Land of the Gods

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Jack Camacho and Kim Taylor landed at Washington Dulles Airport and hailed a cab. There was supposed to be a government car waiting for them but when they finally got outside the airport it was nowhere in sight. They walked out to where the cabs parked up, and Kim was unnerved by the absence of the official car.

“I don’t like it, Jack.”

“It’s just a cab,” he said deadpan. “The poor travel in them all the time.”

She rolled her eyes. “You know what I mean. Stop being an asshole.”

“So they forgot our car! It doesn’t mean anything.”

“Ordinarily I’d agree with you, but not with all the shit that’s going down in DC right now. It’s frightening me.”

He turned to her, more serious now he could see how rattled she was. “What are you saying? That there’s been some kind of coup already and we’re on a blacklist?”

She looked back, her face straightening with a new fear. She bit her lip as she thought about his words. “Maybe that’s exactly what I am saying, yeah. Things are getting totally crazy right now, Jack! Alex was very clear about the threat the President is under.”

“And we’re here to help her and work everything out, No one’s going to harm the President or Alex on our watch, right?”

She nodded, but his words hadn’t steadied her nerves at all. Alex had been more than clear when they had spoken earlier. In fact, the young woman had sounded scared out of her mind, and they both knew she was the last person who would exaggerate a threat or let herself get spooked by something that wasn’t real.

Kim wasn’t sure exactly what was going on in the city tonight but she knew it wasn’t good. She had a bad feeling that something very dangerous was unfolding all around them and she had to work hard to stop feeling like a bug in a Venus fly trap, struggling to escape as the leaves slowly crushed her down and trapped her forever.

“Listen.” Camacho’s voice was smooth and relaxed. “You’ll feel better when we get to the White House. Alex is waiting for us there and we can grab a shower and get something to eat in the Residency. We’ll get a full briefing from Agent McGee and maybe even get five minutes with the President. After you’ve seen how normal and boring everything is you’ll be fine. Alex is probably just worrying too much about her father. You know how she is.”

Kim’s eyes widened. “Yeah, I do, and that’s why I think we could be in danger.”

The cab cruised through the Washington suburbs — Highland Park, Cherrydale, Colonial Village — and then crossed the Potomac on the Theodore Roosevelt Bridge. The ride was smooth and slow, traffic building up as they drew closer to the city’s beating heart.

After a long silence, Camacho spoke up. “Like I say, let’s just wait till we speak with Alex and Brandon, and then we’ll decide what sort of danger we’re in.”

Davis Faulkner wasn’t ashamed to feel nervous as he sat at the top of the long table and watched the members of the US cabinet enter the room. After years of planning he was almost ready to make his move and show the Oracle what he was capable of, and yet for the first time he had started to look beyond the cult leader. No one was untouchable, right?

After a preamble and some coffee, he went straight to business.

“The evidence is clear, ladies and gentlemen. President Brooke used his position as our Commander in Chief to abuse the Constitution and use his powers to give our enemies aid and comfort.” He leaned forward in his chair and jabbed at the papers on the table in front of him for emphasis. “It’s all right here!”

The Secretary of Defense sucked air in through his teeth and shook his head. “I don’t know about this. I can see the evidence, and I admit that it’s compelling enough, but treason seems to be taking things too far. The President has such wide-ranging powers in foreign policy that I think you’ve got a hell of a job cut out trying to prove this charge.”

A murmur of agreement filled the air and Faulkner could see he was losing the room.

“We have the power under the Constitution to remove him from office for doing what he has done. Dammit, Kelvin… he’s supplied foreign terrorists with weapons and intel, and well…”

The Secretary of State leaned forward. “Is there something else, Mr Vice President?”

“Yes, Sarah, there is.” He gave a heavy sigh and signaled for Josh Muston to activate the overhead projector and pull the drapes. As darkness settled over the secure room, Faulkner watched with veiled pleasure as his Chief of Staff started the slide show.

“What the hell is this?” Sarah Montague said.

“What you are looking at is the scene of a crime.”

“Looks more like a bloodbath,” the Secretary of the Treasury said, disgusted.

Faulkner grimaced and put on his best horrified face to mirror those around him. “These pictures were taken in the Caribbean very recently. They show the bodies of two units of Navy Seals. All of them killed by the ECHO team using US weapons and intel provided by President Brooke.”

A rush of shocked gasps filled the room. “Good God…”

The Attorney General watched in horrified silence as Muston casually flicked through the images of the slaughtered Special Forces. Corpses everywhere. Blood on the sand. Gaping bullet wounds. Missing limbs. It looked hot and desolate.

“This is no way for loyal American soldiers to die,” the AG said.

Faulkner looked at him with his most serious face. “Like dogs, Jeff. They died like dogs on that beach!”

