by Rob Jones
A startled Jack Brooke stood up behind the desk and fixed his eye on Faulkner. “What the hell is this?”
Patterson stepped forward. “Get away from the desk and raise your hands, sir!”
Special Agent Suzie Matsumoto was standing behind Brooke. She unholstered her gun in a flat second and pointed the muzzle at the general, simultaneously standing in front of him. “Drop your weapon and step away from the President!”
Brooke reached out and gently pulled her arm down. “It’s okay, Agent Matsumoto. To say we’re outgunned is the understatement of the year.” Ignoring Patterson, he walked out from behind his desk and squared up to Faulkner. “Now, as I just asked, what the hell is this all about, Davis?”
Faulkner puffed his chest out and looked Brooke in the eye. “Mr President, under the powers given by the Twenty-Fifth Amendment, I have assembled the members of the Cabinet and we are here today to remove you from the Office of the President of the United States.”
Brooke was speechless. He stared up at the men and women gathered in the Oval Office and tried to judge just what the hell they were thinking. He knew these people well. He had personally appointed all of them to their cabinet positions, including the Attorney General. Hell, he’d even lifted Faulkner out of nowhere to be the Vice President, and yet here they all were in the middle of his morning talking about invoking the Twenty-Fifth? It had to be some kind of nightmare.
“I don’t understand what’s happening.”
“All of that will be explained to you, sir,” Faulkner said. “But as of this moment I’m invoking Section 4 of the Twenty-Fifth Amendment, and…”
“Section 4? What the hell? I’m not unable to discharge the powers and duties of this office! What game are you playing?”
Faulkner stood his ground. “I’m sorry, sir, but you are hereby removed from Office of the President of the United States under the powers given to us by the Twenty-Fifth Amendment, Section 4 and I am assuming the position of President in accordance with the Constitution. The cabinet and I have sent written notice to President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives. It’s over. I’ll inform the people in an address within the hour.”
“This is insane!” Brooke marched around the desk and confronted Faulkner. “I don’t know what the hell you think you’re doing, Davis, but you’re not going to get away with it.”
“The members of the Cabinet are witness to this,” Faulkner said, turning to the Attorney General. “Please proceed.”
The AG stepped forward with the Bible he’d been holding throughout. “I will now administer the presidential oath. Are you ready, Mr Vice President?”
Faulkner never took his eyes off Brooke. “Go ahead, please.”
The AG held out the Bible. “Please put your left hand on the Bible and raise your right hand, sir.”
Faulkner followed his instructions.
The grand prize was so close he could taste it. It rolled in his mouth like honey.
“Now, repeat after me…I, Davis Jefferson Faulkner do solemnly swear…”
“I, Davis Jefferson Faulkner do solemnly swear…”
“That I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States…”
Faulkner’s voice was as cold and strong as steel. “That I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States…”
“And will to the best of my ability…”
He slowed his breathing. “And will to the best of my ability.”
“Preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”
Faulkner felt a swell of pride and achievement. “Preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”
“So help me God.”
“So help me God.”
The AG removed the Bible, but there were no congratulations today because they all knew what was coming next.
President Faulkner squared up to Jack Brooke. Stripped of his office and all his political power, he looked smaller now. “Jack, I’m putting you under arrest for treason.”
Brooke was aghast. “For treason? What the hell are you talking about, Davis?”
“You know damned well what I’m talking about, Jack.” He glowered at Brooke, hate filling his eyes. “And it’s Mr President, not Davis.”
Before Brooke could reply, Faulkner turned to the marine sentries. “Get him out of here and make sure you get his daughter too. She’s got to be part of this outrage, this national disgrace!”
“What the hell?” Brooke struggled in the arms of the marines who moments ago had been protecting him. “You leave Alex alone, you son of a bitch!”
“How’s the team doing over in the Residence?” Faulkner asked Muston.
“No word yet.”
“I want Alex Reeve out of this place right along with her father.”
“You’ll pay for this, you bastard!” Brooke said.
“I think not.”
General Patterson took off his peaked cap and tossed it on one of the couches. Ignoring Brooke completely, he turned to Davis Faulkner and watched as he walked over to the Resolute Desk. “Congratulations, Mr President. You saved America today, sir.”
Brooke struggled in the marines’ arms.
Faulkner traced his fingers along the edge of the desk, almost in a dream as he thought about all the mighty figures who had sat right here and directed the fate of the world. Now it was his turn. Without a second thought, he turned to Patterson. “All right, General. Give the order to put the ECHO team on the Most Wanted list. I want them hunted down and arrested if possible. If they resist them take them out. Pay particular attention to Iraq.”
“Iraq?” Patterson seemed shocked. “What the hell are they doing in Iraq?”
“Just do as I say, General. Tell your men in Iraq to be on the lookout for the ECHO team, and if they find them it’s just as I said – arrest them or kill them.”
“No!” Brooke said. “You can’t do that!”
