Chapter 34
WASHINGTON, D.C. • ASHLAND
Driving east on Interstate 66, it didn’t take Kealey long to work his way into the city and toward the waterfront. In fact, the security check he endured on arrival took nearly half as long as the trip had, but it was still less than forty-five minutes after leaving Tyson’s Corner that he was granted access to the Gangplank Marina. From there, it took him another five minutes to locate the person he was looking for.
Ryan felt more than a little foolish as he chased Jodie Rivers through the throngs of reporters positioned behind the metal crowd-control barriers. As they moved, they were jostled by the photographers and cameramen who were jockeying to get a good shot of the president’s motorcade, which was due to arrive any minute. He needed to talk to her, but the woman seemed to be in perpetual motion.
He almost slammed into her when she stopped abruptly at the press gate. There were two men in dark suits and sunglasses checking IDs and the passes that had been specifically designed for the event and distributed the day before by the White House press office. Rivers turned her attention to the covering agent, leaving the other to continue his work.
“Did you get the photographs?” The man nodded. “Let me see them.”
The man, who was at least 7 inches taller than Rivers and twice as heavy, immediately reached inside his suit jacket and pulled out a folded sheet of paper.
“You guys have been keeping an eye out?” she asked.
“Yes ma’am. Everybody’s checked out on the list.”
Ryan thought the deference showed by the burly agent to the diminutive Jodie Rivers was vaguely amusing, but kept the thought to himself.
The advance team leader turned to show him the sheet. It contained a blown-up shot of Vanderveen’s driver’s license in the name of Timothy Nichols, as well as several other images, showing him with glasses, long hair, dark hair, and a beard, among other things.
“These are enhanced photographs,” she needlessly explained.
“We took the original and made some minor alterations. It’s not much, but it makes my people look a little bit harder, helps to keep them on their toes.” Turning back to the agents: “Okay, good work, guys. Stay sharp.”
She handed the sheet back to the man and moved off with surprising speed, Ryan close on her tail. She suddenly seemed to remember that he was there, and turned her head to address him as they pushed through the crowd. “I already talked to Deputy Director Harper, Mr. Kealey, as well as Director Landrieu. You’re free to come and go in this area as you please . . . In fact, I’m happy to have you here. Every warm body helps. What do you need from me?”
He finally got an uninterrupted minute when they stopped to examine another checkpoint. “Actually, Agent Rivers, what I want to do is check the surrounding roads. You look like you have everything pretty much under control here, so I figure that the best place for me is where you’re short on manpower.”
“What are you looking for?”
“I don’t know. Something that catches my eye, I guess . . . I would just feel better if I was on the move.”
She was skeptical. “Sounds kind of pointless.”
“I know, but there’s not much else to do.”
That seemed to satisfy her. “So, again, what exactly do you need from me?”
He shrugged. “I’m carrying . . . Harper told you that?” She nodded, her eyes instinctively passing over his body. He was wearing a loose-fitting dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up, untucked, over a pair of khakis. She didn’t see the pistol, but realized it was probably under the shirt at the small of his back. “I don’t want any problems from your people on the perimeter. Can you let them know that I’m coming?”
She frowned, then said, “I can tell my people, but we’re having a hell of a time with communications. The boys from Metro are pulling a lot of the vehicle checks, and they’re using UHF radios. It’s been giving us problems all day, but I’ll see what I can do. How are you for ID?”
It was Ryan’s turn to frown. “Harper couldn’t get me anything.
You know, technically speaking, I’m retired from the Agency, and Landrieu had some problems with that. He wasn’t backing down.”
Wincing, she said, “That could be a problem.”
“I know.” He hesitated. “If you can just get word to your top guy out there, then I can probably start looking around without causing any distractions.”
She thought about that, began to nod when her earpiece sparked to life. She listened intently as Ryan looked on.
Rivers glanced up at him. “The president is about to arrive.”
Over her shoulder Ryan could already see the long procession of vehicles sweeping around the corner onto Maine Avenue. The lights on top of the Secret Service Suburbans were flashing, though the sirens remained silent. The sight of the motorcade’s approach caused a storm of activity in the press pool, as cameramen and photographers hustled for position in the overcrowded area. The distant roar of the demonstrators started to pick up as well, despite the fact that their view of the motorcade was all but obscured.
Ryan saw that Rivers looked nervous. She caught his attention and tried a weak smile. “That press area is giving me fits. It’s a lot bigger than I wanted, but McCabe had to give in to the pressure . . . The networks went crazy when he sent over our first set of requirements.
We got to a third draft before they stopped threatening to sue. The first amendment is a terrible thing, at least from my point of view.”
He nodded his sympathy. “The AIC for Brenneman’s detail is here now,” he pointed out. “That should take some of the weight off you.”
“You’d think so.” She sighed, then turned her attention back to what he had been saying. “Okay, as far as my people are concerned, everything north of Ben Banneker Park is pretty much relegated to the rooftop countersniper teams. That’s a strange combination in and of itself; we’ve got Metro PD, Capitol Hill PD, and my own shoot-ers up there, as well as a few Bureau people thrown in for good measure . . . All the same, comms are pretty good, with the exception of the Metro guys. I’ll try to let them know you’re coming, but I can’t make any guarantees. I don’t know what happened there; it was just one of the small things that we overlooked, and I’m pissed off about it.”
She looked pissed off, Ryan thought, and she looked pretty good, too. He couldn’t help but think it; her cheeks were flushed with anger, but it worked for her. If he didn’t know better, he might have pegged her as a fresh-faced grad student, the enthusiasm making her seem a few years younger than her age. Because he did know better, he felt a little bit sorry for her; the Secret Service was an environment thoroughly dominated by alpha males, and someone who looked like Jodie Rivers would have had to work twice as hard to be taken seriously. He was sure that her current position had not come easily.
He let the thought go and tried to think of what else to ask her, but she was way ahead of him. “Do you need a vehicle?”
“No, I have one.” Harper was going to be stuck at Tyson’s Corner for the rest of the day, and had given Ryan the use of his forest green
’98 Explorer. “They’re still taking 12th back to the White House, right?”
She glanced at him, hesitated, then nodded. If Landrieu said he was cleared . . . “That’s right, for the most part. Since 12th Street is closed for construction between Pennsylvania and H, we have to turn onto 13th. We’re scheduled to head back around 11:40. Some of that depends on the weather. We’re supposed to be getting hit pretty hard this afternoon.”