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Although Tim was officially retired and no longer employed by the CIA, an Agency head coming over to visit was an occasion. Tim wondered if he should wear a tie but decided instead on a suit without a tie. He found one of his old suits in his closet along with a pair of black shoes and a belt. He took a quick shower, shaved, and dressed. He stood in front of the full-length mirror and decided that, considering everything, he didn’t look too bad.
Tim descended the stairs and headed to the library.
Pam looked immaculate as always, although she’d chosen to wear a red dress. Tim thought that Pam’s outfit was a little too showy, but he figured she had her reasons. Pam usually did. Anyway, it was certainly a very sexy dress.
Pam had laid out some hors d’oeuvres on the coffee table and also on a small table in the corner to the right of the bay window. Tim assumed that this was for Mr. Ajacks. The unspoken rule was that Mr. Ajacks was not to be looked at. He would come into the room and watch the presentation shown by Sebastian and then either give a go ahead or an order to kill the operation. Tim was actually pleased that Mr. Ajacks would at least be aware that he was part of the operation. If he were an unknown contributor, the more likely it was that Sebastian or Pam would get rid of him after he’d served his purpose.
Tim really did not know why he was so sure that the other two might want him dead. After all, they were all old friends, and old friends didn’t kill you...did they? For a minute, Tim almost convinced himself that he was just being paranoid; but then he reminded himself of the subterfuge he’d experienced in the last two months. It just did not add up that Sebastian and Pam needed him and only him to develop a killing apparatus. The Agency was full of people who could do a much better job, so why find a guy like Tim who everyone had forgotten about?
Tim saw a pair of headlights shine against one of the bookcases, which indicated that a car was coming up the driveway.
Pam turned to him. “What can I get you to drink, dear?”
Wow, she was really laying it on, Tim thought. Maybe Ajacks believed they were still together. That could be a reason the two needed him...but it was unlikely to be the only reason.
“Vodka tonic, honey,” Tim answered casually. He was trying very hard to play the game. “Do you have any idea who this Mr. Ajacks really is?” he added.
“No, only Sebastian knows. But I have a couple of guesses,” Pam said as she bent over to fill Tim’s glass from the ice bucket.
This did not go unnoticed. “By the way,” Tim remarked, “that’s a beautiful dress you’re wearing.”
“Why thank you, Timothy,” Pam replied, giving him a kiss while handing Tim his cocktail.
Pam only called him Timothy at special moments, and she did seem pleased that he’d commented on her dress. Tim wondered if this would result in another midnight visit.
Sebastian had gone out of the house to meet Ajacks. Pam dimmed the lights, then sat on the couch with her back turned and indicated that Tim should sit next to her. Tim heard voices from outside and two car doors closing. Mr. Ajacks had either brought a friend, or his driver was getting out to stretch his legs. Pam picked up a small remote control from the coffee table and pressed one of the buttons. A movie screen began to descend from the ceiling.
“Honey, I wish you would tell me when you spend this kind of money,” Tim joked, trying to ease the tension. Pam slapped his knee and told him to behave. Tim heard Mr. Ajacks and Sebastian enter the room.
Sebastian first made the big boss a gin and tonic, then returned to the back of the room. Next, Sebastian turned on his laptop, and a PowerPoint presentation appeared on the screen entitled The Adults in the Room. There was no discussion.
Sebastian’s presentation began with a picture of the White House and a picture of the President conferring with various members of the House and Senate. Sebastian began to speak.
“Since the inauguration in 2017, most agree that the Executive Branch of our government has not operated in a professional manner.” The next slide is a picture of a White House Press Conference that shows a number of reporters with their hands raised. Sebastian continues.
“Although the media has portrayed the President as not very intelligent, our analysis tells us just the opposite.” Next, there is a picture of the President looking out of his office window.
“In reality, the President is a very intelligent man with many unique ideas. However, most members of the House and Senate simply do not take the President very seriously.”
Sebastian next displayed a slide of the Vice President speaking with the President. “Now, the Vice President has for the last two years encouraged the President to govern in a more traditional manner. As a matter of fact, we have made a number of suggestions through the Vice President on how the President could better handle his critics in the Democratic Party as well as his own party, but to no avail.”
