enters. baird, 60s, is the white house chief of staff. his assistant stays in the b.g. as baird walks in.
so, do i wake the president?
"united states air force .  regrets to announce .  c-130 heavy-lift cargo plane .  down over the utah desert .  status of crew not determined at this time .  yadda yadda .  nice bullshit, rick. baird hands it to rick, who starts for the door.
giles ?
the truth? how the hell did you get this job? a few chuckles in the room. baird looks at the chairman -- well? the chairman thinks for a second, nods. baird turns to rick.
rewrite it. what giles just said. rick grits his teeth and hurries out. baird looks at giles.
i want you in utah. now. giles nods, heads out. baird grabs his arm.
you scare me sometimes.
broken arrow?
oh, jesus. i don't know what's scarier -- losing nuclear weapons or the fact that it happens so often that you people have a term for it.
they dropped from a plane but they didn't go off?
then they're destroyed?
how did this happen?
hell, we should take the cost of the plane out of major hale's salary. although i guess at two billion dollars a pop, that could take a while.
no rhetorical questions, giles. spit it out.
why would he do that?
hold on, hold on. these nukes have codes or something that prevent people from using them.
no one has these codes -- outside of the president and you guys.
i mean, not even the pilots have these codes, right?
what's --?
how'd that happen?
what do we do now?
yes, sir. creeley's phone rings. he answers it.
(covers phone; to
good god.