by Marc James
“Someone attacked me.” She sobbed.
“Who attacked you Annie?”
“I didn’t see them.”
“Did they do this to Edgar?”
“I don’t know, he wasn’t here when it happened.”
Bobby hobbled back over to Edgar’s lifeless body. He began performing chest compressions, as Annie sobbed over her boss’s body.
“Come on Edgar!”
Bobby began pushing harder and harder, Edgar was gone.
“Come on Edgar!”
After a few minutes Bobby gave up. As he looked down on Hoover he could not see any wounds, there was a little blood on his hand but it seemed to have been transferred from Annie’s head wound.
It was another few minutes before the paramedics arrived. Bobby rode in the ambulance alongside Annie and Hoover’s body. All that Bobby could think was, who could save them now?
Chapter 58
When Faraday arrived outside Hoover’s home he noticed that the maid’s car was in the driveway, he would need to kill both of them. He parked the car a little further up the street and walked back to the house.
He pulled the Smith & Wesson revolver from his holster, he had not killed a man in six years, and he had never killed a woman. He approached the front door and decided to try the handle rather than knock, to his surprise it was open. He crept silently into the house looking for the maid, he couldn’t see her. As he entered the living room he spotted one of Hoover’s dogs lying on the couch, it didn’t seem to hear him come in. He walked towards the staircase, he could hear someone singing. It was a woman.
He walked up the stairs on his tip toes, struggling to control his breathing, the anxiety was kicking in, he could feel his hands shaking. When he reached the top of the stairs, he poked his head around the corner and saw the maid in one of the bedrooms, she had her back to the door. He poked his head around the corner again and saw a large vase on the hall table, maybe he didn’t need to kill her.
He holstered his gun and moved quickly and quietly around the corner, grabbing the vase as he went. It was heavy but at least it contained no flowers. He walked as slowly as he could behind the maid, his hands were shaking so much that he thought he was going to drop the vase. He was beside her now, she was still oblivious, humming away.
“I’m sorry!” He yelled as he smashed the vase over the woman’s head. When she fell to the ground Faraday was paralysed by fear.
“What the fuck have I done?” He was trying to stop himself from crying when he heard a voice downstairs and then the dogs barking.
“Annie!” Hoover yelled.
Faraday looked around the room for somewhere to hide, there was a sliding mirror wardrobe, he slid the door open and stepped inside before pulling it shut once more. He could still see out of a small slit between the wall and the door. He watched the woman closely, he couldn’t tell if she was breathing.
“Fuck, Fuck, Fuck!” He repeated under his breath.
He could hear Hoover walking up the stairs and he saw two dogs enter the room.
“Oh Annie!” Hoover rushed to the woman’s side. “I’ll call an ambulance Annie.” As Hoover went to stand up straight, Faraday opened the door.
“Edgar I’m sorry.”
Hoover screamed, Faraday had taken him by surprise. Hoover put his right hand to his chest before collapsing on top of the woman.
“Oh my God!” Faraday moved over to Hoover, he wasn’t breathing. The dogs were going nuts beside Hoover.
Faraday ran from the room and down the stairs, as he looked from the living room window he saw Bobby approaching the house.
“Oh my God!” He turned and ran back up the stairs, he tried to open the other bedroom door but it was locked. “Fuck!” Faraday felt like his heart was about to explode with fear. He ran back into the wardrobe and slid the door shut once more.
He tried to slow down his breathing, Bobby would hear him straight away. It seemed to take an hour for Bobby to get into the room. He heard him shout. “Edgar.”
When he entered the room Faraday heard him shout. “Oh my God!”
He tried to silence his breathing as Bobby hobbled over to the bodies, the two dogs were bouncing around Bobby. Faraday prayed they wouldn’t give him away. Bobby rolled Hoover onto his back, from on top of the woman. Please don’t be breathing, Faraday begged. He watched as Bobby turned his attention to the woman.
She was waking up, Faraday prayed that she hadn’t spotted him in the mirror. The woman began screaming which made Faraday feel like he was going to faint.
“It’s okay Annie, its Bobby! Just stay here, I’m going to phone an ambulance.”
Faraday watched Bobby hobble from the room, as the woman began to sob over Hoover’s body. Please don’t see me. She seemed to look straight at him, but she carried on sobbing.
“Annie what happened?” Bobby asked when he returned into the room.
“Someone attacked me.” She sobbed. Please don’t have seen me.
“Who attacked you Annie?” Bobby asked concerned.
“I didn’t see them.” Thank you God.
“Did they do this to Edgar?”
“I don’t know, he wasn’t here when it happened.”
Bobby began performing CPR on Edgar. Faraday’s heart was in his mouth, if this worked his life was over.
“Come on Edgar!” Bobby screamed.
“Come on Edgar!” He screamed again.
It felt like days before Bobby gave up trying the compressions. When the paramedics arrived Faraday had never been so grateful.
He watched them all leave the room and then waited a few minutes. He knew the police would probably be on their way, he ran down the stairs once more, thankfully no one was around. He walked quickly to the front door and as he tried the handle he discovered it was locked.
“Fuck!” He yelled.
