At the age of eighteen, Cutler had entered the Case Western Reserve University School of Law in his hometown of Cleveland, Ohio. The school is among one of the oldest law schools in the USA, and Cutler had excelled in his admission exam to gain entrance to this prestigious school, much to his parents’ delight.
The three years he spent at Case Western were the best three years of his life so far. The fraternity parties, girls, alcohol, lovemaking, torts, contract law, employment law, Latin, sex, criminal law, debates, and more sex, made it seem like the three quickest years of his life.
Every positive has a negative, and every high has a low. Cutler’s was the guilt that his parents had worked for twenty years so they could lay out over $120,000 in tuition fees alone. Now that they had paid most of their dues for him, it had started again for Elisa’s education, and never once did they complain.
The fourth year of law school had been on placement in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where he interned at Saudi International Solicitors, writing contracts and terms and conditions for several oil exploration companies. While the assignment lacked the after-hours activities of the first three years, Max did pick up Arabic as a consolation prize.
At the end of the fourth year, his parents’ sacrifice paid off. Max came out top of his class and was awarded a Doctor of Juridical Science (JD), which in layman’s terms is a law degree with an international bias. Even before the results were known, Max knew he had done well.
Throughout university, Cutler was on the watchlist of scouts from several of the leading football teams in the country, but today the scout who had turned up to see Max had nothing to do with sports.
Following the graduation, and before the festivities began in earnest, Max’s professor invited him to his private quarters. Wasting no time, he introduced Max to the Secret Service head-hunter. The professor, having done this several times in the past, left the bewildered Cutler in Wyatt Rockman’s hands.
Wyatt Rockman was in his fifties, six foot five inches tall, with a typical Marine, close-cropped haircut. He stood upright, rigidly tall, with a military bearing. He wore a black Armani suit, a red silk tie, and sunglasses; a clear indication he was a man of standing, a man of precision.
Rockman had served time in the Navy Seals, qualifying out of the San Diego main base. He was placed in Berlin, Germany, for several years, carrying out missions in the Russian-controlled Eastern sector. Rockman had seen action—too much action—during the Vietnam War.
Rockman and his team had located and destroyed Cuban communication units which were assisting the Viet Cong to move their troops. Rockman undertook four separate deployments to this theatre of war, losing three men in the process.
Rockman rose quickly through the ranks and became one of the most highly decorated commissioned officers in the Vietnam War.
Following the end of the war, the Secret Service began a recruiting program. Rockman was a prime candidate, and so began a long career in the Service.
Rockman’s face beneath the sunglasses had history etched into every line. Although middle-aged, he retained his handsome looks. He possessed a strong, square jawline, brown eyes, salt-and-pepper hair, and skin that had been continuously exposed to the sun, golden brown and thickly lined around the forehead and upper cheeks.
Rockman had developed his skills as an operative firstly in personal security detail, then progressing to recruitment. He had been in the Service for over twenty years.
“The Secret Service has a long and rewarding relationship with several of the leading law universities. The Service actively seeks out those students in law, as well as other disciplines. We look for students with a high IQ and a firm grasp of the subject. We only recruit alpha males,” Rockman stated.
Rockman had been monitoring Max and two other students from year one. The other potential recruits, Lehman and Cooper, had failed to reach his exacting standards. Lehman had broken his leg falling from the window of his first-year tutor’s bedroom and was not considered suitable material. Cooper was reported as using cannabis at a party by one of Rockman’s spies, and he was no longer under consideration. Cutler had had many sexual liaisons at the university. Still, these were all within the parameters of what the Service deemed to be acceptable, and there had been no notices of drug use or deviant behaviour.
Max Cutler chose international law, although the options at Case Western had been vast and varied. He could have chosen a law doctorate pertaining to counterterrorism. The subject included war crimes, communication intercepts, etc.
Cutler was somewhat surprised at the initial approach by the Secret Service recruiter, as he had chosen international law, and pondered the connection between that and the Secret Service.
After the initial introduction, Rockman came straight to the point about wanting him to apply to enlist in the Secret Service.
“The widely held belief in America, and throughout the world, is that the Secret Service protects the president. In short, we are just bodyguards. That is not even scratching the surface of what we do,” Rockman said.
“There was me thinking they just wore black suits and sunglasses,” Cutler replied, humorously but respectfully.
“Yes, we do watch over the president, but we want you for the original reason the Secret Service was established. The Service is the oldest federal investigative law enforcement agency in the United States. The service was created in 1865 as an integral part of the Treasury Department.”
Rockman paused to let this sink in, and then continued.
“The Secret Service was created the same year President Lincoln was assassinated at Ford’s Theatre in Washington by John Wilkes Booth. The same year the Civil War, which had been going on since 1861, came to a bloody end.
