Undercover by Danielle Steel Page A

wearing plastic vampire teeth, and politely shook Marshall’s hand.
    “This is my brother, Brad,” Amelia introduced them.
    “Marshall Everett,” Marshall said as he shook the boy’s hand. “Great blood,” he said admiringly, and the nine-year-old smiled ghoulishly. Marshall could just imagine the damage the fake blood had done upstairs, some of it was dripping from his face.
    “Are you two going trick-or-treating?” Marshall asked. Amelia looked instantly disappointed and sighed.
    “Daddy won’t let us. And we’d have to take Secret Service with us, which is no fun. We can only trick-or-treat here in the house.” The house being the White House, but several of the employees had already contributed to their candy stash. “But I was in the parade at school,” Amelia said proudly, as her brother knocked on the door of the Oval Office, and a familiar voice invited them in. They stayed in the office with their father for half an hour, and when they emerged, the president was with them, and had vampire blood on his shirt, and a spot on his tie. He looked at Marshall ruefully, and Marshall grinned.
    “I see the vampire attacked you, sir.”
    “Be careful he doesn’t get you too,” the president warned him, as Brad guffawed, and one of the secretaries handed them each a candy bar with a smile as she walked by.
    “We’re going to the kitchen next,” Amelia announced. She was more outgoing and chattier than her brother, who seemed shy to Marshall. Amelia had friends everywhere, and she acted as though she had known Marshall for years, and had enlisted him as one of her many friends. They ran off shortly after, with their trick-or-treat pumpkins nearly full, and the president went back to work, as Marshall and the three other men on duty outside his office stood guard.
    “They’re sweet kids,” one of the other men commented. “This can’t be an easy life for them.” But they barely knew any different life. Their father had been in office for almost two years, so Amelia had been four when they moved in, and Brad seven. And the president had been in the Senate for eight years before that, so this was the only life they knew and would for a while. He was a shoo-in for the next election if the polls held up, which meant that Amelia would be twelve when they left the White House, and Brad would be in high school. It was an interesting place to grow up, and a golden life, however normally their father treated them.
    The following day, Marshall met the first lady for the first time. She was a taller, even prettier version of Amelia, and as shy as Brad. The children were a combination of their parents, and Marshall could easily imagine Amelia as president one day, mouse costume, braids, and all. Their mother was an intelligent, gentle woman, who had been an attorney and graduated from Yale top of her class. She and the president had gone to law school together, and she had given up her career when he ran for the Senate shortly after they married. She was a devoted wife, and had espoused many charitable causes, trying to improve the lot of the indigent, and was a staunch supporter of all the poverty programs, particularly those that focused on children. She avoided all controversy and sensitive issues, took no aggressive political positions, and was a model wife. She was the perfect partner for the president of the United States, and she had learned French and Spanish when he became president, and she was currently studying Chinese. She was forty-two years old, four years younger than her husband. She was beautiful, had a great figure, played tennis, was an expert skier, and worked out with a trainer every day at six A.M. And the country loved her. Melissa Armstrong’s gentle shyness, in spite of her remarkable intelligence, made her especially appealing. Her husband always credited her with the elections he had won. There was something vaguely Kennedy-esque about them, but in a modern, more modest way. They