The Devil's Playground

by Michael Reagan

the President's right side as he threw his body onto it without hesitation. A loud blast erupted around the corridor as the young agent's body took the force of the explosion, giving up his life in the process.

  "HOMER IS DOWN," Shouted Valentine informing fellow agents that the Serect Service had just lost another colleague.

  It was Rob who fired and killed the Assassin as he poked his head round to check whether he had killed them.

  "MOVING," he shouted taking up point position.

  The party quickly found the stairs to the cellar. Rob opened the door.

  "IDAHO, identify yourselves."

  "Agent Park 9919," came the voice at the bottom of the cellar.

  "He's one of mine!" said Hong's lead agent.

  "MOVE! MOVE!" shouted Mikhail to the party behind him pushing the door open.

  "NOBLE IS SEALING THE CELLAR," came Mikhail's response, tapping in the code that would lock and bolt the door into place once everyone in the party was through and in.

  Once on the floor of the cellar, Valentine walked up to the entrance of the panic room. He opened the input box for the code then began to tap the numbers to open the door up.

  Suddenly shots echoed around the room. The young protective agent who had let them in had just shot Hong in the head while the woman agent who was the head of his detail had let off a volley of shots in the direction of POTUS.

  Mikhail reacted instantly, firing off two rounds at the man who had just shot Hong before he could get off another shot, hitting him dead center in the chest. He quickly advanced and off-loaded two more shots into his head to make sure he killed him. So did Thomas who shot the woman agent who had fired at POTUS, killing her instantly.

  "WILDCAT UNDER FIRE," shouted Valentine at the same time telling his fellow agents that POTUS most likely been hit only for it to suddenly dawn him that he was okay and it was in fact IDAHO who had taken the bullet by stepping in front of him for the second time that evening.

  "WILDCAT OKAY," confirmed Valentine.

  "SECURING SMOKEPOINT," he said grabbing the President by the arm, pulling him up and into the panic room with him before instantly sealing it again and leaving everybody else in the room outside.

  "SMOKEPOINT IS SECURE," crackled Valentine's voice over comms telling his fellow agents that President was now safe.

  Thomas held Rob in his arms while O and Mikhail tried to stop the bleeding to no avail.

  It was O who spoke first to his friend.

  "I was right, you were James Bond after all along, my Humble Servant," he said with a sad smile while he held his hand strongly.

  Blood trickled out of Rob's mouth. He tried to smile back but the pain was too great.

  "Tommy," he said turning his head slightly.

  "Remember the promise that you made to me in Pyongyang," he said slowly between the chokes of blood.

  "I remember," answered Thomas. "Consider it done," he said, trying to put his friend at ease as he watched him die.

  51

  Upper Barpham / Georgetown / Pyongyang

  Like the President, Thomas had attended all the funerals of his staff that he had lost during the attack. To his relief, although he didn't show it publically, Pritchard who had been with him since he was a young boy had survived the attack by not coming out of his room. Yossi and Barak who had been in the hotel on the estate at the time had helped to coordinate the attack with authorities which had taken three hours to retake the house. The destruction was incredible. Over 350 people had lost their lives, including all the assassins who had stopped fighting and committed suicide as if belonging to a cult. As the story filtered out O, Hayashi, Steve, Dunross, and Thomas himself were considered heroes in the eyes of the American people for their bravery in protecting POTUS. It was a role, unlike his friend Steve, who was using it for political capital that Thomas had found he wasn't entirely comfortable with.

  Sadness surrounded him. So much pain and suffering, he grimly concluded as he stood at the grave of another soul. An eighteen year-old waitress who had been with the staff for barely a month so she could earn extra money before heading off to university.

  Victoria almost the same age of the girl that was being lowered into the ground took hold of his hand and squeezed it.

  The attack in Upper Barpham had sent shockwaves around the world. During the three hours of uncertainly all the armed forces of Security Council were placed on full alert. As within moments of the attack being shown all around the world on live television, the world prepared for the worst.

