“Excuse me.” And he felt light hand pressure through the jacket, on his service automatic.
“You know who I am,” he said without turning.
“Oh! I do now.” And then O’Day recognized the voice. He turned to see Andrea Price.
“Demoted?” He stood to look her in the face. The two female agents mingled with the kids were also watching him closely, alerted by the bulge under the leather jacket.
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Not bad, O’Day thought. They’d had to look closely; the bulk of the leather was good concealment. Both had their gun hands off whatever educational task they’d been performing, and the looks in their eyes would appear casual only to the unschooled.
“Sweep. Checking out arrangements for all the kids,” she explained.
“This is Katie,” Megan said, introducing her new friend. “And that’s my daddy.”
“Well, hello, Katie.” He bent down again to shake her hand, then stood again. “Is she . . . ?”
“SANDBOX, First Toddler of the United States,” Price confirmed.
“And one across the street?” Business first.
“Two, relays.”
“She looks like her mom,” Pat said of Katie Ryan. And just to be polite he pulled out his official ID and tossed it to the nearest female agent, Marcella Hilton.
“You want to be a little careful testing us, okay?” Price asked.
“Your man at the door knew who I was coming in. He looks like he’s been around the block.”
“Don Russell, and he has, but–”
“But ain’t no such thing as ‘too careful,’ ” Inspector O’Day agreed. “Yeah, okay, I admit it, I wanted to see how careful you were. Hey, my little girl’s here, too. I guess this place is a target now.” Damn, he didn’t say aloud.
“So do we pass?”
“One across the street, three I can see here. I bet you have three more camped out within a hundred yards, want me to look for the Suburban and the long guns?”
“Look hard. We’ve got them well concealed.” She didn’t mention the one in the building he hadn’t spotted.
“I bet you do, Agent Price,” O’Day agreed, catching the clue and looking around some more. There were two disguised TV cameras that must have gone in recently. That also explained the faint smell of paint, which in turn explained the lack of little hand-prints on the walls. The building was probably wired like a pinball machine. “I
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must admit, you guys are pretty smooth. Good,” he concluded.
“Anything new on the crash?”
Pat shook his head. “Not really. We went over some additional interviews at WFO today. The only inconsistencies are too minor to count for much of anything. The Mounties are doing a hell of a job for us, by the way. So are the Japs. I think they’ve talked to everybody from Sato’s kindergarten teacher on up. They even turned two stewardesses he was playing with on the side. This one’s in the bag, Price.”
“Andrea,” she replied.
“Pat.” And they both smiled.
“What do you carry?”
“Smith 1076. Better than that 9mm mouse gun you guys pack.” This was delivered with a somewhat superior attitude. O’Day believed in making big holes, to date only in targets, but in people if necessary. The Secret Service had its own weapons policy, and in that area he was sure the Bureau had better ideas. She didn’t bite.
“Do us a favor? Next time you come in, show your ID to the agent out front. Might not always be the same one.” She didn’t even ask him to leave it in his truck. Damn, there was professional courtesy. ‘
“So, how’s he doing?”
“SWORDSMAN?”
“Dan–Director Murray–thinks the world of him. They go back a ways. So do Dan and I.”
“Tough job, but you know–Murray’s right. I’ve met worse men. He’s smarter than he lets on, too.”
“The times I’ve been around him, he listens well.”
“Better than that, he asks questions.” They both turned when a kid yelled, swept the room at the same time and in the same way, then turned back to the two little girls, who were sharing crayons for their respective works of art. “Yours and ours seem to get along.”
Ours, Pat thought. That said it all. The big old bruiser at the door, Russell, she’d said. He’d be the chief of the sub-detail, and sure as hell that was one experienced agent. They’d have selected younger ones, both women, for in-
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side work, the better to blend in. They’d be good, but not as good as he was. Ours was the key word, though. Like lions around their cubs, or just one cub in this case. O’Day wondered how he’d handle this job. It would be boring, just standing post like that, but you couldn’t allow yourself to get bored. That would be a fight. He’d done his share of “discreet surveillance” assignments, quite a feat for one of his size, but this would be far worse. Even so, a cop’s eye saw the difference between them and the other preschool teachers in the room.
