The first in the Honor series, Above All, Honor introduces single-minded Secret Service Agent Megan Pete and the woman she is sworn to protect-Normani Hamilton, the daughter of the President of the United States.
As the tension between them grows...
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"Agent Pete?" a handsome, Brad Pitt look-alike inquired as Megan stepped off the elevator. She was on the eighth floor of a brownstone apartment building facing the south side of Gramercy Park. He extended his hand with a disarming smile. "I'm Mac Phillips. The others are inside the command post. Welcome to the Aerie."
Megan took his outstretched hand, smiling at the play on the eagle's nest. "Megan Pete," she introduced herself. "What's on for this morning?"
Looking around the room, she accompanied him into a large loft space sectioned into work cubicles and equipment stations by shoulder-high particle-board partitions. Their surveillance center occupied the entire floor directly below Normani Hamilton's penthouse suite. A small conference room enclosed by glass also filled the far corner. As they approached the group of people seated within, Phillips consulted a printout in his hand.
"Intro and weekly briefing now. You are scheduled to meet with Dawn at 11:00 AM in her penthouse." He caught Megan's faint expression of surprise, then shrugged. "She won't talk to any of us. She says if she has to discuss her plans, it'll only be once. And it has to be with the team commander."
"It's her prerogative," Megan remarked. As she walked, she made careful note of the video monitors, multi-cassette recorders, and computer simulators.
She eyed the large grid of New York City, digitally indexed and showing up-to-the-minute placement of police vehicles. It was the same array of equipment used to monitor the White House and its surroundings, and for the same reason. The President was vulnerable through his family. To avoid the appearance of that vulnerability, the First Family needed to be shown living as normal a life as possible, not shuttled about by armed guards. Hence, their protection needed to be provided at a distance, with as little visibility as possible. The semblance of freedom was a ruse they all conspired to perpetuate— everyone, apparently, except Normani Hamilton.
"Good morning, people," Megan said briskly as she strode to the head of the oblong table. She glanced at each face, making brief eye contact with everyone. "You have one hour to tell me everything I need to know about this operation, and everything you don't think I need to know as well. Let's get started."
At the end of an hour during which Megan listened, questioned, and issued a few directives, the agents who constituted her team sensed there was a new game in town. Everyone present took their responsibility seriously, for the sake of their future employment if for no other reason, and each had felt the frustration voiced earlier by the departing team commander.
That dissatisfaction was heightened by the fact that they disliked Normani Hamilton, although none of them would ever say so, even to each other. Over the last six months since Desmond Hamilton had become President, the obstructive, uncooperative attitude of his daughter had subtly undermined the confidence of the operatives. An hour with Megan Pete provided them with the first jolt of optimism they'd felt in weeks.
