Secret Service Agent Megan Pete and Normani Hamilton, the President's daughter, return in the sequel to Above All, Honor. Against Normani's wishes, Megan accepts reassignment as the chief of the security detail assigned to guard her. Amidst politica...
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Mac Philips looked up from behind his seat at the main monitoring station as the door to Command Central opened at 6:25 a.m. He tried to suppress a grin but failed as he recognized the tall, trim, dark-haired woman who strode purposefully toward him. He stood and extended his hand with a smile.
"Welcome back, Commander," he said.
United States Secret Service Agent Megan Pete shook the hand of the boyishly handsome blond agent, smiling warmly. "It's good to be back, Mac."
She looked around the large open room that occupied the eighth floor of a brownstone apartment building overlooking Gramercy Park in Manhattan. It had been more than half a year since she had been in charge of the secret service security detail that worked out of this space. She had not expected to return, at least not in any official capacity.
Heading this unit was not a posting that she had originally welcomed after having spent most of her career in the investigative division of the Secret Service, tracking counterfeit funds used in illegal drug transactions. She had worked closely with members of the DEA, ATF, and Treasury Department and, like most agents involved in fieldwork, she had considered the protective arm of the Secret Service a place for rookies. Guarding diplomats, foreign visitors, and members of political families did not interest her. Until now. Now it mattered a great deal.
"Has Dawn arrived back in the States yet?" she asked. She shrugged her shoulders, trying to work out the stiffness left over from the flight up from Florida. She had been in Miami on assignment chasing a trail of treasury forgeries to a network of cocaine importers when the call had come reassigning her.
It was completely unexpected, and the fact that she had been instructed to report immediately bothered her. No one had suggested that there was potential trouble on this end, but then that didn't mean anything. In the kind of bureaucracy that existed within the federal government, with multiple security agencies having overlapping spheres of interest and influence, there were never-ending turf struggles, and even those who 'needed to know' often didn't get critical information until it was too late to be useful. She had personal experience with that kind of foul-up.
She shook her head, dispelling the memories. She wouldn't let that happen here, not with something–someone–so important at stake. She would find out who, or what, was behind her transfer. But first things first. She was tired, but she had work to do before her first meeting with the woman she was charged with protecting. A woman who, she was quite sure, was not going to be pleased to see her.
She refocused on Mac. "I'll need to be briefed before I meet with her. I've been in the air most of the night and haven't been informed of her location."
"She's back in the nest," Mac affirmed, pointing toward the ceiling and the penthouse apartment above that comprised the top floor of the building. "They returned from the China visit late last night, and she didn't want to remain in Washington. They came up by car at about three."
