Chapter 2
“How was the first day of school?” Dad asked me as soon as the car pulled away from Brian’s house. I’d barely had time to put my backpack on the floorboard and fasten my seatbelt before we were moving. The government sedan was a nice one, and quite roomy in the back seat, although it was not a limo. Dad was sitting on the right side while I was behind the driver and there was a divider between the front and back seats. In the divider, I knew, would be one of those new mobile phones some of the more expensive cars could be equipped with.
“It was good.” I said with a smile.
“I see you made a new friend.” Dad said with a smile and I nodded.
“Actually, I think I made three new friends altogether.” I told him. “Brandon and Trevor are the other two guys. They all play on the flag football team.”
“Oh, and I guess you’re going to want to play on the team as well?” Dad asked me with a smug smile. “You know your mom objected to the idea of you playing on the Pee Wee teams.”
“Yeah, well that was tackle football and this is just flag football.” I countered and gave him a pleading look. He laughed and ruffled my hair in that way I hated, but I could keep the smile on my face if it made him more likely to convince mom to let me play.
“We’ll see what she says.” He said and I gave him a big smile as a reward.
“So, how was your day?” I asked and continued quickly. “Isn’t it a hoot that you had a meeting with his uncle on the same day that I met him?”
“Yeah, that is a funny coincidence.” Dad agreed with a wide smile. “I think my day went fairly good. The meeting went very well. This Rich Wright has a lot of good ideas. The fact that he’s a good man, for a homosexual, makes it easier working with him.”
“Oh really?” I said with a slight sense of unease as he spoke.
“Yes, apparently he was in a relationship until recently and the other guy was sleeping around on him.” Dad said with a frown. He didn’t like talking about these things, especially with me, and I knew a lot of people would be surprised at just how much he did talk to me about, but then he knew I could handle things. “Rich broke up with the guy when he refused to be faithful. I still don’t like this ‘homosexuality’ thing, but if someone’s going to be that way, at the very least they could stay faithful to each other. If they did that, this whole ‘AIDS’ things would be much easier to deal with and they wouldn’t be in so much danger.”
“Oh.” I said weakly as his voice grew more and more frustrated. It was a very short drive from Brian’s house to ours, and we were just pulling onto Scenic Drive by the time he finished his rant, and he shook his head.
“Sorry, didn’t mean to vent at you, son.” Dad said softly and I shook my head.
“No worries; I asked.” I told him. “What’s up with the car, by the way? I mean it’s cool and everything, but like, don’t you usually drive your own car when you’re in the area?”
“Yes, well there’s a few things we need to talk about before dinner.” Dad said with a slight frown as the driver slowed down to pull into the driveway. I figured out what we might be talking about from the alarm company’s van that was also in the driveway, and the two men in dark suits I spotted walking the edge of the trees that separated the property from our neighbor’s. There was even a crew of masons working on building a heavy stone fence between our front yard and the main road, and it looked like they were digging trenches along the edge of the driveway. More than likely, I guessed, they’d be putting heavy iron rail gates in there to prevent easy access to the driveway.
“Wow.” I said as I stood just outside the car’s door and stared at all the work going on.
“Get your bag and let’s head inside.” Dad said with a nod of his head and I reached back into the car to grab my backpack before hurrying after Dad. It was almost like a day where Mom had a fundraiser happening at the house itself. There were workmen from the alarm company all over the house, running wire and doing all sorts of stuff under the careful direction of a man in a dark suit. We found Mom standing in the living room with Jenny both of them watching a workman who was installing a new glass sliding door. It had a weird, greenish tinge to it that reminded me of the windows I’d seen in the President’s oval office.
“I see you made it home in one piece.” Mom said with a slightly frazzled tone. She was frowning at the new glass sliding door, and the different quality of light it was letting through.
“Yes, well things went fairly well.” Dad agreed. “How are things here?”
“As well as can be expected.” Mom said with a big sigh. “I’m going to be late for the dinner tonight with all this going on, but Jeannie can handle things fine until I get there. Why the heck didn’t you tell me this was all going to be going on today?”
