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His instinct was to bolt upright in bed, but he couldn’t do that anymore, either. A call in the middle of the night from the President of the United States now only rated sliding carefully off the mattress and padding into the bathroom.
“I’m sorry, sir,” he said, closing the door behind him. “Of course I do.”
“Shit. You weren’t alone. This is obviously a bad time . . .”
Incredibly bad. But not as bad as a couple of hours ago. “It’s fine, sir. Is there a problem?”
“There’s always a problem. That’s the life we’ve chosen, right?”
His voice had a strange undertone that Rapp hadn’t heard before. Frustration and anger, sure. But there seemed to be something hidden beneath. Something that even this consummate politician couldn’t hide.
“I suppose so, sir.”
“There’s something I need to talk to you about. But not over the phone.”
“Do you want to schedule a meeting for later this morning?”
“Honestly, it’s not a conversation I want to be seen having, either.”
Rapp was intrigued but also a little guarded. He’d been in this business a long time and the president had never called him personally to set up a completely black meeting. He tended to use Irene Kennedy as an intermediary. Best not to be seen with a man whose job description no one ever spoke about but everyone understood.
“It seems like we’re both awake, sir. How about now? With no traffic I can be there in less than an hour.”
“I don’t want to take you away from anything,” he said, although it was clear that it was exactly what he wanted.
“Not a problem.”
“Thank you, Mitch.”
Rapp disconnected the call and slipped into the bedroom to find some clothes. When he came out of the closet and started for the hallway, Claudia called after him. “Mitch? Who was that?”
“Work. I’ve got to run out.”
“When are you going to be back?”
“A few hours,” he said, wincing a bit.
“Oh,” she responded, sounding like she’d thought he was going to say a few months. “There’s a sticky on the refrigerator. Could you pick up the things on it? Anna doesn’t have anything for breakfast.”
“Sure.”
And then she was asleep again.
>
That was it? His late wife would have been wide-awake, cross-examining him about where he was going, who he was meeting, and why it couldn’t wait until after sunrise.
Some of the tension he’d felt over the past few hours started to dissipate. Maybe this could actually work.
CHAPTER 16
The White House
Washington, D.C.
U.S.A.
RAPP pulled Claudia’s Q5 up to the White House gate, rolling down the window as a guard approached.
