54

Washington, DC

Speaker of the House Vit Linder reclined in his squeaky leather chair in his too-small Longworth House Office Building. He hadn’t been offered an upgrade when he’d been elected Speaker. Subsequently, the office did not reflect his importance.

That would soon be rectified.

Can’t beat the Oval Office for lighting.

In the meanwhile, his current headquarters were the perfect place to receive the news of the death of the president or the vice president. He guessed Clancy would only kill one, but he wasn’t sure. In the end, it wouldn’t matter. Either Clancy followed orders and made Vit president, or he told on Vit and the Order marked him as stupid. Either scenario worked for Vit.

People always underestimated him.

Always.

Not for much longer, not once he was President of the United States of America.

If Hayes went down, Cambridge would be sworn in. Cambridge and Vit were different parties, opposite world view. Cambridge would never name him Veep; he would nominate someone else, and that someone else would need to be approved by a Senate and House both led by the opposition party, both in Vit’s control. They would stall, as commanded. The same would happen, more or less, if Cambridge was the one killed.

With the sand loosened beneath democracy, it’d be easy to convince the Order to assassinate the survivor of today’s assassination, allowing Linder to walk into office, hands clean.

He’d be the president within a year.

His life would finally have meaning.

He heard the footsteps padding down the hall toward him, their beat urgent. He’d purposely not watched the news. He wore the exact correct face. He’d played it perfectly, strategized, gotten his pawns into place.

Just like a game of checkers, he congratulated himself.