Service agents.
“Oh, hello. I need to get these papers
to President Armstrong,” she said.
“Take them to his secretary. He’s busy
in a meeting with Mr. Xavier at the moment,” one of them replied
tersely.
“I was told to bring them straight
here. And… I just saw Mr. Xavier heading down the hallway, walking
away from here.”
She eyed the men suspiciously, and the
one who had spoken looked taken-aback for a second.
“Sorry. I meant to say, he was just in
a meeting with Mr. Xavier. Now, he’s being fitted for some new
suits, so no one can go in there.”
“But my supervisor said that I need to
give him these directly. She said they’re really
important.”
Both agents ignored her and looked
ahead with impassioned expressions on their faces, and Ari stalked
away. Suddenly, a daring thought occurred to her. Back when she was
a child, her parents had brought her on a tour of the White House,
and they had been shown through this exact part. The tour guide had
shown them a secret door, built by a previous President with a
sense of humor. It was hidden by a fake bookcase, and Ari was
fairly certain that she knew where it was. If she was right, the
door was in the room directly next to where the President was being
fitted for suits.
I really want to see him
shirtless. This’d be the perfect opportunity. She willed herself to do it, and looked around to make sure
that no one was looking at her. Satisfied that she wasn’t being
noticed by anyone, she stepped into the room and was happy to find
it empty.
Okay, that must be the shelf
over there. Please tell me that I remembered this
correctly .
She walked over to a large
wooden shelf that was filled with old books, and looked closely at
the side of it. There it is. I just have to
slowly pull the shelf away and it will open the door.
Ari very carefully pulled on
the shelf-door, making sure that it only opened a tiny bit; enough
to see into the next room, but not enough to be obvious. There he is . Remy was
standing in the room, and it sounded like he was having a heated
conversation with someone. Ari couldn’t see anyone else with him,
and then realized that he was talking on a cell phone. He was alone
in the room, and certainly not being fitted for new clothing.
Hanging up the phone, he threw it to the floor and glared down at
it.
A minute later, Ari couldn’t believe
what she was seeing. Remy was there one second, and the next, there
was a large grey wolf in the room, tearing and pawing at a pile of
papers. As the creature’s claws shredded the documents, she saw its
eyes. They were a pale amber color, and Ari’s hand flew to her
mouth as she gasped.
Suddenly, the wolf turned,
sniffing the air and looking in her direction. It heard me. Shit. She quickly pushed
the door shut, and then turned and ran out of the room. She didn’t
stop running until she was back in her usual office. What the hell was that? The President was there
one second, and suddenly he turned into…. No, it can’t
be.
“Ari, did you deliver those documents?”
Beth asked.
“Oh, no, the Secret Service agents
wouldn’t let me in,” she replied, still out of breath from the
sudden dash away from whatever she had seen in that
room.
Beth sighed.
“I’ll go do it myself, then. You have
to learn to be more assertive. Oh, and while I love the long,
tousled look, I think your hair should be tied up for
work.”
Ari’s hand flew to her head.
This morning, she had done her long wavy blonde hair up in a
chignon, using two bobby pins to secure it. Right now, however, her
hair was hanging loose over her shoulders. Oh no. She realized that the bobby
pins must have come loose when she had jerked away from the shelf
and started to run. Not wanting to retrace her steps just yet, she
hoped that the creature hadn’t found the pins. What if it saw me and knows they are mine, or something like
that?
***
Once she had returned home that
evening, she told Marco about her experience in
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