CHAPTER TWELVE
4:01 p.m. Eastern Standard Time
The Oval Office
The White House, Washington, DC
“The link should just take a moment,” Kurt said.
In the meantime, an even smaller group than had been in the Situation Room stood around and waited.
Luke stood near the back of the semicircle of people. They were focused on the large flat-panel TV mounted on the far wall. Luke didn’t love that thing. It was an ugly piece of anachronistic electronics, intruding on the stately elegance of the Oval Office. It reminded him somehow of the large black obelisk in 2001: A Space Odyssey, a high-tech interloper everywhere it appeared.
And to extend that metaphor, Luke and everyone else in the room were the apelike pre-modern humans surrounding and gazing up at it.
Luke glanced around the office. Th
