Undercover by Danielle Steel Read Free Book Online Page A

his daughter with a quizzical look.
    “What are you doing down here by yourself, young lady?”
    “Martha’s sick, and Mommy’s getting her hair done. I told him about the fake blood you got for Brad. He’s not going to be anything.” She indicated Marshall as she said it. “He forgot it was Halloween tomorrow. I told him about my mouse.”
    “I think it’s almost time for lunch, and Mom is going to wonder where you are. Did you tell her you were coming down here?” He sounded like any other father as he asked, and Amelia looked instantly sheepish.
    “She’s busy.” And Amelia loved sneaking off to visit him. She did so whenever she could.
    “I’ll take you back up.” And then he turned to Marshall with a friendly expression. “Thank you for entertaining my daughter. She has lots of friends at the White House,” he said. And she loved turning up at his office. He disappeared to the private elevator, and Amelia turned and waved to Marshall before she got in and called back down the hall to him before the door closed.
    “I’ll come show you my costume tomorrow!” she promised, and he waved as she and her father disappeared.
    “She’s cute, isn’t she?” one of the president’s assistants said, as she hurried past him with an armload of books. “They both are, she and Brad. He’s got nice kids. They come down here all the time. It’s one of the perks of the job.” He hadn’t been enthused about working for the Secret Service, it sounded boring to him, though not as much as what he’d been doing at the Pentagon. But he hadn’t expected the family atmosphere created by the president’s children. Much to his own surprise, he was looking forward to seeing Amelia all dressed up as a mouse. He wondered if the kids came trick-or-treating to the office. It made it feel as though he were part of a family and not just a job, having met Amelia, and he liked it. It added another dimension to his work to see how human they were.
    The president came back ten minutes later and shook Marshall’s hand. “I hope Amelia didn’t give you the third degree. She loves to make new friends.”
    “Not at all. She was telling me about her Halloween costume and the fake blood for your son.”
    “I suspect we’ll be seeing a lot of it tomorrow. Mostly on his mother’s new white couch, and I’ll be in the doghouse. Amelia thought I should come to work in costume tomorrow,” he bantered with the new Secret Service man, sizing him up as he did. He liked the fact that he had been friendly to his daughter and Amelia said he was nice. He looked pleasant to him. “I thought Superman might be appropriate, but I’m not sure how the press would feel about a president in tights.” They both laughed about what he said, and a moment later the president went back to the Oval Office, to meet with a head of state from the Middle East. Marshall had already been briefed that the British prime minister was coming to meet with the president the next day, though presumably not in costume. And the vision of the president in a Superman costume made Marshall laugh. It had lightened the tension of his first morning in a new job, particularly one like this. This was light-years away from what he normally did, working undercover for the DEA. And Marshall didn’t see the president again until the end of the day.
    Phillip Armstrong came out of the Oval Office at seven o’clock, said goodnight to everyone, and smiled at Marshall. “Decent first day on the job?” he asked him. He liked the look of Marshall, and had spotted him first thing, even before the meeting with Amelia, and Marshall nodded with a smile.
    “Very good first day, sir. Thank you. And I enjoyed meeting your daughter.”
    “Who were you assigned to before this?” Probably a past president, or someone similar, the president assumed.
    “I’m actually on temporary leave from the DEA. I’ve been undercover in South America for six years. I’ve been at the Pentagon for