by Jason Letts
Jane didn’t see the president depart either, but she felt a little stranded when he did and she was left staring out the window of a nearby cafe from the corner table with Dedan and Royer, both of whom were absorbed in their phones.
While she was sure countless people were working tirelessly to untangle the mystery of what happened on Air Force One, there were no big revelations that afternoon, and to get back to Washington Jane had no choice but to suck up the discomfort and board another plane, this one hopefully devoid of any explosive devices that could send it crashing into the countryside.
Despite how late it was, Jane had to go back to the office for her car, but getting her keys from her office turned into a bigger deal than it should’ve been when Chief Vale stepped into the room while she was shutting off her computer. The grim look in his eyes amid the shadows of the darkened hall chilled Jane. He had a habit of working late and working himself to the bone, but the way he was out of sorts was something else entirely.
“I’m glad you’re alright, Jane,” he said, and she forced a smile.
“We had a scare. No doubt about it. But the FBI will find out who did it,” she said.
Vale tipped his head down at the floor.
“They will, but the FBI aren’t the only ones who are taking an interest in this,” he said.
“What do you mean?”
Vale gave a solemn sigh and stepped farther inside the office in order to close the door, not that anyone would be jaunting down the halls at this time of night to overhear them anyway. She noticed he had a letter folded up in his hand.
“I’m sorry to break the news to you, but you’re now under investigation by the Office of the Inspector General, who’ll be conducting a full audit of the Presidential Protective Division. Tomorrow morning you’ll be meeting with someone from that office to begin reviewing the procedures in place for the president’s detail to determine if they are sufficient or if they contributed to the near-miss that occurred earlier today.”
Jane stared with mouth agape. He didn’t need to spell it out for her that if the investigation didn’t go well she’d be tossed out on the street in disgrace. It had been a chaotic, long day, and she wasn’t thinking clearly. All that came to mind was what was already on her calendar.
“Tomorrow morning I’ve got a training ride…”
“Not anymore,” Vale said, doing her a favor by cutting her off. “This is going to take precedence over everything. Diwecki will be involved too, but I think we all understand that you’ve taken charge of the president’s detail and bear the responsibility for its performance.”
Gritting her teeth, Jane found more potent arguments coming to mind.
“But what happened today wasn’t a fault of the president’s detail, and certainly not a flaw in our staffing or management. The terminal at Joint Base Andrews is manned by the Transportation Security Administration. If it’s anyone’s fault, it’s theirs!”
Vale had a dejected look on his face, his eyes straying to the side where Jane had a vintage Secret Service poster on the wall from the sixties.
“You can tell them all about that, and I hope they believe it, but the fact of the matter is a bomb made it within fifty feet of the president on the same aircraft. And we didn’t catch it. I don’t know what they’re going to say or do, but the Inspector General’s Office will make a determination about where lapses occurred and then there will be consequences based on that.”
Jane looked at him, reading between the lines, and for once he looked right back at her.
“You’re saying that if they say I made a mistake you’re going to fire me,” she said. Her chest rose and fell with each breath like she was running a race. Vale pursed his lips but no longer shied away.
“The mission isn’t about any of us individually. If they think you’re responsible and we let you stay on, that would appear like an invitation for something worse to happen. I hired you because I believe in you, and I still do, but sometimes our time can be up just because of which way the wind blows. We’ll already never trust TSA again to handle screening for Air Force One, and making that change suggests that something was done incorrectly before.”
Nodding, Jane tried to stay strong, but for once she was looking down the barrel of a challenge that no amount of pluck or perseverance might overcome.
9
Catocin Mountain Park
Hauvers, MD
By the time Saturday morning rolled around and Jane was at the end of the loop road with her bike waiting for the president to arrive, she’d been through two of the most arduous days of her life. The agents from the Inspector General’s office were going through everything she’d ever done, every email she’d written, and even things in her personal life that seemed to have no relevance at all to the bomb brought onto Air Force One.
It was almost like she was under suspicion for making the bomb in the first place. The worst part was that it seemed like they wanted to find something she did that they could call a mistake so that they could place the blame on her and move on. If the way the Secret Service always did things turned out to be incorrect, there was a good chance she’d be held responsible.
The invasive investigation and the suddenly shaky grasp she had on her life after a traumatic event left her feeling naked and low, completely powerless.
Unlike the previous week, Alex Morrin arrived right on time and in a manner that was like night and day compared to before. Stepping out of the presidential limo in proper riding attire that stretched around his thick calves at the bottom and torso at the top, his smile and eager eyes were the only things shining brighter than the colors on his jersey.
Jane couldn’t help but smile admiringly. Being handsome was one thing, but on a crisp spring morning like today relishing the activity was worth just as much, and Alex prepared to ride like he was loving every second of it. If he could look like that mere days after a judge allowed his ex-wife to leave him, no matter what other awful things were going on in her life the least she could do was bring her A-game and spin her tires to the best of her ability.
