- Jul 12, 2018
- 9,824
Secret
At approximately 4:00 A.M. in Washington D.C., Benjamin Sinclair was sitting in his private study in the White House Residence. He was wearing a faded, dark blue sweatshirt that had the gold logo of the United States Lighthouse Service on it. He quietly puffed on his pipe and then picked up the secure line on his desk which connected him to the White House operator, who was also on a secure line.
"Mister President, this is the White House operator. How may I direct your call, sir?" she asked.
"Connect me to the State Department, please."
"Right away, Mister President."
The phone rang a few times, and a senior State Department official who was on duty at the time answered the phone. He didn't know who it was, only that it was a senior government official calling.
"State Department, Secretary of State's Office. How can I direct your call?" the man from the State Department said.
"Can you connect me to the Prime Minister of Sweden?" Sinclair asked.
"To whom am I speaking?" the man asked.
"This is the President. Can you connect me to the Prime Minister of Sweden?"
"The President of what?"
"Son, this is President Sinclair. Now connect me to the God-damned Prime Minister of Sweden - I'm not going to ask again."
Within a few minutes, President Sinclair's call on a secure line was wired over to the office of the Prime Minister of Sweden. While the call would normally come directly from the White House to Stockholm, where a representative from the White House would ask a representative from the Prime Minister's Office if the President could be connected, this time a tired and somewhat confused representative from the State Department performed that task. If the Prime Minister was available to talk, and if he was on a secure line, the President's phone line would be connected to him. It would have been approximately 10:00 A.M. in Stockholm.
When he heard the click of the line being connected, he said, "Hello? This is President Sinclair."
Connor
