“The president will see you now,” his secretary said simultaneously with the aide's statement, “Wait a moment, Katie."She turned to stare at him. Keep the president waiting? But his face told. For a moment vertigo nearly took her, a swooping blackness, but only for a moment. She said quietly to the aide, “Another one?""Two more. Possibly three."Dear God."Ma'am,” chided the secretary, “the president is ready."She straightened her aging back, thought a quick prayer, and went to brief the commander-in-chief. No, not really to brief—to plead, with the war-battered United States government, for compassion in the face of the unthinkable.* * * *In the beginning, Li remembered, there had been big faceless people, white as cartoons. These memories were quick and slippery, like dreams. The other children didn't have them at all. Since that time, there had been only the real cartoons, the world, and Taney.He had realized a long time ago that Taney was a person inside a white cartoon covering, and that he himself was a person inside the world, another covering.