“Just me and you today, Jane?” Alex asked, glancing at her out of the corner of his eye as he switched into his clipless pedal shoes.
“Dedan will be stationed on the route, sir. We will have the follow car,” she said. Alex shrugged.
“I wasn’t interested in a presidential peloton anyway. This’ll be more like the rides I used to take with a friend outside of Dayton,” he said, some of his enthusiasm dampened as mentioning his hometown seemed to strike a sour note.
“Yes, sir,” she said, the best practices of keeping conversation with a protectee brief and to the point pressing even harder against her now that she was the subject of an investigation. The president winced, looking at her full on with big brown eyes.
“Remember what we talked about last time? I know you’ve got a job to do, but you can call me Alex and actually say something back to me like we’re normal people. I’ve got enough yes men in my life and I don’t think it suits your personality,” he said, seated atop the bike with one hand on a handlebar.
Jane nodded, her mind getting lost in curiosity over what he thought he knew about her personality. It wasn’t like he’d ever run a road race with her and seen her guts showing on the final sprint, or how she was a sucker for cartoons and Sudoku and homemade tiramisu with a little too much rum in it. When Alex shook his head in dejection after she’d been absorbed in thought for a moment too long, she realized she’d made a mistake and was letting him down.
“We can talk all you want, but it’s not going to change how you’ll be eating my dust!” she said.
He grinned, clipping his shoe to the pedal and pushing off.
“Be careful you don’t eat your words!” he said, and she scrambled to get going so she didn’t have a slow start.
She knew she was making promises her legs couldn’t deliver on, and she quickly realized that without being hungover keeping up with him was going to be a chal
lenge. At least a few days off thanks to the trip and the investigation left her feeling fresh, and she pushed the pedals as they cruised along the wooded drive lined with flowering trees. As much as she didn’t mind the view, being stuck behind Alex the entire time wasn’t living up to the companionable rides he wanted to recreate. Jane raced even with him, trying to push him to go a little faster to keep up with her, even if it ended up costing her later when fatigue set in and he’d inevitably leave her behind.
The least she could do was have a little fun and enjoy the ride while she could. There wasn’t much reason to be concerned about being replaced by a professional rider if she wasn’t even likely to still have her job by next weekend.
Alex’s breathing deepened next to her, and his bike tottered as he pushed to catch up. They flew along the loop, Jane feeling the entire time like she was riding to get away from the injustice of the investigation and the need to find a scapegoat. She knew she’d done nothing wrong and wasn’t content to get thrown out because of TSA’s mistake. There was never a moment when the president wasn’t properly covered by his detail, even now.
Maybe if she rode fast enough she could make it all disappear.
Her zeal met its match as they took on the big hill at the back end of the loop. Alex had no trouble ascending at a controlled pace, but at the really steep points she ended up wobbling a little and zigzagging, all while struggling to keep herself from gasping for breath. She was sure that by the time she reached the top she’d be completely alone and her pretense of being able to ride with someone as experienced as Alex long gone, but from the peak he’d barely drifted forward a few yards.
“You didn’t have to wait up for me,” she said, knowing she was not in a good place if she was echoing Dedan’s words, but Alex didn’t look at all put off by breaking his pace for her.
“There’s no shame in switching down to a lower gear if it keeps you moving upward. Showing off with a big gear doesn’t do much good when you’re crawling at the top.”
“I didn’t know I was showing off,” she said, suddenly self-conscious.
“You ride angry,” he said, surprising her by saying more instead of just continuing on. “The way you mash the pedals. I’ve known that feeling, when you want to stomp your way through a ride.”
Jane blinked as she was confronted with another thing she wasn’t aware she was doing. Maybe he knew more about her than she thought.
“It’s been a tough week. I’m sure it’s nothing compared to what you’ve been through with the emergency landing. I hope you’re managing alright,” she said. He looked at her curiously while she wondered whether apologizing would’ve been appropriate or if it would’ve somehow gotten back to the Inspector General’s agents. She knew better than anyone how closely they were being watched and how people were listening in on every word that they said. She dared anyone on the detail to chastise her for expressing a little human sympathy after being on a plane where a bomb went off.
“Been better,” Alex said, shifting away from her and turning the pedals to move himself along. Jane lowered her eyes, realizing that now it was his turn to be terse and reserved. Of course he wasn’t doing great considering everything that had happened and everything on his shoulders, and it was ridiculous to think that she was entitled to hear about any of it. She was nothing to him and couldn’t fathom what was going on in his life. They were only near each other by complete happenstance.
As they continued on, the wind against her face and arms as she pushed her bike around the loop, Jane was surprised at what a big difference Alex’s tips made. She supposed subconsciously she’d often resisted going to lower gears out of the belief that they were a sign of weakness, but the next time up the hill she was going roughly the same pace she did before but without the crippling level of exertion.
