As he walked the path through the crowd that the Secret Service and D.C. Police had formed, if he listened carefully enough he could occasionally make out individual voices. The group couldn’t seem to decide if they supported, or despised him. The only thing each and every one of these people could agree on is that they were very angry about something, even if they did not know what it was. Some were angry that he had to be sworn in at all, some hated him personally, while others screamed at each other.
He thought that perhaps it was different for each person. That was probably it. No matter, this was the start of something, he was sure of it. Things would be different from this day forward.
As he continued his walk he would occasionally shout back simple phrases such as “His vision will continue!”
The crowd continued to grow louder and more energized. It was a feeding frenzy of adrenaline for him. Some of them waved homemade signs, others waved small American flags, while others waved just one finger.
There was one man in the crowd that the Vice President and the Secret Service did not hear.
He was not shouting or waving a sign. He spoke, but it was barely a whisper.
The man, born of Iranian blood, finished his prayer.
He was now ready to take his chance at making history and in the process, become a martyr for the cause.
He fired a single shot just as the Vice President walked in front of him. The bullet entered Vice President Sanders’ head just in front of the ear lobe. It exited the other side along with a large portion of his brain, which was spread, along with a great deal of blood, across the protestors trying to get in close enough to shake his hand.
Blood spread so far, so fast that some of those present would later liken it to a lawn sprinkler. On television it looked like a Jackson Pollock splatter painting was being done in real time.
The mixture of the brain matter, blood, and bone all appeared on live television in all its gory details. The few stations who had been lucky enough to have picked up the feed of his impromptu appearance now wished they had set up the typical time delay in the broadcast.
All stations would replay it, of course. Most did it in a blurred condition. The news crews covering the protest live were just as shocked as those watching at home. It took many of the professional talkers a full minute before they were able to form words once again. None of them had ever dreamed they would witness the assassination of the Vice President on his way to be sworn in as the President.
The Secret Service response was immediate, accurate and lethal. Both the Iranian and the Vice President were dead before the politician’s body hit the ground.
AP NEWS FLASH: The Vice President of the United States was shot and killed on his way to be sworn in as President of the United States. The Speaker of the House was taken into seclusion for security reasons, as he is the next in the line of Presidential succession. The President of the United States has released a statement that he should remain in office until such time as a new Vice President can be appointed rather than ascending the Speaker to the Presidency. The Speaker and the President are of differing political parties. The President has vowed to file lawsuit if this does not take place. A spokesperson for the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court said the Speaker of the House of Representatives will be sworn in as soon as possible.
AP ECONOMIC NEWS FLASH: The US markets were still open when the Vice President was assassinated. Up until that point the markets were flat on a moderate volume trading day. The assassination occurred with 30 minutes left in the trading day. Immediately sellers began to outnumber buyers at a rate of 3 to 1, while overall volume increased to close the day at near record total volume levels. As a result, the market closed down over 350 points. Not a single market sector escaped the downward trend. Traders expect Asian markets to behave similarly throughout their trading session. There has been a public outcry from the financial community for the Speaker of the House, who is the soon to be President, to make a statement immediately concerning his fiscal policy plans. Without some form of press release on fiscal policy the next few trading sessions are expected to be highly volatile.
Chapter Five
Captain Banner was the first to enter the conference room in the Special Operations Headquarters at Fort Bragg. By all accounts it was a normal conference room, just like what would be found at any commercial company. It was a room with a large table in the center, chairs around the table as well as lining the walls for extra seating when the needs surpassed the table capacity. It contained all manner of communications as well as display equipment, only this equipment could handle classified information securely.
Frank happened to be in the building when the assassination took place doing some paperwork and managed to get down to the room less than five minutes after it happened. It wasn’t because he was faster than everyone, but because his office was right upstairs, and he saw it happen.
He was still dressed for duty, wearing an Army Combat Uniform (ACU), and he always kept a full field kit that could be used in any sort of emergency tucked in the corner of his office. He assumed the team was going to be called in on alert as a result of what had just happened, and he wanted to get the room ready for the inevitable emergency briefing.
He was ready, and his men would be ready to go, no matter what. However, if the Army was needed in response to this supposed spontaneous act, as the news had called it, no one would have near enough actionable intelligence yet to know where to tell them to go. They would not know which way to point their weapons and shoot at things that need to be shot, at least not yet.
There was the added problem that the people at the top who would give those orders were now arguing over who was in charge. That, beyond everything else, was a deeply troubling thought.
Frank’s entire life he believed that it never hurt to be ready for anything, just in case. He often said it was important to hope for the best, but make damn sure you were prepared for the worst. The assassination of a Vice President who was just about to become President could be considered an act of war, depending on who was behind it. If it turned out to be some domestic wacko they could all go home right away. If it was something else, they may not be seeing home anytime soon.
He played through the possible scenarios in his head. Given that the public appearance had, by all accounts, been an impromptu appearance this assassination was far more likely he result of a wonderfully presented high value, highly visible, target of opportunity for someone with a gun and a score to settle.
Who could be settling that score would be the mystery questions of the day?
There would be virtually no chance that this would turn out to be a pre-planned assassination.
He almost argued himself into believing that this could be a lone sleeper agent acting out on his own volition, and that he or she just happened to be lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time. That type of “lone wolf” action might occur with an important enough target, and this certainly fit that scenario, but it would have to be a very special operative to have acted and that quickly without orders. This situation was big enough that he couldn’t completely convince himself to dismiss the possibility.
Years of the continuing global war on terror has resulted in far fewer terrorists floating around the world. However, those that remained were battle hardened and committed to their cause in a way that made them very difficult to kill, or capture. In some cases they were nearly impossible to identify. In the long term it was said that theirs was a Darwinian career field. Only the strong survived.