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Rachel didn't move for a minute then realized. He was crying from grief, frustration, and apparently, from the outcome of his meeting with the senior senator. "What did the senator say, sir?"
"That the drug distribution problem is an internal military one. One that we don't need to get involved in." He thumped the desk with his fist. "Damn it! I didn't get elected to hide the issues. I got elected to serve the people of my state, to find answers, and to do the right thing!"
She let the words fall into the silence of the room before quietly responding. If that’s the way you feel, then do a side run.”
He looked up at her and then grinned. “A side run?”
“Isn’t that what they call it in football? Run to the side of the tacklers and get the goal?” she was ignorant of football terms other than tackle and touchdown.
“Right,” he chuckled. “It won’t be easy.” But the gleam was back in his eyes, the glint of fire and warrior that she’d come to admire over the past several weeks. She nodded briskly. “Okay, we need to make a plan, then.”
She stooped and started picking up letters and envelopes, piling them on the desk as she did. Gavin and the Senator were speaking over her, already setting up a plan of attack to get his agenda to the front. When she picked up a manilla envelope, she noticed the loosened flap and the broken brass fastener, so that the packet was coming open. “The mail office didn’t do a great job with this parcel,” she murmured and stood, pulling at the flap.
“Don’t!” Gavin pushed her away from the Senator’s desk and into a corner. The Senator, standing at the edge of the table sent them a questioning look. Rachel clutched at the envelope, crushing it as she tried to maintain her balance.
“Senator, out.” Gavin barked and the former General, who hadn’t followed a command from a subordinate for over thirty years, did as he was told and strode to the door, opening it and exiting before closing it tight.
Rachel stared at Gavin, her mouth agape. “What was that for?”
“Precautions,” he said and took the envelope from her hand. The hand that had fine dust on it, just like the dust that was filtering into the air between them from the opening in the flat package.
Gavin’s phone rang and he palmed it, carrying the envelope to the console table. He answered the phone as he gingerly laid the crumpled object down. “Yes, Senator.”
Rachel could hear the man’s voice through the receiver and said with a sigh. “Put it on speaker.”
Gavin glanced at her then pushed a button. “We’re on speaker, sir.”
“Anything in the package?”
“Fine white powder, sir.”
“I’ve called security. They’re contacting medical personnel.”
"You need to be tested, sir, and go through decontamination." Gavin glanced at Rachel. Her stomach dropped to her feet and she started to slide down the wall. He reached out and cupped her elbow with his hand and led her to the sofa. She listened as he cautioned the Senator, again and again, to go through the process, then reassured him they'd take care.
She'd almost poisoned her charge, she realized, and then looked at her hands. And probably been poisoned in the process.
Gavin hung up the phone and stood over her. “Come on, let’s get you out of that jacket.”
She frowned up at him, at a loss. “What?”
“In case there’s anything on it.” She noticed his jacket lay in the corner of the room and understood. Standing, she shrugged out of her own black jacket and handed it to him. After he laid it on top of his own he pulled her over to the small sink in the corner of the room. Turning on the cold water, he put both their hands under the stream. Rachel sucked in her breath at the freezing temperature but left her hands there, letting the water flow over them. After a couple of minutes, Gavin squirted some soap in them and instructed her to wash. "You don't have any open wounds or chapped skin, do you?" He asked as he did the same.
She shook her head. “How do you know what to do?”
He shrugged, “Common sense. It may be more harmful than not, since we don’t know what’s in the envelope.”
“Shouldn’t we leave the room?” She asked, pulling paper towels off the roll for them to dry with.
“Not until the officials get here. Again, we don’t know what’s in there. Could be talcum powder, could be ricin.” When she swayed he reached out and cupped her elbow again. “Let’s sit down.”
She let him lead her to the sofa, simultaneously urging herself to buck up and be a soldier and wanting to curl into a ball and cry for a few days. When she finally sat, she took a shaky breath and pulled her phone from her pants pocket.
“Who are you calling?” he eyed her closely. Looking for symptoms?
"Kane." She pressed a couple of numbers and waited. When her boss came on the line she filled him in.
“Grayson?” he asked.
