by Reed Sprague
Near the top of the building, on the seventy–second floor, a nondescript office that contained a large table, a few chairs and bright lighting, housed the blueprints for the building. The area was heavily guarded by Samuel’s agents. Fireproof file cabinets, rows of them, housed the prints. Access was granted only after the most extensive and detailed procedures, including secret codes, secret keys, safe combinations, completed sign–in logs, and on and on.
Briggs felt that although the access process was excruciatingly detailed, it was amateurish. Why not simply have a large safe door, like a bank vault door, guarding access to a vault room? Anyway, each print was pulled, rolled open, and studied by Briggs. There was only one problem. Briggs had no idea what he was looking at. He didn’t know the difference between a blueprint and an instruction form detailing the recipe for rocket fuel. So Briggs did what any good detective would do—he asked a lot of questions. Some showed his ignorance, and were down right embarrassing. “What’s this?”
“That’s a toilet. Why? Does it resemble a refrigerator to you?”
Some yielded valuable information. “Why does the storeroom in the northeast corner of the fifty–second floor show on the prints, yet it’s not actually there?”
“You are mistaken, Briggs. The fifty–second floor has a storeroom in the northeast corner, as do many of the other floors. Let’s go; I’ll show you,” Samuel said, bluffing.
Briggs was somewhat embarrassed, but he realized that his lack of knowledge could be used to his advantage. He would find out later, on his own, if Samuel was lying about the storage closet on the fifty–second floor. For now, he was content to act the part of the bumbling detective.
Samuel was turning the pages of blueprints quickly to get to the one needed for review. Briggs found himself studying each page that was turning, looking for useful information that Samuel might be hiding. He made a mental note of the floor that each page represented. Samuel turned to the page for the sixteenth floor. Briggs saw wording that had been stricken and somewhat blacked out, next to an unusual icon:
Briggs couldn’t be sure of the exact location of the vault, but at least he knew that the building had one, that it was somewhere on the sixteenth floor, and that Samuel was using it for something other than the storage of the blueprints. Briggs kept quiet about it.
Samuel now mistakenly believed that he could explain away any questions Briggs threw at him about the prints. Briggs played along, allowing his opponent, even encouraging him, to believe that Briggs was ignorant.
“I’m sorry, but I just have no idea why Room Twenty–nine thirty–seven shows an air conditioner intake vent line when there isn’t one for other rooms located directly above and below that room on the other floors,” Briggs said.
“That’s not an A/C intake vent line; it’s a clothes dryer exhaust line. See, look at the print.”
“Oh, I see. Sorry, I should pay closer attention.”
Hours went by. Then the day ended. The next day was tedious as well. Briggs’ dumb questions were wearing on Samuel. Samuel’s answers were curt, and hardly hid his disdain for much further questioning by Briggs.
By the end of the third day, the two had reviewed all blueprints. Briggs had learned to read blueprints. Samuel had answered so many questions with so many lies that he couldn’t be sure that he knew the difference himself between an icon used to designate a sink and one used for a tree. Samuel had enough. He needed to return to work. He would have to work late six or eight days in a row preparing all the details for the convention.
“Okay, thanks for your help. Now all I have to do is personally survey every square inch of the actual space,” Briggs said. Samuel was not impressed.
“Look, Briggs, I have been ordered to cooperate with you, but you and I are through working together. I have to get to my office and stay there for at least six days to finalize the security for next week.”
“Sorry, Samuel, but you are not finalizing any such thing. USFIA has been put in charge. We are known not to screw up security detail such as this. You guys are still tainted by the assassination of Premier Ivan Lexocov last month. Nothing personal, but we don’t want any more dead leaders, do we?”
“That was a cheap shot, Briggs. You offend me. You can’t even read a blue—”
“A blueprint, Samuel? Yes, I can read one now. I have my doubts about whether or not you can read one, though. Some of your answers were questionable.”
