CHAPTER THIRTY NINE
8:15 a.m.
The Situation Room, United States Naval Observatory – Washington, DC
“Susan?” someone said.
“Susan.”
She had been lost in thought. She rarely thought of her childhood in suburban Ohio. Her father had died when she was in the sixth grade. Her mother, without the man she loved, became a shell of herself. Depressed, a drinker, and chronically unemployed. In the middle of the tenth grade, Susan, who was already modeling locally, decided to light out for the territories. The territories, in this case, being New York City.
The memory in question was of a time when she was very young. There had been a snowstorm, and her father was pulling her along on a Flexible Flyer sled. She was laughing because it was so much fun.
“Susan, please.”
She looked up. It was Ku
