Director VanRoekel?

As I was checking for the president’s latest executive order establishing the U.S. Ignite program this morning, I happened upon a series of under-reported May orders establishing formal lines of succession in federal agencies.

Curious how the federal tech shop fared, I dug into the Office of Management and Budget order where I found the federal chief information officer is 13th in line for the directorship. That means he can take the reins if everyone before him has “died, resigned, or otherwise become unable to perform the functions and duties of the office of director.”

It reminded me of a thriller an old friend of mine once planned to write. She was going to call it “Madame Secretary.” It was going to be about a bookish Education Secretary who is suddenly catapulted to the presidency after a terrorist attack during the State of the Union address.

My novel won’t sell as well, but here goes:

Let’s say Federal CIO and former Microsoft executive Steven VanRoekel is visiting old friends in Seattle when a careless NIH researcher in Bethesda tips over a vial of a deadly new virus strain. The entire East Coast is soon taken over by flesh-eating zombies marching, arms-outstretched, to the heartland. The remnants of the executive branch develop a plan to combat them through a West Coast government in exile with the fearless VanRoekel managing their finances and making sure they don’t rack up too much debt during the first year of the zombie wars.

Do I hear Hollywood calling?