Chapter Eleven – Into Motion
Seeing the hustle and bustle in the hanger as the soldiers prepared to leave for France was a gentle reassurance to Elizabeth. She stood back for a moment, allowing their actions to remind her that these were competent, experienced men. They could succeed in this plan. They could bring her daughter home.
"Ma'am?"
Elizabeth pulled her eyes away from the continuing preparations and found herself face to face with one of the men from Special Forces. She hadn't even noticed him come up to her.
"Admiral Hill informed me yesterday that you wanted to speak to me before we deploy."
"You're the commander of this force?"
"Yes, Ma'am. Captain Jordan Ames of the Marine Corp Special Forces. I want to assure you, Ma'am, that we understand the importance of our mission. My men have the skills to complete it, and we're going to bring our people home."
Elizabeth smiled at him. She knew that they would do everything in their power to make this mission a success, but she had to remind them of how important their mission was regardless. A little bit of extra incentive never hurt.
"Thank you, Captain. I know that you and your men will give your all to this mission, but I'm going to ask you to forgive me for saying what I feel like I must anyway. Do whatever you have to do to save those hostages. I need beyond your best today because I'm leaving one of the most precious parts of my life in your hands."
The captain's forehead wrinkled in confusion.
"Ma'am?"
"My little girl is one of the hostages, Captain. Please, please do everything you can to bring her back to me."
Elizabeth's voice caught slightly, but she managed to keep herself together. She was here mostly in her capacity as Secretary of State so she couldn't fall completely into the role of scared mother.
Ames' eyes widened briefly before his face smoothed over in the traditional military mask.
"Madam Secretary, I give you my word that I will do everything in my power to see to it that your daughter and the rest of the hostages get home safely."
"Thank you, Captain Ames."
His posture relaxed somewhat and he nodded to her.
"Of course, Ma'am. Is there anything else that I can do for you?"
"Ah, actually…" Her hand slipped into her pocket and she caressed the worn fur of the small stuffed animal tucked away in there. "I know it's completely ridiculous and I shouldn't be asking, but when you see my daughter will you give this to her?"
She pulled Stevie's old rabbit out of her pocket and stroked its head. There were so many memories associated with the ridiculous little thing. The rabbit brought a slight smile to her face, but it quickly faded when she looked back up.
"I can't imagine how utterly terrified Stevie is. And I know that she's twenty, but maybe this will bring her some comfort anyway."
Ames grinned and took the small toy from Elizabeth.
"I'm sure it will, Ma'am, and it will remind her that her mother is still looking out for her. I'll be sure she gets it."
"Thank you. I'll let you get back to your men now. Good luck."
"Thanks for the luck,Ma'am, but don't worry. We're marines. We make our own luck."
"I'm counting on you, Captain, and I'll hold you to your word," Elizabeth said as she headed back toward her car.
The rescue mission was almost completely in the marines' hands now, but there were still a few things she needed to do. Rumors weren't going to spread themselves.
O . o . O . o . O
"Good morning, Ma'am," Blake greeted as Elizabeth reached her office. "You look better today."
"Because our marines are in the air, Blake."
"Should I be expecting a call when they reach France, Ma'am?"
"Yes, and I would like to make sure that I'm here when that happens."
"Of course, Ma'am. You aren't expected anywhere except for the situation room once the marines reach Nigeria. Everything else can be handled in your office."
"Good. I have one last thing to set up for this rescue mission, so please make sure I'm not disturbed."
"Yes, Ma'am."
Elizabeth stepped into her office and set her coat and bag aside. Before she did anything else she wanted to let Henry know the marines were on their way. He was just as worried about Stevie as she was and deserved whatever updates she could give him.
She had just finished texting her husband when the door to her office burst open. Daisy strode into the room with Blake right behind her, desperately trying to stop her. He was a little bit late for that.
"Really, Blake?" she asked, rather exasperated.
"I'm sorry, Ma'am. I couldn't stop her."
"Honestly, Daisy? What could be important enough for you to come barging in here?"
