The Oval Office ✓ (Book One)

Chapter Thirty Two

Kyle's P.O.V
                           Three years ago

  "Tell the British ambassador to eat shit and die for all I care. That son of a bitch was instrumental in almost starting a war one week after I took office." I say as I scan over a four page legislative document.

  "Respectfully, Mr.president...I don't.. think that's the best idea. He's pretty  insistent." Kylie says.

  "Did he happen to say what it was about?"

  "No sir, he said I don't have the clearance to pass it on to you." Kylie replies. Damnit- guess I don't really have a choice then. I've been avoiding him as much as possible, only speaking briefly on trade related issues, so I wonder what the hell could be so important that he can't tell my chief of staff.

  "Alright-" I say. "Is there a gap in my schedule anywhere that I could fit a ten minute phone call into?"

  "There's about...  two minutes after Aileen Smith's Job interview but you'd have to cut into the lunch date with your wife. Other than that.. no." Kendra says. She's proven to be a very valuable individual- though her main job is to design and style our outfits, she works as an assistant when the other one's out.

  "Ms.Smith is already here, is she not?"I ask.

  "Well, yes sir but-"Kylie starts.

  "Great. Finish reading over this for me and highlight anything we need to negotiate the senate into  changing before they vote on it." I hand Kylie the papers and walk across the hall, where Aileen's already patiently waiting. The interview wasn't supposed to start for another fifteen minutes, so she looks surprised, quickly standing up when I enter. "Please, There's no need for that." I say.

"Mr. President, I really appreciate getting twenty minutes of your time- I can't even begin to thank you." Aileen states.

"Then don't." I say. "I should be thanking you."

"I..beg your pardon?"

"Look, ten years ago you gave the United States information on a country that is still one of the most secretive to date. With that information we were able to hack into their highly secured phone network and basically forced the prince to talk to us... though they did significantly up their security after that."

"How the fuck did you-oh my god I'm sorry, Mr.President." She apologizes all over herself.

"It's fine-" I laugh. "I'm not your grandmother. Let's just say we have a very talented individual in our hacking department who can get into just about anything."

"....Should I be hearing this?"

"Well we've already done your background checks, so- the real reason I wanted to talk to you today is because there's a job waiting on you if you want it." I say.

"But.. don't you still need to interview me?"

"I don't see the need." I shrug. "You've been screened. You graduated top of your class from Harvard university- top of your class at the FBI academy, have solved every single case you've worked on even when your supervisor yelled at you to stand down. We need somebody like you to fill that empty position who will work for the country and not the president- God knows the last one had his staff by the balls. I don't wan't to be anything like him, so the one thing you have to promise me before I hand you this badge is that you will always do the right thing even if I tell you not to."

"You'd never be like him, Mr. President. The fact that you're even.. worried about that says you won't." She looks at the White House security clearance badge I'm holding out to her. "But yes, I promise."

"Great-" I say. "The White House photographer is down in the garden somewhere. He'll take your picture to add to the badge and then you can officially start working."

"Thank you so much Mr.-"

"And for God's sake, stop calling me Mr.President. My name is Kyle."

"I guess I'll be seeing you around then, boss."

Well that went alright. We now have a head of special investigations again- the first female one and the youngest ever, at just twenty six. I believe she's also the first immigrant to hold that position within the White House but I'd have to double check on that one.

  Lauren. We get an entire hour in the middle of the day, unless we get interrupted like usual. Hell, it's better to just expect that we will be interrupted- but if, on the off chance we aren't, it'll be the first time we've been completely alone together in the past week, excluding when one of us is sleeping and the other's wide awake or the ten minutes we sometimes get in the morning when I'm about to head down and she's just woken up.

With the interview out of the way, and the British ambassador waiting on a phone call, I guess I can't procrastinate the call anymore. I return to my office- where Kylie looks like her head's about to explode. "What is it?" I ask her.

"These racist motherfuckers- I mean republican senators, want to remove the section classifying white supremacist groups as terrorists organizations."

"It doesn't exactly matter what they want." I reply. "Republicans are a dying breed- hell, almost extinct. Seventeen of them left in congress- Only twenty seven percent of Americans still Identify as republicans and eleven of those republican congresspeople don't have good reelection chances. This country is evolving fast wether those motherfuckers are ready for it or not."

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    They've put her in a medically induced coma. They should be here in less than  an hour, but her heart rate is slowing down by a little bit every couple of minutes. I can't loose her too. I just can't. For once her mother and I agree on something, and as we sit side by side, waiting on that inevitable call but not wanting to acknowledge that it will come.

  "Mr.president-" A secret service tries to get my attention, but I give the 'not now' look. "Aileen's here."

  "....let her in." I say after a long pause. "What?"

   Aileen looks the way she always does when she has to tell me something that she can't say with other people in the room.

  "The room, please." I say.

  "Respectfully sir, no." The agent tells me. "You even being here is enough of a risk."

  " it's just Aileen- come on. Nobody in here's going to say anything. What is it?" I ask.

  She glances between Kylie and I, finally breaking. "It's her- she's the traitor, the inside man-"

  "I wish you hadn't said that. I was really starting to like you."