“And you ignored her advice?”
“Of course I did.” She winked at him. “I’m Janine Fuller, and as usual I thought I knew best! Anyhow, stubborn me wasn’t going to hear any of that and two months later I gave up my Oxford scholarship and my job at the BBC and married Adam Hartfield, and it felt good, and it felt right, because for the first time in my life I wasn’t looking for the bad in someone. I needed Adam to be all good, all caring, all loving. So for the next eighteen months of our marriage, he was just that, the perfect husband,” she took a moment, searching for the right words, “because I deluded myself into making him just that, perfect.”
“Were you still working at that point?”
She shook her head. “No, Adam insisted that I didn’t work. He was very wealthy and although we almost came to blows about that once, I eventually gave in, probably because I needed to believe that he really wanted to take care of me. Was I wrong.”
“Why’s that?”
“He didn’t want to take care of me, he wanted to control me, own me. He felt threatened by my success and the fact that when we walked into a room together, it was me who knew how to engage with the rich and famous. It was me who people swarmed around and were drawn to. He didn’t like that. In fact he despised that. He needed to get control back. And that’s what Kath kept telling me. But yep, silly me didn’t want to see it.”
“So what happened?”
“For our second anniversary we decided to fly down to Acapulco with our best friends, Angie and Dennis. We were all pretty much living in each other’s pockets for the preceding year, and they were always popping in and out of our house, as if they were part of the family.”
“I have a feeling where this might be going.”
She screwed up her face, recalling that distressing time in her life.. “Okay, so we’re all down in Acapulco, and it’s our second anniversary, so I tell Adam that I’m going to get him a gift at one of the markets, which was about an hour’s bus ride away. He said he was tired and was just going to relax in bed and watch TV. Anyhow, I’m not exactly sure why, but I had a feeling that morning there was a possibility I may have become pregnant because I’d missed my period. I knew how much Adam wanted to be a father, so I used that excuse about the market to go to the local store and take a pregnancy test, and low and behold I was pregnant.”
“Were you happy about that?”
“I was thrilled, Jack, I really wanted to be a mother, but more importantly, I was excited for Adam.”
“There you go again, always thinking of someone else. So then you went to the market to get him a gift?”
“Don’t be an idiot, Jack. His gift was that he was going to be a father,” she said, playfully slapping him for his sarcastic comment.
“Okay, finish the story!” he said, taking her by the hand.
“Well, I’m sure I don’t need to spell it out for you, but what the hell. I raced back to the hotel room to surprise him, and oh yes, there was a surprise, but it wasn’t him that got the surprise, it was me. Caught in the throes of passion were Adam and my so-called best friend, Angie. I’m not sure who got more of a fright, them or me.”
“What did you say?”
“I said nothing. I just ran out of that room as fast as my legs could carry me, so fast in fact that I tripped and collided with the staircase. The next thing I remember, I was waking up in the hospital, with Kath by my side, and—”
“You lost the baby?” he said empathically. “Janine. If I knew you back then, I would’ve killed the creep!”
She felt a wave of warmth course through her, as he squeezed her hand tightly. “So do you see now? It’s not just about fairy tales with white horses, princes and a beautiful sunset. It’s also about witches and wolves and rotten, poisoned apples.”
“Janine, I know you’ve heard this a million times before, but that guy didn’t deserve you. He had in his possession a diamond, and he treated you like a piece of dirty coal.”
Jack took her in his arms and pulled her toward him. Janine felt the tears coming, but did her utmost to choke them back.
“Ouch!” he cursed. “My damn ankle.”
* * * *
A loud voice roused Sheri, who’d been lightly dozing with Chloe on her lap. It was Simon on the vidlink.
“Sheri, Sheri, are you there?”
“Yes, I’m here, Simon, what is it?” she answered, trying to shake off the haze of sleep.
Simon’s face lit up. “Is that my little angel there?”
“Look … Daddy,” shouted Chloe, pointing to the hologram of Simon. She’d awoken earlier and Sheri’s ENM had alarmed, so she brought her into the control room to play with her toys.
“Yes it is, honey, now go and play for a few minutes while Mommy talks to Daddy.”
Chloe reluctantly climbed off Sheri’s lap and skipped her way toward a small table covered with her favorite toys, minus Mr. Teddy.
“What’s up, Simon?”
“It’s done, I’ve done it. I can’t actually believe it, and twenty minutes to spare!”
“Awesome news. Are you sure it will work?”
“Can never be completely sure, what with all the chaos going on at the moment, but let’s say I’m pretty hopeful. I’m going to run a quick test and make sure there aren’t any bugs that need ironing out. I’ve chosen a very noisy, boring frequency in which to redirect their transmission.”
“Which one?”
“Thirty-seven Hertz, a really low frequency. A frequency plagued by galactic noise, due to synchrotron radiation or charged particles spiraling through our sun and our planet’s magnetic field.”
“And that’s it?”
“Not quite, there’s a complicated sequence of instructions that I have to deliver to EMB before broadcasting the virus, in order to allow me to install it within EMB. One of the so-called safety features you guys implemented was a program to destroy any information that hackers may try to place within EMB. Fortunately, I know how to disarm that.”