“Well, um, I wasn’t sure myself until this morning when I was on the road to the city.” Dad told her with a slight shuffle of his feet. That always meant he was trying to evade something, and Mom picked up on it right away.
“You mean you only knew for sure this morning, but knew it was probably going to happen, didn’t you?” She accused him and he nodded while his cheeks flushed slightly.
“I’m sorry, honey, it’s just I didn’t want to ruin a perfect Labor Day holiday for the family.” Dad explained, hoping to mollify her.
“That’s nice, but you could have at least warned me!” Mom’s voice was shrill at that last part, and the workmen installing the new door sped up their efforts. Mom was wearing one of her casual suits, a dark green skirt and cream blouse, and modest heeled shoes that gave her an extra inch of height over her normal five foot-three, but she seemed to loom over us all as she crossed her arms and glared at my father. Jenny just smiled, enjoying the rare display of parental disagreement.
It was nice to be able to enjoy it instead of fear it like we once had.
“I’m sorry, honey.” Dad apologized as meekly as he could, and Mom took a deep breath before calming down a bit.
“Well don’t let it happen again.” She said with a frown. “Now tell us what’s changed that made all this necessary and who is footing the bill.”
“The government is footing the bill for all the security upgrades.” Dad said quickly, mollifying what was probably a big concern for mother. She hated spending money on things she didn’t have planned out. Sure, she’d spend twenty grand each year redecorating the lower floors of the house, but make her spend twenty bucks she didn’t plan on spending and she would throw a fit of huge proportions.
“What’s changed to make all this necessary?” Mom pressed on the first part of her question and dad frowned, looking at Jenny and me. She wasn’t having any of that though, and just shook her head. “They already know about the death threats you’ve received ever since the news conference, so they deserve to know why they’re having to deal with these changes.”
“On Saturday, the FBI raided a radical group in the bay area.” Dad said after letting out a sigh. “They found maps of Modesto, with our address circled, along with assault weapons and explosives.”
“Why do they want to hurt us?” Jenny asked with a little whine in her voice and a frown on her face.
“This one was a liberal group, not the neo-nazi groups we’ve been getting the threats from.” Dad said slowly, looking directly at my sister. “You see, the real danger is from the people who don’t send you threats. Those are the ones more likely to carry out an attack. The President feels there’s a real danger and the law allows him to arrange Secret Service protection for us, at the Government’s expense. That’s why from now on, well we’re going to have to accept some changes.”
“Like what?” Jenny asked with a sudden frown. My sister didn’t like a lot of changes in life.
“Well, we’ll be told a lot about it by the Secret Service agent in charge after he’s done getting things set up.” Dad told her, and looked sternly at both Jenny and I, getting our full attention. “We’re all going to have agents assigned to us full time. For now, and unless they learn about a direct threat, it’s just going to be one agent, but they’re going to go to school with you, and be at the school all day. They’ll drive you everywhere you need to go. If you want to visit friends, or do things out of the normal routine, you’re going to have to get permission before hand. So Davey, going over to a friend’s house like today, you’re going to have to ask in the morning, before you go to school. Also, they’re going to be driving you from one place to another so no more walking to school. These aren’t your personal chauffeurs though. If you want to have your friends go with you somewhere, you’re going to have to get it approved first.”
“That sucks.” Jenny frowned and I had to agree with my sister.
“What about my morning runs?” I asked with sudden worry. Most days of the week I got up early and ran for a few miles. It was something I enjoyed, especially since afterwards I always felt really awake and energized.”
“We’ll have to check with the agents, but I’m sure there’ll be an agent to run with you.” Dad answered and my sister frowned as she thought of something.
“Will they have to be in my classroom with me?” Jenny asked.
“I don’t think so, but we’ll ask.” Dad told her and she gave a harrumph, turning to watch the workmen who were just now finishing the door installation and making a hurried exit of the room.
“Ah, there you are.” A gray-haired man in a dark suit said as he walked into the room. I almost jumped because I hadn’t heard him approaching from behind, and he smiled at me before shaking my father’s hand. “I’m Agent Lonnie Herberger. It’s nice to finally meet you in person, Mr. Jones.”
