The Final Option

by Kyle Robertson

  “Yes, Lord,” Oswalt answered. He turned to Geogyn. “Follow me, Horseman.”

  “You can call me Geogyn. Horseman seems very impersonal.” As he began to follow, Geogyn wanted to correct Oswalt of the title he wanted.

  “For what you’re about to do, personality shouldn’t exist,” Oswalt conveyed his opinion.

  “You are a murderer for God. You are a cataclysmic force in your own right. But you still have a name, Oswalt. Or should I call you Dale, since you have a first and a last?” Geogyn said.

  Oswalt got the point. “Your transport is through this door, Geogyn.”

  Geogyn's request was honored. “Thank you, Oswalt,” he said as he walked through the double doors in front of him.

  As he entered the room, he saw a single seated helicopter. It had the same non-reflective black finish as the MI-8 Hip. He knew it was fast and could deflect radar.

  “It’s a Com-1 Stealth helicopter,” Oswalt proudly announced. “I'm sorry, but since you are the Horseman, I called her Thunder Mare. You can change the name.”

  “No,” Geogyn replied. “I like Thunder Mare. That name, ironically, gives it personality.”

  Oswalt smiled at his response. “Then Thunder Mare is fueled, and ready to go.”

  Geogyn walked towards the cockpit to open the door and get in. Oswalt stopped him.

  “The fuel you need for Thunder Mare is H2O,” Oswalt instructed him. “Yep, good ole' water. There's a lot of it around, so you shouldn’t be without. Remember, we’re tryin’ to save this planet. It would be counterproductive to use gas-powered transports.”

  “I guess you answered a question I would’ve asked at a later time, Dale.” Geogyn acknowledged his explanation.

  “Glad to be of service, Hors… Geogyn,” Dale corrected himself before he finished his statement.

  Geogyn opened the door to the helicopter. He sat in the single seat, and began to program the navigation system.

  Oswalt marveled at him. Geogyn had never seen the Com-1, yet he knew all its inner workings as if it was an old friend. Not a newly invented machine.

  I guess the engineers we extricated earlier knew what they were inventing, Oswalt thought.

  Geogyn started the engine. The dual blades began to spin, silently. The engine had no combustion, so it was quiet also. It just worked.

  The helicopter lifted itself from the landing pad. Geogyn pressed a button, and it became ghostly, transparently concealed. It disappeared.

  The only way Oswalt knew he hadn’t left yet was the wind from the rotors assaulting his chest. It rippled across his shirt.

  Oswalt saw the deep blue sky and rain forest from the opening on the side of the volcano. Looking out at the serene terrain and sky confirmed his determination.

  As he appreciated the beauty, the wind subsided across his chest. Geogyn had left. His journey had begun.

  Chapter Ten: Numbers 35:17

  Armageddon began on a blustery day, near the end of the month of January. It happened in the House Chamber, in Washington D.C. Before President Nelson’s State of the Union Address.

  When the firestorm commenced, the state would change, radically.

  Geogyn landed in a wooded area fifteen miles from his target. He knew this was a pivotal time to begin this cleanse. With all the arduous events that occurred during his term, his erasure would be significant.

  President Nelson was linked to many conspiracies during his term. They all pointed to controlling the world’s oil. He had great advisers surrounding him. They fielded questions with political certainty. They also wrote his speeches. Whatever happened, no matter how obviously illegal it was, he would get away with it.

  Most people didn’t care. Only a minority of citizens were upset that he got away with murder, literally. These people were the ones he affected directly. With the soldiers he sent to war, the residents he ignored in the Superquake in California, during which he directed aid funds to the war, his actions didn’t help.

  The majority of U.S. citizens were affected, but not directly. Since he was the president, they felt they had no power to change. They just disapproved, and waited it out. They felt the next president would be better. They never knew his impact would aid in destroying the planet. If danger isn’t eminent to humans, they refuse to see it. Even when they know they could stop it, they procrastinate.

  If they took action to eradicate the problem, he wouldn’t be there. He had a job to do, and it started with President Nelson.

