by Bob Blink
"This one can't go that way. "They'll have to know right off our target is dead. We just don't want any bullet holes to suggest someone offed our victim."
"Tell me about it," Jason asked.
"Wow!" Jason said after Earl had explained who is target was and why.
"You couldn't choose someone with a bit lower profile? I'm not sure half a million is sufficient for something with this much visibility.
"How much do you think would be appropriate?" Earl asked.
Jason hesitated, and tried to size up the situation and guess what earl would spring for. It was clear this was important to him.
"Two million?" Jason asked.
The money wasn't really a driver, but Earl couldn't let the outlandish price stand.
"A million," he countered, "and that's as high as I can go."
Jason sensed he was at a threshold, and feared that Earl would walk if pressed.
"Okay, I'm in," he said. What does Mark have to say about this?"
"Mark doesn't know anything about what I am planning," Earl lied. "And he can't know. Even a hint of someone planning to kill Craig could somehow taint any chances he has of winning another term."
"And you want to kill this woman because you believe she will win come November and Mark will be out as President? Does it matter that much?"
"I don't like her politics, and she'll definitely cost me money with the changes she hopes to implement," Earl said, as though that might be one of the motivations for his actions. "But mostly, I know Mark. So do you. It would kill him to lose."
Jason nodded. "That's Mark, all right. I can see why you want this to look accidental. If they believe someone went after a Presidential candidate, they'd pull out all the stops to figure out who did it. But how to make it look accidental? Something that will stand up to the kind of looking they are going to put into this thing?"
"I don't know," Earl admitted. That's one of the things we need to work out. We are also going to need intelligence, which means learning a lot more about her, and what her plans are for the next few months to figure out when and where."
"Her schedule will be pretty public," Jason argued. What with her on the campaign trail and all."
"Part of it," Earl agreed. "But the important aspects not so much. We are going to need a couple more people."
"Do you have anyone in mind?"
"For something like this? I'm not sure. There's a few we used to work with that I think might be game, but we need to be very careful when recruiting. I was thinking about Art Winston and Bo Hawkins as possibles."
"You can scratch Art, Jason said. "He's in jail and won't be getting out soon, if ever."
"How about Bo?"
"He's around. Don't know if he'd be interested, but the boy is one hell of a shot. He competes in some of them long range shoots. A thousand yards or so. But then, you said you didn't want shooting. There's also a guy named Abe Fatani I worked with a couple years back. He's the type for something like this."
"Don't know him," Earl said. "Not sure I like bringing in someone who I don't know."
"Ain't that many that are going to be interested or trustworthy in a situation like this."
"How about Dick Daniels?" Earl asked.
"Dead," Jason said. "Fell off a rig last year."
Jason thought for a minute. "The only other names that come to mind just now are James Kennedy and Jessie Burns. Not so sure about either of them, but they've both had trouble with the law off and on, and are rough enough characters that a bit of murder might go down okay with them. Maybe if I think about it someone else will come to mind."
"Let's both think on it a bit more," Earl suggested. He pulled out a map and passed it across to Jason. "Here's where we will operate from. It's a hunting cabin that belongs to someone I know. Actually, it now belongs to his son who never uses it. The guy I knew died a couple years back. I want to meet there the day after tomorrow. We go over our list of names again, then seek out the top contenders. I think we need two more people. Does that work for you?"
Jason nodded. "Meanwhile I'll do a bit of careful research on this woman. Maybe I can learn something that will help us figure out how to do this."
Chapter 7
Earl listened to the chatter from inside the cabin. It was about time to head inside and get serious, but he needed a few moments to gather his thoughts and review just where they were with everything. Events were moving slower than he'd hoped, and they had limited time to get this done. He set the first of July as the latest date for the killing, and that was just a couple of weeks before the DNC would select the Democratic Party's candidate to run against the President.
There were now four of them committed to the task. Their cars were parked under the thick trees behind the cabin, but nothing else was available to hide them from view, although there were no other residences along this particular road to draw traffic. Jesse had come in an older blue Camry, suggesting the old Ford pickup was now gone. Bo had a newer Ford F-250 that he used to haul his weapons around to the various matches he attended around the Southwest. Finally Abe had showed up in a nearly new Chevy Camaro muscle car.
The four of them would have to be enough, and frankly Earl was a bit surprised they had risen to that number. Bo Hawkins had been their first recruitment, and he had been a surprisingly easy sell for the project. That had quickly raised their expectations. Bo, a very strict southern conservative, hated the liberal left, and had been paying attention to the way the politics were playing out. He was extremely concerned of the very thing that Mark was worried about, that Democratic candidate Nancy Craig was very likely to win this next election. His concern, sweetened by a quarter of a million dollars, with a promise of as much more upon completion of the task, had brought him on board. Neither knew of Jason's higher fee, nor that he'd already collected the entirely of the sum he had been promised.
