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“Francie and I had a word before the meeting started. You can have as much as you want. We should talk to McCord over at the Treasury and Henry at the Fed. It may be possible to do it completely off-budget, though we might have to do a little . . . creative bookkeeping.”
    “The security circle’s getting pretty large,” Crow said.
    Santeros: “You see any way to avoid that?”
    Crow thought a moment. “No. I’m just sayin.’ I need to create a security group, right now. I need the authority to pull anybody I need out of the security establishment. I think I know enough smart guys to do this—at least, I know enough smart guys who know enough smart guys. But I need a budget and I need a letter from you. I need the authority to kick whatever ass needs it, and I mean up to Cabinet secretary, four-star rank.”
    The President tapped out a note on her pad: “I’ll get the letter to you within the hour. We’ll want to launch your group no later than tomorrow.”
    Crow nodded: “Yes, ma’am. No later than.”
    Santeros stared down at a briefing paper on the desk in front of her, then said, “Ladies and gentlemen, this is the biggest thing since the atomic bomb, in terms of turning the world around. We need to stay all over this, all the time. This becomes the number one national priority, and you eight are my working group. We’ll bring in more people as we need them. I’m going to ask Jacob to act as the chief of staff for the group, at least for now. Everything should go to him, and he’ll talk to me. I’m going to clear my schedule for tonight, and I need all of you to come up with outlines of what you can contribute to this project, and I need to be briefed again, then. That includes exactly how we’re going to get to Saturn before the Chinese. We need that settled. Not tomorrow. Tonight.
    “As I see it, Dr. Fletcher, you’ll be in charge of monitoring the Saturn site with your telescopes. You military people will build the ship: work out your system. Paula and Richard, work with Gene on this. Senator Sweet and Representative Cline will take care of the money. Crow will handle security. Is everybody good?”
    Fletcher lifted a hand and she nodded at him.
    “There is one tiny problem with my group. The intern who spotted this . . . object. He could be a security issue.”
    “The incompetent one.”
    “Scientifically incompetent,” Fletcher said. “Unfortunately, he’s notsimply dim. He seems to be quite knowledgeable about the media and he’s somewhat irresponsible, in my view. I don’t think he was as impressed with Mr. Crow as the others were.”
    “He’s a loose cannon,” Santeros said. “Mr. Crow specializes in loose cannons.”
    “With all due respect, ma’am, Sanders Heacock Darlington—”
    “Are you shitting me?” Santeros said, showing surprise for the first time. “Barron Darlington’s kid?”
    “I’m afraid so,” Fletcher said. “He’s got an ocean of money, he’s about to inherit a lot more, and nobody has ever taught him that he has to be responsible about anything. You can’t scare him, because he’s apparently never encountered anything that he needs to be scared of. And his father, as you know, is heavily wired into Washington.”
    The President asked, “What does he want? The kid?”
    “I don’t know,” Fletcher said. “Fame? Notoriety? I mean, he used to shoot vid for a news-and-porn blog.”
    “Which one?”
    “Naked Nancy . . .”
    “Goddamnit,” Santeros said. “Last time I looked, she had an eight share worldwide.”
    “I wouldn’t know about that,” Fletcher said. “But she’s big. Can you imagine what the revelation of an alien ship would mean in terms of ratings?”
    Crow cleared his throat and said, “I need to say something here. Dr. Fletcher’s view of Mr. Darlington is not entirely correct. I’ve been trying to herd these particular cats and I’ve put together some dossiers. Dr. Fletcher, I saw on a note from you that