Oak and Dagger by Dorothy St. James

Author:Dorothy St. James
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Penguin Group US
Published: 2013-03-05T23:00:00+00:00

“This isn’t going to work.” Lorenzo dragged his feet like a petulant child. “The Secret Service won’t just let us walk up to the First Family’s private quarters.”

“No, they won’t.” That’s why I had a heavy bag of topsoil slung over my shoulder. Lorenzo was carrying the spreadsheet printout that we needed to show Manny.

The bag of topsoil was our ticket to the third floor . . . I hoped. I wasn’t sure how I’d let Lorenzo talk me into doing the heavy lifting. Why wasn’t I carrying the paperwork while he had this heavy bag pressing down on his shoulder?

“Surely they’ll realize no one starts seeds this time of year.” Lorenzo slowed his step as our destination grew closer.

“Even if one of them does know better, they won’t question us. We’re the gardening experts,” I mumbled out the side of my mouth. “Oh, hi there!” I called to the pair of uniformed Secret Service guards stationed at the elevator that led up to the White House’s third floor. “We need to get this up to the greenhouse ASAP. With everything that’s happened in the past several days, we’re behind schedule on all our projects. I’m sure you understand.”

Neither of the burly guards looked the least bit sympathetic. “Let me see if it’s on the schedule,” the larger of the two grumbled and disappeared into the adjacent office.

“Schedule?” Well, that blew a giant hole in my plan to get upstairs and ambush Manny.

Lorenzo snorted in my ear as if to say, “I told you.”

“I didn’t know we needed to be on a schedule,” I told the guard who’d remained behind. “We’ll just be a few minutes. It’s important that we get the potting soil up there.”

“We can’t bend the rules, ma’am,” he said.

“I don’t have any record of anything happening in the greenhouse,” the second guard said when he returned. “If it’s not on the schedule, it’s not happening.”

Lorenzo snorted and danced from foot to foot like a nervous racehorse getting ready to bolt.

“This bag is getting heavy,” I said to buy us time while I tried to think of something, anything we could say or do to convince the Secret Service guards that we needed to get upstairs. “Isn’t there anything you can do?”

“No.” The first guard seemed to draw an impenetrable wall with that one word. “Come back when you’re on the schedule.”

I was about to admit defeat, something I didn’t want to do since that would give Lorenzo an endless supply of I-told-you-so’s for years to come. But what else could we do? The Secret Service guards looked as if they’d put down deep roots smack dab in front of the elevator doors. There’d be no budging them.

Think. Think, I told myself. There had to be a way to get the spreadsheet printout to Manny.

“Lorenzo! And . . . and Cathy! Just the duo I was hoping to find,” Lettie called as she bounded down the hallway toward us.

The Secret Service guards shrank away from the First Lady’s sister like she was poison ivy.

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