The sirens were finally quiet. There were no other

The sirens were finally quiet.

There were no other people around and the cops who remained at their posts had at least turned off their flashing lights; you could almost pretend they were just the usual cars parked along the sidewalks. It seemed like a holiday: empty but not in a threatening way.

The next morning things were different. On my corner, not 20 feet from the door to my building, there was a camouflage Hummer hulking at the curb. In the street was a large man also in camouflage with the black MP armband and the black beret. The military police had arrived overnight.

I was allowed to walk through Lafayette Park as I usually do on my way to work but there were more police there than I have ever seen: I walked within reach of about 20. On the roof of the White House there were men with enormous binoculars and guns scanning the sky.

There were a dozen police cars just around the park; there was a cop every 10 yards along the fence surrounding the White House. There were pairs of them on each corner that did not have a military presence; there were more of them walking along each block.

And today I had to start checking on people. My fingers shook as I dialed a friend whose brother worked in the Morgan Stanley offices in the World Trade Center. She answered the phone. All I could do was quietly tell her who. jt was.

Sfil» “answered without being asked, “He’s in Hong Kong on business.” I nearly cried with relief.

In the following days, DC didn’t get better. No one came to work. The town was desolate. A third of the people who usually fill the streets dared enter the city. It would have felt like a ghost town if it weren’t for the flood of police and military. The yellow tape lined every street.

To get into the park you had to show ID proving you worked at the State Department. The rest of us