A Necessary Kill

by James P. Sumner

  I glance around the room. Nice furniture, deep blue carpet… even a paperweight with the presidential seal on it on the desk in front of me. I remember a time when seeing this in person would’ve impressed me, when I would’ve considered it an honor. Now, I feel disgusted by it. The magic forever tainted by the corruption and greed of the man sitting a few feet away behind this white door.

  I take the gun from my back, gripping it tightly in my hand. I crack my neck, welcoming the new and improved, disciplined Inner Satan to stand beside me. Not in front of me. Not behind the wheel. By my side. Working with me to make me a better killer. A better weapon. A better man.

  I stride toward the door and thrust my leg forward, connecting just next to the handle. It flies open, nearly off its hinges. I step inside the Oval Office and—

  Oh.

  I drop the gun to the floor.

  Sonofabitch.

  In front of me on the left, President Cunningham is sitting calmly behind his fancy-looking desk wearing a nice suit. There’s a smug look spread across his annoying fucking face. On the right, following the curve of the room, standing in a spacious line are six—no, seven Secret Service agents, all wearing their standard-issue black suits and holding their standard-issue firearms. In the middle of the room, sitting spread across two brown leather sofas are three men, also wearing suits. Two of them have their backs to me. The other is facing me, but I don’t recognize him.

  I feel the barrel of a gun touch my temple. I flick my gaze to my left.

  Oh, my mistake—eight Secret Service agents.

  Cunningham stands, walks around his desk, and rests casually on the edge, crossing his arms across his chest.

  “Good evening, Adrian. We’ve been waiting for you.”

  I close my eyes and feel my shoulders involuntarily sag forward with defeat.

  Fuck.

  31

  20:58 EDT

  “Please, come in,” says Cunningham, gesturing to the middle of the room.

  Words fail me. I silently ask my Inner Satan for help, but he’s backed down, as confused as I am.

  I don’t understand… I did everything right. We all did. It might have looked a little straightforward, considering what we were actually doing, but the planning was meticulous, and everything was put in place by Josh and his team at GlobaTech. There’s no way they messed up their side of things, and we did everything correctly our side. I just don’t get it. I mean, how is…

  Cunningham’s still smiling at me. Still has that smug look on his face. “Adrian, you look somewhat perturbed…”

  I shrug. “I don’t know about that, but I’m really fucking confused… How are you not… y’know… unconscious.”

  “That’s easy. The air conditioning system isn’t linked to this office. Too much of a security risk.”

  “Huh… makes sense.”

  Cunningham moves back around his desk but remains standing. “You see, Adrian, despite proving to be a world class pain in the ass, you’re still predictable and insignificant. I’ve done the impossible. I’ve set in motion things that will change the course of history. Did you really think I wouldn’t be able to handle a lowlife, two-bit assassin like you?”

  My jaw muscles tense involuntarily. I glance around the room. The guy on my immediate left is pissing me off because he keeps pressing his gun against my head, forcing me to lean away slightly. The agents lining the opposite wall are like statues—they haven’t moved an inch, they’re simply keeping their guns trained on me.

  The men on the sofas have stood. I’m pretty sure one of them is the chief of staff. Something Heskith, I think his name is. No idea about the other two.

  Cunningham’s staring at me, challenging me, acting like he’s already won. And I have to admit, if you were on the outside looking in, you could certainly understand his thinking. I mean, I’m pretty screwed, right?

  Well, yeah… I am. Sorry. I’ve got no secret plan. I didn’t see this coming. I’m somewhat frozen, and my mind hasn’t reengaged yet. I just feel… sorry. Like I’ve failed and let everyone down in the process. Like it’s all been for nothing.

  I go to speak, but words fail me.

  I know, I know… It’s not like me at all.

  Cunningham continues to smile at me. “Cat got your tongue, Adrian? You were never going to stop this. Just because you figured it out, doesn’t mean you could ever really do anything about it. You didn’t stop 4/17 from happening, did you? You got right to the end… right to the final hurdle… and you just didn’t have it in you. And now, here you are, that last hurdle yet again. And look what’s happened… You’ve stumbled for a second time. You know, if the situation were different, I’d offer you a job in a shot. A man like you—resourceful, talented, intelligent—would’ve made one hell of an ally in all this.”

