The scene--the living room of the Average Mospheiran apartment. Miss Mospheiran and Angie sit on the couch. In front of them on the low table is a pot of tea and two cups. Enter Mrs. Mospheiran from the hallway.

Mrs. Mospheiran: "I have a meeting to go to. You girls be good--there’s supper in the fridge, just warm it up when you’re hungry."

Miss Mospheiran: "Thanks, Mom. You’re the greatest."

Mrs. Mospheiran: "Oh, I almost forgot. A very serious looking man in a black suit delivered this letter for you this morning."

Mrs. Mospheiran hands Miss Mospheiran an envelope.

Mrs. Mospheiran: "I’ll be back tonight. Bye!"

Miss Mospheiran: "Bye Mom!"

Angie: "Bye, Mrs. Mospheiran!"

Exit Mrs. Mospheiran through the front door. Miss Mospheiran examines the envelope closely. Then she opens it, and reads the letter.

Angie: "Well, what does it say?"

Miss Mospheiran: "It says, "At three o’clock this afternoon a person who has great need of your special talents will take the liberty of visiting you. Recent actions on your part demonstrate that you can be trusted to be both effective and discreet in dealing with matters of extreme importance. Please make yourself available at that time, and do not take offense at the necessary mysteriousness of this visit." It isn’t signed."

Angie: "Wow. That is so cool. It’s three o’clock now."

We hear a knock on the front door.

Miss Mospheiran: "Come in, Mr. President."

A moment of silence. Then another knock. Miss Mospheiran sighs.

Miss Mospheiran: "Come in, mysterious visitor. Oh, I do so wonder who you can be."

Enter President Tyers.

President Tyers: "This isn’t a game, you know. I’m here to discuss a matter of international importance."

Miss Mospheiran: "Well, since you wrote on presidential letterhead, and the return address on the envelope says "President Shawn Tyers," I didn’t think it could be such a big secret. And by the way, that mask is so totally lame I can’t even tell you."

President Tyers removes the mask and throws it down on the floor.

President Tyers: "I can’t even begin to tell you how dangerous this situation is. It is of the utmost importance that it be resolved, and of the utmost importance that no one knows about it."

Miss Mospheiran: "Well, I can hardly help you if you don’t tell me what the problem is, can I?"

President Tyers: "I can’t sufficiently stress the importance of discretion."

Miss Mospheiran: "If you’re talking about Angie, she’s my best friend, and you can trust her just as much as you can trust me. Now, have a seat and I’ll get you a cup, or leave."

Angie: "Missy! This is the President!"

Miss Mospheiran: "And if he wants me to help him, he’s going to have to sit down and tell us what the deal is."

President Tyers: (sits down) "You’re right. And I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to insult your friend. But I’m not joking when I tell you this matter is--"

Miss Mospheiran: "--of the utmost importance. Yes. Hold that thought."

Miss Mospheiran gets up and goes into the kitchen, and returns with another teacup. She pours and hands it to the president.

Miss Mospheiran: "Now. What’s your problem?"

President Tyers: "I’ve lost something. Something of--"

Miss Mospheiran: "--of great international importance. Yes. We’ve heard. What was it?"

President Tyers: "It’s a letter."

Silence for a few moments.

Miss Mospheiran: "That’s not a lot to go on. What sort of letter was this? Besides an important one, I mean? Who was it from? Who was it to? What was it about?"

President Tyers: "I can’t tell you any of those things--they’re highly classified."

Miss Mospheiran: "So you want me to find a letter, we don’t know who from or who to, what it was about or what it looked like."

President Tyers: "Okay, okay. It was addressed to me. It was in a scroll case, sealed with wax."

Miss Mospheiran: "And the subject?"

President Tyers: "It was a discussion of recent trade agreements."

Miss Mospheiran: "Mr. President, if you don’t tell me the truth, I can’t possibly help you. Angie, let’s go to the mall."

President Tyers: "What makes you think I’m not telling the truth?"

Miss Mospheiran: "Any discussion of trade agreements would go through the paidhi, or come from him through one of our representatives on the station, I imagine. Why would the paidhi send you a scroll case? I guess the aiji might, but he wouldn’t write directly to you about trade agreements, he’d write through the paidhi, wouldn’t he? I imagine anything the aiji sent directly to you would be pretty much a formality, greetings or whatever. Am I right?"

President Tyers: (sighs) "It was a recipe for green sauce."

Angie: "The aiji sent you a recipe for green sauce?"

President Tyers: "No. It was from one of the paidhi’s Bu-javid staff. You see, my wife is entering the Harbor Foods Bakeoff next month, and she thought if she could see how the paidhi’s cook made green sauce, she could adapt the recipe for her entry. She just wanted to know how real, authentic Shejidan-style green sauce was made."

Miss Mospheiran: "So the actual importance of this letter is that you--excuse me, I mean your wife--could be disqualified from the Harbor Foods Bakeoff."

President Tyers: "She’d never be able to compete again! And the scandal--there are a few papers out there that would be thrilled to find any hint that I’d used my presidential privilege to cheat at the Harbor Foods Bakeoff. Or that the paidhi’s staff had helped me."

Miss Mospheiran: "So what happened?"

President Tyers: "When I got the letter, of course I wanted to keep it secure. I put it in my briefcase, which never leaves my side while I’m at work, and at home it’s locked in a safe in my office. When I got home, I put the letter, still inside the briefcase, into the safe and locked it. Then my wife and I went out to dinner, came home, and went to bed. When I got up the next morning, the letter wasn’t in my briefcase."

Miss Mospheiran: "Just like that? It wasn’t there? The safe was still locked?"

President Tyers: "Yes, it was."

Miss Mospheiran: "You looked through the whole briefcase--it hadn’t fallen behind something, or gotten stuck somewhere?"

President Tyers: "I emptied it out and went through everything. It wasn’t there."

Miss Mospheiran: "Did anyone else know about the letter?"

President Tyers: "Apart from the agent who delivered it, no. Not even my wife."

Miss Mospheiran: "Not even your wife? But wasn’t it for her?"

President Tyers: "I wanted to surprise her with it."

Miss Mospheiran: "Does anybody else know the combination?"

President Tyers: "Absolutely no one else."

Miss Mospheiran: "Right. Okay. Give me a little time to work on it. I’ll let you know what I find."

President Tyers: "Please, this is--"

Miss Mospheiran: "A matter of extreme importance and urgency. I know. You can count on me. If it can be found, I’ll find it, and I won’t tell a soul. Neither will Angie. Will you, Angie?"

Angie: "Not a soul."

President Tyers: "Thank you."

Miss Mospheiran: "No, thank you."

Exit President Tyers through the front door.

Miss Mospheiran: "Well, that was interesting. Let’s go to the mall."

Angie: "Cool!"