“Agent Herberger.” Dad said as he shook the agent’s hand. Mom put a hand on Jenny’s shoulder and led her until they stood just behind my father. “This is my wife, Sandy, my daughter Jenny, and my son, Davey.”
“It’s a pleasure to meet each of you.” The agent said with a warm smile that made his face almost light up. He gave off the air of a friendly grandfather more than a dangerous bodyguard. “If you would like, why don’t we go ahead and have a seat while we discuss the arrangements that are going to be made?”
“That sounds good.” Mom said as she motioned with her arm towards the couches in the living room. We all sat down on one couch, my mother next to my father, and me between her and Jenny while the agent sat on the couch across from us. I was surprised when he produced a folder from his left hand. I hadn’t seen it there, and he put it on the coffee table that was between the couches. The first paper he showed was a diagram of the house, showing all of our windows and doorways.
“We were able to find bullet-proof glass for your sliding door, most of your downstairs windows, the sliding doors upstairs, and most of the windows upstairs.” The agent-in-charge began his briefing smoothly and efficiently pointing out the windows and doors that had been replaced. “The remaining windows will arrive and be installed by the end of the week. A new alarm system is being installed in the house proper, and we’ll give each of you your personal arm and disarm codes. It will be monitored remotely, so we’ll give you phone passwords as well, and explain how it works a little later. Mrs. Jones, we’ll need some input from you on the exterior doors. We need to put in reinforced doors, and we’d like to know if you want them to be the same design as you have now, or a new design. Either way, they’ll need to be custom made and will take about a month.”
“How long is this going to last?” Mom asked and he smiled at her reassuringly.
“Most likely as long as your husband holds his current position, and even then it is likely to continue for several years afterwards, based on whatever decisions you make as a family.” He answered her calmly, smiling even more as she frowned, trying to reassure her. “Ma’am, once you get use to it, I think you’ll find having the Secret Service protect you isn’t that bad. There’s a reason why they call us the ‘Secret’ Service. Whatever we see, or hear, stays within the Service. Even the children will have a great deal of privacy. I know you might want it otherwise at times, but we won’t tell on them if they break your house rules, unless they endanger themselves or other members of the family, or the lives of our agents.”
“Oh.” Jenny said with a slight smile. “So if I don’t do my homework?”
“Your mother will have to find out from your teacher, not from us.” The Agent said with a wink at my little sister. “We’ll go over exactly what is reported, and what isn’t a little later, but I assure you, we are not here to invade your privacy, just to keep you safe. As long as you follow the guidelines we establish, everything will be fine.
“Speaking of those guidelines, they include not opening windows without checking with your detail agent first.” He continued sternly, looking at both Jenny and I. We both nodded and he continued. “Also, we’ll need a complete list of your personal friends, their phone numbers and their addresses. No one will be allowed over to the house until we’ve had a chance to review them and their families.”
“That’s not fair!” My sister whined and I had to agree, but I could see the sense of that.
“How about tonight, before you go to bed, you give me a list of your current friends, their phone numbers and their addresses, I promise you we’ll let you know if they can come over by breakfast tomorrow. Is that better?”
“Yes.” Jenny said as she crossed her arms in imitation of our mother. I couldn’t help but smile at the sight.
“In a few minutes, I’ll introduce you to the agents who will be watching over you.” Herberger continued. “There’s going to be a total of three agents, who will take twelve-hour shifts so that one of them is with you at all times. You don’t have to, but we think it’s nice if you remember their names and get to know them a little.”
“I like to go for runs in the morning.” I said quickly, grabbing his attention. He just smiled and pulled out another sheet of paper, looking it over carefully.
“Your three agents are all young men who like sports and like to run as well.” The senior agent told me with a smile. “I’m sure it won’t be a problem for them to run with you.”
“Okay.” I said with a little bit of satisfaction.
“Another thing is that until we set up some type of screening we’re going to ask that you don’t use the back patio.” The agent continued and this time all four of us groaned. His smile was reduced but he held up a hand to forestall anything any of us might be getting ready to say. “It’ll only be a day or two, and Mrs. Jones, we’ll run the pattern by you before we actually put anything up.”