  I close my eyes. Not the ‘wish you were on my side’ speech—please!

  My teeth are aching from clenching my jaw so hard. Angry? No—anger doesn’t come close to what I’m feeling at the moment. There’s a rage coursing through my body that no human has any business understanding. It’s a primordial fury I honestly don’t know how to express. My fists tighten, every muscle in my body tenses, and I breathe slowly, doing everything I can to remain in control. It’s not the time.

  Not yet.

  I open my eyes slowly and fix Cunningham with a stare reserved only for the most horrific of bastards. “Stop.”

  He frowns. “Excuse me?”

  “I said, stop. Stop talking. Stop acting like what’s happening was inevitable. We all know it wasn’t. You think you’ve won. You think this is over because you have a gun to my head. But you’re wrong. I came here pretty much certain I wasn’t leaving, so killing me in your fancy little office means, precisely, fuck all. I’m prepared to die for this. But you… you’re not. I think you’re a coward. You’re very smart, but you’re a pussy. You want to do all this, you want to change the world so you can rule it, like some modern-day Caesar, but, ultimately, you don’t want to die for the cause, do you? And that’s the difference between us. The fact I’m prepared to do what’s necessary, whereas you’re only prepared to do what’s safe. That’s why you won’t win.”

  He sits down and leans back in his chair. “Nice speech. Really. Great speech, Adrian. But… before you get too high and mighty, I want you to see something.”

  He opens up a laptop that’s resting on his desk and spins it around to face the room. He nods to the agent beside me, who gestures me forward with another prod of his gun. I move into the middle of the room and stand just to the left of the sofas.

  Cunningham points at the screen. “Take a look at this. Recognize it?”

  I frown as I stare at the laptop. It’s showing a grayscale image of a town, presumably viewed from a satellite. It might even be a real-time feed, I’m not sure. He reaches over and presses a button. The picture zooms down to a street-level view. It shows a quiet, dusty road. An empty sidewalk. A restaurant facing a companion club and…

  The Ferryman.

  My eyes react, going wide with a mixture of anger and fear. “What is this?”

  “This, I believe, is your bar, is it not? Your little slice of happiness. The only evidence you ever existed, bought and built using a stolen fortune.”

  “Why are you showing me this?”

  “I’m glad you asked. You see, this laptop is showing a live feed from the Cerberus satellite. We might as well dispense with the courtesies—I think that ship has sailed. You know I still have control of Cerberus, and what you’re seeing is me targeting your bar with a missile that belongs to North Korea.”

  “You piece of shit! You’re insane!”

  I step forward, but the gun at my head prevents me from moving farther.

  “Insane? Not at all. This exercise serves multiple purposes—the most important of which is to bring the invasion home, so to speak. The thing that will allow me to unleash an unprecedented military response that no one will dare question—that people will
thank me for—won’t be GlobaTech’s systematic destruction across the world, it’ll be North Korea reaching American soil. I’ve publicly held off joining the fight, telling the people that GlobaTech is handling it, that they can protect us overseas and that I want to protect us on our homeland. But when that security disappears, the people will cry out for me to send forth the full might of our military and wipe out North Korea with a swift, decisive strike.”

  Focus, Adrian. You’re no good to the residents of Devil’s Spring if you lose it now.

  “That’s a good plan. But what makes you so sure GlobaTech will fail? My best friend and your former secretary of defense are running that place—they know what they’re doing, and North Korea only outnumbers them six to one.”

  He scoffs. “Only?”

  “Please… I could take out ten on my own, easily. And every single one of those GlobaTech peacekeepers are very well trained, so six each should be a walk in the park.”

  “I know everything there is to know about GlobaTech Industries, Adrian. They will fail. Trust me.”

  “Okay, what about North Korea? Do they have any idea you’ve asked them to publicly poke a bear purely so they can get bitten?”

