Story highlights Ryan took secret trip to meet with Romney before he was picked

Longtime aide Beth Myers worked with Romney to prevent leaks to media

All the candidates' records were kept in a safe in campaign HQ

Memorial for victims of Sikh temple shooting delayed rollout by a day

Paul Ryan 's journey from congressman to vice-presidential candidate was cloaked in secrecy worthy of a big-screen thriller.

In the culminating scene, Ryan -- policy wonk, statistics nerd, father of three -- crept through the woods behind his Wisconsin home for a clandestine pickup by a top aide Friday afternoon.

For Ryan, who days earlier had agreed to become the running mate of presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, it was only the latest episode in an elaborate campaign undertaking designed to escape detection before the candidate's formal announcement in Norfolk, Virginia, on Saturday.

Longtime Romney aide Beth Myers ran the former Massachussetts governor's four-month vice-presidential search and played a key role in the cloak-and-dagger aspect of those final days. She briefed reporters on the entire process Saturday afternoon.

The search began in early April with a large group of potential picks. Throughout the process, Myers and Romney were compulsively careful to prevent any information from leaking to the press.

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Photos: Paul Ryan, rising GOP star Photos: Paul Ryan, rising GOP star Rep. Paul Ryan, R.-Wisconsin, was elected the 54th speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday, October 29, after receiving the votes of 236 members. The vote was largely a formality after House Republicans nominated him for the position on Wednesday, October 28. Hide Caption 1 of 25 Photos: Paul Ryan, rising GOP star Ryan announced Monday, January 12, that he would not run for president in 2016, preferring instead to focus on policy work as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. Ryan, the GOP's 2012 vice presidential nominee, has long been seen as a top contender for the presidency. Hide Caption 2 of 25 Photos: Paul Ryan, rising GOP star Ryan, center, speaks with Rep. Devin Nunes, R-California, before a House Ways and Means Committee meeting on March 12, 2014. Hide Caption 3 of 25 Photos: Paul Ryan, rising GOP star Ryan and his wife, Janna, arrive at a state dinner at the White House in honor of French President Francois Hollande on February 11, 2014 . Hide Caption 4 of 25 Photos: Paul Ryan, rising GOP star Willie Robertson of the reality TV series "Duck Dynasty" poses for a picture with Ryan and his wife, Janna, before President Obama delivers his State of the Union address on January 28, 2014. Hide Caption 5 of 25 Photos: Paul Ryan, rising GOP star Ryan speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Maryland, on March 15, 2013. Hide Caption 6 of 25 Photos: Paul Ryan, rising GOP star Ryan greets supporters during a presidential campaign rally with Mitt Romney at The Square at Union Centre in West Chester, Ohio, on November 2, 2012. Hide Caption 7 of 25 Photos: Paul Ryan, rising GOP star Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin speaks during a campagin stop at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines on August 13, 2012. It was the newly minted GOP vice presidential candidate's first solo stop since becoming Romney's running mate. Hide Caption 8 of 25 Photos: Paul Ryan, rising GOP star Ryan speaks after Romney announced him as his running mate in Norfolk, Virginia, on August 11, 2012. Hide Caption 9 of 25 Photos: Paul Ryan, rising GOP star Romney introduced Ryan as his running mate in front of the USS Wisconsin. The seven-term congressman provides a strong contrast to the Obama administration on fiscal policy. Hide Caption 10 of 25 Photos: Paul Ryan, rising GOP star Romney jokes with Ryan in April 2012 during a pancake brunch at Bluemound Gardens in Milwaukee. Hide Caption 11 of 25 Photos: Paul Ryan, rising GOP star Ryan looks on as Romney greets people June 18, 2012, during a campaign event in Janesville, Wisconsin. Hide Caption 12 of 25 Photos: Paul Ryan, rising GOP star Ryan speaks while campaigning for Romney at a textile factory in Janesville, Wisconsin, on June 18, 2012. Hide Caption 13 of 25 Photos: Paul Ryan, rising GOP star Ryan, left, and Romney greet each other on stage April 3, 2012, during the primary night gathering at The Grain Exchange in Milwaukee. Hide Caption 14 of 25 Photos: Paul Ryan, rising GOP star Ryan introduces Romney at a town hall meeting in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on April 2, 2012. Hide Caption 15 of 25 Photos: Paul Ryan, rising GOP star Ryan is introduced before speaking about the federal budget at Georgetown University on April 26, 2012. Hide Caption 16 of 25 Photos: Paul Ryan, rising GOP star Ryan holds a news conference in December 2011 in Washington to introduce a package of 10 legislative reforms designed to revamp the budget process. Hide Caption 17 of 25 Photos: Paul Ryan, rising GOP star Ryan listens as Ben Bernanke, chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, speaks at the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget annual conference in Washington on June 14, 2011. Hide Caption 18 of 25 Photos: Paul Ryan, rising GOP star Ryan looks over papers as he waits for other House Republicans to arrive for a news conference in the Capitol Visitors Center in 2010. Hide Caption 19 of 25 Photos: Paul Ryan, rising GOP star Ryan speaks to the media in 2009 about President Barack Obama's 2010 budget proposal. Hide Caption 20 of 25 Photos: Paul Ryan, rising GOP star Ryan, left, and Sen. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire speak to reporters about the 2010 federal budget. Hide Caption 21 of 25 Photos: Paul Ryan, rising GOP star Then-Budget Committee Chairman John M. Spratt Jr., left, and ranking member Ryan listen to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke testify during the House Budget hearing on the economy on January 17, 2008. Hide Caption 22 of 25 Photos: Paul Ryan, rising GOP star Ryan follows President George W. Bush off of Air Force One at General Mitchell International Airport - Air Reserve Station in Milwaukee on July 11, 2006. Hide Caption 23 of 25 Photos: Paul Ryan, rising GOP star Ryan speaks at a Cato Institute briefing on Medicare reform in the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington on July 22, 2003. Hide Caption 24 of 25 Photos: Paul Ryan, rising GOP star Speaker of the House Denis Hastert, left, administers the oath of office to Ryan at the beginning of his first term as representative of Wisconsin on January 6, 1999. Hide Caption 25 of 25