We, meaning the Agency, have made a number of suggestions? Tim thought. Well, so much for staying out of domestic issues.
Sebastian now displayed a slide of the United States Capital Building and the Supreme Court. “Both the Legislative and Judicial branches have essentially stopped operating. Any legislation which does make it to the President’s desk is vetoed and, to date, Congress has failed to override any of these vetoes. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has refused to decide any new cases. The nine justices are essentially on strike.”
All true, Tim agreed, but so what? Just wait for the next elections. But Sebastian’s presentation had an answer for that. The next slide was a picture of a woman voting.
“Despite predictions to the contrary by the media, our internal polling indicates that the current administration has a better than 80% chance of being reelected. Here are the data points that indicate this to be true.” Sebastian then began to review five different charts on how the Agency had determined that the President would be reelected.
At this point, Tim began to zone out and look over to Pam to see how she was taking in Sebastian’s data points. Pam appeared to be hanging onto his every word. Tim, on the other hand, might have ended up tuning the entire presentation out if Sebastian did not begin to speak of the 2016 election.
“Now, although we were successful in the last general election, the general feeling is that the pendulum has swung too far the other way.”
What? Tim almost said it out loud. What the hell did the Agency have to do with the last election? Tim elbowed Pam and mouthed this question, but Pam just held her finger to her lips for him to be quiet.
“Now for the X, Y, and Z factors,” Sebastian said. “The movements by the groups we refer to as X, Y, and Z are predicted to gain momentum if the President is reelected. If these movements are successful, then the United States of America will divide into three separate and independent nation states.”
To Tim, this had about as much chance of happening as California had of becoming their own country, but apparently the Agency had a different opinion. Tim was aware of these so-called movements, but he never took them very seriously. The X, Y, and Z movements were started in order to give ethnic groups better representation. This effort, which was supported by the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, was intended to make up for years of past discrimination. However, Tim mostly considered it to be a power grab.
The next slide indicated where the borders of these three new nation states might be. For the most part, the East and West coasts would become two separate nations, with the Midwest making the third. Tim wanted to ask if the citizens of the new Midwest nation state would take the name “The United Flyover States,” but he did not think the joke would be appreciated.
“In addition, a number of southern states led by Texas are in discussions for creating their own fourth nation state,” Sebastian reported, and he spent some more time discussing the possibility of a fourth group of states breaking away. Although Tim was sure that many would be interested in the subject, he still did not understand how it related to them and the Agency. Tim reminded himself once again that the Agency was not concerned with domestic issues or policies—unless Sebastian was planning on taking out the governor of Texas. Perhaps the target was in Mexico, Tim thought.
Sebastian continued. “Although these new nation states would still act in concert with one another, it is our analysis that the entire arrangement would be an unmitigated disaster and quite frankly would result in the breakup of the United States of America, which would threaten the stability of the world. Countries such as China and Russia would make serious attempts to take control of the west and east coast nations, and their economies could experience collapses like that of the country of Venezuela. This would result in a vast migration of citizens from both coasts to the Midwestern states. It is certainly possible that the entire situation could result in World War III...but, in the short run, the United States of America would cease to exist as we know it.”
Sebastian clicked on the next slide, which simply said in bold letters,
It’s time to take the country back.
Under that came the words,
It’s time to bring the adults back into the room!
If there had been a group of likeminded people in Pam’s library, then perhaps the room would have burst into applause at Sebastian’s proclamation—but it certainly left Tim Hall feeling speechless and underwhelmed.
Tim looked over at Pam to see that she was nodding in agreement. Well, she was certainly on board.
The picture on the screen now showed the Vice President and many current and former cabinet members. There were also a good number of women and a few African Americans, the usual number of African Americans that the Republicans attracted to their events. There was no picture or mention of the current President. What were their plans for him?
Tim did not have to wait long find out.
