Page 58 of Code 6

“I’ll let the actors know. The men can fight it out for the role of Watson. Hillary is perfect to play Watson’s wife. You get with Sean and set up a timetable for the next draft.”

Irving disappeared behind the curtain. Kate stood numb for a moment, then suddenly found herself struggling to contain the urge to leap into the air and scream with delight. She hurried down the stairs and took the side exit toward Irving’s office, where Sean had said he’d be waiting. She knocked eagerly and entered on his invitation.

“Are we on for January?” he asked, seated in Irving’s battle-scarred leather chair.

“Yes!” she said, louder than intended.

He came around the desk, and it seemed as though they might embrace, but it turned into an awkward retreat into professionalism, a combination of a handshake and a high-five.

“I can’t wait to get started,” he said.

“Me, too,” she said.

He returned to Irving’s chair. The Supreme Court’s opinion was on the desktop. Kate noticed that Sean had moved well beyond the last page she’d read.

“By the way, I love the way this guy writes,” said Sean.

“You read Justice Roberts’ opinion?”

“To be honest, I skipped to the end. Spoiler alert: the whole two hundred pages come down to whether the Commerce Department stated a valid reason when it ordered the Census Bureau to include the citizenship question in the census questionnaire.”

“Right. The department said it was for the benefit of minority voters.”

“And here’s what Justice Roberts wrote,” Sean said, picking up the opinion. “Accepting this explanation would require the Supreme Court to have ‘a naïveté from which ordinary citizens are free.’ Isn’t that a great line?” he asked, then saying it again like a chief justice: “‘A naïveté from which ordinary citizens are free.’”

Kate froze. Naïveté. As in Project Naïveté. Noah’s voice was suddenly in her head—his insistence that she “read the whole opinion,” that she “readevery word.”

“Yeah,” said Kate. “That is one great line.”

Chapter 25

Kate found her father in his office. He was on the phone or, more precisely, speaking into his hands-free headset while pacing from end to end of a museum-quality Sarouk rug that stretched the length of his enormous corner office. He motioned for Kate to take a seat, and she did.

“Be with you in one sec,” he told her, and then he resumed his conversation on the headset.

Kate could wait “one sec,” or perhaps even a minute. Beyond that, she wasn’t sure. Technically, her visit wasn’t urgent. Noah had given her until 8:00 a.m. to decide whether to meet with him again about Project Naïveté. She wasn’t sure she would go back to see Noah. The only thing for certain was that she needed to talk to her father.

He stopped, looked in Kate’s direction, and said, “Maybe you should come back in five.”

Kate leveled her gaze and slowly shook her head, which seemed to catch her father off guard. He wrapped up the call, removed the headset, and took a seat in the armchair facing her.

“I didn’t realize it was important. What’s up?”

“Project Naïveté. I know it’s real, so don’t lie to me again.”

He paused, absorbing the blow. “I’m sorry I was less than truthful. But—”

“Please don’t say it was for my own good.”

He started again. “I was going to say: but I hope you didn’t figure this out by going beyond your security clearance.”

“Is that really your response? You’re turning it around, as ifIwas the one who did something wrong.”

“I’m very sorry I misled you. But as CEO of Buck, I need to know if you breached.”

“I didn’t breach anything. I heard it from the United States of America.”

He didn’t immediately take her meaning. “You mean Noah? He told you about Project Naïveté?”

---