what happened and it won't do any good trying to explain. I'll clarify everything for him later.'
'How do I know you're capable of that?'
'What?'
'You heard me. How do I know you're either capable or reliable?'
'What are you talking about?'
'I think you'd clarify whatever you want to clarify, telling him whatever you want him to hear.'
'Who the hell are you to talk to me this way?'
'Someone probably as rich as you are. Also someone who's getting out of this town, as I'm sure Swann told you, so your political benediction is meaningless to me—I wouldn't accept it in any event. You know something, Dennison? I think you're a bona fide rat. Not the cute Mickey Mouse variety, but the original animal. An ugly, scavenging, long-tailed rodent, who spreads a lousy disease. It's called nonaccountability.'
'You don't spare words, do you, Congressman?'
'I don't have to. I'm leaving.'
'But he isn't! And I want him strong, persuasive. He's taking us into a new era. We're standing tall again and it's about time. We're telling the crumbs of this world to shit or get off the pot!'
'Your expressions are as banal as you are.'
'What are you? Some fucking Ivy Leaguer with a degree in English? Get with it, Congressman. We're playing hardball here; this is if! People in this administration move their bowels or they're out. Got that?'
‘I’ll try to remember.'
'While you're at it, remember he doesn't like dissent. Everything's cool, got that? No waves at all; everybody's happy, got that?'
'You repeat yourself, don't you?'
'I get things done, Kendrick. That's the name of the hardball game.'
'You're a lean, mean machine, you are.'
'So we don't like each other. So what? It's no big deal—’
I've got that,' agreed Evan.
'Let's go.'
'Not so fast,' said Kendrick firmly, turning away from Dennison and walking to a window as if the office were his, not that of the President's man. 'What's the scenario? That is the term, isn't it?'
'What do you mean?'
'What do you want from me?' asked Kendrick, looking out at the White House lawn. 'Since you're doing the thinking, why am I here?'
'Because ignoring you would be counterproductive.'
'Really?' Kendrick turned again to face the White House's chief of staff. 'Counterproductive?'
'You've got to be acknowledged, is that clear enough? He can't sit on his ass and pretend you don't exist, right?'
'Oh, I see. Say that during one of his entertaining although not terribly enlightening press conferences, someone brings up my name, which is inevitable now. He can't very well say that he's not sure whether I play for the Jets or the Giants, can he?'
'You got it. Let's go. I'll shape the conversation.'
'You mean control it, don't you?'
'Call it what you like, Congressman. He's the greatest President of the twentieth century, and don't you forget it. My job is to maintain the status quo.'
'It's not my job.'
'The hell it isn't! It's all our jobs. I was in combat, young fella, and I watched men die defending our freedoms, our way of life. I tell you, it was a goddamned holy thing to see! And this man, this President, has brought those values
