CHAPTER THIRTY SIX
5:35 a.m. Eastern Standard Time
The Situation Room
The White House, Washington, DC
Luke Stone’s disembodied voice came from inside the octopus. For a moment, it seemed like Stone really was inside of there—that the black, many-legged speakerphone device in the center of the conference table was actually some sort of hostile spider creature, and Stone’s slightly wired spirit had somehow possessed it.
That’s how tired Susan was. She was imagining Luke Stone as a strange, electronic spider made of hard plastic.
She slurped her coffee, hoping for a jolt of alertness. She looked around the room at the group assembled. Everyone was in the same boat. Even Kurt Kimball looked a little tired. More than tired, he looked a little annoyed.
Stone got us up for this?
“I recomm
