She looked shocked, followed by, “How did you hear about that?” She paused briefly and said, “No comment,” before turning around and heading through the White House security gate.
“As you can see, the Chief of Staff of the White didn’t exactly confirm the question, but her response is definitely not a denial.”
The television went back to Tika in the studio. “We’ll have more on this breaking story as information becomes available.” She turned to a different camera. “In other news, could your cat be secretly trying to kill you at night?” Ethan turned the television off.
“Well…” Blayne’s voice said. Ethan looked over to find Blayne standing in the bathroom doorframe. He had a towel tightened around his hips and used another to dry his hair. “We shouldn’t be too surprised that we couldn’t keep the story under wraps for long.”
Ethan’s phone buzzed. He had a news alert. “It’s on the RTN website now. The headline is, ‘FromZERO to Hero?’” Then Ethan started getting a dozen text alerts. “Well, it’s out there.” He silenced the phone.
“The shower’s all yours,” Blayne said.
Blayne
Blayne threw on a pair of jeans and a long-sleeved polo shirt. It may not be the new designer clothes Ethan had bought him, but it was what he was most comfortable in. And for some reason, he just wanted to be his old self for a while.
He had texts from family and friends asking about the latest news story. He only responded to Dr. Reich because he knew she’d worry if he didn’t respond quickly. There was a cheeky message from Jamie. He just sent back a poo emoji. There was a message from Dr. Secada. Blayne wanted to skip that one, but figured it was best to let her know it was nothing and that he and Ethan were fine. He looked toward the bathroom and heard the shower still running, so he went to the RTN website, read the story and watched the video of him throwing himself in front of the President. He had to admit, the video made him look like a badass superspy.
“Dickenson, Blayne Dickenson,” he said in his best fake British accent. “Yeah, doesn’t work.”
A ping sounded. He had a new text message. He pulled up his notices and found a new message from Kira.
Just saw the news.Your fat ass was in the way of the world seeing my arm. What gives?
Blayne chuckled. He thought about what he wanted to say and typed back.
I’m sorry if my perfectly sculpted runner’s ass impeded your arm’s big moment. Next time I try to save the President’s life, I’ll watch my camera angles.
See you in a few. We received an invite to the meeting in a few minutes. Heading up.
Still waiting for Ethan to get out of the shower. Be there soon.
The water in the shower turned off, and Blayne waited for Ethan to emerge. “Well, this should be an interesting day.”
“Anything new?” Ethan asked as he walked to his suitcase and pulled out his clothes. Blayne noticed that Ethan also wore comfy clothes, jeans, a T-shirt, a pullover hoodie and his tennis shoes.
“Kira is pissed that my ass got in the way of the camera showing her arm when I was saving the President’s life,” Blayne said in his most serious tone before smiling.
“No offense to Kira, but I’d rather see your ass any day over looking at her arm.”
Ethan bent over to finish tying his shoes. When he sat back up, he said, “Ready?”
“As I’ll ever be.”
Blayne pocketed his wallet and cell phone before strapping on his smartwatch. “Let’s do this.” He walked over to the door and opened it to find two security guards outside. Blayne just smiled and nodded his head.
“We were told you knew how to get to where we’re going?” Ethan said.
“We do,” the shorter of the guards said.
“Lead the way,” Blayne said.
And that’s precisely how it worked. One guard led the way, while Blayne and Ethan walked together, and the second guard followed them. Blayne was not used to being around security, but Ethan seemed oblivious. As they walked, Blayne wondered at what point in Ethan’s career did being surrounded by security become just part of life. He’d have to remember to ask. Their escorts led them to the elevator. The elevator opened, and it had three people inside.
“We’ll wait for the next one,” the guard said.
The people in the elevator got saucer-eyed looks. One woman looked around the security personnel to see who he was protecting, so Blayne smiled and waved at the obviously disappointed-looking woman.
The next elevator was empty, so the group piled in and one of the security guards inserted a keycard into a slot above the rest of the elevator buttons. The floor where Rawlins was staying could only be accessed by a keycard.
