The outlaws

PRESIDENT CLENDENNEN--

"Sonofabitch!" the President said. He'd said it twice while reading the story, and a third time now that he'd finished.

Jack Parker announced: "He says, Mr. President, that he will give us seventy-two hours to respond."

"Sonofabitch!" the President said again. "Porky, the way this goddamn thing is written, it sounds as if I'm responsible. It doesn't even mention my predecessor, goddamn him to hell."

Parker, who wondered if the President was calling the wrath of the Almighty upon the head of his predecessor, or on that of Mr. Whelan, did not reply.

The President said nothing for sixty seconds, during which time the contortions of his face and the somewhat angry tapping of his fingers on his desk suggested he was deep in thought.

"Deny it, Porky," he said finally. "Tell the sonofabitch to publish anything he wants. We'll just deny everything. I didn't know a goddamn thing about the OOA or Castillo until Ambassador Stupid walked into the Oval Office the day after my predecessor, that sonofabitch, dropped dead. Just deny any knowledge. What's he going to do, ask Castillo, for Christ's sake?"

"Mr. President, I don't think that will work," Parker said.

"Why not?"

Parker handed him another sheet of paper.

"Mr. Whelan said he thought you might… What he said, sir, was that our trying to stonewall wouldn't bother him at all; that it was always a better story when you can prove the White House lied. He said it was only because of his admiration for you that he was giving you the chance to see what he's going to write, so it wouldn't come as a sucker punch. And so far as asking Colonel Castillo is concerned, Mr. Whelan says the only way to keep him from publishing would be for Colonel Castillo, personally, to convince him he had his facts wrong. I had the impression, sir, that he thinks we have Colonel Castillo and are hiding him someplace where the press can't get to him."

As Clendennen looked at the sheet, Parker added, "Then he gave me that, which he says he will publish if we deny any of the facts in the first story."

"Sonofabitch!" Clendennen said again as he read: