Ten Minutes Fast, Chapter 21, "Murder-Suicide at the White House"
The Vice President reacts to the tone on her telephone like a dog whistle. She must be associating the sound with something in her subconscious from some distant memory, or some thought that has been planted there, which triggers a deadly connective response ...
(Author's Note:?This Thomas Baker novel is largely based on true events. Some chapters are preordained with creative license in order to move the story along. This story follows Baker's 'Sunset Playland', 'Sweet Land of Liberty', 'Something for Nothing', 'Exodus Afghanistan: A Personal Story', and his 'Burnt Bridges and Loose Ends'. All of these books can be seen, posted chapter by chapter in their original and unedited manuscript form in search of a formal publisher, on this LinkedIn web page in the "Featured" and "Activity" sections. Some names and places, and dates, have been changed for privacy, personal protection, and national security)
She rises from behind her desk grabbing a pair of scissors from the top drawer. Then, in a dreamlike trance, she walks down the corridor toward the Oval Office. Several White House Secret Service agents she passes in the hallway greet her, but immediately sense something is wrong when she doesn't reply in her usual friendly manner. The agents follow her as she enters the Oval Office where the President is sitting behind the Resolute Desk ...
(the Resolute Desk is a White House Oval Office icon. It was a gift from Queen Victoria to President Rutherford B. Hayes in 1880. This is a nineteenth-century partners-style desk made from the oak timbers of the British Royal Navy ship, the HMS Resolute. All of the President's have used the famous desk since)
What happens next is surreal ...
With an unimaginably insane, bone-chilling scream of "Death to America!" the Vice President, and uncharacteristically for her, throws herself across the desk, lunging at the President with a slashing, stabbing motion, and, still screaming like a wild banshee, tries to plunge the scissors into his heart.
She misses her mark as they both fall over backwards, he still in his chair, and she now on top of him fumbling for the scissors that she drops after stabbing the President in his upper left arm, which is now bleeding profusely ... his white shirt soaking rapidly in red, in a stark and ominous contrast with his blue tie as stars flash before his eyes.
The three Secret Service agents immediately scramble over the top and around to the back of the President's desk after her. One of them secures the scissors, and another pulls the President away from her. The third agent tries to subdue and wrestle the Vice President to the floor.
What happens next is even more surreal ...
The third agent draws his gun, which the Vice President somehow manages to take away from him. And, still screaming the "Death to America!" chant in a loud, high frequency tone, oddly, it's the same frequency tone recorded from her desk office telephone (which is later determined by FBI forensics) ... she point-blank shoots the agent in the head. Stunned, he stumbles backwards as he falls onto the blue Oval Office rug that is already saturated with the President's blood. He's dead before he hits the floor. The Vice President then turns the agent's gun upon herself and pulls the trigger. They are both dead within seconds.
The official White House press release states that, "a male, white, approximately forty years old, armed with a knife and a gun had somehow managed to enter the White House grounds, and had passed through security, and entered the building. He made his way through to the Oval Office with three White House Secret Service agents in pursuit, but he still managed to stab the President in his upper left arm puncturing the brachial artery ...
... The Vice President, who was meeting with the President at the time, was shot in the struggle. It is unclear how and by whom she was shot. A Secret Service agent was also shot. The Vice President and the Secret Service agent were pronounced dead at the scene. As was the assailant who remains unidentified. The remaining two agents took control of the situation and they secured the Oval Office ...
... the White House doctor was on the scene immediately after and stanched the bleeding in the President's arm. The President was taken by ambulance to nearby MedStar Washington University Hospital where Emergency Room doctors there operated, suturing the wound ...
The President's condition is stable, he's okay, resting peacefully, and is expected to make a fast and full recovery. The Speaker of the House can assume the duties of the President, however, the President has already returned to the White House and is back at work and in full control ...
... an investigation is underway."
The nation is stunned, to say the least. Condolences are flooding in from around the world. America's allies ... and adversaries included, as they lick their chops. The military and the Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC) are now on high alert status.
