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the roar came again, while Stanton waved from the sidelines. Then, as Will was taking a breath to begin his acceptance speech he heard two cell phones begin ringing behind him on the stage. Then he heard more cell phones, some from the audience, and two Secret Service agents came running down the aisles and stood at the foot of the podium, facing the audience.
    Will looked over his shoulder and saw Tim Coleman striding toward him from the wings, his cell phone in his hand.
    Will stepped away from the microphones. “What’s happened?” he asked as Tim reached him.
    Tim leaned in close to Will’s ear. “There’s been a nuclear explosion in Pakistan,” he said.

6

    WILL FOLLOWED TIM COLEMAN BACK TO THE GREEN ROOM, JUST OFFSTAGE. KITTY Conroy was waiting, and a moment later Kate walked in with Peter in tow.
    Will turned to his Secret Service agent. “Please find Peter a safe and private place to wait for us,” he said. “Be sure there’s a TV set.” He turned to Peter. “Peter, please go with the agent. We have to have a meeting here.” Peter left the room with the agent without a word. It was not the first time he had been asked to leave a room.
    Will looked at the large-screen TV set on the wall of the room. It was divided into four areas with a different network on each screen. None of them appeared to have the story.
    “What kind of communications do we have here?” Will asked.
    “One secure line to the White House switchboards, Mr. President. Other than that, only ordinary phone lines, four of them. They’ve been checked repeatedly for bugs.”
    “Where’s the nearest command center?” Will asked.
    “At the Waldorf, sir.”
    “Clear me a path to the Waldorf and let me know when the motorcade is ready to go.”
    “Right away, sir,” the agent said. “It shouldn’t take more than ten or twelve minutes.” The man went to work on his cell phone.
    “Kate,” Will said, “do you know anything I don’t?”
    “No,” Kate said, “but I have a secure cell phone, and I can call Lance at Langley.”
    “Please do so.” Will picked up the secure phone, and a White House operator answered immediately. “This is the president. Please connect me with the duty officer at the Pentagon.”
    “Yes, sir.” The line was picked up on the first ring.
    “Duty officer, Colonel Bird.”
    “Colonel, this is the president speaking.”
    “Yes, sir?”
    “Where are the secretary of defense, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the other chiefs of staff?”
    “The secretary is still on vacation at his home in Aspen, sir. The others are all en route to the Pentagon, Mr. President,” the colonel said. “The earliest will arrive in twelve minutes and the latest in twenty-one minutes.”
    “What information do you have on the nuclear explosion in Pakistan?”
    “Only that it has occurred, sir. We caught it on satellite, about forty miles east of the missile site from which it was fired.”
    “Thank you, Colonel. Please tell the chairman to call me at the Waldorf command center as soon as he has assembled his group and to arrange to feed video to me there and to the secretary in Aspen.” He hung up the phone and looked at the Secret Service agent. “How soon can we leave for the Waldorf?”
    “In about five minutes, sir.”
    “I’m going back to the podium,” Will said. “Tell the speaker to call for order now.” Will went and stood in the wings while the speaker quieted the arena, then he walked to the lectern.
    “Ladies and gentlemen, please excuse my brief absence. I have some important news for you that has not been broadcast on the networks yet.” Silence fell over the arena. “Early this morning, eastern time, an attack was made by elements of the Taliban, with the possible assistance of Al Qaeda, on a missile launch site in northwestern Pakistan. The site was captured, and among the six missiles stored in silos there, two had uranium-235 nuclear warheads of about ten kilotons each, or