The next two individuals they planned to approach didn't work out. James Kennedy was out of the country working a new oil field in South America. Even if they could get to him, it was unlikely he'd be willing to pass on the lucrative long-term job he currently had to get involved in their criminal conspiracy. Jessie Burns was easy enough to locate, but unfortunately he'd broken both legs in a rigging accident, and wasn't going to be doing much walking for some time. That had left Abe Fatani, or Ibrahim Fatani as his name had been before he'd slipped into the United States illegally a few years ago. Not knowing the man, Earl had let Jason approach him initially, and only after he had agreed to join them had Earl met the man. Abe was a powerful Middle Easterner, dark skinned, with short black hair. He had what appeared to be four or five days of beard stubble, a look that Earl would learn was more or less a perpetual condition for him. Extremely fit and powerful, Jason had said he'd seen the man break another's neck in a bar fight in Venezuela some years back, no mean feat despite what one always sees in the movies.
Now it was time to do some serious planning. It was already the first week of April, and if they were to stick with the schedule he'd made for himself, they had just three months to figure out where, when and how they were to manage this task. That seemed like a lot of time for planning a simple murder, except this one was not so simple, given the desire to make things look accidental, and the complications introduced given who the target was.
Without thinking, his hand reached down and touched the pocket where he carried the covert phone that would connect him to the President securely and secretly. They had talked the previous evening. Chris had successfully managed to transfer the phone to the President after picking it up at one of Washington's smaller private airports from the pilots of a special flight Earl had arranged. The conversation with the President had been relatively brief, but at that, probably one of the longest they were likely to have. No names were used, nor would they be, in any of the exchanges they planned.
"Obviously my son was successful in getting the unit to you," Earl had said after he'd called the President at the time he'd marked on the
small slip of paper with the bare essentials Mark would need to use the device. Other than the method to activate the secure link, the President was savvy enough to configure the new phone to mimic his own, and would simply strip the SIM out of his personal phone and place it in the second slot in the covert phone. Then he would be able to both carry on with his normal usage, or make a covert call to Earl as needed.
"We handled it like a couple of professional agents making a pass," the President had replied with a bit of a chuckle. "He set it down with the other items you sent in one of the 'booths' in the new facility, which no one else could observe even if they had been present. When I stepped in to verify something he asked, I simply palmed it. We never mentioned the item during our discussions."
"I have a team," Earl said. "We will be meeting together for the first time tomorrow. I assume the go-ahead remains in place, and the timing unchanged."
"Based on events this week, it is more imperative than ever that something is done," the President agreed. "Have you any ideas how it can be accomplished?"
"Not yet," Earl replied honestly. "We need more intelligence, our first order of business after tomorrow's meeting. The 'mishap' aspect significantly complicates options."
"Anything else is likely to have undesirable consequences," the President warned. "Sorry."
"Understood. I will contact you only if there is something requiring your attention, good or bad."
"Thanks. I knew I could count on you."
That had been it, but Earl had a solid confirmation that the task was still active. Now if they could just find the means to accomplish it.
Standing up from the rough-edged chair he'd been sitting in, Earl surveyed the old cabin they were using as their base of operations. They were isolated from any others, the ancient hunting base located on private property a considerable distance from any other similar purposed facilities. The owner was long dead, and none of his heirs had any interest in the relic, leaving it to slowly decay as they focused on how best to spend the considerable sums of money each had inherited.
It wasn't a large structure, but in addition to a reasonably sized great room and dining area, it had two double occupancy bedrooms. Everyone had brought a sleeping bag, since the linens and such had deteriorated and smelled. The structure was gray with age, and the wood shake roof was missing a few singles, so if it rained there were going to be leaks, but they would deal with that if and when it became a reality. The rugged wooden furniture was in similar condition to the structure itself, but would serve their needs. They would only be here for short, selected periods. Most of their time would be on the road. All of them had come with weapons, even though it was uncertain when or why the long guns, especially Bo's thousand yard rifle, would be needed, but the cleverly hidden steel lockup was still serviceable, and unlikely to be found by anyone who wasn't intent on tearing the entire cabin down to its foundation. They would do just fine.
As Earl stepped into the room, the conversations the others were engaged in quickly faded away.
"No sugarcoating," Earl said once they were all seated around the large, circular, aged, and warped wooden dining table. "I have sought you out and am paying you handsomely to help me commit a high profile murder of someone who, without our intervention, is likely to be the next president of these United States." He let his eyes roam over the three men he had chosen for the task for any sign of discomfort at his words.
"Why?" he added after a few moments before anyone could attempt an answer. "There are a couple of reasons. First off, the President is a friend of mine, and except for Abe here, I believe that applies equally to the rest of you. For reasons that elude me, Mark wished to be president. He still wants that, but all indications are that he is gonna fail if someone doesn't step in and do something. He won't be happy if he loses his second term, and I owe the man enough favors I reckon it's up to me to see what can be done to see that he gets his wish. Let's just say it's a chance for me to make good on past debts."