“Okay.” Mom said tightly through a frown and clenched jaw.
“The problem with the patio is that a lot of it is easily visible from the bridge on El Vista Avenue and from the other side of the canyon here.” He explained. We’ll try to find something that’s esthetically pleasing, that also doesn’t reduce your view too much, but at the same time reduces the ability of a sniper to shoot whoever is on the porch.”
“Oh.” Mom said with small hunching of her shoulders at the bluntness of his statement. It really drove it home that someone might want to kill us, and my sister cuddled up against me with a little whimper. I put my arm around her and she let out a small sigh.
“Now, why don’t we meet your agents?” He said in a slightly more cheerful tone. My father nodded and he spoke briefly into his cuff microphone. Moments later, three women appeared. All were in their mid-twenties, it looked like, and were dressed in comfortable-looking pant suits. “Jenny, this is Agent Marlene Walters, Lena Opham, and Mira Weismann, they’re going to be assigned to you.”
“Hello.” My sister said as she moved a little more away from me. The three women smiled at her and the first one, Marlene from the introduction, came to kneel next to my sister. She was the only black-haired one of the three, with the other two having brown hair.
“I’m Marlene, it’s nice to meet you.” She said with a smile. “I’m going to be the lead agent on your detail. I hear you have a really nice canopy bed. Would you like to show us your room?”
“Sure.” My sister said with a smile, jumping off the couch and looking at Mom for permission before leaving the room. Mom nodded and she led the three older women out of the room, already chatting happily about all the things in her room. Dad smiled at the sight, and squeezed my mother’s hand as she looked slightly mollified. as well as Herberger spoke softly into the microphone again and moments later, three men appeared, dressed in the stereotypical dark suits. I recognized two of them right away, and guessed that they were my detail.
“Davey, this is Tom Dalman, Paul Castillo, and Bill Bartlett. They will be your detail.” Herberger said with a nod towards the men.
“I know Tom, and I think I met Paul at the White House.” I said with a nod towards the men. Tom was grinning and Paul nodded.
“Yes, both of them were assigned to the enhanced detail for the inauguration.” Herberger acknowledged. “All three of them are from California, though, and volunteered for this job.”
“It’s nice to meet you.” I said as I stood up and went to shake hands with Bill Bartlett. I then shook hands with the other two. “So I assume you’ll want to see my room, leaving my parents to meet their detail without us underfoot?”
“That’s the general idea.” Bill acknowledged with a smile. “I’m the agent-in-charge of your detail, by the way.”
“Well, let’s head up to my room.” I said with a grin, and lead the three men upstairs and to my room. They made appreciative noises over my calligraphy work and my posters as I showed them my room, and I noticed the blinds were already closed.
“We haven’t put the new glass in your room yet.” Agent Bartlett said with a slight frown. “The glass should be here in a day or two, but even then we’re going to ask that you keep the blinds closed as much as possible. You already know not to open the windows without checking with us first?”
“Yes.” I assured him.
“I hear you had a good summer with the pitching.” Tom said. He was the man who I’d played catch with at the White House earlier in the year.
“Yeah, we did pretty good.” I said with a shrug. “I’m trying to convince my mom to let me play flag football this year, though.”
“We might as well discuss some of the rules.” Bartlett said. “First off, the number one rule is that whichever agent is on duty must know where you are at all times. We’ve got your school schedule already, but if you’re doing anything that’s not on the schedule, we need to know. No ditching classes, no sneaking off school grounds, and we need to know where you’ll be eating lunch each day. As long as we always know where you are, we won’t worry about keeping you in sight at all times. If you sneak off, even just once, we’ll make sure you never leave our sight, even when you go to the bathroom. Is that understood?”
“Yes, sir.” I said with a nod of my head.
“Good, now if you’d like, you can write down a list of your friends.” Bill Bartlett told me with a slight smile. “We’ll do checks on them and once they’re done you can invite them over, or if you have permission from your parents, you can go to their houses without any problems. As long as you don’t abuse it, we’ll even give them a ride along with you, but we are not a taxi service. Is that clear?”
