Eve In Utopia

Chapter Nine

"Yes sir, I understand completely," said Bryce as he disconnected from the phone call and tossed his phone onto the table in disgust. "I don't understand it," he snarled.

"Which is it?" asked Dan McDonald as he and Angie Wong had been witnesses to one side of Bryce's conversation as the call had come in the middle of their morning planning meeting.

"Which is what?" demanded Bryce crossly.

"Whether you understood what you were being told," replied McDonald patiently, "and for that matter, what the hell it was you did or didn't understand."

Bryce stared at the RCMP Liaison Officer for a few seconds and then gave his head a shake as if trying to reset his thoughts. "That was Ian Franklin, my boss."

"I think we gathered as much," agreed McDonald who glanced over at Angie who gave a slight nod of her head. Unlike McDonald, she had to report to Bryce Turner and through him to Ian Franklin, so she didn't feel like doing any bear baiting, since she still had some career aspirations.

"Normally, Franklin would travel with the President and be in charge of his travel security detail then continue in charge of security during his stay here. Angie and I would stay for the duration of the President's visit in a support role, but when he went back to Washington, my team would go on to the next location the President is due to visit and start our work there. If the President isn't leaving Washington for a few weeks, we might get a few days off before heading out. In this case, the President is supposed to go to Boston next week, so that's where my team would go.

"But that's not happening that way this time?" asked McDonald.

"No, and that's what I didn't understand," answered Bryce. "Franklin says he has some urgent business that keeps him in Washington, so he can't accompany the President on this trip. Jill Baxter will be in charge of the actual trip here on Air Force One, but she is new and Franklin doesn't think she has the seniority and experience to look after the entire visit. He wants me to take over security from her from the moment the plane lands until it leaves."

"That doesn't sound so odd to me," admitted McDonald with a shrug.

"I suppose it isn't, except Franklin was very evasive about why he needs to stay in Washington. I got the feeling that he expects something to happen there that will require his presence." Bryce gave a shrug, "Well, there is nothing we can do about it, so let's continue with our meeting. Just to update you fully, Air Force One is scheduled to leave in about three hours and depending on headwinds, it is scheduled to land in Victoria about four hours later. That's the nearest airport that can accommodate Air Force One and from Victoria, the President's party will take a special ferry to the resort. What do you have for me?"

"I've got some good news and one weird one, which do you want first?" asked McDonald glancing at his iPad.

"Give me the weird one first, I could use a laugh," replied Bryce as he looked longingly at the last chocolate dip donut left in the box.

"Housekeeping found a naked man this morning when they were cleaning rooms," said McDonald.

"What's so weird about that?" asked Bryce with a roll of his eyes.

"He was tied up and painted pink," supplied McDonald who had been fishing for that question. "There was also a bottle and a note on the nightstand with the note saying it was full of a date rape drug which tests have confirmed already."

"I assume security cameras have been checked?" inquired Bryce with a frown. The incident didn't sound like anything that would impact on his work, but he had learned the hard way to distrust anything out of the ordinary.