“Jesus, Simon, I didn’t think even you were capable of getting through that firewall. It took ten top computer brains from across the world to create that.” She was impressed, despite herself. “By the way, how are things looking on the water front?” she asked.
“I’m not sure, Wesley will be able to update you on that.”
Wesley appeared on the link.
“Sheri, I’m afraid it’s not all good news. Our cameras are showing water lapping outside the front gates. I don’t think we have more than twenty minutes, and that’s with some luck on our side.”
“Well you won’t need to worry about that,” said a loud female voice emanating from somewhere behind Simon and Wesley.
CHAPTER EIGHTY-EIGHT
Both men spun around to see who it was. They were startled to find an attractive dark-haired woman in her mid-forties with a revolver clutched firmly in her hands pointed at Simon’s head. She was dressed in a brown fur coat, matching fur hat and white leather gloves.
“Who the hell are you?” yelled Wesley in surprise.
“I’m the woman who’s going to put a stop to your little plan of restarting what I thought we had already finished.” The small group gaped at her in confusion. She smiled beatifically and turned to Denny. “How about that, Denny my darling?” she said to him. She could see him through the glass window sitting about twenty feet away.
Denny felt the color drain from his face. “Jess, what are you doing?” he screamed through his glass prison. He was reeling from the shock of seeing her there.
“I’m here to finish what we started, honey.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Don’t you remember? You … me … us … together in the White House. Well we finally have that opportunity. O’Brien is gone, and you’re in charge. All we need to do now is tie off this one last loose end.”
“Loose end …?” He tried not to give anything away, but he knew it to be a pointless exercise. Jess was relentless and focused
when she wanted to be.
“Him!” she said, pointing toward Simon.
“What will killing him do?” asked Denny.
“Oh, Denny, playing games with me again, are you? Save those for the bedroom, honey. You know exactly what he represents. Don’t think I haven’t been listening in on your clandestine calls to him. I had your phone bugged, but only had the chance to listen to your recorded conversations a few hours ago. Took ages to go through all your calls. You’ve been a very busy boy, Denny!” she said, pouting her lips together as if she were doing a Marilyn Monroe impersonation.
It was then that Denny realized his mistake—he had underestimated her. “You’ve been spying on me?”
“Of course, my dear. You think I’d trust you with the whole nation at stake? Had to make sure you’d keep your promise to me, especially after you told me about the small skeleton buried deep in that closet of yours. Remember high school, Johnny MacFarlane? I realized after that revelation that you were capable of anything and decided to go through your calls.”
Denny flinched at the name. This was nothing like Johnny MacFarlane. That boy was trash. Not only was he a bully, a drug addict, and a sadist, but he had also taken great pleasure in torturing and murdering Alphie, Denny’s Labrador and best friend, perhaps his only friend while growing up. As far as he was concerned, that boy should never have existed in the first place. He was pure evil, plain and simple.
Denny could see Wesley slowly stepping backwards, away from Jess, but she noticed the movement and trained her gun on him. “Hey! Nobody move! Don’t think I won’t blow all your brains out … I’ve nothing to lose.”
Nervous looks were exchanged between the hostages. Denny realized that this woman who he’d cared about, possibly even loved, was seriously deranged, and probably had been for some time. He decided it best to tread lightly. “So, what did you overhear?” he asked.
“Enough to know that he represents everything we don’t want to happen. We’ve come too far to let that pretentious rat take us back a week to when we had nothing.”
Denny opened his mouth to speak, but she cut him off. “It’s happened, Denny, can’t you see? The plan has succeeded. We have it. It’s ours for the taking. I’ve even got the colors picked out for the Oval Office,” she said, running her pointed tongue over her upper lip.
Losing his cool facade, Denny’s voice now took on a pleading edge. “Have you gone completely insane? Listen to yourself. It’s over. We lost, and in case you haven’t noticed, there isn’t much of a world left out there to live in.”
“Has big old General Denny Smith lost his balls?” she smirked, almost curtseying. She grinned widely, flashing a broad smile.
“Jess, you just don’t get it. There isn’t a world left to be had. Simon is our last and only chance of restoring things to normality. Without him, there’s no hope, there’s nothing!” He paused as he tried to compose himself. “Please, darling, put the gun down.”
Jess was having none of it. “What’s a bit of climate change amongst friends? They predicted it fifty years ago. Large rises in sea levels, etcetera. So, it’s come a bit earlier and more dramatically than predicted. With us in office, we can fix anything, baby.” Her voice had taken on a desperate edge. “Just the two of us, baby, just as you said. I’m doing this for you as much as for me?”
Denny shook his head. How could he have ever thought that he loved this woman? How could he have misjudged her so badly?
* * * *
Sheri, Steve, Drew and the professor had been watching the action unfolding at NASA. None of them could believe what they were seeing. That glimmer of hope they had all briefly enjoyed had ended. Chloe was too young to understand the dramatic situation, but Sheri scooped her up into her arms, comforted her and moved her away from the holographic link.
Simon looked shaken. “He’s right! You need me. Please, put the gun down,” he said.
