“The tidbits of information we have are, what I am going to say should be assumed to be the various intelligence services’ ‘best guesses’ for the moment.
“The assassin’s name came up on a CIA list as a ‘person of interest.’ While his official profile is not large, it does suggests that he was a sleeper agent who has been in the country for years. This was a rare guy. He was an Iranian immigrant, and received U.S. citizenship years ago. He managed to get on the ‘suggested ties to terrorist organizations’ list after becoming a citizen and stay on it for fifteen years without tipping the scales to a full blown investigation and surveillance of his activities. I think we can now say for sure that he was much more than just loosely connected with some very bad people.
“It is assumed by our people that when the protest started he joined in, probably just for kicks. He lived in the local area and it wouldn’t have been a big effort for him to get there. The weapon he used was purchased legally from a local vender, and prior to his name showing up on any of our watch lists. He bought it legally, and he carried it illegally. We also know that the weapon was a four-inch barrel, 357-magnum pistol. It’s a miracle he didn’t hit someone in the crowd as the bullet exited Vice President Sanders’ head.
“The Vice President had on the required bullet proof vest, but as we saw on television, it was a head shot, rendering the armor useless. This could not have been planned. It had to be a target of opportunity. The now deceased Vice President made the decision in the car to get out and walk. The Secret Service agent with him advised against it, as did his Chief of Staff, but the man insisted on not turning around, and to get out and walk the last bit of the way to the White House,” he paused briefly before continuing, appearing to gather his thoughts.
“If you have not already heard, there is now a new President. This officially took place roughly fifteen minutes ago. The former Speaker of the House, Scott Press, is now the President of the United States. The top sheet intel on him says that after he left the Army as a Sergeant in the field artillery, he went to college, graduated, started a company, built it up, sold it off which made him rich, then ran for, and was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. He has routinely voted in a pro-military fashion during all of his terms in that office. It finally looks like we will get some support from above with this one.”
The Colonel looked at his watch before continuing, “Finally,” he said with a smirk, “you will notice that no official alert has gone out. I commend you all for your absolute dedication to duty, and for hauling your butts back here after being dismissed for the day. There will be no alerts as a result of this action, at least not today.
“At some point soon we will probably be deployed. However, I doubt it will be as a direct response to this unplanned and unprovoked action. There will likely be a next thing. With all the confusion we have at the top right now someone, somewhere, is going to attempt to exploit it. Hopefully we can figure out who, what, and where. Then, hopefully, we can get in there and stop them before it happens.
“Remember, our new President is of a different political party and probably about one hundred and eighty degrees away from our previous one in many policy areas. He is likely to fire every member of the previous Cabinet and most of the high-level people in the administration. This kind of rapid, unexpected change in leadership is something that, from a military perspective, can easily be taken advantage of. We will need to be a little bit extra on our toes for the foreseeable future.
“Some leader of one of our enemies is going to figure out that this is their chance, and move on some target. How do I know, you ask? If I were them, that is exactly what I would do if I were assigned the task of finding a way to achieve an objective against an enemy with a vastly superior military strength.
“Remember my words gentlemen. We will be busy, so stay close. When you go home please tell your families to ignore much of what is on the nightly news. We have better intelligence sources, and we don’t know jack shit.
“Don’t let them get all worked up about things that may or may not happen just because some pressed suit wearing jackass with a $200 haircut, who happened to know some news producer who got him a job in front of a camera is trying to predict what would happen next, with accuracy only marginally better than the drunk guy down at the local bar, or the weatherman,” there was a polite smattering of laughter, “Dismissed!”
AP NEWS FLASH: The Speaker of the House, Scott Press, was sworn in as President of the United States in a private ceremony, hastily held. The now former President has said that this is a usurpation of power and claims the American people are on his side, and that the former Speaker is not the lawful President. The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court performed the swearing-in. This fact leaves the former President’s claim on shaky Constitutional ground. <STORY DEVELOPING>
AP ECONOMIC NEWS FLASH: As a result of the assassination of the Vice President the Asian markets experienced a heavy selloff. These markets began to stabilize, and even regain some ground when it was announced that Scott Press had been sworn in as President. However, as soon as the former President publicly claimed that President Press had usurped power the markets again turned downward on speculation of instability in the United States. This caused some erratic market trends across the past 45 minutes. The trend now is almost uniformly downward. Any instability in the leadership of the United States, given the decades of global economic leadership, will likely cause adverse effects on every market across the globe. Economists, worldwide, are calling for President Press to come out immediately with an economic statement to settle investor fears. <STORY DEVELOPING>
Chapter Six
President Scott Press looked directly at the television camera. He was sitting in the Oval Office trying hard not to appear nervous. He kept thinking that the events responsible for putting him here had to be a bad dream. Surely he would wake up any second now.
How could he, of all people, have become the President of the United States today?
The situation made absolutely no sense.
It had to be a dream, there was no other explanation.
This speech was going to be his first official action since being sworn in. He was sitting behind the desk in the Oval Office, now his desk, in his office, in the White House. He could feel the pressure closing in around him as he sat there preparing to address the American people.
He corrected himself. This wasn’t just the American people. Many people from all over the world would watch this one.
He was as confused as everyone else seemed to be at the moment.
He wondered how some of the people here treat this room just like any other room. Didn’t they realize where they were?
Prior to today it was an office he had only seen on television. Assuming he didn’t wake up in a cold sweat, he wondered just how long it would take for him to think of it as his office.
He scolded himself. He should never consider this as his office. This was an office that truly belonged to the American people, whom he was here to serve. He was merely a temporary steward, lucky enough to sit behind this desk.