  Geogyn was still wearing his N.O.S.E. gear. It assisted his invincibility. He was a galvanized, invisible reaper. With his technology and combat training, they would have no idea, until it was too late. Then, when it happened, since it was an erasure instead of an assassination, they still would have no idea.

  He clicked on the gear and became transparent. He thought of Eldridge as he began to tactically maneuver towards the House Chamber.

  “Even after your death, you’ve abetted this planet’s situation, Futureshock,” he whispered to himself. “This erasure’s for you.”

  The wooded area turned out to be Rock Creek Park. His target was southeast of his landing site. Since his craft was so small, and it had a non-reflective radar signature, he wasn't detected. There were no Secret Service or military to greet him at the park entrance. He was clear, so far.

  Once he was out of the park, he took to the roofs to stay covert. He was silent above the city. None of the residents even heard a creak in their attic, so there was no investigation. He was swift and determined in his mission.

  As he neared the House Chamber, police, security, and Secret Service were in every nook and cranny surrounding the building. They were ready to protect the president with their lives. Although some didn’t agree with Nelson's actions, they believed in the office held. They would execute without a second thought. The police were proud to have the detail of protecting the president. Getting to Nelson would be difficult, but all he had to do was get to him.

  Geogyn was one hundred yards from the entrance. He pinpointed all the snipers on the designated rooftops. He saw security patrolling the grounds, monitoring the patrons that were invited to the address. He saw the sea of press on the outside and expected an ocean of them inside. Everyone was preparing for the speech. Geogyn’s preparations came for the hour before the speech.

  He knew the president’s cavalcade would arrive soon, so he had to infiltrate with expedience.

  Geogyn had his gear activated, but just because he was invisible didn’t mean he had no substance. Getting through the crowd of people undetected was daunting. He had to make it to the entrance without touching anyone. That obstacle was about one hundred yards long.

  Just like Sanders running for a touchdown, he thought. Except there are hundreds of aimless defenders instead of just eleven determined ones. At least there’s no out of bounds.

  Mentally he mapped his route between the guests and press. He calculated their speed of movement, but their direction was obscurely varied.

  I can do this. I’ve dodged bullets before, he thought. But I, at least, knew where the bullets were going. Come on, Geogyn. This isn’t impossible, just difficult.

  He was beginning to have doubts. If he were to run into someone, his element of surprise would be gone. It would be laborious even with the N.O.S.E. gear on. Any disruption would cause an automatic lockdown, and President Nelson wouldn’t show.

  They would sequester the president until they found something. Ron would confer with the Secret Service, and tell them about the Nicaraguan affair. They would make it impossible to locate Nelson, even after his term. All because Geogyn bumped someone. This had to be executed flawlessly. If it wasn’t, latter attempts would be arduous.

  Then he recalled his skill of completing a mission when he set his mind to it, no matter how impossible it seemed.

  My mission is to get to the entrance. He became more assured of himself. I’ve mapped it out, so I’ll get into state, and just do it.

  It didn’t
take Geogyn long to get into Attainment Status. Once he formulated a successful outcome, he programmed his body to complete the task. Reflexes took over. The thinking role was complete. He began to move swiftly to the entrance, through the thick midst of patrons.

  He started by crossing the street. He negotiated all the moving vehicles with ease, avoiding them and getting to the other side. A news van was parked in his path. He jumped and placed his hand on the roof of the van. He stood on his hand and was upside down for an instant. He calculated his release so he could land between a reporter and her camera crew. He did a high arcing somersault and landed silently in front of the reporter. He slid past the lights of the camera crew and avoided a senator’s wife who bent down to pick up her handbag. He bridged himself by arching his back over her and did a handstand.

  He twisted to his side on his left hand to avoid an erratic cameraman trying to get into position for another reporter. He had to stay balanced, and hop across the camera cables.

  He walked on his hands for a few steps, before he laid on his back, flat on the ground. The catering crew was carrying in an ice sculpture of a swan. There were four of them. Two on either side of the swan, moving toward the entrance.

