Captive-in-Chief (34 page)

Ramona waited impatiently, her right leg shaking as her car drew more and more attention. The sight of Clay and the two children appearing sent her leg shake into overdrive. She was certain she was about to get shot or worse, get Clay or one of the kids shot. A number of agents appeared behind the president.

“Guys?” he asked turning to them. “Is there a problem?”

“No, Sir, we were informed you were going outside,” responded the agent nearest him. Another two stood off to the side.

“Well, we’re not! I’m talking with my secretary, if you wouldn’t mind.” He stared until they backed down, walking back a few steps into the vestibule but not out of sight. Clay was furious, he was the president. If he knew who he could trust, he’d have the agents arrested. The brazenness of their disrespect for his office emphasized again how time was running out.

Clay guided the children down the steps to the side of Ramona’s car.

“Everything okay?” asked Clay, leaning into the open passenger door window.

Ramona reached across and popped open the back door of her little Honda, waving at two wrapped presents lying on the back seat. The agents in the vestibule had moved forward and stood menacingly on the top step a few yards away.

Clay saw Ramona’s reaction to their movement behind him and turned.

“Guys, I suggest you stand down!” Clay warned.

They didn’t move. Clay walked towards them. One of the three instructed them to back down. They walked back into the entrance vestibule, and Clay turned back to Ramona’s car. The three agents stayed just inside the building although still in view.

Clay walked back to the passenger window. Jack and Tess were bemused, having no idea what was going on. Their dad had never gotten pissed at the Secret Service before.

“Kids, jump in and grab your pressies,” said Ramona. Her arm had joined her leg in shaking violently. She had never felt so stressed in her life.

With the children safely in the back seat unwrapping their presents she turned to Clay. “Joe has Clara!” she whispered fiercely

Clay ripped open the door and jumped in, hitting the dial button on his cell.

“Hit it!” he shouted. Ramona’s little Honda roared into action, pushing Jack and Tess back in their seats and their door shut as the little engine reacted to Ramona’s foot slamming the accelerator so hard she thought she was going through the floorboards.

The three agents were already halfway down the steps by the time the front two wheels gripped and the car shot forward.

“Eric!” Clay shouted over the commotion when his call was answered. “Get to your Aunt Val, keep her safe. Trust
no one
.” He tossed his cell out of the window. If they couldn’t contact him they couldn’t issue threats he’d have to follow.

Ramona was screaming for God as they sped towards the gatehouse. Tess and Jack were both asking what was happening in far more colorful language than they had ever used in front of their father before. The barrier was up. Four uniformed officers were reacting to the commotion and had formed a human barrier in front of the main barrier. The three agents were sprinting across the lawn in an attempt to cut off the car. Clay shot his head out of the window.

“Open the gate!” he demanded.

No one moved.

“I’m the president, open that gate now! Those three men are trying to kill us!”

Chaos descended as the uniformed officers reacted to their president claiming he was being attacked. Allowing him out of immediate danger seemed the expedient thing to do. The gate rose. The pursuing agents screamed for it to be dropped and the uniformed officers reacted by pulling their weapons on the agents.

Ramona’s little Honda screeched out of the driveway and onto 17
th
Street, NW. Clay felt free for the first time in two weeks.

With a thumbs up from her specialists, Elsa wrapped up the work detail. Everything had gone exactly to plan. No glitches, none of the issues that had worried them. Everything had gone exactly as planned. The vice president’s chopper was most definitely not a mode of transport anyone would want to consider using for the foreseeable future.

Her cell buzzed but she decided to wait until they were away from the secure hangar. Once back on the main compound, her team and numerous Black Hawks surrounding her, she checked the cell. Her father. Of all the times she hadn’t answered. He didn’t take missed calls well. He didn’t take much well in general.

Elsa called him back and instantly wished she hadn’t. His fury at what had transpired in Washington, the loss of Clara and the president, was vented on her. There was little he suggested that did not ultimately track back to her failures.

“What about the press?” she had managed to ask once he had finished screaming at her.