The Secretary of Labor now joined in the new chorus of revulsion. “And you’re saying Brooke ordered the deaths of these men?”

“I’m sorry, Erika, but yes… he did.”

“Oh my God!” The Secretary of Homeland Security chimed in, shaking his head in denial at what he was seeing and hearing. “Why the hell would he do such a thing?”

Faulkner gave a shrug. It looked like they were buying the little package he and Josh had put together. Now wasn’t the time to say the wrong thing and blow all their hard work. “That’s what we intend to find out.”

The AG tapped his pen on the hardwood table, his face now a picture of solemn fear and anxiety. “If this gets out it’s bringing the whole damned administration down.”

They’d just figured out their jobs were in the balance.

Now they were cooking with gas.

“And we all know that son of a bitch Bill Peterson will be all over this like fleas on a stray dog.”

So turn the heat up.

“Damn straight, he will,” Faulkner said. “And with the mid-terms coming up this will cause a lot of trouble for us. We’ll be walking on hot coals right up to an election we have no hope of winning… not after this gets out.”

“What the hell?”

“You’re looking at images of the recent terror attack in Hawaii.”

The AG turned to the Secretary of Homeland Security. “I thought that was already being connected with ISIS?”

“We have nothing yet.”

“Yes we do,” Faulkner said.

Everyone in the room stared up at the pictures of the devastating attack on the shopping mall inside the airport at Honolulu. Twisted metal. Shattered glass. Crumbling concrete and splintered wood. Paper and food and blood and screaming kids. Ruined bodies blown apart and sown over a scene of destruction.

And ECHO.

“You’re looking at pictures of the ECHO team leaving the scene of the attack. As you can see, they’re heavily armed with the weapons supplied to them by President Brooke. As of yet we have no idea why they committed this atrocity on these American citizens but we know they did it, and we know they did it with the approval of Jack Brooke.”

He was moving things up a gear. Would they buy it? ECHO had been in Hawaii in the last few hours in pursuit of the rings but the explosion and murder in the airport had been carried out by men working for the Oracle and nothing to do with Brooke or ECHO.

“This is appalling.”

“But why we would President Brooke do such a terrible thing?”

Faulkner got serious. He could smell the end. “We don’t know yet, Sarah, but there’s only one way we can find out and that’s by initiating a full and proper investigation.”

“And don’t forget about Peterson,” the AG threw in. “He’ll roast our goddam nuts for a decade with this.”

“I think the Vice President is right.”

“I would agree.”

“And… and,” Faulkner took off his glasses and rubbed his tired eyes. It was so tiring having to deal with such a terrible mess. “The only way we get on top of this is by getting out in front of it, and fast. How long before the press gets a hold of this?”

Not long, if he and Muston had anything to do with it.

Letting that sink in, he continued. “This is highly classified material, ladies and gentlemen, but these things always get out sooner or later. How many iPhones caught ECHO in that crime scene? How many internet nerds can connect them to Brooke? To this administration? We need to move on this and we need to do it fast.”

“I agree.”

“But the Twenty-Fifth?”

A wholesome, nonchalant shrug from poor hard-done-by Davis Faulkner. “I’ve been struggling with this for days now but I can’t see any other way. We cannot conduct any serious investigation into Brooke while he’s President because a sitting president is immune from prosecution.”

“Unless he’s impeached by the House and convicted by the Senate first.”

“Right,” Faulkner said. “And how long will that take? You all saw the evidence. Not only is he involved with a foreign terrorist network and the murder of American soldiers, but via his links to these people his fingerprints are all over the recent Honolulu airport terror incident. When it gets out we knew about this and did nothing, we’ll be burned on both sides and thrown in the trash.” He fixed his eyes on everyone around the table one by one. “Every single one of us.”

And now to bring her home.

“With the Twenty-Fifth we can end the danger to our nation right now. Then we’ll have all the time we need to mount a full investigation against him and see to it that he faces justice for the abuses he’s committed in that most glorious of offices, the Presidency of the United States. But it needs cabinet approval.”

This time, it was a murmur of assent.

“I’ll vote for it.”

“Count me in.”

Josh flicked back through the images and left the one of the screaming child in Honolulu up on the giant screen.

“Me too.”

“If this is real, then he has to go.”

“We can’t delay,” Faulkner said. “We can’t risk any more innocent deaths.”

“Then let’s do it,” the AG said. “We’ll invoke the Twenty-Fifth Amendment and get the son of a bitch out of that office.”

“If you’re all sure,” Faulkner said, suppressing the smile of his life. “I don’t want anyone to think they’re being pushed into this.”

“No one’s pushing me into anything,” the AG said, once again looking at the images on the screen. “It’s time to get Brooke out of the Oval Office.”