“You set me up! You set me up! You fake. Get this straight, cowboy, you might get me once, but it will never happen again.”
The use of the word cowboy bothered Briggs. Maybe Samuel had picked up on the accent. Maybe the mannerisms. Or maybe he knew the truth. Briggs would have to chance it. He didn’t flinch.
“Cowboy? Fake? That description, coming from a person who is as easy to see through as waxed paper!” Briggs exclaimed to Samuel. “I suggest that you change your policy from lying and name calling to one of truthfulness and respect for USFIA agents. We’re trying to help you guys by keeping you from bungling the protection of the world leaders who will be here next week. We can’t have you screw up the way you did when you allowed Lexocov to be blown apart by an amateur killer with a pop gun. The guy didn’t even know how to tell time,” Briggs said, referring to the facts that Lexocov’s assassin killed Lexocov with a twenty–two caliber handgun and was discovered to have been late for the event, nearly missing his opportunity to shoot Lexocov. The assassin would have missed his opportunity if Samuel’s team had not botched the schedule, resulting in Lexocov remaining in one place much longer than planned.
Briggs and Samuel had experienced three very stressful days accommodating each other. Briggs had gained valuable knowledge that Samuel couldn’t have realized. Briggs believed that he had discovered the location of the twins; not that he saw on the blueprints the words, “kidnaped twins stay here,” but he did see something that spoke just as loudly to him.
Down on the fifth floor Briggs discovered that an “office” was in fact a nursery. He was not allowed to physically inspect the office — it was one of the four areas that were off limits to his inspections — but all signs pointed to it as the nursery.
The main nursery for staff children would not have been used to keep the twins, Briggs surmised. Older children would interact with the twins on a daily basis, and, as children tend to do, the others would have talked openly about the twins.
The nursery would have been located on a lower floor. Not even Peterson or Hall would have endangered young children by keeping them on the upper floors of a skyscraper. Basic safety dictated that they would be below the tenth floor. Briggs also reasonably presumed that the nursery would be in close proximity to the fire escape, the stairs that provide a direct route to the ground courtyard, which provides direct escape to the city streets. In the event of an emergency, the agents assigned to the twins could be whisked away by a waiting car to another location. The twins could not be abandoned. They had to be kept safe, not because Peterson and Hall held them in the highest regard, but because they provided the insurance needed to keep the USFIA in check. Hall believed that as long as River felt that his babies were safe, attempts to avenge Eddy’s death would be held in check.
Briggs estimated that there was a sixty percent chance that the twins were being held in the fifth floor nursery. It was the best he could do. He could not be caught doing an exhaustive search for the twins. He took what he could get from Samuel. He would have to gamble.
Rescuing the twins would be easy compared to getting Peterson and Hall. Located on the forty–third floor, Peterson’s office was guarded in every way possible. A helicopter waited at all times on the building’s roof, including its pilot, ready to go. Access was provided by either of two elevators that existed to go directly from the forty–third floor to the roof or back to the forty–third floor. They went to no other location in the building. Travel time to the roof from Peterson’s office was thirty–three seconds. Drills conducted weekly prov
ed that Peterson could be evacuated from the building to one of twelve secret locations in the Houston area within two and a half minutes. Each drill had to conclude with Peterson and Hall seated in their desks at the secret location within three minutes of rising from their chairs to evacuate the headquarters building.
The evacuation drills worked each time with absolute precision. The single–purpose elevators sat empty, doors opened, in the middle of Peterson’s office. Hall’s office was next to Peterson’s. He would be the first person notified to get to the elevator to be evacuated since it took him four and three tenths seconds longer to arrive at the elevators. The decision as to which elevator to use for the evacuation was made at the last possible moment.
The forty–second and forty–fourth floors were filled with Samuel’s security agents. His agents also occupied all of the offices on the forty–third floor, except for Peterson’s and Hall’s and a few members of the support staff. In all, then, between the forty–second, forty–third and forty–fourth floors, there were ninety–eight of Samuel’s security agents guarding Peterson and Hall. Each agent was armed, and each was sworn to protect Peterson and his staff. They all took an oath to die in Peterson’s stead, if necessary. Undoubtedly, any one of them would have given his life to protect Peterson.