That allowed her to attack the top of the hill and catch up to Alex on the back stretch without him needing to wait at all. When she pulled up alongside him, he glanced over at her and smiled. In a way it was exhilarating, wanting to do better and seeing her body respond with just a little more knowledge about how to do it. They cruised around a corner neck and neck, the springtime forest coming to life in new ways with each loop around. Robins this time and squirrels chasing each other that time.
But regardless of what gears she used, she found herself running out of steam in the last couple of laps. Even though her speed had to be dropping, she wasn’t ever that far behind Alex as she might’ve expected. If she didn’t know any better, she would’ve thought the president was aware that if he left her in the dust she’d end up getting replaced with someone else.
By the time they reached the end of the loop right around the two-hour mark, Jane’s entire body was tingling and the fatigue had gotten all the way down into her bones. Stiff and with her back aching, she awkwardly unclipped one of her shoes so that she could step onto the road, nearly falling in the process.
Alex looked like he was barely getting started. And unlike her, when he took his helmet off his dirty blond hair didn’t seem like a complete mess.
Jane squeezed the last drops out of the water bottle like she was in the middle of a desert. She watched the president prop his bike near a small unpainted wooden shed they’d been using to store them, wistfully thinking that in another minute she’d be hobbling off toward her car. Whatever else, at least she did a semi-decent job on the ride, even if they hadn’t been going nearly twenty-five miles an hour for most of it.
“Thanks for the ride,” she said, sensing when he turned in her direction he was about to say it to her. “And the tips.”
“You’re already a great rider and with a little more know-how I’d have trouble keeping up with you,” he said.
“Thanks,” Jane added as she set her bike in the shed so that Alex couldn’t see that she wasn’t fooled by his comment, which rung hollow. Despite the moment’s when she was feeling good, she wasn’t going to be setting any records on a bike. But they all lived through it, and that was what was important.
After taking a second to stretch her hamstring against the shed’s doorway, she was ready to give him the polite smile of a Secret Service agent before signing off. Dedan and Royer were already approaching through the woods in the distance, and the Beast was idling over on the road.
“So next weekend then,” he said. She didn’t look back at him.
“If I’m still here.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Jane’s eyes widened as she realized she’d blurted something out that was better kept in. At least in her current exhausted state she wasn’t making any sudden movements and could try to paper over it as she loped away.
“Nothing,” she said.
For a second she thought they’d concluded the conversation and her eyes drifted to the parking lot and her car down the ways, but the sounds of footsteps behind her made her stop. Alex was jogging to catch up to her, looking like he was ready to put in a triathlon after their two-hour ride.
“Hey, you’re not really leaving, are you? Back in school my riding club would always finish out Saturday morning rides with pancakes and waffles covered in maple syrup. They’re making it inside. Might as well be IHOP,” he said.
Jane had to admit she was taken aback at the offer, but she’d been working with the Secret Service more than long enough to know what the proper answer was.
“I really can’t, but I hope you enjoy them. It was a great ride on a beautiful morning,” she said.
About to turn away, she found that she couldn’t break his gaze as a furtive glance took to his face. He had one hand on his hip and was looking at her as if he couldn’t decide if she were real.
“There’s not a bone in your body that wants to come, is there? See, that’s what I’m talking about. I can’t tell you how refreshing it is to bump into someone who isn’t absurdly fawning.”
Jane squinted at him, gathering that the thing he felt he’d been talking about had to do with Leslie Hodge, the ye
s men, and the typical reactions he got from a lot of people, but she couldn’t quite be certain.
“I’m not sure I follow.”
“Who wouldn’t be hungry after a ride like that? Just come because you want something to eat, not because it has anything to do with me. You’re done working now that the ride is finished, right?” he said.
Crossing her arms over her stomach, she could see the boundaries between what he was asking and what her job expected very clearly. But for all she knew her job wouldn’t be relevant much longer, so maybe for once in her life she should actually do what she wanted, go with the handsome protectee who happened to also be the president of the United States. Except the only reason he was asking was because he thought it wasn’t what she wanted.
“Let me get this straight. If I agree to come, aren’t I just giving in to your wishes like everybody else?”
Alex snickered for a moment and scratched the back of his head.
“Maybe. I hadn’t thought that far through it, and maybe you shouldn’t think of it like that either. It doesn’t have to be about me or what I want. Just do it.”
“This is starting to sound a lot like a Nike commercial,” Jane said, but if the rules were that she should follow her own guiding star, that was something she could do. And as a matter of fact waffles and maple syrup did sound pretty good, especially if it had some sliced strawberries with it. All she had to do was waltz over to Camp David like it was a perfectly reasonable thing for someone like her, and as she did so she lightly brushed the side of her arm against Alex’s like he was slightly in her way.
“That’s what I’m talking about,” he said, though she had already moved on. This time the expression he couldn’t see on her face was a smile.
“Are you coming?” she called over her shoulder without breaking stride. “Brunch is almost ready.”