“The President needs to become sick, incapacitated, and die,” said the voice belonging to Mr. Ajacks, who was speaking from a darkened corner of Pam’s library. Tim smelled smoke and turned to see a glowing cigarette tip in the corner. Agency heads apparently did not need permission to smoke.
“Of course, becoming sick and then dying too quickly will arouse a great amount of suspicion, especially with the President’s base and the media,” Mr. Ajacks continued, “so it is critical that the President does not pass away too quickly.”
“How long should the President live after he’s poisoned, sir?” Sebastian asked respectfully.
“I would say that the President should not live for any longer than six to eight weeks,” Ajacks replied.
Tim was now in a state of disbelief. They can’t be serious, he thought; yet no one seemed to be laughing.
“So, just to be clear...” Tim interrupted. “...we are planning on assassinating the President because we do not feel that he is acting like an adult?”
Tim could feel the stares of Pam and Sebastian burning into him. Speaking directly to Mr. Ajacks was not allowed.
Ajacks stepped a little to his left so his line of sight was directly focused on Tim. “Well, we can’t just blow his brains out like JFK. That would start a constitutional crisis. We could end up in worse shape than we are right now. We have considered other methods to speed up his demise. The President is a 78-year-old man, after all, but he does have his fans, and we need them to be on our side. This is why we feel that he deserves a slow, painless death which will go unnoticed by the public—at least at first.”
Ajacks paused to take one more drag off his cigarette and a sip of his drink. “The Vice President would step in to handle the day-to-day operations and slowly bring in his own staff to help him. These would be men and women that the public already knows, and by the time the President peacefully passes away, the adults will already be on the job.”
Mr. Ajacks raised his voice. “Everyone, meaning both Democrats and Republicans, will feel safe for the first time in three years. What we need from you, Mr. Hall, is a slow acting but deadly poison. Something that will be hard to trace and easily covered up. Something that will kill a 78-year-old man in 50 to 60 days. Do we have such a compound, Tim?”
“Working on it, boss,” Tim answered, but he knew right away that this was not what Mr. Ajacks wanted to hear.
Pam then spoke up. “My husband is a little shy. We have developed a working prototype that will deliver the poison. It is a type of fork. A killer fork.”
“A killer fork, you say?” Ajacks sounded impressed.
“Yes sir,” Pam agreed, “one that could be substituted at a state dinner. But, of course, placing the fork at the dinner has not been worked out yet.”
“We can take care of that, Pam,” Ajacks reassured her. “When can you deliver your killer fork?”
“Next week, sir.”
“Next week when?” Ajacks shot back.
“Thursday?” Pam asked.
“Wednesday,” Ajacks replied.
“Wednesday it is.”
Pam was finished, and Ajacks was ready to go. “Well, it does appear that at least most of your team is on the same page, Sebastian, so if there are no more questions, I will be going. It was a pleasure to meet you, Pam,” Ajacks remarked as he ignored Tim and turned for the door.
Sebastian got in between Tim and Ajacks, which partly blocked Tim’s view of the man, although Tim was pretty sure about Ajacks’ identity. Ajacks hadn’t gone out of his way to hide that from Tim, after all.
As Sebastian walked Mr. Ajacks outside, Pam gave Tim one of her looks. “I feel like I have a fucking teenager in the house,” Pam said as she began to gear up for her admonishment. “If you have any questions about the operation, you ask me or Sebastian. You do not ask Ajacks.”
Tim turned and began to walk away, but Pam caught up to him and lowered her voice to a kind of mean whisper. “Listen to me. I am trying very hard to give these assholes a reason to keep you around after all of this is over, but you have not been helping. Why is that?”
“Oh, I don’t know, Pam,” Tim began, “maybe it has something to do with me being pulled into a plot to assassinate the President of the United States.”
Pam was getting ready to respond when Sebastian came back into the house. Tim ignored Sebastian and headed down to the lab.
Pam started to go after to him, but Sebastian stopped her. “Let him cool off. I’ll speak to him later.”
“I just want to make sure he doesn’t do anything stupid like destroy the prototype fork,” Pam said as she heard the basement door close.
“Not to worry,” Sebastian reassured her. “I have the killer fork right here, safe and sound.”