  He rolled on his stomach, under the swan, and began to move with it. It stayed on course for a great distance, until they moved to the left through a large crowd. They were going to the catering entrance.

  Geogyn knew the layout of the building. He had been there before. He knew the caterer’s entrance wasn’t connected in any way to his target’s future location. He laid flat, and let the caterers pass over him. He turned on his back to avoid another senator hastily walking to greet a constituent.

  He quickly stood and side-flipped over them to get back on track. He had to spin to move past another reporter, He put his hands up for balance, and quickly froze to let a policeman pass unscathed.

  As the policeman passed, he did an arcing suicide dive over the House speaker as he walked towards him, and rolled near the entrance. It took about forty-five seconds.

  He made it. The first leg of infiltration was successful. All he had to do now was get through the X-ray and metal detector.

  He was still invisible, visually, but the detectors would make him stick out like a sore thumb. The second leg of his mission was just as impossible as the first. Then he saw the component for a successive action which wouldn’t alert. That component was the SNN camera crew.

  They walked through the door single file. Geogyn mirrored the cameraman as he passed through. The alarms beeped as the cameraman entered.

  “Over here, Sir,” the door guard said to the cameraman. The door guard had his personal metal detector.

  “Yeah, check his equipment,” the guard who watched the monitor said. “I got a ghost image of him when he passed through. It almost looked like there were two of him. His equipment must be glitching my system.”

  Geogyn peeled away smoothly, as the guard began sweeping the cameraman. He made his way across the assembly floor to the ready rooms for the speakers.

  Phase two was complete. Now all he had to do was find an ideal area, and wait for the president. He went to Nelson’s preparation room.

  Last year’s address was tainted with a deciphered broadcast of an attempt on Nelson’s life. It was confirmed it came from the infamous terrorist Mamudahr Sarif. Nelson was nervous because Mamudahr was uncanny at carrying out his threats.

  Nelson mobilized a team of Ghost Alpha commandos with Geogyn as his personal guard.

  The team consisted of four members. The first was Sergeant Shane Talmidge. His call code was Propagander. He could instantly make you accept whatever viewpoint he wanted. A brainwasher. Then, there was Sergeant Barry Candor. His call code was Quantum. He could slow down fired projectiles, and send them to an alternate, inert dimension. The next was the only female on the squad. Her name was Master Sergeant Akio Tokada. Her call code was Scrap. She was a daunting combat specialist, who had the ability to see your movements two seconds before you acted. The last commando was Sergeant Jacob Nolan. Call code, Harm. He was a large fellow. He could touch you and inflict you with any terminal disease. Then he could accelerate it to ravage your body until you succumbed to it. The process took about five minutes and judging from what disease he inflicted, it was not pretty. They called themselves Dark Ice. Geogyn had the task of personal security, so he knew this building well.

  He not only knew it, he was instrumental in its structural augmentation. For security purposes, a secret entrance was constructed in Nelson’s preparation room. No one but the contractors, Nelson, and he knew about it. It was used for a hasty escape if things got hazardous.

  The assassination was attempted, but not completed. Dark Ice neutralized the assassins by killing them before they got to the entrance of the House Chamber.

  One assassin broke free as the squad was being massacred. He was armored from head to toe with a Kevlar body suit. He was the foundation of Mamudahr's plan all along. The rest were martyred to protect him. He ran with reckless abandon towards the entrance.

  Dark Ice was pinpoint accurate with their aim. The bullets didn’t penetrate, but the impact should’ve crippled him. Sadly, it didn’t faze him. He was too determined to complete the assassination.

  Everyone from Dark Ice saw how unwavering he was, and converged on him. They all tackled him short of the entrance.

  Since he was incapacitated without any hope of completing his assignment, he reverted to plan B.

  He pressed a button near his wrist. It was the detonation trigger to a vest constructed of fifty pounds of C-4. Akio saw it, but she had hold of his leg and was too far away to react.

