by Bill Clem
Presidential Donor
Bill Clem
Vision Books
Published by Vision Books
The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
VISION BOOKS
P.O. Box 9034
New York NY 10020
Copyright (c) 2007 by Bill Clem
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.
ISBN 13: 978-0-9795808-6-4
ISBN 10: 0-9795808-6-2
www.billclem.com
As always, for my wife and children...
Also by Bill Clem
Novels
Skin Deep
Diencephalon (Holland Carter Detective Series)
Presidential Donor
Bliss
Microbe
They All Fall Down (Holland Carter Detective Series) (2008)
Immortal
Medicine Cup (2008)
Replica (2009)
The Seventh Day (2009)
The Lazarus Effect (2009)
A Note From Anna (Holland Carter Detective Series) (2009)
Short Fiction
A Brief Interval
(Collection of Short Stories) (2008)
Contents
Also by Bill Clem
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Chapter Forty
Chapter Forty-One
Chapter Forty-Two
Chapter Forty-Three
Chapter Forty-Four
Chapter Forty-Five
Chapter Forty-Six
Chapter Forty-Seven
Chapter Forty-Eight
Chapter Forty-Nine
Chapter Fifty
Chapter Fifty-One
Chapter Fifty-Two
Chapter Fifty-Three
Chapter Fifty-Four
Chapter Fifty-Five
Chapter Fifty-Six
Chapter Fifty-Seven
Chapter Fifty-Eight
Chapter Fifty-Nine
Chapter Sixty
Chapter Sixty-One
Chapter Sixty-Two
Chapter Sixty-Three
Chapter Sixty-Four
Chapter Sixty-Five
Chapter Sixty-Six
Chapter Sixty-Seven
Chapter Sixty-Eight
Chapter Sixty-Nine
Chapter Seventy
Chapter Seventy-One
Chapter Seventy-Two
Chapter Seventy-Three
Chapter Seventy-Four
Chapter Seventy-Five
Chapter Seventy-Six
Chapter Seventy-Seven
Chapter Seventy-Eight
Chapter Seventy-Nine
Chapter Eighty
Chapter Eighty-One
Chapter Eighty-Two
Epilogue
Prologue
The first projectile struck just as Viktor Chermonovik raised his glass of vodka to toast his new alliance with the United States. Glass and hand vanished in a blinding explosion of skin and bone. Nothing remained where his wristwatch was a moment earlier.
The second round, more merciful, drilled through the center of his forehead. It removed the complete back of his skull and everything within. Only the face remained, as though it were a paper cutout. The Politburo member behind Chermonovik held his mouth open in shock, and something soft landed in it as the head exploded. He fell to his knees, gagging as he struggled to extricate it.
The third and final shot, purely for effect, opened a hole in Chermonovik's chest, and he slumped to the ground like a stringless puppet, blood spurting in every direction.
Finished with his job, the assassin broke down the .50 caliber rifle and quickly packed it in its case. He scrambled down from the radio tower and ran across Red Square.
The President of Russia was dead.
* * *
At 5 A.M., Vice President Warren Ritter was yanked from the grips of his nightmare. He sat bolt upright in bed, winded as if he'd been running. Perspiration dripped from his face. Disoriented until his eyes swept the room, he finally realized it was a dream. He'd had the dream three times in as many days, and it was always the same.
He only saw one part of the assassin--his hands.
Ritter's own.
Earlier, Ritter fell asleep while listing to the eleven o'clock news report on CNN. An analysis of the President's upcoming trip to Zurich was on.
Now, like a loop in a tape player, it ran again for the early morning edition. Ritter grabbed the remote from his nightstand and keyed up the volume to see if he had missed anything the night before. His least favorite correspondent reported his least favorite story.
"President Thomas Lloyd will travel to Zurich, Switzerland tomorrow to meet with Russian President Viktor Chermonovik to sign the U.S.--Russian Oil Pact. The plan calls for a four billion dollar grant to Russia, to jointly develop one point two million acres of oil fields in the Northern Territories along the Arctic Circle. Konoco Oil will hold the drilling contract for the United States; Russia's Energy Ministry has yet to announce who will contract for their part of the project. The summit has drawn harsh criticism from opponents who say the United States has already given Russia too much. Washington insiders say, even the Vice President, well known for his dislike of Russia as far back as his CIA days, opposes it. He has said privately he objects to giving them a handout to rejuvenate their crumbling military. He has denied those reports in public, saying he supports the President's plan."
Ritter threw down the remote and cursed at the reporter. She was right about one thing--he definitely opposed the oil pact--his nightmare came closer to his true feelings.
Chapter One
It was that thud, that awful thud.