Samuel had established a seemingly ironclad system of protection for Peterson. Yes, the guards were well armed, and they had access to nearly unlimited numbers of additional heavy weapons stored in arms closets throughout the building, especially on the floors they occupied. Samuel’s plans for Peterson’s escape from the building far exceeded the details any member of the group had contemplated. But Samuel had devised a system that relied too heavily on complicated procedures.
“That’s a brick wall,” al Qatari said. “That plan, that escape plan, to the roof, to the helicopter, that’s something we will not overcome. It’s air tight.”
“Few things are air tight,” Briggs said with simple confidence. “But I will admit that it’s formidable.”
“What about the roof? What about sabotaging the helicopter?” Albert asked.
“There’s room to land three helicopters. Cripple one, and you will have delayed the evacuation by no more than two minutes, unless it becomes too dangerous to land one of the backup helicopters at all. One of the two backups can fly in and land within one minute. Get that one, and the third will fly in within another minute,” Briggs said.
“They’ve protected Peterson very well,” Briggs said, “with one exception.”
“What’s that?” Albert asked.
“They put Samuel in charge. He relies on gadgets, canons, plans, deception, computers, bombs, everything, including the kitchen sink. He has demonstrated one big flaw, though.”
“What?”
“His stupidity. He’s dumb.
“In Montana we have a saying for stupid people. They can’t outsmart you, so they try to scare you with great detail. They throw the kitchen sink at you. When someone throws the kitchen sink at you, they’re trying to kill you with it because they want to keep you from looking at the sludge in the drain trap.”
“Great, but what are you talking about?” al Qatari asked, exasperated.
“To use a figure of speech, there’s a drain trap, a hidden area in the building that contains an embarrassing dirty little secret, that Samuel’s security team overlooked,” Briggs explained.
“Go on,” Albert said.
“The elevator shaft. When that escape elevator goes up thirty floors, its shaft goes up with it. When it goes down thirty floors, its shaft goes down with it. They made a pitiful attempt to hide the location of the shafts on the lower floors, but the blueprints show clearly that the walls directly below the elevators are positioned in such a way as to accommodate the shafts. Each member of the group soon realized what Briggs was saying, and, one by one, each one raised his head, looked to Briggs’ right and stared at the wall.
“The elevator shafts are right there, Briggs said, as he tapped on the wall. Our answer is right under our noses. The sink trap is right there. Samuel never should have agreed to show me the prints.”
CHAPTER TWENTY–FOUR
10:27 A.M., 12 JUNE 2026
Briggs was in a much better mood, though he was on the lookout, as always, for irritating people who might come around and make stupid remarks that would ruin his day. He had disobeyed Albert’s direct orders by ditching his dress shoes, business suit and tie. He had gone to a western wear store and bought boots, jeans and jean jacket, flannel shirt and a leather belt that was thick and tough enough to tie down a bull, with a buckle large enough to use as a hood ornament on a locomotive. He tossed his cell phone and netbook into the Gulf of Mexico.
Best of all for Briggs, he had returned his two USFIA–issue 9mm twelve–shot “hand canons,” returned his Smith & Wesson to its holster, and returned its holster to his upper body, which, as far as he was concerned, was where a holster belonged. On top of all the other things that irritated him about the way Albert had forced him to dress, his government–issue holster for the two hand canons sat far too low on his waist.
Now, instead of sliding his feet along gingerly in an undersized suit that restricted his blood flow, joint movement and the functions of other, more sensitive body parts, Briggs strode tall, loose and confident. He stood six–six in his new duds rather than six–four, but weighed the same: two twenty–seven. His weight hadn’t changed because the heavier weight of the boots and clothes were offset by the reduction in the weight of his weaponry.
