The President looked away.

“I’d love to believe that.” he said, dismissively. “But I don’t,” he added, taking a moment’s visual refuge in the rose garden.

“It’s the truth, sir.”

“Alright then, forget the past,” the President said, impatiently. “Tell me what’s happening now with you and your Committee?”

The Chairman began confidently –

“We’re just sitting back in very much a wait and…”

“In particular,” the President interrupted. “Tell me what you know about Shard.”

“Well,” the Chairman said, shuffling in his seat, “you’re right, he’s the problem.”

“Why is that?”

“He’s pushing a fantasy that would see him committed if he lived in the West! It’s pure megalomania! That’s why we took it so seriously.”

“Really?” the President pressed, sarcastically.

“Shard is an old man trying to sell a religious delusion. The Committee took one look at it, decided it was extremely dangerous and considered it necessary to quietly abort it as soon as possible.”

“Abort it?”

“We consider the whole notion of renunciation far too dangerous to ever allow out of the box. Sir, an idea like this could not only bring down the financial system, it could even ignite a religious war. It’s something we thought best to shut down immediately.”

“I see, so… you didn’t want this idea to get out into the marketplace.”

“That’s right – we wanted to contain it.”

“How very noble of you,” the President murmured to himself.

“And we thought it best to leave you out of it. Our main objective was to save you from ever having to deal with an idea as intolerable as this!”