The Final Warning

Chapter 3

Chapter 3Ninety degrees, and Washington, DC was sweltering. On the skyline, the iconic government buildings were shimmering in the heat haze. The team of workmen repairing the vandalised stonework of the Lincoln Memorial took shelter in its shadow, while a hundred or so protestors wandered listlessly along the White House lawn railings, their banners and their spirits drooping.

The White House’s twenty-year-old air conditioning was struggling to cope, and in the Oval Office the President’s temper was close to boiling point. Through all the years they had been together, Jeff Stone had never seen him so angry.

‘Get it done, Jeff!’

President Sukova could be a quiet and gentle man on his good days, but this wasn’t one of them.

‘Just get it done!’

It was the second time in a month that Vice President Grover had gone behind his back to the press, and he knew for sure that he was behind the leaks.

The affairs of state were going badly enough as it was, without his own team briefing against him. Another seventeen US servicemen had been blown up in the Syrian battlefields that week, fuelling the anti-war campaigns in the media. He was failing to quell the resentment over the massive hurricane that had hit the southern states, worse even than Hurricane Andrew in 1992. And his State of the Union address was not getting the support that his press secretary had promised.

What annoyed him most was that Grover had taken to running his own affairs without linking into the White House machinery. Two weeks ago he had turned up as guest of honour at a West Coast Oil Producers Convention, and the first the White House knew about it was a CNN newscast. Not the end of the world, but another example of the way the discipline of state was unravelling.

And here was Jeff Stone, his old campaign partner and now his Chief of Staff, telling him that the VP couldn’t be found. ‘We’ve done all the normal tracings. I’ve spoken to his office myself. Either they’re covering up, or he’s gone missing.’

‘Find him, Jeff. I don’t care if he’s in f*****g Afghanistan, I want him here and I want him now.’

‘Yes, Mr President.’

‘And, Jeff, that’s it for these wanderings of his. From now on, every time he goes for a crap you track him. And if his office doesn’t keep tabs on him 24/7, they’re fired. So help me, Jeff, I’ll fire them myself.’

‘Yes, Mr President.’