deep beneath the west wing of the white house , in a spacious room made of steel-reinforced concrete eight feet thick , the president of the united states was in a high-level security meeting with secretary of defense halliday ; dci veronica hart ; jon mueller , head of the department of homeland security ; and jaime hernandez , the new intelligence czar , who had taken over the nsa in the wake of the illegal waterboarding scandal that brought down his predecessor .