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

covered his tracks as well as he’d thought he did. The gloves he wore when he was assembling the device. He’d thrown away the instruction book once he’d absorbed the material. Perhaps he’d remembered something incorrectly and deviated in some way on his third attempt.

He didn’t know what was going to happen next, but he had to assume that sooner or later even the incompetent agents the government had would find him out. One thing was for sure, the day was going to play out very differently than he had planned. While others around him were panicking, Oliver pulled out his phone and used his wireless network, not the Air Force One Wi-Fi that they could track, to delete the video upload he’d had scheduled.

He took a deep breath. It couldn’t have been his fault. Stupid Heath had to have done it by throwing the case around so much. All that was left was to find out how much of a mess he’d made.

8

33,000 Feet Above Ohio

The sound of the explosion was still ringing in Jane’s ears, making it hard for her to hear the panicked cries and questions coming from the press corp as she moved through the center cabin.

Air Force One didn’t have mechanical issues, the claim being a guess from the pilot with no certainty behind it. That and she knew the sound of a bomb going off when she heard it. Even though the plane was still soaring and she no longer felt like they might fall out of the sky, the questions were piling up.

What was happening? What was going to happen? How did this happen? And the most important question of all. Was the president OK?

As terrifying as it was to feel the plane shake and momentarily lose power, it was nothing compared to the visceral fear Jane felt at the prospect of being the one in charge of ensuring the president’s safety at the moment he was killed. That kind of shame and failure would leave a lasting mark that echoed through the ages. It was no exaggeration that she’d rather die than watch the one cause she worked for collapse.

As they passed through into the staff’s cabin, Arundhati Singh and the other member of the traveling executive team, aides and assistants, all looked to them for answers about what they were going through. Jane and the other agents she was with had nothing to give them but their presence, and even that wouldn’t last for long.

Without a word, they continued forward to the next section of the plane, one that usually contained members of the president’s security detail who guarded the steps up to the second-floor office. It was now vacant as the other on-duty Secret Service members had no doubt moved into close proximity with the president.

Taking a deep breath, Jane surveyed the narrow steps and began to climb up through a hole in the floor to reach the president’s private office. Her head was still spinning and every second was at once a relief that calm was returning and something to gird against in the belief that the worst was yet to come.

When her head poked through into the office, the first thing she saw was Evans standing firmly in the corner of the room. Once she ascended a little higher she could see President Morrin seated at his desk, visibly shaken but intact.

“What the devil is going on?” Morrin called, raising his voice before she could even get both feet on the floor and straighten up. She pursed her lips, afraid to put it into words for how horrible it was.

“I’ll speak to the pilot,” Dedan whispered into her ear, coming up behind her and moving through the room toward the nose of the plane. Jane just locked eyes with Alex, who seemed both volatile and trusting of her in a way she didn’t expect. He didn’t want to hear from anyone but her.

“Sir, there has been a detonation of some sort on the plane,” she said, realizing that she should provide some kind of assurance to the president about his safety despite it being more in question than she had ever experienced during her tenure. “We’re here for you.”

The door to the cockpit opened again, but it wasn’t Dedan reentering. A flight attendant peeked through.

“We’ll be starting our descent to John Glenn Columbus International Airport in just a few minutes. Please take whatever seats you can and fasten your safety belts,” she said before ducking back out.

Morrin still looked like his life was flashing before his eyes. The weight of being the certain target had to be on his shoulders.

“I won’t let this intimidate me,” he said with a note of defiance that Jane found magnetic. But talking more about him and his resolve wasn’t in the cards right now. She had work to do.

“Mr. President, I’ll need to use your phone,” she said. Giving her a serious nod, the president picked up the simple black receiver on the desk and held it out to her.

The communications capabilities of Air Force One were a marvel that could withstand the electromagnetic interference caused by a nuclear explosion. It had two hundred and forty miles of wiring, and every inch of it seemed worth it to make a simple phone call to the ground. When she took the phone’s receiver and put it to her ear, there was an operator on the other end awaiting the president’s instructions.

“This is Jane Roe of the Secret Service. There has been an incident on the flight. Please connect me to the Secret Service field office in Columbus,” she said. The call couldn’t have gone through faster than if it had been done by magic. Within seconds she had the field office’s director on the line. “POTUS incoming to John Glenn. Prepare secure transport and implement emergency procedures.”

Once she’d received an affirmation, Jane hung up the phone. Sensing the plane dip, she went to one of the seats fixed to the wall