"Hey, Donna, you want—" CJ frowned. "What are you doing?"

"Snood," Donna answered. She was no longer bothering to hide the game, probably because she knew her boss was in his office doing the same thing. After Josh had commandeered her desk, determined to beat her high score, Donna had gone on his computer and downloaded another version. Half an hour later, when Josh had come into his office crowing over his victory, Donna had been more than happy to inform him he had a new set of high scores to beat. While Josh was busy with that, Donna had started to explore the Puzzle levels.

CJ was still frowning over Donna's shoulder. "What's—"

"Game," Donna preemptively answered.

"Oh." CJ watched, mesmerized, as Donna struggled, her Snoods near the bottom of the screen. After a few shots, the Snoods moved down and she lost.

"Damn," she yelled, hitting the keyboard a little too hard to enter her score. She then remembered CJ behind her. "Oh, I'm sorry," she said, turning.

"No…this is certainly better than how I've been killing time between briefings."

"Yeah, it's really slow here today, isn't it?"

"Congress isn't in session, the President's at Camp David…"

"When's he getting back?"

"Sometime tonight. By tomorrow things will be hectic again." Donna started a new game. She'd played the first level many times by then, and barely had to think about what she was doing. "Where'd you find this?" CJ asked.

"My cousin." Donna continued playing, and they sat in silence for a while, Donna playing and CJ watching. "So, what's up?" Donna asked when she finished the first level.

"Oh, right," CJ said. "Lunch. You wanna share Chinese?"

"Sesame Chicken?"

"And some Lo Mien."

"Sounds good."

"You think Josh wants anything?"

Without missing a beat of the game, Donna picked up her phone and dialed Josh.

"Yeah?"

"Want Chinese?"

"No. Have food."

"'Kay." She hung up. "He has food."

"Okay." CJ pointed to the screen. "Go there."

"Ooh, yeah, that's a good shot." Donna completed the shot and finished the level. "You're picking this up much quicker than Josh."

"I'm quicker than Josh in most situations." They focused on the game for a few moments before CJ asked, "Josh is playing too?"

"Yeah, he's trying to beat me."

CJ smiled. She watched a little bit longer, then remembered her purpose. "So, anyway, I'll call over when the food gets here?"

"Yeah, good," Donna nodded.

"Okay," CJ said, starting to walk away. "And Donna? Bring the Snood."

"How the hell do you do this?" CJ exclaimed.

"This is worse than that other one," Donna frowned. Just moments ago they had been elated. Having finally figured out level eight, and level nine being fairly simple, they had reached level ten, farther than they'd ever gotten before. Unfortunately, it was absolutely impossible. Donna stabbed her fork into the mostly full container of Lo Mien. "You want any more of this?" she asked.

"No, I'm done," CJ said, focused on the game, her nose practically touching the screen as she looked for a solution.

"You keep working on it, I'm gonna bring this to Josh."

"I thought he had food."

"Yes, but he probably hasn't moved from his computer to get it. Plus I want to see if he's beaten my score yet."

"Okay. Mock him for the both of us."

"Don't worry, I will."

Donna walked over to his office and confirmed her suspicions. Josh hadn't moved from his desk. He was concentrating so much that he didn't even notice her come in. "Eat this," she said, dropping the container on his desk.

"Ah!" Josh jumped, startled. "Scared the hell out of me, Donna."

"Sorry," she said, sounding nothing of the sort. "How's it going?"

"Wonderfully," he smirked.

"You beat my score?"

"No. I stopped playing Easy, I moved on to the puzzles."

"Me too." He was still smirking. She took the bait. "Is it going well for you?"

"It started off slow, but I am great at these puzzles."

"Have you gotten past them all?"

His smirk dropped a little. "No, I'm a little stuck. But it's okay, 'cause it's really impossible, and there's no way anyone can beat it."

Donna nodded understandingly. "Level ten."