Elizabeth doubted it had anything to do with the hostage situation. If it had her entire staff would be here.
"This is important, Ma'am. Roger Burke is rather upset that you keep pushing back your meeting with him. He's threatening to make waves for you, claiming you're ignoring important US interests and are engaging in some sort of hidden business."
"Roger Burke? That pharmaceutical guy who wants to expand business into Mexico, altering a whole variety of laws until they fit his desires while he does?"
"That's… relatively accurate actually," Daisy confirmed.
"So handle him, Daisy. He's the least of my concerns when we're still dealing with a hostage situation in Nigeria."
"I've tried, Ma'am, but unless you want to tell him about the hostage situation I don't have any explanation for why you can't meet with him."
Elizabeth stared at her, utterly amazed that Daisy was really doing this. Was she actually going to have to handle this situation herself? Really?
"Alright, Daisy. It will take another five hours for the marines to get to Paris. Go ahead and have Blake set up a meeting."
"Yes, Ma'am."
"But Daisy," Elizabeth added. "You better make sure that stopping this company from moving to Mexico won't cause any complex problems that I don't know about because I have every intention of telling our dear friend Roger that he can go screw himself."
Elizabeth almost relished the stunned look on Daisy's face. She seemed to have rendered her press coordinator speechless. The expression on Blake's face was rather priceless too. She would peg it as somewhere between scandalized and amused, or maybe a mixture of the two. It was kind of adorable.
"I… um…" Daisy began, clearly somewhat caught off guard. "I will look into that for you, Ma'am."
"Good because I have more important things to do than worry about how to maximize the profits in Mexico, whether it's through legal channels or not."
There was no reason she should even have to say that really.
"And how did this guy manage to get a meeting with me in the first place?" she added.
"Ah, he has a lot of money and friends in high places," Daisy explained.
"Of course he does."
Sometimes Elizabeth really despised DC politics. All too often it was ego and money that ruled instead of actual need or ability. It meant she was stuck dealing with unimportant issues and people playing their own agendas like Roger Burke.
"Ma'am," Daisy pressed. "May I ask what you plan on doing if he won't accept your answer?"
"Do you think I could trade him to the rebels for our hostages?" she asked with an amused grin. "He's got to have a net worth around three million."
"That's actually a very scary proposition, Ma'am. You'd be bringing two morally challenged, profit-centric fools together," Blake told her.
She hadn't even thought of that, and it was a rather scary thought now that she had even though she hadn't been even remotely serious when she'd offered the suggestion.
"God, you're right, Blake. I don't even want to consider the type of horrors that could present. Okay, giving him to the hostages is definitely out. I'll have to come up with another option if he won't accept my decision."
Blake had clearly found that suggestion somewhat humorous, though he'd kept that mostly hidden and had played along in mock seriousness. Daisy, however, didn't find anything funny about the discussion.
"In all seriousness, what do you plan on doing?"
Elizabeth sobered and looked up at Daisy, her expression completely business-like.
"Honestly, Daisy, I rarely have a problem getting people to leave my office when I really want them to go. And now I'm going to use that talent and ask you to leave so I can get some work done on topics of real concern."
"Yes, Madam Secretary," Daisy replied before immediately turning and leaving the office.
Blake watched her go before turning back to Elizabeth. He was the one responsible for keeping her from work. If he had managed to keep everyone out of her office as she'd asked him she could have been much farther along on the final preparations for the hostage rescue plan.
"I'm truly sorry, Ma'am," he began.
"It's fine, Blake. Let's forego the apologies so we don't waste any more time."
"Yes, Ma'am. I will leave you to it."
Elizabeth waited until the door closed behind Blake before picking up her phone. Before dialing she hesitated a moment longer, fully expecting another disturbance to turn up. She appeared to be free and clear though – at least for the moment – so she took the opportunity to get the last piece of the puzzle started.
"Isabelle, I hope you and your Nigerian sources are ready for some good old fashioned rumor spreading because we're about ready to go."