SHALL WE HAVE SOME TEA?

The Speaker, now next in line, strikes a match on the side of the iron stove. She inserts the flame under the carefully prepared layers of kindling and seasoned oak. As the fire springs to life, she spreads open her coat to absorb its warmth.
Then she notices the quivering spider web, a corner attached to the stove, where its host is inching away from the heat. Out loud, the Speaker asks the creature, “Do you know if Kamala made it out of town?” When the spider does not reply, she sighs, and opens the backpack she was given before the evacuation. She extracts the radio, and turns the dial from end to end, seeking any station still broadcasting. There is nothing but static.
The pack also contains a Beretta M9. An agent had shown her how to rack it by jamming the front sight against a tabletop, and forcing the slide back by pushing down on the gun with all her weight. Struggling with the technique, she apologized to the agent: “I’m sorry, sir, the only weight on me is in my boobs.”

He replied, “Then you need to use them both, Madame Speaker. Keep trying. Your life may depend on this.”
It is a tricky maneuver that would be even more difficult if she were threatened, so she goes ahead and chambers a round, with nothing but the spider to spoil her concentration. Soon they will come searching for the copter that did not return. They will find it with the assassin who had been planted among her security guards--all of them lying together in the clearing, after the shoot-out she has narrowly escaped.
Among the other contents of the pack--two changes of underwear, a bar of soap, and a dozen MRE’s--is the code to launch a nuclear attack. That, and a carton of tea bags.
Very likely, it will be only a short time before she is President of the former United States. Unless, of course, they have already gotten to Harris. She removes the launch code from the pack and shoves it into the stove.
Across the room she notices a five gallon carboy on a dispensing stand. Over it is a shelf with dishes, mugs, and some cookware. She selects a small saucepan, fills it with water, and places it on the stove. Then, turning back to the spider, the Speaker asks it, “Well now, shall we have some tea?”