The Oval Office ✓ (Book One)

Chapter Forty Three

                               Aileen's P.O.V
                              One year ago

"Ethan please tell me you got it this time?" I ask. For the past couple of months, we've been tracking a guy whose suspected as being the main proponent in a Canadian and American banking hack. As our closest ally, there is close coordination on the investigation.

Because Ethan is, however- being pulled in a million different directions constantly, as our white-hat hacker, it's taken him a while to get to it since it isn't absolutely urgent. A lot of the cases they have him working on are life and death situations, and since this one wouldn't really kill anybody, it was pushed to the bottom of his priority list. It's not like we have a lot to work with anyways. A single, distorted baby photo. Two probable names. An incredibly talented artist who did a portrait of that baby grown up, though it could be inaccurate for all we know.

"Yes, so I put the photo through a code reading program to read each pixel, cross referenced the coding until I found pictures of the same baby-" I don't understand a single word he's saying but I pretend to do he can get to the point. "Then I went through birth certificates in Russia, Canada, and-"

"Christ Ethan that's extremely illegal regardless-"

"Illegal schmegle. Anyways, his name is Dominika Volkov. He's on the Russian and Canadian watchlist for hacking a smaller number of accounts in 2009 and is currently... in prison in Canada ." Ethan takes a deep breath after not breathing for over thirty seconds.

"How the fuck did he have the resources to... do what he did then?" I ask.

"No idea. They've got people questioning him, his roommate, and the guards right now." He replies, handing me paper copies of everything he just told me.

"Okay-" I rub my eyebrow. "I'll brief the Vice President."

Kyle's schedule is completely full today, the only "free time" on it being for sleeping, so he'll be briefed tomorrow morning. I hold the file tight, exiting command opps and walking through the west wing to the Vice President's office.

  I knock on the door before entering, stepping back for a second when I see that she's on the phone. "I know I promised you I'd be there but I just don't have the time. The Nigerian ambassador's going to be here at eight and I can't miss that meeting. I can come home for a couple of hours before that though-" She furrows her eyebrows. "Hello? Hello? That little asshole." She mumbles to herself.

  "Relationship problems?" I ask.

  "Sort of-" she shrugs. "My daughter just hung up on me because I can't make it to the dinner we were supposed to have with her dad. God I can't stand him- but you're not here to listen to my family problems. What do you got for me?"

  I hand her the file, explaining everything in it exactly the way Ethan did.

  "Jesus-" She sighs. "The dudes a goddamn genius. Did you get anything else in the time between you talking to Ethan and me?"

  "Umm..." I glance at my smart watch, which some of the investigations team uses to keep each other updated easier, and there's one text.

  Ethan: One of the guards was in on it- snuck him in an entire computer setup that he hid plugged up underneath his bed

  So the prison guards that weren't in on it were just complete fucking morons. Got it. Sometimes I feel like slapping whoever let these people graduate high school.

  For the last couple of hours of my work day, I'm back and forth between my office, command opps, and the Vice President's office. Pretty typical day for me. Sometimes I'll be sent abroad or to different states for investigations, but that's a couple times a month thing. The final time I knock on her door for the day, it's to let her know I'm heading out. "You think you'll be able to leave anytime soon?"

  "Probably not-" her personal phone rings, interrupting her. "Hello?" She answers it, as I can see her blood pressure riding by the second.

  "She did what?!!" Marisol holds herself back from yelling at whoever's on the other line. "Okay- I'll be there as soon as I can but it'll be a few hours. Fuck me." She hangs up.

  What's..wrong?" I ask.

  "My nanny quit because my daughters are being goddamn nightmares. Now the secret service are going to have to put them to bed even though that's not what they signed up for." She leans on her hand, trying to rub a headache out of her temples.

  "Well I'm sure they knew that... every single day would be different, but I can go.. get them to bed if you want." I suggest. I don't like being in my apartment. It's too empty and lonely- anything I can do to avoid that place, I'll do.

  "You don't have to-"

  "I want to. I don't have anything else to do." I shrug.

  "Are you not exhausted? You've been here since six am and it's eight thirty, I don't want to cut into your sleep."

  "Marisol- seriously, I'm fine."I say.

  "Okay-" She reaches into a locked desk drawer, pulling an access card out of a stack of them. "Thank you."

  "Don't mention it." I shrug. I may not ever want my own children, but others usually don't bother me. I just hope to god they aren't as bad as she says they are, since people are normally overdramatic when it comes to their own kids. On the drive over to the Vice President's residence, I blast imagine dragons, the windows slightly down.

  It's nights like these, after I've helped bring down somebody like that hacker, that I'm able to push my daughter out of my mind. I wonder how she's doing sometimes. Have nightmares other nights. I haven't seen her on the news once, which wouldn't have been weird in the past. Back when I was there, from what I could gather, nobody knew exactly who was in the royal family expect for the king and a few high ranking government officials from other countries. Now, however, with the internet and ballsy ass reporters who have gone as far as to infiltrate the country- however the fuck they manage to do that, Ordaia's royals are known.

  So it isn't looking good for her, but I still hold out hope. Hope that she's still alive- hope that I might see her again someday.

  When I arrive at the gated residence, I show the card and my face to the agent, who lets me through. "You're a saint." He sighs. "Those kids are about to drive people who are trained not to react to anything crazy." He looks around like he's worried somebody heard him. I motion to say 'I heard nothing' and drive through. Another agent opens the door for me, that same 'good luck calming those kids down' look on his face.

  I hear the screams and giggles of two 5-10 ish year olds in the other room. Fun.

  "Alright, stop trying to climb up my leg now, it's bedtime." An agent says, his voice even yet exhausted.

  "I don't wanna!" The child suddenly screams.

  "HEY!" I say. "Stop that, now! It is your bedtime which means you will go brush your teeth and put your pajamas on right now."

  "..And who are you?" The older one says, in a Cinderella dress.

  "I'm a friend of your mother's." I say. "My name's Aileen."

  "That's not true-" the older one says. "Mommy doesn't have friends."

  "Maybe not very many." I reply. "But she has me."