At the same time, two o'clock in the afternoon in Washington D.C.
In the president's office within the West Wing of the White House, Obama was sitting behind the renowned Resolute Desk, looking at the document in his hand.
Sunlight streamed in through the tall windows, casting a golden patch on the carpet, which moved slowly with time, like some kind of silent timepiece.
Portraits of past presidents hung on the wall, from Washington to Lincoln, each pair of eyes seemed to be watching everything happening in the room.
The clock on the mantelpiece ticked steadily, its hands moving neither fast nor slow; everything was calm, solemn, fitting for a power center.
But Obama knew that this calm was only a facade.
Just like the document in his hand, which ostensibly was a brief on a routine murder case in Zurich, yet actually entangled with far too many things that couldn't be exposed.
He turned to the second page of the document, which contained a blurry surveillance image.