The last thing Jack McDermott heard before the collision.
Now, it was the first thing he remembered. His brain, dormant for more than a week, was suddenly jolted from its abyss. The odds Jack would even wake up were slim. The odds he'd remember anything, slimmer yet. Somehow, though, he'd done it.
Back from the dead.
Seconds passed, then suddenly all his senses assaulted him at once. The shriek of an alarm tone felt as if someone had jammed a pencil in his ears. A sharp disinfectant odor burned his nostrils. He felt himself breathing again. And a new sensation was
spreading through his head. His eyeballs felt as if tiny men with nail-laden shoes capered behind them. God that hurts! He closed the lids tightly and waited for the pain to stop. Tentatively, Jack relaxed one eye, then the other. Finally, the stabbing pain began to dissipate. When Jack opened his eyes, his vision was clearer. In the semidarkness, the room took shape. It looked ominous and sterile. Stark white walls with metal shelves, framed huge glass panels.
What is this place?
The room lay in shadows of high tech medical equipment.
Jack tried to sit up, to take in his bizarre surroundings. With his first bit of lucidity, fear crept in. What were all these tubes sticking out of him?
A small monitor at the foot of the bed traced jagged lines across a gray screen. The strangeness of it only added to his fear. He tried to crane his neck to take in the rest of the room, but dropped his head onto the pillow, already exhausted from the effort.
* * *
Zurich Trauma Center's Head Injury Unit generally remained quiet. The nurses went about their duties and cared for their comatose patients with relative ease. So when the normal cadence from one of the EEG monitors was interrupted by a loud alarm, the nurse on duty gave it only a casual glance while she did her notes. She assumed it was a bogus alarm, perhaps electrical interference--the usual cause. It would stop in a minute. It continued, though, so she stood up and took a closer, more curious look. A second later, her curiosity changed to stark surprise. The brain-wave tracings were increasing rapidly. The digital readout identified the patient's last name only: McDERMOTT. As his blood pressure and heart rate increased on the monitor, the nurse felt a rush of her own adrenaline. This was not electrical interference!
She scrambled around the nurses' station looking for the other staff.
"Activity in bed four," she called to the other two nurses on duty. They sprinted down the hall like a well-practiced drill team.
As she dashed toward the room, her mind went into overdrive. If it wasn't interference, a flat line--the signal someone's life had just ended, usually accompanied an alarm here. Life became a relative term at Zurich Trauma Center, though, especially on the head injury unit. All the patients were vegetables, and the quality of life became the issue. They had none, and simply awaited the inevitable opportunity to help someone else--and become their donor.
When she stopped in the patient's doorway, the other two nurses looked at each other in shock. Impossible!
* * *
Jack McDermott sensed a sudden commotion all around him, and he tried to sit up. The room flooded with light and he lifted his arm to cover his eyes, but it only moved a few inches before it stopped. A thin plastic tube snaked from his arm up to a bottle at his bedside. As he regarded his predicament, three white-clad figures rushed into the room. One of them, a large woman who spoke with a German accent, yelled something to the others while she mashed a button on the box at the foot of the bed. Suddenly, the alarm stopped. She gazed down at Jack.
Jack had no doubt that this mysterious assemblage of women must be angels.
- "Mr. McDermott, can you hear me?" one of them asked.
- "What happened?" Jack managed, the simple question causing his head to throb.
"You don't remember?"
"All I remember is that thud."
Chapter Two
President Thomas Lloyd had slept well aboard Air Force One. With the exception of some minor turbulence, the night was as comfortable as it would have been in his Serta Perfect Sleeper back at the White House.
He arose an hour early, his nerves wrought with anticipation of the day ahead. After a quick shower, he shaved close, put on his starched, white Oxford, and tied a perfect Windsor knot in his maroon, silk tie. He started to comb his hair when a knock at the door caught him off guard. Slipping one leg into the trousers of his gray, Brooks Brothers suit, he nearly tripped putting on the other pant leg.
"What is it?" the President asked, hurrying to get his pants on.
"Morning, Sir," the aide answered. "I have the morning fax."
Lloyd liked to review the morning news via fax from the White House, while he was away. Only an abbreviated version, it gave him a reference to use if the press were to ask him about something unfamiliar to him. At least he could give a vague answer--something the press regarded as normal for the White House.
"Thank you," Lloyd said. He opened the door and took the paper, his pants now on.
"Mr. President, will you be eating breakfast soon?"
"Yes, after the paper. Where is everyone?"
"The Vice President and Secretary of State are in the dining cabin having coffee with some press members."
Lloyd shook his head. "Hounding already are they? It's only seven o'clock."