He turned and walked back through the house and entered the kitchen for the first time, he looked through the window into the garden. It was surrounded by a wooden panelled fence, he tried the back door and thankfully it was open.
He decided to climb the fence and walk back to the car.
Chapter 59
David entered the Oval Office to find Howard Hughes, Abaddon Wolf and the President already deep in conversation. He took his seat beside Abaddon, the conversation did not relent, nobody even acknowledged him. Kennedy appeared to be a little agitated.
“This can’t be true!”
“I’m afraid it is sir.” Abaddon replied.
“David what did you find out about NASA?”
“Nothing positive sir.”
“Yes I was wondering if you could be a little more specific than that.” Kennedy snapped.
“Sorry. The Russian defector told us that the Soviets will be able to land on the Moon within the year. We are nowhere near capable of doing so, given the problems with the explosion on Apollo 8, it would be a real danger to even consider landing on the Moon in the next flights.”
Kennedy shook his head in disappointment. “So what you are all telling me is that we have lost the Space Race, astronauts have lost their lives for no reason, we are on the verge of nuclear war with the Russians and because of poor security on your plane we have suffered a terrorist attack.”
Nobody dared respond to Kennedy. “I can’t believe the best people in this country have put me in this position. Do you realise the position I’m in! If we don’t catch Jacob Cohen then we are absolutely fucked!”
“We actually have a solution to the Space problem.” Hughes said.
Kennedy looked pleased and was about to ask what it was when the telephone rang. He lifted it quickly, as if pulling of a plaster to get the pain over with.
“Hello. When? Oh my God I’m on my way.” Kennedy slammed the phone down and looked completely broken.
David had never felt worse in his entire life, he had made a deal with the devil. He would get Sharon back, but after the things he had done already he knew that he wouldn’t deserve he
r.
“Hoover is dead.” Kennedy announced.
Abaddon sold the lie beautifully. The way he feigned that shocked expression, the way he looked around the room in surprise and finally the way he spoke. “What happened? He was here just an hour ago?”
“Heart attack.” Kennedy replied.
This time no one needed to act surprised, Hoover had died of natural causes at the exact same time that Faraday had been sent to kill him.
“Before we go we need to resolve this problem, without Hoover our chances of catching Jacob are fucked. What is the solution to the Space Race?” Kennedy asked.
“Did you see the film released last year, 2001: A Space Odyssey?” Howard asked.
Kennedy looked baffled. “No, I’m quite busy. With last year being an election year and all, I’m afraid I missed it.”
“Well as you know I have directed many films in the past and the director of that film Stanley Kubrick is a personal friend of mine.”
“So has he built us a rocket?” Kennedy asked sarcastically.
“No. But I believe we can stage the Moon landing with the help of Stanley. He can help us ensure its realism, we have a rocket, Apollo 11 prepared to launch in July. All we have to do is launch the rocket as planned, the original intention had been for it to reach the Moon, we now know that it is simply not possible. Myself and Stanley have a strong knowledge of set design, camera angles and space travel. Only Stanley, the people in this room, and a couple of astronauts prepared to go down in history as the first men to walk on the Moon need to know about this.”
“This is insane!” Kennedy yelled.
“I know it sounds crazy...” Howard started.
“Because it is fucking crazy Howard!”
“Why is it crazy? If we don’t do this we lose the Space Race, on the back of everything else that has gone wrong in the past few months your position would come under threat. There are only so many failures that the public will tolerate. The death of Hoover makes the winning of the Space Race even more essential. You already have everything you need to proceed with the plan, you have me, and I can persuade Stanley. We can make it look real! We have the money to do it. In terms of the astronauts used, I can’t think of a single one that would pass up the opportunity to become the most famous man in history.”
As David listened to Howard he had to admit that he was a good pitcher. David was sold on the idea.
Howard’s speech seemed to have had some affect on Kennedy as well. “I’ll think about it Howard. If that is the only solution then I need to get to the hospital, we have a funeral to arrange and we need to pray that Hoover explained what is going on in Cuba to someone before he died. Knowing the run of luck that I’m on, there is no chance!”
Chapter 60
Bobby was sitting in the corridor of the hospital nursing a cold cup of black coffee. He couldn’t believe how wrong everything had gone. In two months he had lost his grandmother, his father, a good friend in Jane and now Hoover. He couldn’t trust David or Abaddon anymore, let alone Will, and Faraday was annoyed with him. How did we get here, he wondered. How did all of this happen?
He took a sip of the cold coffee, grimacing at its taste. He began to wonder what it was he was trying to achieve, he had no reason to put himself through any of this. Perhaps it was the right thing to do but why should he always be the one to do the right thing? Kennedy and Abaddon had arrived at the hospital three hours ago, he hadn’t seen them since. The passing nurses had mentioned a press conference which no doubt that had already happened. The only person they cared about was Hoover, who cared about Annie? Bobby was sitting outside her room, she had been asleep for an hour or so. She was petrified that the attacker would come back and finish her off.