“Andrea, looks to me like your people know their job. Why so many?”
“I know we have this one overmanned.” Price tilted her head. “We’re still figuring this one out. Hey, we took a big hit on the Hill, y’know? Ain’t gonna be any more, not on my watch, not while I run the Detail, and if the press makes noise about it, fuck ’em.” She even talked like a real cop.
“Ma’am, that’s just fine with me. Well, with your permission, I have to go home and make cheese and macaronis.” He looked down. Megan was about finished with her masterpiece. The two little girls were difficult to tell apart, at least for the casual observer. That was distantly worrisome, but that was also the reason the Service was here.
“Where do you practice?” He didn’t have to say practice what.
“There’s a range in the old Post Office building, convenient to the White House. Every week,” she told him. “There’s not an agent here who’s short of’expert,’ and I’ll put Don up against anybody in the world.”
“Really.” O’Day’s eyes sparkled. “One day we’ll have to see.”
“Your place or mine?” Price asked, with a twinkle of her own.
“MR. PRESIDENT, Mr. Golovko on three.” That was the direct line. Sergey Nikolayevich was showing off again.
Jack pushed the button. “Yes, Sergey?”
“Iran.”
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“I know,” the President said.
“How much?” the Russian asked, his bags already packed to go home.
“We’ll know in ten days or so for sure.”
“Agreed. I offer cooperation.”
This was getting to be habit forming, Jack thought, but it was always something to think over first. “I will discuss that with Ed Foley. When will you be back home?”
“Tomorrow.”
“Call me then.” Amazing that he could speak so efficiently with a former enemy. He’d have to get Congress trained that way, the President thought with a smile. Ryan stood from his desk and headed into the secretaries’ room. “How about some munchies before my next appointment–”
“Hello, Mr. President,” Price said. “Have a minute?”
Ryan waved her in while his number-two secretary called the mess. “Yes?”
“Just wanted to tell you, I looked over the security arrangements for your children. It’s pretty tight.” If this was supposed to please POTUS, he didn’t show it, Andrea thought. But that was understandable. Hey, we have enough bodyguards on your children. What a world it was. Two minutes later, she was talking with Raman, who was ready to head off duty, having arrived in the White House at 5:00 A.M. There was, as usual, nothing to report. It had been a quiet day in the House.
The younger agent walked out to his car and drove off the compound, first showing his pass to the gate guards and waiting for the fortified gate to open–a nine-inch-square post held the leaves in place, and looked strong enough to stop a dump truck. From there he made his way through the concrete barricades on Pennsylvania Avenue–which until fairly recently had been a public street. He turned west and headed toward Georgetown, where he had a loft apartment, but this time he didn’t go all the way home. Instead he turned onto Wisconsin Avenue, then right again to park.
It was vaguely amusing that the man should be a rug merchant. So many Americans thought that Iranians became either terrorists, rug merchants, or impolite physi-
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cians. This one had left Persia–but most Americans didn’t connect Persian rugs with Iran, as though they were two distinct nations–more than fifteen years before. On his wall was a photograph of his son who, he told those who asked, had been killed in the Iran-Iraq war. That was quite true. He also told those who expressed interest that he hated the government of his former country. That was not true. He was a sleeper agent. He’d never had a single contact with anyone even connected at third hand with Tehran. Maybe he’d been checked out. More likely he had not. He belonged to no association, didn’t march, speak out, or otherwise do anything but conduct a prosperous business–like Raman, he didn’t even attend a mosque. He had, in fact, never met Raman, and so when the man walked in the front door, his interest only concerned which of his wide selection of handmade rugs the man might want. Instead, after determining that there was no one else in the shop at the moment, his visitor went directly to the counter.