The public and the media are looking for answers while they anxiously await the upcoming press conference. The conspiracy theories are already exploding out of control across social media. It's the far right, the far left, some MAGA wacko. A 'Manchurian Candidate' ... a Lee Harvey Oswald ... a James Earl Ray ... a Sirhan Sirhan. There is chaos and mass confusion on the streets of America as the FBI investigates ... and as the White House scrambles to get its story straight.
The immediate question now is who will fill the Vice President position? The Twenty-Fifth Amendment to the Constitution specifies that, "Whenever there is a vacancy in the office of the Vice President, the President shall nominate a Vice President who shall take office upon confirmation by a majority vote of both Houses of Congress."
Oh, great ... this obviously throws the convoluted and hopelessly partisan U.S. Congress, and the Country, into further turmoil. They can't agree on anything ...
领英推荐
... as Jerome Little Wolf stands stage left in the wings of this historical drama.
Meanwhile, at the Georgetown Medical Examiner Coroner's Office, Baker and Hennessy are trying to determine just what has happened to George Phillips' body. They are shocked by the news from the White House, and can't help from thinking that this is somehow all related.
And they would be correct.
Phillips' body has disappeared. He was apparently shot and killed on Good Friday night in his apartment in Georgetown. He was pronounced dead at the scene by Georgetown police and taken by ambulance to the city morgue to await autopsy. A Detective Roscoe Miller of the Georgetown Police Department was assigned to the case and was anxious to speak with both Hennessy and Baker as soon as possible.
On Easter Sunday morning, however, it was discovered that Phillips' body was missing ... and his clothing, and all of his personal items ... watch, wallet, keys, identification, etc., were all missing as well. The only thing left behind was the cryptic note to Baker, that Hennessy had delivered to Baker after he had left the Coroner's Office on Friday evening. The note was from Phillips. It was in his own handwriting, telling Baker to be sure to continue to keep his watch set so it was always ten minutes ahead.
Baker had an inkling about the meaning of Phillips' note.
It's now weeks later and Phillips' body has still not been located. It's a mystery of dynamic proportions. Hennessy and Baker have avoided talking with Detective Miller of the Georgetown Police Department for as long as they possibly can ... stalling him, until they, and the President, and the CIA, and the other government agencies that involved George Phillips, aka Deep Throat (see 'Burnt Bridges and Loose Ends') could all get their stories straight regarding what really happened at the White House ... and about George Phillips' mysterious and unbelievable yet true ... intergalactic leanings.
Oh, the tangled web we weave ...
Baker and Hennessy are staying at a hotel in Georgetown. Separate rooms. They were asked, ordered, by the Georgetown Police Department, through Detective Miller, to not leave town until the Phillips matter was cleared up.
Meanwhile the tragedy at the White House is playing itself out. The inconclusive press conferences. Mainstream and social media speculation. Worldwide angst. The grandiose State funeral for the Vice President ... and for the Secret Service Agent. The White, male, forty-year old assailant, however, has yet to be identified as he "had no identification on his person" ... "nor has a motive been determined."
It's a warm Spring evening in Georgetown. Clear sky. Baker and Hennessy are having drinks and dinner at a local pub on an outdoor patio. The sun has set. It was a spectacular fiery-orange light show over the Nation's Capital as the sun winked-out behind the distant and broken gray cloud bank. The final act was in full play now as the dusk settled-in offering yet another version of pleasant and mood-setting colors in muted, translucent blues and grays. The ancient and not so pleasant colors of the North and the South. The irony of history. But the cherry blossoms offer solace, and ease whatever tensions this challenge presents. It's a lovely evening either way.
Baker's phone rings. It's Ilene ...
"Tom, I have a letter here. Addressed to you. It was delivered today. Dated today. No stamp, no postmark. No return address. It's written in longhand ...
... it's from George Phillips."
John Kushma is a communication consultant and lives in Logan, Utah