'Well,' she began, allowing a faint grin to pull at one corner of her mouth. 'At least I won't have to learn any new names. And we can skip all the introductory bull and get down to business.' She looked down the room to where Mac sat with a pile of memoranda in front of him, and said, 'Mac?'
'Nothing new planned on the foreign front until the trip to Paris with the Vice President and his wife next month.'
Cam nodded, settling into her chair with her PDA. 'Right. We'll need advance information on motorcade routes, local hospitals, and transit lines for each day's events. That should all be in the data base. I assume they'll be staying at the Hotel Marigny, where state visitors always stay. That needs to be confirmed.' She turned to the sandy-haired collegiate looking man on her left who happened to be fluent in nine languages, with a working command of seven others. 'Are you still doing the advance work on the foreign travel, Riley?'
'Yes ma'am.'
'Then you can contact the secretary at the Protocol department in Paris to review the scheduled functions. Charity dinners, museum outings - whatever they have planned.' The French were notorious for changing itineraries at the last minute, and Paris was an international city where terrorism was a very real threat. 'Keep after them. Make sure we're current by the time we're in the air. I don't want to be surprised.'
Riley nodded and made notes while Cam signaled Mac to continue. He shuffled some printouts and said, 'Domestically, there's the opening of the Rodman gallery in San Francisco in two weeks.'
'Where's she staying?' Cam asked absently, her mind still on the Paris details.
'We don't know yet,' Mac answered uncomfortably.
Cam looked up, her eyes narrowing. 'You don'tknow ? She must have reservations by now. Who's handling her itinerary?'
Mac blushed but kept his eyes on hers. He had forgotten how unforgiving she could be about any breach in protocol. He prepared to be dressed down. 'She is.'
'She is,' Cam repeated in disgust, struggling with her temper. She knew damn well it wasn't Mac's fault. She stood, closing her electronic notebook. 'Is there anything pressing that the team needs to discuss this morning, Mac?'
'No ma'am,' he said briskly.
'Who's heading the day shift?' she asked.
'I am, ma'am,' a petite, dark-haired woman in her late twenties answered.
Cam nodded. After one nearly career-ending lapse in judgment, Paula Stark had proven herself to be cool and levelheaded, an invaluable asset for a member of the shift that spent the most time in direct contact with Blair Powell, the First Daughter.
'Fine. Then go get your detail organized. Mac, if I might speak with you please.'
Chairs scraped as agents hastened to get out of the conference room. They'd all seen Roberts take people apart if she felt they had been lax in guarding the President's daughter. No matter how difficult Blair Powell might make that job.
When they were alone, Cameron looked at Mac and raised an eyebrow. 'Okay, Mac. You want to tell me what the hell is going on? First I get called back with no explanation and no notice. Then you suggest that Egret is bypassing normal security protocols. What else is going on that I don't know about? I can't work in the dark here.'
He blew out air and shrugged. 'I'd tell you if I could, Commander. I don'tknow why you've been recalled. No one reported any problems to me, either about my command, or anything else.' He looked across the table into Cam's remote, dark eyes and chose his words carefully. He liked her, he respected her, he was happy to serve under her. But they weren't friends. They didn't share personal confidences. He didn't know, for sure, what her past with the First Daughter had been. 'Ms. Powell is -' He shrugged again, looking exasperated, and continued, 'Ms. Powell is difficult.'
Cam almost smiled at that enormous understatement. She remained silent, watching him, waiting for the rest.
'She remains very reluctant to reveal her plans or destinations. She refuses to discuss personal - uh, relationships, so we have no intelligence regarding potential threats from that area. She slips our surveillance -' He halted at the soft curse from Cam, and then added quickly, 'not very often, but it happens.'
'You reported that?' Cam said wearily, rubbing her face briefly.God, Blair is stubborn, she thought. But she couldn't blame her, not really. Living under the constant scrutiny of strangers was wearing, even under ordinary circumstances. And Blair Powell's circumstances were far from ordinary.
Mac straightened. 'No ma'am, I did not.'
She stared at him hard. 'Reasons?'
That kind of breakdown in security usually demanded a change of personnel and reassignment of the agents involved, often with demotions. But she knew Mac Phillips, and she knew he wouldn't circumvent regulations just to save his own skin.
He met her gaze directly, and his voice was steady and sure. 'Because she works with us most of the time, and I made the command decision that she was safer with us than with replacements she might not trust. Even if there were some problems.'
Cam nodded agreement. She had made similar choices where Blair was concerned herself. Had she been asked, she wouldn't have been able to defend herself, not according to regulations. But then you couldn't deal with Blair Powell by the book.
'I guess I'd better inform Egret that I'm here,' Cam said, rising. She studied Mac briefly, wondering just how much he knew. 'I'll review the plans for the remainder of the week with you later.'
He stood. 'Yes ma'am.'
As he watched her walk out, he understood that the subject of his breach in protocol was closed. Whoever