“Yes, sir.” I said firmly and he nodded, his smile growing bigger.
“I understand a young man named Sean Rule is your best friend. Is that correct?”
“Yes, sir.” I answered and this time his smile broke into a broad, toothy grin.
“He and his family have already been cleared, so if you want him to ride to school with you in the morning, it won’t be a problem.” He told me and I let out a small breath I didn’t know I’d been holding. “We’ll be setting up an in-house office downstairs once we’ve gotten your mother to approve a location. Whenever you are in the house whichever of us are on duty will be there. You are to check with us before going outside, or leaving the house. Any problems with that?”
“No, sir.” I answered. For a moment I thought he was going to reach out and ruffle my hair, and prepared to cringe, but he didn’t. Instead he just chuckled.
“Please, call me Bill.” He told me. “In fact, call us all by our first names. We’re going to be getting to know each other over the next few years.”
“Are you guys like assigned to us forever?” I asked with sudden curiosity and all three of them laughed.
“No, but the Secret Service does try to minimize agent rotation.” Bill answered. “I understand you like to run in the mornings?”
“Most of the time, yes.” I told him.
“Well, we’ll either run with you or follow you in the car.” Bill replied with a nod.
“That’s good.” I said with a genuine smile. I’d miss my morning runs. They always gave me time to think. It was at that moment that the phone in my room rang, and I grunted, realizing who it probably was. Bill just nodded for me to go ahead and answer it and I did. “Hello?”
“Oh, you are there now.” Sean’s voice sounded perturbed. “You finally get done with your new friends?”
“I got back a bit ago.” I told my best friend.
“I knew you wouldn’t call me.” Sean said glumly. “Dad even told me I couldn’t go over and see you today. I just knew you were going to dump me as your best friend as soon as you met those guys.”
“Sean, I’ve done no such thing.” I said a little too sharply. Sure, there were three men in the room watching me talk to my best friend, but I really didn’t care. Besides, by the time they were reassigned, they’d probably know all of my secrets.
Well, most of them, maybe.
“Oh yeah?” Sean’s voice was just below a shout, and his voice kept cracking on every other word. “If you haven’t, then why can’t I come over?”
“Because the Secret Service is over here.” I retorted and could see the three men looking at me with interest at my side of the conversation. “According to them, some people are really mad at my Dad and the work he’s doing. They think we’re in danger so they’re going to guard us all the time. I can’t have anyone over until they get approved.”
“Well I bet you need to hurry up and get your new friends approved.” Sean said sarcastically and I let out a sigh.
“Sean Rule, cut it out.” I scolded him. “You’re my best friend and that’s not going to change unless you make it change. I’ve got one friend already approved, and that’s you. They knew to make sure you were approved before I even met the men who are going to be watching me. You’re my best friend and everyone knows that. Now, look, they’re still telling me all the new stuff I have to know, and we’re going to be busy the rest of the night, but you can meet me in the morning. You want to go for a run with me?”
“Are you kidding?” Sean said with a soft laugh that told me he was over his little crisis. “The way you run I’d be left behind in ten minutes.”
“Okay, well they have to drive me to school from now on so you want to ride with us?”
“Sure.” Sean said with a hint of excitement now in his voice. “Same time?”
“Yeah, same time.” I told him and he hung up.
Typical Sean.
“I take it that was your friend, Sean.” Bill said with a chuckle.
“Yeah, I made some new friends today and he thought I was replacing him when his dad told him he couldn’t come over here.” I explained and they all three nodded.
“How about we get the rest of these rules finished…” Bill said before launching into a long discussion about what I could and couldn’t do, as well as what to do if something bad happened. When he finished, I wrote out a list for him with Brian, Brandon, and Trevor’s information on it. He took the list, put it away in a pocket, and the three men left me alone in my room. With a sigh I laid down on my bed, staring up at the picture of Billy Bean and wondered just exactly what all this meant for my life ahead of me.