  The explosion was a gruesome sight to anyone who witnessed it out of range of danger. Dark Ice was, sadly at ground zero.

  The president was safe, and Geogyn somberly collected dog tags.

  Again, all of the Ghost Alpha team members died.

  The secret doorway was still active. It was used for escape. But it was also used for frequent, covert entrances of escorts to Nelson's self-proclaimed love nest. Geogyn remembered the code.

  As he got to the doorway, the crowd began to dissipate. It was in a restricted area at the back of the preparation rooms, in a corridor.

  Geogyn slid past the security that guarded the corridor, and tapped a panel in the floor, away from the sight or sound of the guards.

  He opened the trap door and silently poured in. He noticed how smooth and silent the hinges were. He knew it was only meant for escape, and Nelson wouldn’t have kept up on maintenance. The hinges should of, at least, creaked for lack of use. But since they didn’t, he knew Nelson used it for his own insidious purposes.

  He moved to the secret doorway at the end of the tunnel. He tapped the code on the pad to unlock it. It didn't budge. It remained steadfast in its denial of entrance.

  I knew that asshole would change the code, Geogyn scowled as he thought about Nelson. His erasure was becoming more justified to him. Glad I never revealed I had an alternate code.

  Geogyn tapped in a different code on the pad, and the door hissed as it broke its seal. He opened the door and was in. He moved to a corner and waited in the dark.

  President Nelson finally arrived at the House Chamber. His limousine was surrounded by many security SUVs, police cars, and police motorcycles. It looked like the land version of an aircraft carrier’s military complement. The police cars and motorcycles were the gunships, and the SUVs were the destroyers.

  Nelson’s personal Secret Service got out of their respective vehicles and created a human gauntlet leading to the House Chamber entrance. Nelson exited his limousine with his wife and confidently sauntered to the entrance. His wife humbly followed behind him like a concubine.

  Many of the news crews were inside, but SNN was large enough to have a detail outside as well. They broadcast his arrival live.

  His wife was good at socializing, while Nelson made it to his preparation room. He walked past the telepromp
ters, the House Speaker, and his advisers as he made it closer to his ready room.

  Geogyn heard him speak to the guards protecting the door.

  “Are we good?” he asked them. “No problems?”

  “No one has entered in four hours, Mister President,” one of the guards told him. “I’ll check in with the others.”

  The guard tapped his headset and spoke into it. “Rear guard, are we clear? Confirmation code Goblet.”

  The rear guard answered with, “Code response, Celtic wine. Yes, that is affirmative. We are clear.”

  “We are clear, Mister President,” the guard said to Nelson. “The room was electronically swept minutes before we took up post, No one, or nothing has gotten through.”

  “Good, I finally get some privacy so I can collect my thoughts,” Nelson said to the guards. “Keep an eye out, gentlemen, and if you see my wife, divert her.”

  The guards looked at each other with a knowing smirk, and said in unison, “Gotcha, Mister President.”

  Nelson opened the door and entered his room. He flipped on the lights, locked the door, and walked to his desk in the middle of the room. He pulled out a cell phone from his inner pocket and proceeded to sit down behind the massive oak desk. He began to dial a number and waited for an answer.

  “Hey, Baby,” he spoke into the phone. “I’ll complete this address crap in about two hours. My wife is throwing one of her overprivileged bitch parties afterward, and I’ll be lonely and horny. Get over here by eleven so we can celebrate.”

  He did a lustful chuckle and clicked off the phone. He put his feet on the desk and leaned back in his leather high-back chair.

  As he was basking in his power, Geogyn couldn’t remain quiet any longer. “I know your wife, you adulterous prick. She doesn’t deserve your treachery.”

  Nelson sat up quickly, with a surprised startle. He nervously scanned the room but saw no one. “Who’s there?!” he asked frantically.

  Geogyn turned off the N.O.S.E. gear and stood in front of Nelson’s desk. He pulled out the Ruger and pointed it at Nelson. “This planet doesn’t deserve your treachery either.”