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“Mitch…Travis Small. Real honor to meet you.”
Rapp took his hand. It was dwarfed by Small’s. “Likewise, Travis.”
“No.” Small flashed a perfect set of teeth and a surprisingly warm smile. “I mean it. I was on the president’s detail back when they hit the White House. I was on the evening shift, so I wasn’t there when it went down.”
Small was referring to a terrorist attack on the White House. The president had narrowly escaped capture, and would have probably died if it hadn’t been for Rapp.
“Sorry about that,” said Rapp. “You must have lost some close friends.”
“Yeah.” Small got quiet for a second. “But I would have lost more friends that day if you hadn’t put your ass on the line like that.”
Rapp wasn’t real good at stuff like this, so he just nodded his head a few times and looked around. He felt like a midget standing next to this mountain of a man.
“So how do you like working for Ross?”
Small eyed Rapp and carefully considered his answer. “I try not to have opinions about the people I’m charged with protecting.”
Rapp grinned. “Bullshit.”
Small shifted his girth from one foot to the other. “He’s probably a little on the high-maintenance side.”
“I bet. He strikes me as the type of guy who might not be so nice to the hired help.”
“No…it’s not that really. He’s nice enough. Remembers all of our names. Asks about our kids and stuff, but he’s a politician.” This was one man who carried a gun talking to another man who carried a gun. There were certain things they could communicate without speaking.
“He asks the questions, but doesn’t listen to the answers.”
“Yeah. He’s on the move. Bigger and better things to tackle. The way I see it, he was a senator who wanted to be president. Senators don’t become presidents. It’s rare. The road to the Oval Office goes through the state governorships or the vice presidency. So Ross knew he needed to either go run for governor back in New Jersey, or get on the president’s cabinet and starting angling for a VP slot. Senators don’t like going home and running for governor. It’s more work, less national notoriety…unless you’re
talking New York or California. Definitely not New Jersey. So he takes the appointment from the president, and before he’s a year into this job he’ll be looking to move on to State or Defense. His résumé will be spectacular at that point and he’ll be a shoo-in for the VP slot on his party’s next ticket. Hell…he might even run for president.”
Made sense to Rapp. “What about the little guy who works for him?”
“Jonathan Gordon.”
“Yeah.”
“He’s a sharp one. He kind of balances the director out. Ross has a bit of a temper, but he keeps it real close. He blows up around Gordon and that’s about it. Gordon is real good at taking it, and then pointing out why it might be a bad idea to do whatever it is that the director wants him to do.”
“So Ross has a temper?”
Small nodded. “Real bad. Never loses it in public, though. Always behind closed doors.”
“Where is he now?”
“Up in his office with Gordon.”
“All right. Let’s go.”
The two men walked across the lobby. Small gestured for Rapp to pass through the metal detector first. Both of them set off the alarm, and they both ignored it. They stepped into the elevator and started up.
Rapp looked up at Small and said, “You want a little career advice?”
“Sure.”
“Ross is not going to like the fact that I just walked in here like this unannounced.”
“I’ve thought about that.”
