Brilliant New Light (Chance Lyon military adventure series Book 3)

by Van Torrey

  “Oh, you are going to be released,” responded Lyon cynically, “just a little ahead of schedule. You’ll have to make your way back to dry land from here. You can swim, can’t you?” he asked grimly.

  Satisfied that they had an appropriate form of justice waiting off the stern of the boat, Lyon grabbed the man who had been fingered as the shooter by Muhammad and unceremoniously threw the shrieking man over the stern into the scrum of feeding sharks. Olyphant’s cell phone camera faithfully recorded the horror of the man being repeatedly thrown into the air in the wake of the boat by the competing sharks vying to feast on his body. In moments his mutilated body disappeared into a churning foam of water, blood, and human debris, accentuated by his screams of agony.

  Lyon allowed the disturbing images of the first man’s death to sink in before approaching the other two, asking who wanted to be next in the gruesome parade of improvised justice for the attempted assassination of Rachel Hunter and the murder of her innocent companion on the streets of San Francisco.

  To the surprise of both Chance and Olyphant, who was still diligently filming the grim proceedings on his cell phone, Muhammad shouted “Allah Akbar”, and threw himself clumsily over the transom of the boat into the frenzy of sharks following in the wake. He floated for a moment in the scarlet frothy wake of the boat before being abruptly pulled below, not to be seen again.

  The third of the three, the young man who had been identified as the driver, was now in a state of blubbering delirium from the shock of watching the execution of his two friends, and had lost control of all his bodily functions as he lay retching on the deck of the boat.

  Chance decided he would be the vehicle for getting the message back to anyone who had plans to follow in his footsteps as a jihadist and soon anesthetized the young man into another drug induced stupor. When they returned the boat to the dock, Olyphant hailed a taxi, flashed his federal police credentials, and paid the driver an exorbitant sum of cash to deliver the unconscious Pakistani to the Islamic mosque in Puerto Vallerta with a comment that he had been found intoxicated on the sport fishing docks.

  As soon as Blackie had retrieved the deposit from Captain Ortiz he gave the man a generous gratuity. “How was the fishing?” asked a grateful Ortiz.

  Olyphant answered cheerfully, “Great! We caught three big ones, got what we needed, and threw them back.” With that he and Lyon were on their way to the Puerto Vallarta airport, having accomplished their grim mission of retribution.

  After the FBI had processed the intel gathered by Chance and Blackie from the terrorists and made their arrests of the cell leaders, FedEX delivered a DVD to the offices of Al Jazeera TV in Doha, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, vividly documenting the grisly fate of the three Pakistanis who had made the hit on Rachel Hunter weeks ago. There was no identification of the location or timing of the event and only a typewritten message saying, “This will be the fate of future jihadists who are sent to America to perpetrate acts of terror against our people.” Although it would not be shown on the network, it was highly likely that the right people in al-Qaeda would view the contents and understand there were highly effective alternatives for punishment of terrorists to what many of them saw as the frequently lax system of criminal justice in the United States.

  *

  The third Pakistani, the young terrorist who had been spared by Lyon and Olyphant, was found several days later in a remote section of Guadalajara, three-Hundred miles east of Puerto Vallerta, shot to death execution style. The people to whom he had been delivered by the Mexican taxi driver apparently had no desire for the terrified Pakistani to tell his story to any of his peers.

  *

  Clayton Wheatley opened a package addressed to a pseudonym sent to a nondescript P.O. Box in Washington, D.C., with no return address that contained a DVD, three cellphones removed from the terrorists, and a three-by-five note card with the notation:

  Mr. Graham,

  For professional services rendered: $105,325.

  Mr. Monroe

  Three days later that amount was directly deposited to the bank account in the name of SEALyon Security Services in San Diego.

  CHAPTER 4

  VICE-PRESIDENTIAL CRISIS

  “I would fain die a dry death.”

  Shakespeare (The Tempest)

  *

  Since the terrorist attacks, both real and thwarted, in the United States in the early twenty-first Century, the issue of executive security had risen to an art form within the Secret Service. The relatively laughable lack of security during the Kennedy years resulted in his untimely death. The lack of security was only a slightly lesser degree in the early 1980’s when John Hinckley nearly did the same to Ronald Reagan. Current Secret Service doctrine was to discourage publication of domestic presidential travel until the last possible minute and then to disclose information about events in which the President would participate with as little specificity as possible.