“I can do whatever I want, Jack. I’m the President of the United States. I’ve been planning taking over this office and throwing your traitor ass out of here for years. Who do you think ordered ECHO’s Caribbean headquarters to be smashed the year before last?”
Brooke’s mind snapped back two years ago to when his daughter had been badly wounded in an aerial assault on ECHO’s HQ building on the island of Elysium. “Oh my God! That was you? You nearly killed my girl you son of a bitch!”
“Cool it down, Jack... cool it down. We’ve had this in the pipeline for years, only you were too dumb to see it coming. You and your little friends in ECHO running your terror campaigns around the world!”
“This is insane! They’re not terrorists – they fight against terrorists!”
“You would say that, but while your little friends were trying to set a nuke off on Alcatraz, who was trying to stop them? Me. When they were trying to destroy Atlantis, who tried to stop them by blowing up their island? Me. Without me who knows what they… and you would have gotten away with.”
“This is crazy. I can’t believe I’m hearing it.”
“No, it’s totally sane, and now I’m ending what I started all those years ago. You and ECHO are going to be arrested and tried for various offences ranging from treason to terrorism and there’s nothing you can do about it. I’ve waited a long time for this, Jacky boy – ever since you first made me VP all those years ago, and as the gods are my witness, I’m going to enjoy every second of it. Now, take him away, and her too!”
The soldiers grabbed Jack Brooke and Suzie Matsumoto and dragged them out of the Oval Office.
Brooke struggled to twist his neck and look over his shoulder at the new Commander in Chief. “You’re making a big mistake, Davis!”
“Goodbye, Jack.”
Faulkner watched his men bundling Jack Brooke and his loyal Secret Service agent out of the Oval Office and along the corridor outside. “The door, Josh.”
Muston gently closed the d
oor and blew out a deep breath. “My God, we did it.”
*
The tired, weary general picked up his phone in a temper. “Tucker.”
“General Braxton Tucker?”
Now he recognized the voice. Secretary of Defence Kelvin Beauregard. “Sir, yes sir!”
“Relax, General. Are you sitting down?”
Tucker furrowed his brow. “Sir?”
“You are hereby informed that there has been a change of leadership in the United States.”
“A change of leadership? I don’t understand.”
“President Brooke has been removed from the Office of the President of the United States. The Cabinet invoked the Twenty-Fifth and took him out. Davis Faulkner is the President now.”
Tucker collapsed back in his chair. “What the hell happened? There’s nothing on the news.”
“About to break. Treason.”
“My God!”
“Right, and it’s going to be a serious shitshow when it all comes out.”
Tucker scratched behind his ear. “This is one of those where were you moments, right Mr Secretary?”
“Sure is.”
“President Faulkner, huh?”
“Yeah, and you just got your first Presidential order direct from him, too.”
“I don’t get it.”
“According to CIA records, the passports of three known fugitives just got swiped through your security.”
“Three fugitives?”
“Josiah Hawke, a British citizen, Lea Donovan, an Irish citizen and Vincent Reno, a French citizen. Am I right?”
Tucker was dumbfounded. “Yes, sir. They were here a few moments ago representing some sort of archaeological institute from England. We put them through the usual security protocols, fingerprints and passport scans and they came up clear. The Pentagon ordered me to assist them.”
“Not anymore,” Beauregard said flatly. “President Faulkner personally put them on the Most Wanted list. They’re terrorists and they are to be detained immediately – is that clear?”
Tucker felt his mouth dry up and his heart start pounding. “Yes, sir – just as you say.”
“How long since they left you?”
“They left my office a few minutes ago. As far as I know they’re still on site. I guess they’ll be about ready to leave any minute and then they’ll be on their way.”
“As I say, not anymore, General. You let them get away and the President will personally burn your commission and he’ll use your pension papers to light it. Am I making myself clear?”
“Sir, yes sir!”
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
Hawke looked at the ring and smiled with satisfaction. “This is it, all right. Take a look.”
Lea took it from him and held it to the light. “Sure is. We’re not doing so bad, you know?” she said, blowing him a kiss.
Reaper smiled. “I hope Cairo’s team have been as lucky. If so, we already have the seventh and eighth rings.”
“Still missing number six, though,” Lea said. “Poor Mr Mokrani.”
A soldier appeared at the door, leaning half into the room, sweat beading on his forehead as he spoke. “Captain Benning, sir?”
“What is it?”
“I need to speak with you, sir, urgently.”
Benning followed the soldier out of the dingy vault.
“And we’ve got it for a week!” Lea said. “I’m going to call Cairo and let her know the good news. With some luck they got the other ring from Professor al-Hashimi. They might be meaningless to anyone who doesn’t know their true meaning, but to us they’re worth the weight of the world in gold.”
“Hold it right there!”
Hawke turned to see Captain Benning had lifted his pistol and was aiming it at his head with a firm, solid grip as he marched over to him. “Hand over the ring and raise your hands, nice and slow.”
“What the hell is this?” Lea said.
Hawke and Reaper exchanged a glance. “Yes, what’s going on, Captain?”
