Her Secret Service (Jane Roe 1) by Jason Letts (sites to read books for free TXT) 📗

juice faster and faster lately. I’d hate for it to cut out on us in the middle of your recap.”

“Good point,” Oliver said, stifling a grumble at an annoying additional wait. “But I could probably shoot it now if we wanted. Today at Dayton Municipal Courthouse, President Alex Morrin and First Lady Bethany Morrin successfully received a judgment of divorce. Since it was a childless marriage, the only points of contention consisted of property accrued by the couple that included the president’s baseball card collection and a nearby farmhouse used as a rental property. President Morrin will be required to equitably pay the former First Lady fifty percent of the value in addition to alimony consisting of a percentage of his presidential salary.”

Heath chuckled as he grabbed the battery pack off the shelf in the garage and came back out to the truck in the lot.

“This job would be a ton easier if we could always predict the news like that. You may be right, but I have a sneaking suspicion this whole thing will spin sideways one way or another,” he said, tossing the pack into the back of the tall news truck and slamming closed the rear door.

“You’ve got quite a sense of intuition,” Oliver said, hiding a grin as he turned to the truck’s passenger door.

Soon they were off traveling across the streets of D.C. and toward Joint Base Andrews, where Air Force One would be leaving from. Getting into the base was a simple matter of Heath waving his Washington Post badge out the window at the checkpoint, then they were free to head to the terminal.

Unlike the carousels for whatever other flights were arriving or departing from the base, baggage collection for Air Force One consisted of a cart outside of the plane that would be hoisted into the storage compartment underneath, and all Oliver and his special equipment needed to do to get to it was to pass through a screening point with an x-ray scanner inside.

Other journalists and members of the presidential entourage were lining up, filing through as quickly as possible. Oliver glanced at a doltish-looking man seated by the monitor on the side of the scanner. This low-paid grunt was the president’s last line of defense, and he appeared ready to nod off despite an empty coffee cup perched on the station’s surface.

When their turn came around, Heath tossed the boom mic case onto the conveyor belt with all of the care of a kid flinging toys into bins when it was cleanup time. The case rattled around as it settled, drawing an uncomfortable look from Oliver as he thought about how the explosives it contained might react to being shaken like that. The last thing they needed to do was blow themselves up at the security checkpoint.

“Let’s take it easy with the equipment,” Oliver said. Heath glanced back at him and laughed.

“One shot at prep work and you’re already starting to sound like a technician!” Heath said. Oliver wasn’t going to miss Heath at all.

But the case was immediately jammed in on each side with other containers full of equipment that moved along on a conveyor belt in order to be scanned. Oliver felt a legitimate note of trepidation as the plastic case shifted into the x-ray chamber, and all he could do was step through the metal detector with his wrist held over his head to signal his watch.

The thought that something would go wrong or that he’d made a mistake started to metastasize in his head, and he was sure alarms would go off any second. Surely someone would catch him considering what he was trying to do.

Heath coughed and Oliver nearly jumped out of his skin.

“Get a glass of water before you choke on your own phlegm,” he said. Heath winced at him.

“Sorry. Throat’s a little dry. I hope they have seltzer on the flight again.”

But there was nothing from the x-ray scanner, and their bags came through on the conveyor belt. Oliver took a relieved breath as he saw the plain black plastic case roll down toward them. His momentary scare had been foolish and unnecessary. Of course he’d done a perfect job of disguising his work.

As Heath grabbed their bags, Oliver realized that snapping over a cough had also been an error borne out of some momentary jitters, and it wasn’t going to gel with the need to keep Heath’s attention preoccupied during setup in Dayton. Since his hands were free, he set one on Heath’s shoulder.

“I had a late night and was hoping to get a little shut-eye during the flight, but once we land there’s really something I need to get your opinion on. It’s definitely time for me to get a new car, but I have no idea at all what would be a good one.”

Although Heath glanced at the hand on his shoulder like it was a tarantula, the question did predictably catch his interest.

“Oh, really? What kind you looking for? A compact, SUV, pickup, crossover?”

Oliver laughed.

“Let’s wait till we land. Looks like I’ll need to think about it a little more to handle grilling questions like those.”

Joint Base Andrews didn’t have a particularly large terminal, and now that they’d passed through security they didn’t have far to go to reach the wing where Air Force One resided. Through the large windows they could see the colossal flying fortress with its blue stripe and American flag on the vertical stabilizer. A modified Boeing 747-200 with all manner of modifications for everything from office space to extensive security and safety measures, it was as close to a castle in the clouds as the human race had.

“Doesn’t get old, does it? My wife never believes me when I describe it to her,” Heath said, and Oliver only then realized he’d stopped to stare out the window.

“I’d spice up the paint job if it were up to me,” Oliver said.

When they reached the gate, Heath dropped the cases he was carrying onto the luggage