Jess had a steely look of determination in her eyes. “I’m not putting anything down. You’re the final obstacle to overcome and once you’re out of the picture, it’s all ours for the taking.” She aimed the gun squarely at his chest.
Simon shut his eyes and seemed to be waiting for the inevitable, while Jess readied herself to pull the trigger.
The four onlookers cried out simultaneously, “No!”
CHAPTER EIGHTY-NINE
A shot was fired. There was a scream, and Jess recognized it to be that of a woman. She glared at Simon, who had not moved and was still sitting in front of her, seemingly unharmed. The gun she had been holding was now on the floor next to her and there was a warm feeling running down her left leg.
Bewildered, she looked down and saw blood trickling down her thigh and dripping onto the floor. The scream had been hers. It was only then that she felt the throbbing pain at the back of her leg. She spun around to see the first lady, tears streaming down her face and a Smith & Wesson clutched in her right hand, the barrel smoking.
“You?’ she managed, as the pain in her leg intensified.
“Yes, me, your so-called best friend.” Gabi looked like she hadn’t slept in days. She had large dark rings under her eyes, her hair was wild and unkempt, and she was wearing a thick military parka over a winter-weight green flight suit. “You know, it took me a while to figure out that it must’ve been you involved in Teddy’s bizarre coma. At first I assumed it was an illness, but when one of the physicians suggested the possibility of poisoning, I cast my mind back to the events leading up to that moment and who could possibly have been responsible. The Secret Service had eliminated everyone that day, everyone except you, although they had no reason to suspect you, as you never actually saw Teddy.”
Jess still had it in her to smile with pride at the shrewdness of her plan.
Gabi glared at her and shook her head. “You really are a piece of work!”
Jess’s smug smile began to evaporate as she felt a coldness creep up over her. She looked around and saw the puddle of red growing into a small lake.
“Why, Jess? Why did you do it? I thought we were friends.”
Jess shook her head “How did you know it was me?” She was starting to feel sleepy.
“I thought about our meeting and how insistent you’d been on seeing to it that Teddy got that envelope you gave me. I struggled with the thought that one of my best friends could be involved, but the Secret Service insisted we do some background checks on you and bingo, you flashed up brighter than a traffic light, with inconsistencies on your record; devious little tricks you had pulled over the years and even some rumor of duplicity. Yet somehow, you had always managed to stay one step ahead of the authorities, and none of it could be proven. That was more than enough to convince me.”
Jess surreptitiously glanced around for her gun. She knew she had to act quickly. Soon she wouldn’t have the energy to stand.
“After that, it was easy. We had the lab go through all Teddy’s mail that day and they discovered microscopic residues of a poison called DT334 on the paper clip, untraceable once absorbed into the human body.”
“Well, you aren’t as stupid as I thought,” said Jess, the pain now almost unbearable.
“What did I ever do to you for you to have done this?”
Sudden fury gave Jess the energy to retort, “Because, my little princess, it was always about you. You had the perfect life, the caring family, the flawless beauty, perfect skin, popularity and even an IQ to rival Einstein. You had everything growing up, everything. What did I have? Nothing. I never even got married. All I got was a relationship with a married man who was never going to leave his wife. Why did you deserve it all and I had to be content with the leftovers?” Her voice had lost momentum and was becoming softer.
The general, who had been listening intently to the conversation, interrupted them from behind the glass. He had to shout to be heard. “Oh my god, Jess, you’re pathetic! You didn’t do it for the cause, or for your country. You did it out of pure selfish jealousy! You devious bitch! You d
isgust me. It sickens me how I could ever have felt anything for you.”
Denny turned to face the first lady. “You have to believe me, ma’am, that this wasn’t personal. There was a lot more at stake. Did you ever hear of the NLM?”
Gabi nodded her head in confirmation, a sad, resigned look on her face.
“I had strong evidence that the President had been compromised, and hence our national security,” said Denny.
Gabi sighed heavily. “Yes, General, I knew all about it. In fact, Teddy was approached over a year ago and anonymously blackmailed. He told me everything and how they threatened to assassinate him and blow up shopping malls if he didn’t go along with their plan. It’s been a nerve-racking year, but the ironic thing was that with the help of his closest inner sanctum of loyalists, they had managed to uncover the origin of the plot two days before Teddy’s poisoning. He was on the cusp of blowing the whole thing wide open, and exposing the truth, when this bitch did the unthinkable.”
Denny shut his eyes and massaged his temples with his fingers. “I don’t know what to say … I’m so sorry.”
“General, I don’t blame you. I know you thought you were doing your job for the good of your country. I just wish things would’ve turned out differently. This cow, on the other hand,” she pointed to Jess, “is a completely different story. She took delight in disposing of my husband.”
Jess slipped down onto the cold, concrete floor. She felt the stickiness of the blood as she slid into it. She closed her eyes. If the others thought she was no longer a threat, they were wrong. She knew exactly where her gun had fallen, and when she sensed that Gabi had turned away, she struck like a cornered cobra. She grabbed the gun, raised her arms and fired a shot off in Gabi’s general direction.
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