The samizdat reaches the President — who has to be restrained from watching it

pivotal · apprised after late spring YDAU; narrated Early Nov YDAU

• When: Gentle is briefed on the lethal Entertainment only after the Boston attaché incident "late last spring" (YDAU); the narration sits in Tine's Early Nov YDAU chapter
• What: The era's characteristic threat finally reaches its chief executive: "J. Gentle had been apprised about the thing only after it had popped up and taken out a diplomatically immune Near Eastern medical attaché and a dozen incidentals here in Boston MA late last spring" — the kept-in-the-dark construction itself telling (his own intelligence chief's chapter notes drily that "President Gentle has no N.S.A. as such"; Unspecified Services is what he has). Gentle's one recorded personal response is perfectly in character for the Entertainment's world: "The strongest possible language had been necessary to restrain a certain Famous Crooner from attempting a personal review of the thing's qualities." The manhunt itself is Tine's (dispatched to metro Boston to substantiate the cartridge); the President's role is to be shielded from the era's own product — and to want to watch.