“I’m sorry Major Hawke, but General Tucker says these are orders direct from the Pentagon.”
“What orders?”
“You’re to be arrested at once and detained here until transfer off base.”
“Arrested?” Lea said, shocked. “What the hell for?”
Hawke already knew. “Don’t tell me, we’re now the most dangerous people on the planet?”
Benning looked to the other soldiers with an awkward expression on his face. “That’s what they tell me, sir. You’re on the Most Wanted. You’re terrorists. It comes right from the very top. The President.”
“President Brooke would never call us terrorists!” Lea said.
Benning looked confused. “I guess you haven’t heard then.”
Lea felt her stomach turn over. “Heard what?”
“President Brooke was arrested today and charged with treason. He’s been removed from office by the Cabinet. Davis Faulkner is the new President and the new Commander in Chief, and he says you’re on the Most Wanted, so you are. Now, do as I say and raise your hands!”
“So it’s happened,” Reaper said.
The Englishman felt the cold steel of the Beretta’s muzzle pushing into the base of his skull and realized with dread what must have happened back on Washington. He could hardly believe Faulkner had been successful in his bid to take over the White House and remove Brooke from the Presidency.
“You don’t have to do this, Benning.”
The young American captain paused before replying. It looked like he was thinking about what Hawke had said, which was a good sign.
No one else in the vault moved or spoke. A grim stillness had descended over the whole place as the gravity of the situation sank into everyone in its full horror.
“As I say, those are my orders.” Benning’s voice was calm and cool.
When Hawke replied, his words were also measured and level. “You’re not a robot, Captain. You know what’s happened. Your country has just suffered a coup d’état and your democratically elected Commander in Chief has been arrested by criminals and terrorists.”
“General Tucker just described President Brooke with the exact same words.”
Hawke felt the pressure of the gun lessen slightly on the back of his head. Maybe Benning was thinking the matter over, or maybe he was just being sloppy. He considered turning on the soldier and taking him out.
It was possible, but not without triggering a massive fire fight inside the vault, and his team were too exposed. Maybe Reaper might make it to the cover of the crates behind them, but Lea was too exposed. She would be killed before she could start making a dent on Benning and his soldiers.
Plus he didn’t want to kill any of them. These were US soldiers, allies in the cause. These men came from regiments he had trained with as a younger man in the commandos. The idea of firing on them to get out of this situation wasn’t one he could live with unless they forced his hand.
“They’re lying, Captain,” he said at last. “You know in your heart that they’re lying.”
Behind Benning, his sergeant called over, “What are we doing here, sir? These people are our allies. You heard what General Tucker said – some of their team are US citizens!”
The US Army captain paused again and took a step back from Hawke, but kept the gun raised and aimed at his head. “I have to ask you to throw your weapons down.”
“You’re in charge here, Benning,” Hawke said. “You’re the OC. There’s no one here to tell you what to do. Your new boss is all the way over in Washington. This is your decision, your call. If you arrest us and take us into custody, you’re working with criminals and terrorists against a good man like Jack Brooke. Only you can make this call.”
“Wrong, my boss is a few hundred feet away right inside this palace. Turn around.”
Hawke followed his instructions and turned around, his hands still in the air and his gun still on his belt holster. “What’s it going to be?”
/> Benning lowered his gun to his side and the rest of his unit breathed a collective sigh of relief. “I can’t do this, it’s not right.”
“You made the right decision,” Reaper said. “Faulkner might be the President right now, but trust me when I tell you his ass isn’t going to be in the Oval Office very long.”
“Stand aside, captain!”
Benning turned to see General Tucker standing in the door. Flanked by soldiers holding submachine guns, the old warrior stepped into the vault, a snarl on his face. “You were going to disobey a direct order from the Pentagon?”
“Sir, I…”
“You realize the implications of this?”
“It doesn’t feel right, sir.”
The general looked astonished. “It doesn’t feel right? You think this is some kind of Sunday School picnic? You’re a captain in the US Army!”
Crestfallen and ashen with fear, Benning climbed down. He lifted his gun and pointed it at Hawke again. “Lay down your weapons.”
Tucker nodded. “I’m going to overlook what you did, Benning, but don’t let me down again, you hear me?”
“No sir.”
“What now?” Lea said.
“Now you’re on a transport back to the States. Extraordinary rendition, go to jail and do not pass go. Now, move it!”
He waved the gun at the door, and they filed past the soldiers.
“And I’ll take that,” Tucker said, plucking the ring from Hawke’s fingers. “You won’t need it where you’re going.”
“And where’s that?” Lea asked.
“Tartarus.”
Lea darted a quick look at Hawke and then back to Tucker. “What?”
“You’ll have plenty of time to think about it on the flight.” He turned to Benning and handed him the ring. “See to it this gets to the Pentagon.”
“Yes, sir.”
“You’re making a big mistake, Tucker,” Hawke said.
“That’s enough, get them out of here. There’s a USAF transport plane waiting for them at the airfield.”
