CHAPTER THIRTY THREE
11:15 p.m.
The Situation Room, United States Naval Observatory – Washington, DC
Susan was ready to adjourn the meeting.
Really, she was ready for bed. It had been a long day, topping off a whole series of exhausting and wrenching days. There seemed to be no end to it on the horizon. She looked around the Situation Room. The faces of her staff were desultory, to say the least. Tired, tired people, reaching a place where they were no longer capable of making smart decisions.
That was when the first reports came in.
Kurt Kimball took a telephone call at the head of the room. An aide brought him the phone, and Kurt listened with a quizzical look on his face. After a short while, he hung up. He faced Susan across the table.
“That looked like good news,” Susan said, s
