When the tour was over, everyone made their way back to the loading area, the self-driving long-haul trucks parked out of the way of the stage the campaign had erected for the rally. The Secret Service monitored the perimeter and handled the security of the crowd. The campaign had invited local supporters for the small speech in the middle of Los Angeles’ commercial business district. Optics were a huge part of political spin, and Jamie’s family was known as one of the best in thebusiness.
“Ariella says she doesn’t have your itinerary for Boston,” Charlotte said through the smile on her face as they watched Richard huddle with his aides off to the side of thestage.
Jamie fought back a grimace. The Boston campaign rally scheduled for tomorrow had been on the calendar for almost two months, set to take place on the Boston Common. Jamie didn’t like the open-air setting at all, especially with a planned counter-protest scheduled for that same day. The possibility of a clash between the two ideological sides was toogreat.
With everything going on back in D.C., Jamie had wanted to return to base after the speech today and get a handle on the problem. He knew Kyle wanted—needed—some time alone to reach out to his family and be reassured theyweresafe.
“I promised I would be there, Mother. Don’t worry,” Jamiereplied.
“I’m your mother. That’s my job. You’ll return to Manhattan with us after the speech today. We’ll arrive in Boston tomorrow as a family. I had Ariella book Kyle a first-class ticket on a flight to D.C. for later thisevening.”
“Mother—”
“Don’t argue, Jamie. The Boston rally is important to your father. We need you to put the campaign first tomorrow, notanythingelse.”
The no-nonsense tone in his mother’s voice was one Jamie had heard plenty of times before in his life. As much as Jamie wanted to argue with his mother about it, this wasn’t the time and place to do so. Charlotte was never keen on public disagreements, and Jamie knew better than to start an argument in view of the press. The presence of the media was why Charlotte had probably chosen to speak up right now. Their audience kept Jamie toeing the family line better than anything else could at themoment.
“Have you at least taken my concerns about safety to the Boston PD?” Jamie asked after he managed to shake off his anger at beingoutmaneuvered.
“The logistics of the rally isn’t for you to worry about, Jamie. We just need you to bethere.”
Jamie nodded silently, not trusting himself to continue the conversation. He opted to keep his attention on the task at handinstead.
Like all campaign rallies and speeches, someone had to introduce Richard and tout his accomplishments. Today, that job fell to Leah, who calmly took the stage with a smile on her face, applauded on by the rest of them. The location meant the crowd couldn’t be huge, but intimate settings always made for nice optics. With the signage behind her and a sea of supporters up front, Leah played the crowd like the master she was as she introduced theirfather.
A hand brushed against his, and Jamie glanced over at Kyle as the younger man stepped closer, his green eyes on the crowd of people. The manufacturing plant was to their right while the loading area stretched out to the property line. Low-built warehouses were typical buildings in the area, with most of the properties in the vicinity off-limits. Sun Tech employees made up the majority of the small crowd, but their excitement seemedgenuine.
“It’s a little crazy,” Kyleadmitted.
“Only going to get worse once the primaries start,”Jamiesaid.
“Do you think your schedule will change once the race kicks intohighgear?”
“I won’tletit.”
It didn’t feel like a false promise, even if it might be. Jamie knew he could promise whatever he liked right now, but the needs of the campaign would become more intense over the next few months. The MDF would need to account for that, even if Jamie would rather the director order him to remainonduty.
Kyle flashed him a quick smile before he wandered back to where Ariella stood off to the side, close, but not in the area reserved for family. Jamie wanted to reach for his hand and haul Kyle back, to keep him by his side, but knew that was impossiblerightnow.
Leah finished with her speech and Jamie stepped to the side a little as his father climbed the stairs to the stage. Leah gave their father a hug and a quick kiss on the cheek before rejoining everyone in the roped-off area meant for family. Jamie was only peripherally aware of the cameras taking their pictures and recording their movements for later use as his father opened up his speech with a greeting to thecrowd.
Jamie had skimmed the speech on the drive over to tailor his own talking points around it when the press inevitably interviewed him. It skewed heavily toward the economy with a few veiled swipes here and there at Richard’s opponents, most notably the vice president, who was running fifth in polls for the Republican nomination. The last presidency hadn’t exactly been a favorable one during the second term—a lame duck presidency, as argued by the critics—which was why the race had so many vying for theprize.
A few minutes into Richard’s speech, Jamie’s comms chimed with an incoming call. He pulled the sleeves of his suit jacket and dress shirt up his arm, frowning down at the string of numbers scrolling over his bioware. He thought about rejecting the call, but had a feeling Stanislav would just keepcalling.
He stepped to the side, putting some distance between himself and his mother and sister. Jamie ducked his head a little and answeredthecall.
“I’m busy,” he bit out in a lowvoice.
“You have two days remaining,” Stanislav said in cool greeting. “I’m calling to make sure you remember ourbargain.”
Jamie glared at the ground between the gleaming points of his Oxford wingtips. “I’m well aware of the time constraints. It won’t be a problem, even if it seems youhaveone.”
“What doyoumean?”
Jamie lifted one hand to touch behind his ears. The skin over the embedded bioware there was smooth and warm. He angled his hand so as to hide his mouth and the words he spoke from anyone in the crowd lookinghisway.
“I received a nice little warning from the GRU the other night about how I shouldn’t trust you. Care to throw some lightonthat?”