  Cunningham smiles but says nothing.

  “No, of course you haven’t… It’s El-Zurak all over again, isn’t it? They think this is a partnership, but you’re using them to show the world that you’re the only logical choice moving forward. You want to be handed this planet on a silver platter, to mold it as you see fit. You’re a fucking psychopath! And coming from me, that’s saying something.”

  “You have it all worked out, it seems.”

  “Yeah, you can thank your old friend, General Matthews, for that.”

  “Yes… his involvement was unfortunate but ultimately irrelevant. It won’t change anything.”

  I smile. “You seem pretty sure about that…”

  “Oh, I am. You see, the way I figure it, you wouldn’t have walked in here without some contingency in place. Credit where it’s due, Adrian, you’re a smart man. You would have made sure the evidence Matthews gave you was made public in some way, if you don’t get out of here. Or maybe even if you do, I’m not sure. But, obviously, I can’t allow that. So, here’s the thing—you make the call right now to stop that evidence going wherever you intend it to go, and I won’t use Cerberus to destroy your bar, your town, and the woman you love.” He picks up the desk phone receiver and holds it out to me. “Sound fair?”

  I need a minute.

  It’s funny, isn’t it, how sometimes the scale of something can be so big it becomes lost on you… like the size of it is simply too massive to comprehend. Take the speed of light, for example. It’s something ridiculous, like nine hundred eighty million feet per second. That’s some distance on its own. I think it’s the equivalent of traveling the entire circumference of the planet seven times. But when you think light travels that distance every second, it suddenly becomes just a number, with all meaning and scale lost because you can’t wrap your head around how something could possibly move that fast.

  That’s how I feel right now.

  I’m face-to-face with the man who is literally trying to take over the planet, but that’s a meaningless statement. All I can think about is two people in a small town in Texas. I can’t help myself. Despite knowing the fate of billions is probably hanging in the balance, resting solely on the outcome of this conversation, I’m standing here thinking only about Tori Watson and John Raynor—my girlfriend, and the sheriff of the town I call home.

  She’s only the second woman I’ve ever loved. And he was a good friend who put his ass on the line for me, and trusted me, when he had no reason to. I owe them both.

  Tori... I can’t lose her.

  But I’ve already lost her, haven’t I? Because I know I’m not walking away from this… I’ll never see her again.

  Besides, the priority is stopping Cunningham. If he succeeds, the world will be nothing more than a dictatorship.

  Though, while that world would suck, at least she would be alive to see it…

  But is that a life worth living? Is it a life worth sacrificing?

  I feel my Inner Satan stand next to me and put a friendly arm around my shoulder. I glance to my right, as if seeing a person no one else can see.

  Adrian, my man… You know what you gotta do, right?

  I nod to myself. Yeah… I know.

  You and me… we’re a team now, you hear me? I’m not the Hulk to your Bruce Banner anymore. Together, we’re what King Kong is to the Empire fucking State Building! You understand? He didn’t just tear through the lobby, he scaled the side… focused on taking out the whole thing. See what I’m saying here?

  I smile. I bet I sound crazy, right? Well… sometimes sanity just doesn’t cut it.

  “Everything alright, Adrian?”

  I take a deep breath, treasuring every ounce of oxygen that flows into my lungs as if it’s my last. “Yes, sir, Mr. President. Everything’s peachy.”

  “So, what’ll it be?”

  I stroke my chin thoughtfully. “It’s a no-brainer, Charlie…”

  He smiles.

  I smile back.

  After a moment, I’m still smiling, whereas his starts to fade, giving way to uncertainty. He won’t understand why I seem so calm and relaxed. But I’m that way because I know what I need to do, and smiling while I do it will stop me from screaming.

  “Fuck you, Mr. President, and the horse you rode in on… That evidence is staying right where it is.” I nod at the laptop. “So go ahead, fire that missile. I fucking dare you.”

