Graceful Deception

21. Not Really The Way I Thought I'd Be Meeting The President

 Chapter 21

Not Really The Way I Thought I’d Be Meeting The President

 

 

As the scene unfolded before me, all I could think of was that I had to be stuck in a Hollywood blockbuster action movie.  Then again, my life for the past few months had pretty much been an action movie in and of itself for the past few months. 

But as John and I stood in the center of Pennsylvania Avenue, directly in front of the White House, there was a moment when everything seemed so surreal.  The flashing lights of the police cars and the huge spotlight shining down from the two helicopters hovering above were blinding.  Seeing all of the police and military surrounding us, their guns drawn and shouting at us to drop our weapons, I had to blink a few times, just to make sure that all of it was really happening.  That Juliet and the Knights got away, that it was John and I that were going to be arrested.

Because before this, John and I had never been caught, no matter how dangerous the situation was.  And now, everything that happened was going to be international news. 

Could you imagine the looks on my parents’ faces when they saw that it was their little girl who was behind the ‘attack’ on the White House?  Or even what the news itself was going to say when they realized that it was me, Emmy Alexander, the girl who was international headline news for her kidnapping just a few months before?

“Drop your weapons!” a voice called over a loudspeaker coming from the helicopter. 

“Em, don’t say a word, okay?” John said to me as he slowly leaned down to place his gun on the pavement.  Mine was already there, lying where it had landed when Juliet got me.  “No matter what they say to you, don’t say a word.  Somehow, this will be sorted out.”

“Okay,” I nodded, as he slowly stood up again, raising his hands in the air.  I was still trying to compose myself, making my tears stop and swallowing back the lump in my throat.

We were surrounded then, and forceful hands grabbed onto me, pulling me roughly back against someone as they handcuffed my hands behind my back.  Two other men in police uniforms were holding onto both of my arms, but I wasn’t paying attention to any of what was happening.  My eyes were locked on John’s over the one man’s shoulder.  They were doing the same to him, a little more forcefully, even though he wasn’t fighting them at all. 

I was being pushed forward then, away from John and toward a black Suburban that had pulled up behind another, which John was being led toward.  In a matter of seconds, I was sitting in the middle of the two men who’d cuffed me and a man and woman sitting in the front.  And after a signal from someone outside, we started moving forward, led and followed by the police cars and helicopters. 

It took me a little while to realize just where we were headed, but it hit me when we crossed the Potomac River.  We’d stopped traffic the entire trip, but we completely blocked it when we crossed the bridge before pulling in front of the entrance of the Pentagon. 

John was already out of the Suburban that he’d been put in, and led by three armed men inside.  But when I got out, though only led by two, he looked over his shoulder, craning his neck so that he could see me, make sure that I was alright.  When his eyes locked with mine, I could see relief in them when I nodded slightly, silently telling him that I was fine.

I kept my eyes and face forward as they brought us inside, watched by government officials and military, down at least a half a dozen hallway, and finally stopped in front of a door with a security lock.  One of the men that led us swiped a keycard, which slid the door open the next moment.