  It was only when President Parker came out of the battle ravished manor alongside the new President of Korea and the Prime Minister of Japan and they stood together holding hands to appeal for calm did the world began to breathe a sigh of relief.

  In a moment that many were already saying would be a speech that would define his Presidency and by media observers that will be remembered and held in the same regard by historians of the future as the famous speeches of Lincoln, Roosevelt, and Kennedy in America's darkest hours, Daniel Parker had said, "The attack by those loyal to spirit of tyranny will not stop these three wise men that stand before you to find a way for peace."

  For Clara Martinez-Ashley, as she walked into the Oval Office with her son in her arms and Ali Mansoor plus Navjot Sidhu at her side, it was moment full of pride and deep sadness.

  Unlike the rest of those who died that terrible night protecting the President in the small village in Sussex, the American people had been allowed to mourn alongside their families. But because Rob was a Deputy Director of Special Activities Division and thereby a member of the CIA, to protect his assets and their operational security the President had not been allowed to attend his funeral.

  He had died taking a bullet for the President but nobody would ever know. Instead his death would forever be explained away as a tragic car crash. This meeting was meant to rectify that injustice.

  "Mrs. Ashley," said the President with his eyes full of emotion and sadness as he waited for Clara to hand her son over to Navjot, the boy's Godfather.

  "Nothing I can say to express the great debt I owe your husband will ever be good enough!" he said full of emotion as he hugged her tightly. "But rest assured, if you or your son ever need anything I will be there for you both on that you have my word."

  Tears began to well up in Clara's eyes as she watched the President turn and receive a small velvet box.

  "On behalf of a grateful man and a nation I am proud to present you with Robin's Distinguished Intelligence Cross for his voluntary acts of extraordinary heroism involving the acceptance of existing dangers with conspicuous fortitude and exemplary courage," he said handing her the box that he had opened containing the very special medal, the Agency's highest award for bravery, the equivalent of the armed forces Congressional Medal of Honor.

  "Thank you, Mr. President," said Clara taking the medal.

  The new President of Korea stood in the garden of his house in Pyongyang holding the hand of his young grandson.

  The Humble Servant plan was complete. Korea was united under one banner. The hated Americans would be soon leaving his homeland for good and the Japanese scum were handing back control of the Dokdo Islands and had agreed to pay for the replacement of his nation's air force, but the reason for his happiness was for the first time in history their most hated foe was well and truly under the thumb of the Korean nation.

  He may have shaken the hand of Hayashi to bring an end to the crisis but as far as he was concerned, Japan would forever more remain as a servant to his nation.

  Standing before him were the families of those who had died in making the plan happen plus those of the "Korean and Japanese sleepers" that had been buried so deep that they had been raised since birth under the guidance of the "Hawk" for this mission and who had either been killed or committed suicide once the attack was over.

  The investigation, still in its early days, was discovering that all were loyal servants of Okzaki and his nest of
traitors. The truth though was more complicated and would need to stay that way to ensure that Korea kept its new position in the new world order. That order though was for another day.

  He smiled at the assembled families then stood to attention and saluted them.

  "Glory to the heroic soldiers of the Korean People's Army!" he said passionately.

  Immediately all the families stood together. They saluted him back and broke into the traditional marching song of North Korea that they all used to sing as young men and women to praise the former leader as part of the despot's aura of superiority, known as the Song for Kim Song II.

  Emotions were high. Tears streamed down their respective faces. The plan that they had all been waiting for their entire life was now complete.

  Epilogue

  Thomas greeted Clara Martinez-Ashley warmly and in a very different manner in the lounge of the suite of the Washington D.C. Hilton than the last time they had met when she was prisoner in Adwalland. On the television screen with the sound turned down in the background, Hank Dowling was taking the oath to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth before he gave his evidence at the Senate Hearing into the investigation of David Young's role in the recent crisis.

  After this meeting the two men would meet under the chairmanship of the President to shake hands and agree away forward. It was a prospect he wasn't looking forward to but under the orders of the Mayor, he would do so.

  "Mrs. Ashley," he said warmly, offering his