As the months progressed and the research documents on each possible name grew -- including "several years" of tax returns that each potential candidate submitted, Myers said -- all the paperwork was stored overnight in a safe in a secure room at the campaign headquarters in Boston. No copies were made of the material, and all work on the vice-presidential effort was done in that room.

Four months later, after consulting with "a lot" of other people and a final "gut check" with his top advisers, Romney decided Paul Ryan was his choice, Myers said. That day, August 1, the presumptive GOP nominee placed a call to Ryan from Myers' office in the campaign headquarters requesting a meeting.

The next day, Romney called a man many considered to be at the top of his vice-presidential list, former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, to inform his former rival he had not been chosen. Romney called the others on his short list the day before his announcement.

On Sunday, August 5, the campaign initiated an array of evasive maneuvers.

"We gave a lot of thought on how to make this work undetected," Myers told reporters in a briefing at Dulles Airport in Washington on Saturday.

A major figure in the effort: Myers' 19-year-old son Curt, who was designated to chauffeur Ryan to and from the airport for his meeting with Romney.

Ryan caught a flight from Chicago to Hartford, Connecticut, on Sunday. The campaign asked him to dress casually, Myers said.

"Paul was wearing jeans, a casual shirt, baseball hat and sunglasses and passed unnoticed through both airports," she said.

Curt Myers drove Ryan to his family's home in Brookline, Massachusetts. Romney came down from his New Hampshire summer home, and the two men met for about an hour in the Myerses' dining room.

"It was a little longer than an hour, actually," Romney said. "Oh, we talked about the campaign and how it would be run and talked about how we'd work together if we get the White House -- what the relations would be, how we'd interact and be involved in important decisions. But we talked about our families -- what this meant for them, what kind of challenge it meant -- those are the topics we discussed."

When the two left the dining room, "it was all set," Myers said.

Then, after Romney had left, Ryan received word of the deadly rampage at a Sikh temple in his Wisconsin district. He spoke with his aides about the crisis while at Myers' home, and returned home to Wisconsin unnoticed.

Later in the week, a memorial service for the victims of the shooting prompted the campaign to change its planned announcement. Myers said the vice-presidential event was originally slated for Friday in New Hampshire, but that date conflicted with the service.

So the campaign settled on Norfolk, the first city Romney would visit on his upcoming bus tour.

Which brings the saga back to the wooded area behind Ryan's home. After he returned from the memorial service on Friday, Ryan walked in his front door, through the house and out the back, through the woods, and ended up at the driveway of the house where, coincidentally, he had grown up.

"It wasn't that far of a walk," Ryan laughed in a conversation with reporters on a campaign charter from Washington to North Carolina on Saturday. "I just went out my back door, went through the gully in the woods I grew up playing in. I walked past the fort I built back there."

The Ryan aide who had dropped him off in front of his home then picked Ryan up at the driveway of the other home and drove an hour to a small plane chartered by the campaign at the airport in Waukegan, Illinois, where Ryan met his family.

They flew to another tiny airport, in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, where Curt Myers was again waiting to play a role in the drama. He drove the family to the Fairfield Inn in Elizabeth City, where Beth Myers and several other Romney advisers huddled with Ryan.

Curt Myers picked up food from Applebee's for the group, and Beth Myers said: "Everyone was pretty tired so we did a little speech prep and went to bed."

The next morning a member of the Secret Service met the two-vehicle caravan, and Ryan was driven to the Romney announcement event in Norfolk.

At the end of that day, Ryan was still reeling to take in the life-changing experience.

"It's gone from the surreal to the real, I guess," he said