Bartlet climbs into the Presidential limo, and picks up the cell phone to get the skinny from Leo: "Intel says Taiwan is getting ready to test-fire three Patriots...in a base in an island in the Pingdong region." After about two minutes of trading "Pingdong" jokes -- including Leo's retelling of catching "Pingdong" in Vietnam -- POTUS gets back to business, asking, "What's China's reaction?" "An acceleration of integrated military exercises," says Leo. "Big?" "Yeah." "How big?" "Unprecedented." Leo asks, "Should we tell Taiwan not to test the missiles?" The President replies, "No. I mean, we could try, but they're not going to go for it. What are they asking for?" Leo explains, "They want us to put some hardware in the Taiwan Strait." POTUS asks, "Tonight?" Leo answers in the affirmative. POTUS continues, "I'm assuming Nancy, Fitzwallace, and the Chiefs..." "Everyone concurs, Mr. President," Leo says preemptively. Bartlet wants to know whether Leo feels the same. Leo does. "We have a pretty good sense of the worst-case scenario?" asks the President. "We end up sending the largest U.S. naval armada to southeast Asia since the end of Vietnam...plus a raging case of Pingdong," explains Leo. The President takes a moment, then says, "That sounds right...All right, we know the play." "We're going to assemble in the [Situation] Room," declares Leo. "She gave me these beautiful chess sets," says Bartlet. "The Prime Minister?" asks Leo. Heaven forbid we lose sight of The Lazy Metaphor for a minute. Getting back to non-chess-related business, POTUS informs Leo to "let Fitzwallace know [POTUS is] going to send the Seventh Fleet into the Taiwan Strait." "Yes, sir," says Leo. POTUS glances to his driver and orders, "Let's go."