“Silenced. We have control over the media. That’s been taken care of although that’s not the issue. We have no idea where he is or what he’s going to do!” Her father had lost it.

“He’s going to come here,” Elsa stated simply.

“Why on Earth would…” The penny dropped.

There was no gratitude for her quick thinking. No apology for any of the earlier insults as to her competence.

“Make sure you deal with it!”

“Of course,” She replied, but the call had already ended.

Five seconds later, her phone beeped once.
PS Hank’s dead, Amy’s missing.
She glanced at Clyde walking without a care in the world. He and his brother were as close as two brothers she had ever seen. The news was going to destroy him and unleash a vengeful monster. She would wait until they were back at their hideout before breaking the news. As much as she could appreciate the impact Hank’s loss may have on Clyde, she didn’t feel it. It wasn’t something she really understood or felt. The second half of the message was for her but she really wasn’t that bothered. She wondered where Amy was. Was she alive or dead? That was it. No feeling of loss or sorrow, just
oh well, Amy’s missing
. It didn’t knock her off her stride or alter her train of thought as Hank’s loss would for Clyde. Not that she and Amy weren’t close. They had grown up together, best friends throughout their lives, as close as sisters. She didn’t feel love or loss. She blamed her father, or more appropriately given her lifestyle choices, she thanked him.

She needed Clyde to keep his shit together. The Hank news could wait until later.

“How many men do we have?” she asked him.

Clyde began to count the group.

“No, with us here,” Elsa clarified.

“Oh, we’ve got about fifty across the forces and Secret Service that are here, and nearby easily a hundred or so. Why, what’s up?”

She told him, everything except the details of the text message.

“I’ll make some calls,” he said. “We’ll get more men out to the airport.”

“Him coming here will make our job so much easier and fun.” She smiled.

Ramona followed Joe’s instructions to the letter. Daryl’s initial plan had been drastically altered to the point it was almost unrecognizable, save for Ramona driving to the White House. As hoped, they had caught everyone by surprise. Ramona had driven three blocks and into an alley where Daryl was waiting. A quick change of car and they were on their way again at a far more leisurely pace.

Clay could hardly speak for fielding questions from his children, who were not taking well to the surprise abduction/escape/whatever it was they had become party to. By the time they reached their destination, they had changed cars again. The cheap hotel on the outskirts of D.C. was about as far as you could be from the White House in class yet still be in D.C.

The reunion of Clara and her father had Clay fielding questions from his younger children until he introduced them to their older sister. Both took the news better than he had expected, but given the circumstances it was probably the most sane part of the evening for them.

“And this is your uncle Joe,” Clay said.

Joe was not ready for the hugs he received. It was all getting a bit emotional for him. He’d not been hugged so much or at all in decades, other than by Sandy, but that didn’t really count.

“Oh and Sandy, I can’t forget Sandy.” She was sitting impatiently, as though waiting for Clay to stop being so rude and introduce her already.

The second she heard her name, she was over wagging her tail, wildly banging anything within two feet of its trajectory.

“So you’re brothers?” Jack asked, thoroughly confused by what was happening. He’d gained a sister and an uncle in the space of minutes.

“Friends” said Joe.

“Best friends,” said Clay, walking over and hugging Joe for the first time since they parted on that fateful night. Both were nursing wet eyes when they broke apart.

“Enough or, you’ll get me started,” interrupted Ramona, “And that ain’t something you wanna see!”

“Can we talk?” Clay whispered, pulling Joe aside. “We need to get to Val, she’s in Argentina.”

“Ramona said she was heading home.”

“No, they stopped her. I’ve ditched my phone but…”

“I understand,” said Joe.

“I need to keep up appearances for the kids, but Joe, we need to get to her. I called my nephew Eric to look after her. He loves her like a mother and he can certainly look after himself but we still don’t know what we’re up against.”

“We have some idea. Not everything, certainly part of it.” He led Clay through a connecting door into the next room to where Amy was bound and gagged on the bed.

“You’re joking.
She’s
part of it? That stupid bitch!”

“All an act, she’s one calculating devious—”

“Dead is what she’s going to be!” said Clay, rushing across to her. Joe pulled him off.

