God of War: Part 19


Lynn Jepsen


"Now, if you could just look at this image here." Toby scrunches up his
eyebrows, tilts his head, and blinks. I think he's made his point. What
exactly are we looking at? "These are satellite pictures, taken early
this morning, over a private airport." Okay, stop tap dancing and tell me
where these images are from. "We're looking at about thirty-three degrees
longitude, thirty-one degrees latitude." You do realize that means
nothing to me, right? CJ drops her head a little though, and squints.
"That's in Egypt." Thank you Map Master.

"Are you telling me my Chief of Staff has been kidnapped and taken to
Egypt?" I think the poor intell analyst actually forgot Sam was sitting
back there, because he jumps noticeably. "Yes, sir." Sam furrows his
brows, and then he stands, bringing everyone else to their feet, and
walks out of the room. "I'm sure Secretary Trinity has already briefed
you on The Wrath of God, so I'll just be...." Toby stops him. "Run it by
us again." That's my cue to leave. It was bad enough listening to Sam
give me the summary.

"Lisa?" Yeah? Carol glances at me, and sighs. "People are starting to
think we're nervous." We are nervous. We just declared war. What are we
supposed to be doing? "Well, it might be a be... calming if, uh, I was
thinking you and CJ should take the kids outside for some games and
pictures on the lawn. Let people know things are still business as
usual." You do realize business as usual is the farthest thing from the
truth, right? "You want a blackout on Josh, you've got to give them
something else." Fine, talk to CJ. I'm going up to the residence for a
moment.

*

"Mrs. Seaborn! What's the atmosphere in the White House?" Elle and Joe
run across the back lawn, getting exercise while the press gets their
photos. Glancing around, I try to mirror CJ's look of disinterest in the
questions being shouted at us, but I don't think I'm having much luck.
"Donnatella! Why isn't you're Dad out with you today?" Can I just kill
these guys and get it over with? Elle is clutching CJ, who was dubbed
"safe" for this particular round of freeze tag, and when she looks up, I
try to cut her off. No such luck. My daughter has not yet learned to say
"no comment." "He's at work doing 'portant stuff." I breeze a sigh of
relief. Then she adds, "Shouldn't you be at work doing 'portant stuff?"
The reporters have the good sense to wipe those idiot grins off their
faces. Ha! Insulted by a tiny tot.

When I finally managed to tuck Elle in bed for a nap, CJ runs home to
take a shower and grab some things for Joe and Toby and herself. It feels
like a year has passed in the last few days. I'm glad Sam's reverting
back to our election policy package. Maybe when this is over, we'll get
something accomplished.

"Ma'am. Your brother sent over that box you wanted." Great. Let's just
hope Paul sent the right one. Zoey slices the duct tape and lifts out a
file of old correspondence. Somewhere in there is a memo about The Wrath
of God. I sent it to Lionel back in either 2002 or 2003. Can you find it?
"I'm sure I can." She pauses to glance at me. "Charlie says Rachel hasn't
been in class since Monday." Well, I doubt she's left the building since
Monday, let alone made it to her night class, but I'll tell her her
professor's worried. "Ma'am, Lisa, you look like hell. Go get cleaned up.
Take a nap. I'll hunt for the memo." I'll be fine. "No, you won't." Fine,
I'll go. Is there anything I should know about?

"Well, I rescheduled your week. You've got a phone interview tonight with
the Post. Other than that, go work for the President." Good. Thank you,
Zoey. "Oh, there was a message from a couple Feds. Trevor and Nathan? I
think that's it. They said it was important." Okay. Give me the number.
I'll call from the residence. She steps out to fetch it, and I have to
wonder why Jamie's kids are calling me. True, they stopped being kids a
long time ago, after all, they're older than Rachel, but that's beside
the point. Why are they calling me?

God of War: Part 20

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