Josh's smirk completely disappeared. "No, eight. You got to ten?" Donna nodded with a smile. "No," he said. "You're making this up."

"I absolutely am not."

"There's no way you beat this level!" He yelled, standing up and gesturing to the screen. "It's…I don't believe you."

"All right," she shrugged. "I'm gonna be in CJ's—"

"Wait!" He stopped her on the way out. "Prove it to me. Beat it."

She sat in his chair, pausing before she started. "You care to make a bet?"

"No. I don't want to take your money. That is how confident I am that you will not get past this entirely impossible—" Donna shot three Snoods, leaned back in Josh's chair and wished she had a camera.

Josh was sputtering. She had heard of people being so dumbfounded they couldn't form words, but this was the first time she had experienced it. It was quite amusing. She stood and patted Josh's head on the way out. "I'm sure you'd have gotten it eventually."

They were still on level ten. It had been almost an hour, and they couldn't get past the damn level. Just as they lost again, an intern appeared in CJ's doorway.

"Donna? I think Josh is yelling for you."

Donna walked over and stuck her head into the hallway.

"DONNA!"

"Yeah. That's Josh."

"I should probably start getting ready for the briefing anyway," CJ said.

"Okay. I'll keep trying from my computer." Donna left and walked calmly through the halls, hearing Josh call for her a couple more times before she reached him. "What?" she glared from his doorway.

"Where were you? You weren't at your desk, 'cause I've been calling you."

"If you knew I wasn't at my desk, why did you keep yelling?" Josh was unable to answer. Donna rolled her eyes. "I was in CJ's office."

"What were you doing there?"

"We were playing Snood."

"Oh, good. More people in on the conspiracy."

Donna frowned at him. "What are you talking about?"

"You stole this!"

"What?" she groaned.

"Snood. You didn't tell me I was stealing anything!"

"You're not. It's free."

"Nun-uh." He pointed to the screen as Donna suppressed a giggle. "This thing is asking me to register."

"Oh, that. Don't worry about that, it's nothing."

"It's not nothing! It says it cost $14.95. I didn't pay $14.95. You hacked into some…thing and stole the game!"

"I didn't steal anything! This is a trial version. A demo. After you play awhile it starts asking you to register and get the complete version. But the demo's free."

"But now we need to pay for it."

"No. You can keep playing the demo."

"But that would be stealing!"

"It really wouldn't," Donna sighed. "In the demo you get unlimited Child and Easy, and one hundred games of the other levels. Have you played any other levels?"

"I tried Medium…"

"That's what I thought. You also get the first fifteen Puzzle levels. Since we can't get past level ten—"

"'The first fifteen'? How many of these are there?"

"In the complete version, fifty."

"And we can't get past ten?"

"Exactly. Now, the only other thing you get when you register is use of the Aimer, and since we know how you feel about that, there's no reason to register."

Josh pouted. "But…but…Dave's kids need clothes. And Dave's kids need food."

"Well, then, Dave should stop trying to make a quick buck and get a real job."

"Donna!" His mouth hung open. "How can you say that about Dave?"

"You don't even know him!"

"He invented this game, and for that he is surely an artist who needs our support."

"Okay. Feel free to register."

"I will."

"It'll be fun to explain at financial disclosure time."

Josh sat back in his chair. "Hmm. You have a point. Maybe I should hold off on the registering."

"At least until you can get past this level," Donna nodded.

"There must be some trick," he said, refocusing on the game. "If there are forty levels after this, we must be making it harder than it is."

"I don't know. It seems pretty complicated."

"That's what I thought about 8, and now it's easy."

"Yeah, but that was you. I can't get past 10 either."

Josh turned to her. "What are you insinuating, Donatella?"

"That I'm better at Snood than you."

"Oh, I don't think so!" He was quickly gearing up for a fight. "I would like to see you try to beat my high score."

"I'll do more than try." Donna was leaning on the edge of his desk, looking down at him. Their eyes met, and they slowly nodded.

"Game on?"

"Game on."