“I’m not playing football.” Sean muttered the next morning as we got out of the black sedan that Bill had driven to the school. We were twenty minutes early, and Sean was complaining about me playing football. Somehow, Dad had gotten Mom to agree, and he’d signed the football papers this morning. I’d planned to drop them off with the coach, old Mr. Campbell, the former marine who’d lost his right hand in Vietnam, before classes started. When Sean had gotten into the car at my house this morning, I’d excitedly shown him the papers and he spent the entire fifteen minute car ride griping about how he didn’t want to play football.
“Sean, no one is saying you have to play football.” I said irritably as he continued griping.
“Well what else am I supposed to do?” Sean grumbled. “I’m not wasting my entire afternoon when you’re busy with football.”
“I don’t know… hang around your other friends.” I said with exasperation and automatically regretted it when he got a hurt look on his face before looking away.
“I don’t have any other friends.” Sean muttered and I reached out, pulling him into a one-armed hug.
“Dude, I want to play football.” I told him in a much more calm tone, only vaguely aware of the agent now walking with us as we entered the main halls of the school. It was weird, you had to go through these double doors to get to the hallway, which didn’t even have a roof on it. “You don’t have to if you don’t want to. If you just want to hang out and watch practice, that’s fine with me.”
“I’ll look stupid doing that.” Sean muttered.
“Then volunteer to be the equipment manager.” I said calmly and Sean thought about it for a bit.
“That’s not so bad.” He said after a few minutes, just as we were approaching the gym on the far side of the classroom wings.
“Okay, we’ll tell the coach when I drop off my papers.” I told him, moving to enter the gym and dropping the embrace. He just nodded as we went inside.
“What do you boys want?” The gruff, bald, one-handed PE teacher and football coach said as we entered the gym. I smiled at him and handed over the papers.
“You wanted these before I could practice with the team.” I told him and he looked at the papers, making sure they were all signed, and then he looked at Sean.
“What do you want, shorty?” He demanded of my friend and for a moment I felt angry he’d say that to Sean, but Sean didn’t look offended.
“Do you need an equipment manager?” Sean asked him. “Davey’s my best friend so I don’t have much to do after school, and I don’t like playing football, but I could help out…”
“I don’t know…” Coach Campbell said, moving to stand close to Sean. He reached out with his one hand and squeezed Sean’s biceps, looking surprised at what he found. “Dang, boy, you’ve got some muscles there.”
“I work out with Davey three times a week.” Sean explained with a shrug as the coach looked up at me. He was between Sean and I in height, and it was almost funny to watch him look up at me and then down at Sean.
“Well, it looks like you’ll be strong enough to actually carry the equipment bags, so I’ll let ya fill the spot.” Coach Campbell said with grunt. “But I’m gonna warn ya, boy, I expect you to work, not just goof off with your friends, and if you distract the players, even in practice, I’m going to have yer hide.”
“No problem, Coach.” Sean said with a genuine smile.
“Good, you boys get to class, and I’ll see you after class!” Campbell ordered and I turned to leave with Sean right behind me. Sean had a different class in the morning, first thing, so he said goodbye before heading off to that class. We’d see each other later that day. Instead, I took off for the English classroom.
“You made it.” Brian said with a smile as I met him and the other two outside the classroom. We still had ten minutes before classes began, and the classroom itself was still locked.
“I had to drop my papers off with Coach Campbell.” I explained, and saw all three of them smile before Brian let out a whoop.
“So you managed to get your parents to let you do it?” Trevor asked and I nodded.
“Considering the threats to kill us, having Secret Service agents watching us twenty-four hours a day, and all the other crap that happened last night, well I don’t think flag football seemed like that big a deal.”
“Huh?” Brandon asked with a frown while Trevor shook his head as if trying to clear his ear, and Brian gave me a worried look.
“What happened?” Brian asked and I smiled before telling my new friends all about last night’s events, and what they meant for the future, or at least how it affected any plans we might ever make.
As with all my stories, E provides immeasurable input, grammar checking, and all those other lovely editing thingies that make the story so much better!
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| Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 |
| Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10 | Chapter 11 | Chapter 12 |
| Chapter 13 | Chapter 14 | Chapter 15 | Chapter 16 | Chapter 17 |
