Detective Danny Cavanaugh 01 - The Brink

security door in seconds. Danny entered the new ten-digit numeric code that he had memorized less than an hour ago into the keypad. There wasn’t a light that turned color and no sound emanated from the door. Danny looked at Sydney. She shrugged and grabbed the knob. It turned in her hand and she pushed open the door. Fifteen feet in front of them was another gray door exactly like this one. They both realized it as they looked at each other.
    We’re back inside the White House.
    Danny walked toward another keypad that hung next to the second door. Sydney followed and the first door shut behind them. Before typing in his code, Danny looked Sydney over. She was wearing a navy blue pantsuit with a cream blouse. Danny had also dressed up for his White House visit, choosing a pinstriped suit with a solid red tie.
    “By the way, you clean up nice,” he whispered. She offered him a funny look, obviously not understanding the American saying. “I mean you look beautiful.” He reached for her and adjusted the ID badge at the end of the lariat hanging around her neck. It had swung onto her back during their short hike.
    “Merci,” she whispered.
    “You ready?” he asked. Sydney nodded. Danny punched in his code. Again, no light or sound. He tried the knob and it turned. He cracked open the door, halfway expecting they had been set up. He pictured the hallway filled with Secret Service agents ready to take them out. But their new partner had promised that he would make sure their entrance wouldn’t be detected by any man or machine. So far, so good , Danny thought as he gazed down the sterile, empty hallway that would take them past Ben Speakes’s office.
    Danny nodded at Sydney. “Ladies first.”
    Sydney stepped out into the hallway. At first, she walked down the hall like the laminate tiles were eggshells. But as soon as she gazed upon Speakes’s door, a confidence washed over her. She looked back at Danny. “We’re going to do this.”
    They weaved their way through the basement hallways of the White House’s East Wing. Most of the office doors were closed. The occupants inside the open ones were too busy staring at computer screens or involved in phone calls to even pay attention to them as they walked by. The few White House staffers they did brush by in the hallways had their faces buried in paperwork. White House or not, offices are the same everywhere. Most of the time, people are too busy lost in their own little worlds to notice what’s right in front of their faces.
    They reached the central stairway that would take them up into the heart of the West Wing. They climbed up to the first-floor landing and Danny opened the stairwell door for Sydney. Of the two of them, her face was the less recognizable. Danny filed in behind her and kept his head down, but he could see a Secret Service agent out of the corner of his eye. He was seated at a desk in the far corner of the room, his eyes glued to a bank of security monitors. He didn’t even bother looking at Sydney and Danny. Danny just hoped that the badges around their necks, adorned with bright red A’s that stood for “All Access”, would continue to be their good luck charms.
    Sydney didn’t hesitate as she scooted down a long, deserted hallway that would ultimately lead them to the Oval Office.
    “Thank God for these badges,” Danny whispered as he caught up to her.
    “I know. But I feel like Hester Prynne,” Sydney replied, keeping her eyes low.
    “You’ve read The Scarlet Letter ? I’m impressed.”
    Sydney briefly glanced at him. “Actually, I saw the movie. Demi Moore played her. Gary Oldman played the minister who was her lover.”
    “Arthur Dimmesdale.”
    “Right. I used to have a thing for Gary Oldman.”
    “I wouldn’t kick Demi Moore out of bed.”
    “Me neither.” Shock filled Danny’s face. Sydney chuckled. “Men. Two words and your penis has now taken over your mind.”
    “Whatever,” Danny replied. Showing her that he was still very much concentrating on their mission, he strode out in front of her as they came to the mouth of the West Wing’s communications office.
    When the president led Danny in the opposite direction through the communications office, the dozen staffers immediately dropped what they were doing and stood tall as their president clipped past them. But now, those same staffers didn’t even glance at Danny and Sydney. They were staring at television monitors, or talking on phones, or typing on