Jimmy cleared Dave through the White House grounds gatehouse by phone and met him half way up the long driveway coming from the White House. Since Jimmy was Secret Service, it was easy for Dave to enter with his approval. They shook hands when they met and slowly turned up the wet shiny driveway and started walking very slowly back towards the gatehouse Dave had just come through. The rain had subsided to a gentle mist that when hit by the light of the ancient lamps on the grounds made it seem like snow being blown in swirls and sweeps. Both men in their khaki Burberry trench coats without epaulettes looked like Bobbsey Twins. Jimmy towered over Dave by at least a foot and had another foot on him in the beam.
Dave said nothing upon meeting, while Jimmy whispered to Dave, “Say nothing, we must get out of here. The listening devices can pick up everything, let’s get off the grounds, past the gate,” as Jimmy picked up the pace and checked both of them off the grounds.
As they quickly moved past the barricades that circled the White House, which were built years ago to guard against terrorist truck bombs, Jimmy started talking, and boy did he talk. He went on for about forty-five minutes until Dave stopped walking and just stared at Jimmy with amazement at what he was just told.
It was no secret that the President was in trouble politically. His polls had sunk into the upper thirties and he was about to lose both houses in less than a week from his blatant disregard of the will of the people. What Jimmy explained was that the very next day, the day after the election, he was leaving for India and for quite awhile. At first blush the front-end of Jimmy’s story was almost harmless until you thought about how long he would be gone and what he was taking with him. Heads of State, when moving across the globe, usually take a few planes and back up supplies with equipment just in case, but for this President to take over forty aircraft with a complete mobile White House including hundreds of support staff and equipment, one would wonder if he was ever coming back. It was as though something was going to happen back here in the States and it wasn’t going to be pretty.
Jimmy had gleaned all of this from reports that he was reviewing since he would be on board Air Force One with the President when they left. The entire First Family, including the First mother-in-law and many friends would be accompanying them. When they arrived in India they would have the complete run of the five hundred and sixty room Taj Mahal Palace Hotel with four pools and two golf courses. All of this nonsense seemed more like Noah’s Ark than a diplomatic journey to one of our biggest trading partners.
Unfortunately, there was now the back end of Jimmy’s information that gave Dave one of those triple headaches that made you want to shoot yourself. Jimmy had overheard a meeting with the President's biggest supporter, and it was about suitcases. Jimmy wasn’t sure who this man was but he had an eastern European accent and was in his seventies. Jimmy was in an outer chamber but could hear everything that was said. This man told the President that everything was in place. They had moved them across the border and it was now up to him, the President, to do the right thing.
Jimmy knew of the nukes from Dave so when this foreign man spoke of suitcases he put two and two together and came up with a nuclear reaction as the 635th day of the Obama Presidency made sure they didn’t forget the dog this time.
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