Conspiracy

9

The target moved at the very last moment, complicating the shot, but the shooter stayed on mission, pulling his finger steadily and smoothly against the trigger. The roar of the gun in the closed room was greater than he’d expected, but the recoil curiously less. The bullet sailed true, a perfect shot.

He had no time to think about these things, however; the entire enterprise had been carefully timed, and to make his getaway cleanly he had to leave immediately.

In the stairs on the way down, his heart double-pumped.

It was a brief clutch, nothing more than a hiccup — a reminder of his age, nothing more. Rather than slowing down, he doubled his pace: he was too old to fail now. The chance to succeed would not come again.

The door slapped behind him as he made it to the street. He heard sirens the next block over. Quickly, the shooter slipped the steamer trunk with the rifle into the side door of the minivan, then slammed the door shut. The motor, started by remote control as he came down the steps, was already humming.

He fought against the instinct to press his foot too firmly on the accelerator. When he reached the corner, he stopped, signaled, then carefully pulled out into traffic.

Ten minutes later, he was on the Beltway. Only then did he give in and press the button for the radio.

The first report made his heart double-pump again.

“Senator McSweeney has been shot in Washington, D.C., just outside the Capitol Building!” said the announcer breathlessly.

The fact that the reporter had gotten the location wrong should have tipped the shooter off, but for the next few miles he drove in a kind of fugue state, believing that everything had gone wrong.

And then a different reporter came on, one who was actually at the scene.

“The senator appeared to be unhurt,” said the reporter.

“He was immediately taken into Brown’s Hotel, where he was to be the guest of honor at a campaign fund-raiser. I was just arriving myself. Let me repeat, Senator McSweeney appears to be OK.”

Thank God, thought the shooter. Thank God.