"For those of you who have seen one of these before, you will recognize the circles that emanate from the National Mall as the blast radius of a nuclear weapon. In addition to the map a bomb damage assessment was found."

"What size bomb are we talking?" asked the president's chief of staff.

"Twenty kilotons," answered Kennedy.

"Is that big?"

Kennedy looked up at the teleconferencing screen and said, "General Flood."

The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs said, "For a nuke it's pretty small, but then again when you're talking about a nuke nothing is really small."

"How much damage?" asked the president.

"That's contingent on whether we're looking at an air burst or ground detonation, and if it's detonated during the middle of the day or in the evening. Immediate casualties could be as low as twenty thousand if it's a ground detonation and could climb to half a million people or more if it's an air burst during the middle of a work day."

An uncomfortable silence fell over the group as individuals grappled with the enormity of the possible carnage. Someone muttered a soft curse, and then General Flood added, "In addition to the casualties the city itself would be uninhabitable for anywhere from thirty to seventy years depending on the radiation fallout."

"Dr. Kennedy," asked Attorney General Stokes, "I'm assuming since you ordered Operation Ark, that there is more to go on than just this map."

"Yes. For some time we have been trying to ascertain the whereabouts of several missing Pakistani nuclear scientists. In the raid, we discovered files that detail the recruitment and defection of these scientists. I've got people pouring through this intelligence as we speak trying to get a more complete picture of what we're up against, but as of right now my team says there is little doubt that these scientists were successfully recruited by al-Qaeda. In addition we also have verbal confirmation from one of the terrorists that the attack on D.C. will employ a nuclear weapon."

"How in the hell," asked Secretary of Defense Culbertson, "did these guys get their hands on a nuclear weapon?"

"We're looking into that right now," answered Kennedy.

"Maybe we should start with the Pakistanis," snapped an angry secretary of defense.

Kennedy looked to the president. They had already discussed this exact point.

"I plan on talking to General Musharraf shortly," responded the president, "but before I do that I would like to get a better handle on the intelligence that's coming out of Kandahar."

"How did they get this thing into the country?" asked the president's chief of staff.

"We're not sure at this point. One report has it coming in by plane, but it's possible it may have come in by ship."

"Do we know when it arrived?" asked Jones.

"As of right now we think it came in yesterday."

"How in the hell did it get past all the sensors?" asked the president's chief of staff.

Kennedy, slightly perplexed, just looked at her. She knew of at least two occasions when they'd sat in the same room while the vulnerability of the detectors was discussed. "There will be time later to figure out exactly how they got the weapon into the country. For now we need to focus our energies on finding this thing, and preparing for the worst."

"What about Washington?" asked Jones. "I thought every bridge and road coming into the city was wired with devices that could detect something like this."

"They are," answered Kennedy, "but they are not foolproof."

"Mr. President," said the Secretary of Homeland Security, "In about two hours this city is going to wake up, and rush hour will begin. If Washington, D.C., is in fact the target, we need to consider shutting down all incoming lanes of traffic. As general Flood pointed out, the quickest way to increase the death toll is to let people come into the city to work."

The president looked to Kennedy for guidance.

"I respectfully disagree," answered the director of the CIA. "Until we have more specific intelligence, any such action would be premature and would likely hinder our search for the device."

The Secretary of Homeland Security frowned at Kennedy's polite rebuke and said, "At a bare minimum, sir, we should begin checking all pickup trucks, box vans, and semi trucks headed into the city. We should also consider shutting down the Metro."

"I would advise waiting another hour," answered Kennedy.

Secretary of the Treasury Keane, who was at the Mount Weather facility with the Secretary of Homeland Security and the vice president, chimed in by saying, "Mr. President, if the slightest whisper of this gets out, we need to be prepared to step in and close the financial markets...even before they open."

All at once, the meeting digressed into a free-for-all, with splintered conversations breaking out between the various groups. President Hayes pushed his chair a little further away from the table and for his own part tried to figure out where this madness might lead them.

CIA Director Kennedy leaned closer to the president and said, "Sir, if you could call the meeting back to order, I'd like to suggest a course of action."

Hayes liked the sound of Kennedy's reassuring voice. "Everyone!" Like all good orators the president knew how to project his voice. He did not have to repeat himself a second time.

"Dr. Kennedy has the floor," he commanded.

Kennedy laid her palms flat on the table and spoke in an even but confident voice. "With each passing minute, we're getting a better handle on this situation. As strange and counterintuitive as it may seem, the best course of action for us right now may be to do nothing. It's a quarter past four in the morning. We have a little time before people begin waking up and heading into work. I propose that for the next hour we allow our counterterrorism people to do what they're trained to do, and stay out of their way. At five thirty we can reconvene, and decide if we need to take further action."

The president didn't wait for anyone else to argue or interject. "We will reconvene at five thirty. In the meantime dust off the contingency plans we have in place, and have your agendas set and prioritized for the next meeting. I want a clear and concise take on everything: intel, military, financial markets, the press...and Irene and Beatrice," Hayes pointed to Kennedy and the secretary of State, "I want the two of you to coordinate a strategy on how to deal with Pakistan, and any other allies we might need to put some pressure on."

The president then took in the rest of the room and looked up at the large screen. "I can't stress enough how important it is that we keep a lid on this thing. The last thing we need right now is the press getting wind of this. They'll create a damn panic and this situation will spin out of control before we have the chance to stop it."