Hazardous Duty (Presidential Agent 8)

“Who’s going to think there’d be a CIA safe house in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania?”

“Make the calls, please, Frank, and get everybody there after eight o’clock tomorrow night.”

“And what about you, Madam Secretary, as the senior government official?”

“I’ll get back to Washington at five or a little after, let the President know I’m back—”

“Back from where?”

“Playing golf at the Greenbrier,” she replied, “and then I’ll drive up there. How do I find it?”

“I suppose Brünnhilde the Bodyguard is with you?”

“Up yours, Frank,” Charlene said.

“I’ll see that Art has a map by the time you need it,” Lammelle said.

“Fine,” Charlene said.

“You’re really going down there and play golf?”

“That’s what I told the President I was going to do. How could I not go? Call me and let me know what’s going on.”

“Yes, ma’am, Madam Secretary,” Lammelle said.

Cohen broke the connection.

“Agent Stevens, I wasn’t aware that you and Director Lammelle were so intimately acquainted,” she said.

“He and Art went through the FBI Academy together,” Charlene said. “They decided that they didn’t want to spend their lives investigating white-collar crimes, so Art went into the Secret Service, and Frank into the Agency. Frank was Art’s best man when we got married, and I held Frank’s hand through both of his divorces.”

“You never said anything.”

“Yeah, well,” Charlene said. “That doesn’t mean we don’t talk about you.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means that Frank thinks you’re the cat’s pajamas, boss.”

Natalie shook her head, then pressed another autodial button and then shut off the loudspeaker function. Charlene heard only one side of the conversation:

“I hope you didn’t have big plans for tomorrow, sweetheart…

“Put enough clothes in your bag for a fancy dinner tonight, and then take your golf clubs and get in a cab and go out to Teterboro. I’m about ten minutes from taking off from Andrews for Teterboro…

“Because we’re going to the Greenbrier to play golf…

“Of course you can make time for something like that. Your call, sweetheart. Would you rather have a romantic dinner with me tonight, and eighteen holes tomorrow, or the next time your Aunt Rebecca wants me to talk to the girls at the Beth Sinai Home have me tell her to go suck on a lemon… ?

“That’s what my mother said about you, too, darling. That I would regret marrying you. See you at Teterboro…”

[SIX]

Aboard Der Stadt Köln

The River Rhine