Bobby had vowed not to leave her alone, and he did not intend to. He had managed to get a message to Chase, he was on his way to the hospital. But Bobby would stay until morning, it was the least he could do. Whoever had attacked her would suffer dearly for their mistake. There was no doubt that the attacker had been after Hoover, but whoever had attacked Annie should have left her out of it, the bastard.
He tried another sip of cold coffee, he wondered why he had done it. He glanced at his watch, it was midnight. There was a long way to go until morning. His thoughts turned to Nancy, the guilt was beginning to kick in. If he had died she would not have rested until the person responsible had paid a heavy price, yet here he was sitting outside a hospital room of a middle aged black lady he barely knew.
Until now, Bobby had managed to explain away any creeping doubts by reassuring himself that he had a responsibility to protect and serve the country, he was being professional. He couldn’t shake the feeling that whoever had broken into Hoover’s home, had done so on Abaddon’s orders. Hoover had just told them all that he thought he knew what Jacob was doing, Abaddon had an obvious motive. He had stayed with the President so he hadn’t done it himself. It had to be David, there was no one else.
He was interrupted by the appearance of President Kennedy, he looked exhausted and sat in the seat beside Bobby.
“What a day.” Kennedy said, as he rubbed the bridge of his nose.
“What a year.” Bobby replied.
“How is she?” Kennedy asked, gesturing to Annie’s room.
“She’ll be okay, she’s had a fright and has a nasty bump. Whoever did it hit her hard.”
“Unbelievable....”
“Have you thought anymore about Abaddon and Hughes being behind this?”
“Of course I have. I just don’t believe it, Abaddon has no reason to do this to me.”
“He wants to be the President.”
“One day he will be, he doesn’t need to do it corruptly.”
“As soon as Hoover told us about the CIA plots he winds up dead.” Bobby argued.
“I know, I know. But for all we know it was a burglary, or some nut. Hoover had a heart attack, it could have been someone trying to attack her and then when he found her, he had the heart attack.”
“You don’t believe that.”
Kennedy sighed. “I don’t know what to believe.”
“How are relations with the Soviet’s?”
“Better, I was just speaking with him. It will blow over, he acts as though nuclear war doesn’t frighten him, but he’s a person just like anyone else. Nuclear war would be the end of days.”
“Good.”
“Have you decided who is going to Havana?” Kennedy asked.
“Well I’m going to send Faraday but I don’t know who Hoover was planning to send.”
“Send Chase, they can work together well. We will need to take a long look at the FBI.”
“We?”
“Well with you being the new Director, I would expect you to be looking into how best to improve the Bureau.” Kennedy smiled.
“You’re kidding right?”
“I’m afraid not, Clyde Tolson is temporarily taking charge until we have shut down your department.”
“What about the others?”
“You can take who you want, but I don’t want you doing it just because they are friends. I want you to do what is best for the FBI.”
“Why me?”
“I need someone I can trust, you and Teddy will be able to look after the law and order of this nation. For too many years the FBI has been a weapon at Hoover’s disposal, all he cared about was himself and his Bureau. The only reason he was still in charge was because he helped us after Jack died, but he only did that for himself.”
“I think towards the end he was doing his best.” Bobby stated.
Kennedy shook his head. “With the tools he had, Jacob Cohen should have been caught long ago. You will catch him Bobby, he is public enemy number one.”
Bobby could not believe that he was now one of the most powerful men in the country, he felt incredibly nervous. As he considered this, he saw Chase walking along the corridor towards them.
“Chase, how are you?”
Chase smiled. “Wel
l I’ve been trying to find that journalist, she’s not been at the office or at home. I was quite pleased when you asked me to come here.”
“I’m afraid I’m sending you to Cuba now.” Bobby smiled apologetically.
Chase looked as though he thought it was a joke. “Why?”
“We have a lead on Jacob Cohen, he is in Havana. Faraday will go with you.”
“When are we leaving?”
“Just now.” Kennedy replied.
Chase looked slightly annoyed at being messed about.
“If you speak to Clint Hill, he is just down the corridor, he will arrange for a plane to take both you and Faraday to Cuba.” Kennedy instructed.
Chase skulked off down the corridor.
Chapter 61
Faraday knelt down, the night sky was dark, and there wasn’t a star in the sky. He looked through the binoculars, she was taking off her black dress while Will watched. As he lowered his binoculars he looked up to the sky, it was starting to rain. He was suddenly startled.
“Where am I?” He whispered under his breath.
He looked around and saw that he was standing on a rooftop, Jane and Will were having sex just across the street.
“Why have you done this to me?”
He heard the sound of footsteps walking towards him, someone else was on the roof. When he looked at the man he let out a shriek, half of the man’s head was missing but he recognised the other half.
“How are you James?” Jack Kennedy asked.
“I’ve been better. How are you?”
“I’m dead James.”
“I know, I’m sorry.”
“You did what you could for me.” Kennedy replied, half of his mouth smiling while the other half was lifeless.
“Why are you here?”
“You brought me here James. You don’t seem yourself.”
Faraday pointed across the street to the window, he could see Will on top of her now. “She cheated on me.”
“What are you going to do about it?” Kennedy asked.
“I need to kill him.” Faraday declared, the rain was now torrential.
“Why?”
“Because he deserves it!”