Albert wasn’t happy about the change. He saw Briggs’ “return to his cowboy ways” as unprofessional and downright dangerous. Briggs had given up twenty–four rounds for seven. Briggs countered that he could hit a target with one shot from his Smith & Wesson for every twelve shots from one of the 9mm canons. Briggs told Albert that he could live with the increased odds, and that he wasn’t at all sure that he could live without them.
Immediately before the group was scheduled to execute the plan, Albert called them together to make an important announcement.
“At 7:09 this morning, 12 June 2026, Alejandro Perez, Jr., resigned as Speaker of the United States House of Representatives. Mr. Perez, Senator Edward Milton and I were informed at 7:07 this morning that President James Ian Barnes and Vice President Thomas N. Carr were both arrested by officials of the United Nations Leader Protection Agency who were acting on direct orders from Tyler Peterson. Mr. Barnes and Mr. Carr were charged with treason against the WWCA and the United Nations. They have also been charged with plotting to murder Tyler Peterson.
“Mr. Barnes and Mr. Carr are both being held in a secret location. We can’t be sure at this time where, exactly, that location is. We have reason to believe that the secret location is, in fact, a jail cell within a vault in this building. We intend to determine their exact location, find them, and free them from their cell today, as a part of our mission.
“As a result of Mr. Barnes’ and Mr. Carr’s incarceration, they are not able to execute the duties of the offices of U.S. president and U.S. vice president, respectively. Alejandro Perez, Jr., resigned his position as Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives in order to assume the office of the president of the United States. Mr. Perez assumed the office of president of the United States under Article 2, Section 1, Clause 6 of the United States Constitution; Section 3 of the Twentieth Amendment to the Constitution; and the Presidential Succession Act of 1947.
“At 7:10 this morning, Mr. Perez was sworn in as president of the United States by the Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, Daniel W. Fogelman. Before he swore in the president, Chief Justice Fogelman, himself, took an oath and made a renouncement of Mr. Peterson, the WWCA and the United Nations—the same oath and renouncement we will make this morning. President Perez will cover the issue of our oath and renouncement in just a moment.
“We have no choice except to appear to be going along with Peterson’s decision to arrest the president and
vice president. It’s the only way we will be able to pull off our plans. We have to have access. If Peterson suspects, even for a moment, that we are not loyal to him, he will do whatever it takes to keep us out of his building and to destroy us.
“The president will come in now and officially authorize us to proceed with our plan. Immediately after he addresses us, our agents will secretly usher him from the building and keep him at a location known only to them. Please stand as we welcome the president of the United States, Alejandro Perez, Jr.”
“Thank you for your introduction. Please be seated. I have a few words of official business, and then we have to move on with our plans.
“I am proud of each of you for your decision to participate in this mission today. The future of this country, and the well–being of the entire world, literally rest in your hands. Regardless of the results of today’s mission, each of you needs to know that it is an honor for me to be here with you on this special day.
“I want to make it absolutely clear to each participant that the likelihood is very high that you will be injured or killed while carrying out today’s operation. I also want you to understand that if you survive, and if today’s operation is unsuccessful, there is a high probability that you will face arrest and conviction for treason against the U.N. and/or the WWCA.
“Furthermore, each person here must be made aware that we are operating today as if the Constitution of the United States — as it existed prior to ceding power and authority to the U.N. and the WWCA — is in full effect. That is not a fact upon which all persons agree. There is, in fact, widespread doubt as to whether or not, legally speaking, the U.S. Constitution is valid in any form.
“To the extent that we in this room accept that the U.S. Constitution is in force, pre–WWCA, we will operate under its provisions. Any person in this room this morning who believes that the U.S. Constitution is not in force in this country may so demonstrate his beliefs by raising his left hand. Those who do not raise their left hand will be deemed to have volunteered to serve under the U.S. Constitution without any assurance that the protections detailed therein will be afforded them at the conclusion of today’s operation.