This 44-part series began running in WCT Nov. 8. Readers can read all the installments to date at www.windycitymediagroup.com
From the journal of John 'Jack' Quincy Adams, Chief Secret Service Special Agent in Charge, The White House. Code Name: One.
Part 32. The Plan
Jack Adams, the Secret Service agent charged with assassinating President George W. Bush and being held for psychiatric evaluation, is telling about how he came up with his specific plan for eliminating the president.
Making up my mind was the easy part. A lot easier than I once would have imagined. The difficult part would be figuring out how to pull it off; but before I did that, I had another question to answer: did I care about being caught, or did I hope to get away with it? My mind flashed back to the Christmas dinner at Abbie's house. 'A hero is someone who performs a selfless act in which he endangers his own well being, even his life, for the good or safety of another.' Jackson's words, which I clung to like a life preserver. I had no doubt that I was perfectly willing to put my safety, even my life, on the line for my children and grandchildren.
Then there was the other problem: how would I pull this off? The answer that came to mind first, naturally, was my Sig Sauer, my service revolver. I am the only person allowed to carry a gun into Diadem. Only the Marine security guards who stand at each of the doors from the Oval Office to the outside portico are allowed to carry holstered weapons, and they are only permitted inside if there is a Code 4 emergency. The doors are all wired to alert Blowtorch, the Secret Service Executive Protection Command Post, if anyone brings a weapon into the room. So if I chose a gun it just meant that I would wait for an opportunity in the next week or two and shoot him. Since he had taken to working late and having a Dr. Pepper with me almost every night around 10:00 p.m., opportunities seemed plentiful. It was as if Fate was setting me up for a pre-destined assignment. If I couldn't pull it off until after Rice was confirmed, well, there were worse options out there than her, and I had never heard her speak in favor of the MPA.
But two major factors played a part in my choice. First, the Marine sentries don't carry Sig Sauers, so it would be evident that the weapon belonged to a Secret Service agent; there could be no blaming one of them. Second, I hate using guns. I loathe it. I don't like the sound, the feel, or the smell, and I especially don't like the effect it produces in a living target. The very image it brings to mind makes me grimace. So what were my alternatives? There was only one: the heart medicine. Here was a method that might even make it possible for me to get away with the deed since the effect of the modified blowfish toxin was immediate, mimicked heart failure, and its use is virtually undetectable.
For days I wrestled with whether I actually had the guts to do it. On my 'do it' days I worked out the scenario: We would be working late. Around ten or eleven o'clock Trailblazer would say, 'One, it's Dr. Pepper time,' and reach for his jacket. Then we'd walk down to the Mess and get a couple of sodas. Lucky for me he was the president and so the cafeteria manager had installed a Dr. Pepper nozzle on the soda machine, so he could have it in a glass with ice. Once he even said to me, 'One, I'm a cruncher, not a slurper.' I never knew if he was serious or making fun of himself. But of course Trailblazer, ever the cowboy, preferred it in a bottle. I had to find a way to make sure there were no bottles available that night so he would be forced to get one out of the machine. I would either have to arrange to get the soda for him, at which time I would deposit the Tetrodotoxin in his glass, or I would need to find a way to distract him once we were back in Diadem.
Krandall Kraus has published six books, including the Lambda Literary Award winner It's Never About What It's About, co-authored with his partner Paul Borja. He is the recipient of the 2006 Christopher Isherwood Fellowship in Fiction; his first novel, The President's Son, was a bestseller. A former consultant to the Office of the Vice President, his political thrillers are filled with White House insider details.
