"

"They were broadcasting from the North Lawn about forty-five minutes ago."

Dale flipped through all of the stations to make sure she hadn't missed them. "They're not there now."

Dale and Marguerite stood together and watched the CBS White House correspondent deliver a live report about the small group of aides who had been tapped to draft the president's remarks for later that evening.

"I hate that they keep reporting that I've been working on the speech all evening long. I haven't even seen it," Dale complained.

"I wouldn't worry about it," Marguerite said.

"When they find out about Warren, am I supposed to confess that I didn't work on the speech after all?"

"I'll ask Sam if I can get a copy for you," Marguerite offered. She understood that it was better to make the story true than to go about setting the record straight.

Dale stood.

"Where are you going?" Marguerite asked.

"If Richard and Lucy aren't on the air or in our office, they're getting into trouble somewhere. I'm going to look for them."

"Do you want me to come?"

"No. I don't want them to think we're more concerned than we actually are about their whereabouts."

As she walked toward the briefing room, Dale contemplated how she'd deal with the condolences that everyone would offer about Warren. Just thinking about it made her feel like a fraud. She hadn't deserved someone like Warren.

She shook her head from side to side to expel those thoughts from her mind. If she only managed to do one thing to contribute to the day, she would salvage the "Day in the Life" production.

"Have you seen Lucy or Richard?" Dale asked one of the deputy spokesmen.

He glanced up at the television on his desk airing the three networks and shook his head.

"I haven't seen them since the briefing."

"Please send them up to my office if they turn up."

"Will do, boss."

Dale walked quickly past the Oval Office and down the hall toward Craig's office. His a.s.sistant, Ben, stood up when she entered. He must know about Warren, Dale thought.

She tried to act normal. "Is he free?" she asked, looking at Craig's closed door.

"He's not in there."

"Is he with the president?"

"He's with the vice president," Ben replied.

"Thanks."

He had such a pained look on his face that she felt compelled to say something else to him.

"I haven't seen you since before they evacuated the West Wing. Were you guys all right today? Did you have to leave the building?"

"A bunch of us just hung out in the mess."

"And the Secret Service didn't mind?"