“She’s telling us everything she knows!”

“She better be.” He lunged, Joe managed to stop him.

“So she knows who works for them in the White House? Who in the Secret Service we can trust?”

“She knows a few. Her job was to keep an eye on anyone who might be helping you, not their own people. I spoke to another guy, her lover, Hank. It seems they’ve kept things compartmentalized. They only know what they need to know.”

“We need to get to Val!” Clay insisted.

“We need some help. As Clara so succinctly put it, I’m an old guy with a dog. She didn’t even know about the drunk part.”

“You may be an old drunk with a dog, but not just any old drunk, you’re Joe Kelly.”

“Jesus, Clay, look at me. I’m bruised, battered, scarred…” He held out his hand, a slight tremble was noticeable despite the Librium, “got the shakes, and could probably do with another four weeks detox before my body will be fully recovered.”

“Exactly,” said Clay. “Who the hell else in your state could do what you’ve done!”

Joe shook his head in frustration. “We can’t do it alone, we need some help.”

“There’s no one on this planet at the moment that I will trust being close to my family.”

“How about my family?”

“You don’t have any, do you?”

“There are three people I can call on for help, that I would trust with my life.”

“That’s good enough for me, where are they?”

“I have no idea, that’s part of the problem.”

“Ramona!” shouted Clay. Ramona rushed into the room. “Give us their details and Ramona will track them down.”

Ramona, like the president, had ditched her cell. She lifted the motel handset, cleaned it with her sleeve, and went to work. There was a network of PAs she had known for over forty years and she’d trust a few of them with her granddaughter Grace’s life. It was all done quietly and under the radar, but within ten minutes, Ramona had three numbers for Joe. The FBI wouldn’t have been anywhere near as quick and efficient as Ramona and her buddies. It was an impressive display of teamwork.

Joe handed the numbers to Clay. “Perhaps they need to hear from their president, they need to hear he needs them.”

Clay took the handset and called the first number, putting it on speaker phone

“Hello?”

“Hi, could I speak to Alex, please?”

“Speaking.”

“Marine Sergeant Alex Demarco?”

“Yes, who is this?”

“President Clay Caldwell.”

“Bullshit!”

Clay smiled at the reaction. “No, I am President Clay Caldwell.”

“Why you calling me?”

“I need your help, Alex. Your country needs you.”

“Seriously, you have some nerve! I ain’t helping you.” Alex hung up.

Clay’s smile dropped as he stared at the dead phone. Joe stepped past him and hit redial.

“Alex, it’s Joe,” he said quickly.

“Joe Kelly? Man, I’ve looked everywhere for you! How the hell have you been?”

“Not great to be honest, that’s for another day. I’m standing next to the president. ”

“Can you believe that son of a bitch is asking for my help after what he did to you?”

Joe took the call off speaker phone. He could almost feel Amy’s smile through her gag and could see Ramona’s anger rising at her president being disrespected.

Joe explained what he needed Alex to do and got his exact location.

“Yes, I understand you’re doing it for me and not him. Yes, I’ll let him know.” Joe ended the call. “He’s in.”

“Yeah, we gathered that,” sighed Clay. “What you gotta tell me?”

“Nothing important. Perhaps I’d be better making the calls.”

“Yes, I think so, but what have you got to tell me?”

“Only to make sure you know he didn’t vote for you.”

“That simple?”

“May have been a little more colorful and more derogatory, that was general gist of the message.”

The other two calls went as well as Joe’s call to Alex. His old teammates from his Force Recon days were delighted to hear from him and all had spent time trying to find him over the years. All were ready to fight by his side. All made it crystal and blatantly clear that it was for Joe and not their president.

Two were in Florida, Bobby and Carlos, while Alex was an hour’s drive away in Virginia.

“Okay, we’ve got some help,” Joe said. “How do we get to Argentina via Florida?”

“I’ve got an idea, get us to Andrews Air Force Base,” Clay replied.

“Do you not think they’ll expect that, Mr. President?” asked Ramona.

“I’m hoping that’s exactly what they’re expecting.”