  He hesitates, his brow furrowing with indecisiveness. He doesn’t believe me. I can see it in his eyes. It’s the look a poker player has when he believes his cards are better than the guy who’s just raised the stakes. He doesn’t think I would sacrifice someone I care about so quickly. And usually, he would be right. But these circumstances are far from usual, and I’m trying my best to remain objective, to keep my focus on the bigger picture.

  Plus, I have a plan. I think…

  “You do realize I’m not bluffing, don’t you?” he asks me after a moment. “This isn’t an empty threat. This needs doing, and, yes, while I could theoretically target anywhere in the United States, it makes more sense to use this situation to its full potential and break you at the same time.”

  This gun hasn’t left my temple since I kicked down the door. The seven pairs of eyes along the right wall remain fixed on me. The two assholes near the sofas look relaxed, comfortable… confident. Cunningham looks like he believes he’s in control.

  I don’t know how I look to everyone else, but I know how I feel inside.

  I feel like… Adrian Hell!

  I whip my left arm up and back, ducking slightly as I deflect the gun away from my head. I step around the agent next to me, putting my left arm under his chin and around his throat as I grab his wrist with my right, controlling the gun. I’m a little taller than he is, so I crouch slightly, hiding as best I can behind him.

  No one’s reacted yet. I reckon I have maybe three more seconds before they do.

  I drag this guy backward by his throat, moving as fast as possible around the desk to stand next to the president.

  Three seconds. They know what I’m doing. They’re taking aim…

  I squeeze tightly with my left arm. I feel him loosen his grip on the gun. Which is what I was waiting for. I slide it from his hand in a swift, practiced motion and let go of him, throwing a quick, short elbow to the back of his head as I arc the gun clockwise. I’m close enough now that I hold my arm out and place the barrel against Cunningham’s temple at the exact moment he spins the laptop around, sits down, and places his finger over the Enter key.

  I’m standing at an angle, looking at him and most of the room. I can see the open door and the right corner in my peripheral vision. “If anyone moves, he dies before I do. We clear?” I shout.

  The agents hesitate and glance at their comma
nder-in-chief, who gives the slightest of nods, ordering them to stand down.

  I gesture to the laptop. “Now, I can only assume that pressing that button launches the missile. Am I right?”

  Cunningham nods, leaning slightly away from me under the pressure of the gun.

  “Okay, if you press that button, you’ll be dead a second later. That’s not a bluff or an empty threat. I don’t do those things, either. I will blow your fucking head off if you so much as think about that laptop again, you understand me?”

  He nods again, his eyes appearing calm and collected. “Surely your intention is to kill me anyway?”

  “I thought about it, I’ll be honest. I’ve thought about shooting you pretty much exclusively for the last two weeks. But Matthews told me it wouldn’t make a difference. Not now. And believe it or not, my priority is to prevent North Korea from doing any more damage, not to settle the score with someone who isn’t fit to breathe the same air as me.”

  Out the corner of my eye I see the agent on the far right shuffle to his left. A very subtle movement, but I saw it. He’ll be trying to widen their coverage of the room, make it harder for me to defend myself.

  Uh-uh.

  I bring the gun around and fire once, shooting from the hip, not bothering to aim. At this range, I’m never going to miss… The bullet catches the agent center mass in the middle of his chest. He falls backward from the impact, and I snap the gun back against Cunningham’s head. He winces as the heat from the barrel hisses on his face.

  The other agents react slowly, taking a collective step forward and raising their weapons a few seconds after their colleague hits the floor. The men by the sofas gasp and take a step back, looking less comfortable than they had when I got here.

  “Hey, hey, hey! Back off!” I press the gun hard against Cunningham’s temple. “Tell them!”

  He looks over at them, silently instructing the remaining agents to stand down again.

  “That’s right, do as your master says, boys. Now, Charlie, I gotta ask… Why are you doing this? I get that you wanna change the world, make it a better place, blah blah blah, but you did that in your first six months in office. Crime was down, drug crime was nonexistent. There were more jobs, better health care—hell, you could get high, or laid, and no one would give a shit. You were doing everything right, and it was working. Why go to all this trouble to tear it all down?”