"I won't pretend there isn't something in it for me as well. I don't like the plans this woman says she will try and implement, and frankly I stand to make a considerable sum if Mark and his policies remain in effect. More than I'm paying the three of you to help me out. So, I stand to come out ahead on this deal. I'm not pretending otherwise."
"Does the President know what you have in mind?" Abe asked, when Earl paused to think. Clearly a foreigner, Abe looked like the kind of guy that had done this kind of work before. One look and you knew his principles weren't being challenged by the prospect of killing an innocent politician.
"No, he does not," Earl claimed. He was proud of how well he carried the lie off. "And he can't ever know. That would put him in an awkward situation. He'd have to do something about it, and that would mean setting his federal lawmen on his oldest friend. Understand?"
All of them nodded slowly. Earl was pretty sure they believed him, except maybe Jason, but he hoped the hacker hadn't seen through his lies.
"So, let's talk this all over a bit," Earl said. "While each of you has heard the basics already, this is the first time we have all been here together so we can walk through the goal and the hurdles ahead of us. I'll warn you, we need some clever thinking if we are to pull this off. Also, the time we have to complete the task is limited. We must act before the DNC meets."
"We have a very high profile target, who is constantly in the public eye, and a very limited time in which to complete the task. Added to our difficulties is the need to keep our actions from becoming known, and to make the target's death look like some kind of mishap for which no one is to blame. Nancy Craig is going to be traveling almost constantly during the window available to us, so the location where we attempt to execute whatever plan we come up with is going to be time dependent and changing from day to day. There might be a small chance of catching her at home, but I suspect those opportunities to be rare. All of this has to factor into the ideas we have yet to develop as to how this all can be done."
"Any questions?" Earl asked.
"I've been reading up on this dame," Abe said, a touch of accent still in his voice. "She's very high profile, especially now that she's the leader in all the polls. That's gonna make it difficult to get close to her, no matter where she is. Do we really have to make this look accidental? It would be a lot easier just to have Bo put a long-range shot into her. And why are we making things harder by moving the date forward? Can't we take her down after the primaries? Hell, maybe she won't even be the one chosen."
"Every indication is that Craig is going to run away with this thing," Earl replied, his eyes moving across each of them as he spoke. "Both the Democratic primary and the general election. As much as I wish otherwise, I don't think there is any doubt she will win the Democratic nomination. That means we can't afford to wait. Once she is chosen, the focus on her will increase markedly. Getting at her will be an order of magnitude more difficult. She will have mandatory Secret Service protection at that point, and a much larger staff swarming around her at all times. As for a simple assassination, I'd think that is pretty obvious. An obvious hit on the leading presidential candidate will bring every law enforcement agency into a massive search for the person or persons involved. These people aren't fools, and as much as we will try and stay low key as we plan, I don't think we are good enough not to leave some small trail. They find that and we are history."
"How much security does she have?" Bo asked. "You said she will have the Secret Service looking after her after the convention. What about now?"
Bo was the one that looked like he didn't belong here. He looked more like a mid-level executive that had slipped into unfamiliar western gear in preparation for an annual hunt.
"That's a good question, and one we need to answer. Probably not very much. Maybe a bodyguard or two her campaign has hired. On the other hand, many of these candidates don't like the protectors getting between them and the people they are trying to convince to vote for them. But, every major can
didate has the option to request Secret Service protection if they desire. Emphasis on the term major, meaning those with a believable possibility of winning. Clearly Craig is a major candidate at this point, so there is a chance she has already asked for their help. In the past, some candidates have asked once they reached the point it was available, while others have flatly refused when it was offered. Craig is a strong-willed woman, but she might be pragmatic enough to have requested the government's help at this point."
"So we might be dodging government agents while attempting this thing," Jason said. "That makes this job far less appealing."
"We don't know yet," Earl emphasized. "That what our scouting efforts need to uncover. "Also, if it is there at all, it won't be a massive coverage like the President gets when he is out in public. It will be a small contingent of agents."
"So, how are we supposed to go about this?" Abe asked.
Earl pointed to the packets each of them had on the table in front of them. "That's some information Jason and I have put together so far. It gives a detailed history of our target, her family, her campaign, and what we know of her staff. You'll need to read through that carefully this afternoon. Nothing in that folder is to leave this place. It is too damning if discovered and could potentially alert people that someone might be targeting her. In addition to the background is a four-month schedule."
Earl held up his own copy.
"At the moment we know only a little of Craig's plans. Places she intends to visit in the next week to ten days. You will see that there are two remaining debates she will be attending, and a whole host of state primaries. There is no way she can attend all of them, but you can bet she will be hitting those states before the voting, and in some cases making a showing on the day of the primary. At the moment, we don't know if that can be used to help us or not."
"What if we miss the July 1 target date?" Bo asked. "What if we haven't made the hit by then?"