"Yes, sir. I'm afraid so."
"All right, I'll be out soon. Just let me bone up on current events a bit."
Lloyd went back to the mirror and checked his hair. He noticed a few more grey streaks lately among the thick brown locks. After all, he was forty-three.
Other than that, he decided, he looked as youthful as ever. His green eyes owned only a single wrinkle at each corner, and his skin was tan and tight.
And his best feature, his gleaming white teeth, were a TV camera's dream. Lloyd sat down in the leather chair emblazoned with the Presidential Seal and looked at the fax from Washington.
There it was, right on page one:
UNITED STATES AND RUSSIA TO MEET IN ZURICH TO CLOSE OIL DEAL. SUMMIT TALKS BEGIN TODAY.
Lloyd couldn't help but smile. This was his vision for the future: his legacy as President. He finally did something to change the mediocrity label put on him since his election. A good honest man, say his critics, but nothing for historians to remember. Until now.
Unfortunately, not everyone in his cabinet agreed, including his own Vice President. Too bad, this was his day.
The press came out in full force. A dozen reporters, with no shortage of questions, flanked President Thomas Lloyd when he stepped into the dining cabin. It seemed as if the questions came from a tape loop. Did they disagree about key points of the summit as previously reported? How will it affect their relationship? How will it affect their policies? Along with all the other banter about what the United States hopes to gain from this trip. Why are taxpayer dollars being spent on Russia? And on and on.
* * *
Ten feet away, Vice President Warren Ritter tried to finish his first cup of coffee while he fended off a young reporter who'd started with him the moment he'd sat down. Ritter recognized her as a CNN reporter he frequently saw on the air. There, she broadcast the latest headlines so stiffly; she looked as if her head would come off if she made the least little uncorreographed move. Here, though more animated, she was no less annoying.
"Mr. Vice President," she began, "is it true you wanted no part of this summit, and you were totally against it from day one?"
The Vice President tried hard to maintain his cool political face. At this moment, though, he wished he could open the cargo bay and push the entire press corps out without the benefit of parachutes.
"No, that is not true. The President and I do not always agree on every issue, and I find it ludicrous to think otherwise. The bottom line is, he is the President, and I support him one hundred percent," he lied.
"Well, why," she continued, "has it been reported--"
"I just gave you an answer, that's all I have to say about it."
Across the aisle, Lloyd sat with his coffee cup in hand and lectured a New York Times reporter about the benefit of the oil deal. "It's just the right thing to do economically," he said to the young woman, who hung on his every word.
Ritter gazed across from his seat. Probably her first assignment.
Ritter conceded the idea had its merits, but they were few. Mostly he saw it as just another way for those blood-sucking Russians to steal money out of the United States Treasury. To say Ritter loathed the Russians would be a rank understatement. He'd seen too many deals come an
d go, with Russia never holding up their end of the bargain. In the last several months, he had immersed himself in other projects so he'd have nothing to do with planning the summit. This saved face for himself as well as the President. If the press asked about his lack of involvement, he simply responded, "I'm attending to other things for the President. He is handling all the details." It got him off the hook. After all, he couldn't disagree with a plan he was not familiar with--at least as far as the public knew. Of course, he knew more than he let on. A sticky issue for sure, so he just did what he always did: pulled his political foreskin over his head and avoided it.
While in Zurich, though, he promised his Commander in Chief one hundred percent support--he only came for the show.
Ritter raised his coffee to his lips again, realized it had gone cold, and slammed it down. The reporter looked at him as he wiped his mouth and threw down his napkin on the tray.
Chapter Three
Dr. David Leah prepared to sit down to a much-deserved bowl of goulash, when his pager broke the silence of the staff dining hall. "Please call Neuro STAT," said the automated voice. "Call Neuro STAT," it said again. Leah put his spoon down at the unwelcome interruption and went to the wall phone. He punched in the extension for the Neuro unit, his soup very much on his mind.
After one ring, a voice on the other end answered. "Neuro."
"This is Dr. Leah. Someone page me?"
"Yes, I did, Dr. Leah," said the nurse. "Mr. McDermott just woke up."
"What!"
"He's awake and talking."
"All right, I'll be right there."
Leah hung up the phone. He felt torn between gulping down his goulash, and going immediately to see his patient. He chose the excitement of the latter. His soup could wait.
Leah, one of a handful of Hospitalists', was the result of recent hospital mergers such as Zurich Trauma Center.
The hospitalist became the primary physician for patients without their own doctor. Since tourism, especially skiing held the distinction of being the primary industry in Zurich, no shortage of patients existed for Leah to cover.
His calm manner and down to earth approach, made him instantly likable.