  Such protocols were routinely tested by Louis Nicolas, President Braxton’s ambitious and gregarious Vice-President. With Braxton in his second term and little opposition on the horizon from the opposing party, Nicholas saw clear sailing ahead for an unopposed bid to become Braxton’s successor.

  Jonathan Braxton came from a long tradition of strong chief executives who governed confidently with support from carefully chosen staff. Although many recent Vice-Presidents had stood close to their President in ceremonial situations, the reality was that many important decisions, such as the recent covert Iranian nuclear incident, were made out of earshot of the Vice-President to avoid any distraction about where the ‘Buck Stopped’ and the ultimate command and control authority.

  Given this reality and Nicholas’ desire to get so far out in front that no potential opponent could effectively challenge him in the next election cycle, he and his wife were basically in full campaign mode mid-way through Braxton’s second term. Security during the working day of an elected official compared with campaign mode was entirely different. The former because the demands of a formal pre-planned schedule were relatively easy to control. The latter frequently was a nightmare for the Secret Service, especially for the free-spirited and impulsive Vice-President as he frequently departed from script to chase any vote.

  The graying and seventy-ish Nicholas knew that Florida would be a key electoral state for his bid, and his staff was already hard at work planning their strategy there. During the current trip to the Sunshine State one of the events on his schedule was to officiate at the opening of a spectacular new family water park near Orlando. The plan was for Nicholas to make a speech and cut a ribbon bringing awareness of his fondness for Florida to the voting public.

  When campaigning, Nicholas had always had a flare for the dramatic; some on his staff said he was inappropriately flamboyant. He had a reputation within the Secret Service for occasionally departing from a prearranged schedule and diving into crowds in a show of spontaneity contrived to belie his age – old age being seen as a potential Achilles heel by his campaign advisors. In this case, with his pre-planned consent, and to the delight of the water park owners, Nicholas’ staff, unbeknownst to the Vice-President’s Secret Service detail, had planned something special. Instead of simply cutting the ribbon to open the park, Nicholas would be donning a scuba tank and cutting the ribbon underwater with the images projected from an underwater camera on a large video screen behind the podium. Not only would he be fulfilling his commitment to the owners, but by doing so in such a dramatic manner, he would be bringing national publicity to the new water park, not to mention endearing himself to the younger, more energetic segment of Florida voters.

  The secret plan was for Nicholas to enter the main tank of the water park from a lock-out port at the thirty-foot depth accompanied by two employees of the park dressed as mermaids who would guide him to the submerged ribbon in front of the camera. A third mermaid would hand him a large set of scissors and he would cut the ribbon. Then the Vice-President would be guided to the s
urface by the mermaids and they would resurface dramatically in front of another set of cameras.

  When it came time to execute the plan Nicholas easily evaded his Secret Service detail on the pretense of using the restroom and escaped to the lower level of the complex with a park employee who quickly helped him into the scuba gear. “Just breathe normally, sir, and let the girls guide you. Don’t leave the girls, sir,” he emphasized.

  As the Master of Ceremonies brought his opening remarks to a close and began to introduce the crowd to the Vice-President, the head of Nicholas’ Security detail suddenly knew something off-script was up when the announcer called the audience’s attention to the large video screen behind the podium and shouted, “Ladies and Gentlemen, the Vice-President of the United States of America.”

  “Two, this is one. Where’s Boxer?” the Secret Service agent asked using their codename for Nicholas, “Is this some kind of stupid stunt?”

  Before his counterpart could answer, the video screen flickered and an image of a diver accompanied by two mermaids emerging from an underwater portal flashed on the screen to the delight of the cheering crowd. Kevin Feeney, the “Number One” of Nicholas’ security detail could only groan and speak into his open microphone to the other agents, “What the fuck is this?”

  As the two mermaids preened at the underwater camera and contorted their bikini-clad bodies for effect, Nicholas took the scissors from the other female diver and adroitly cut the bright red ribbon. The crowd and the water park staff on the podium roared in approval as the edges of the ribbon gracefully fluttered away. So far, it was a circus moment and a win-win for everyone involved.

  As the two mermaids gracefully made their way back to Nicholas to escort him to the surface, the Vice-President once again broke script and decided to place an exclamation point on his antics by zooming toward the surface like a human projectile, blasting the tranquil surface of the huge salt water pool with his exit. With several kicks of his legs and pulls from his arms Nicholas hurled himself the thirty vertical feet to the surface in just a few seconds, all the while holding his breath.

  As he surfaced he was no longer buoyed by being completely submerged, and Nicholas clumsily clawed at his buoyancy compensator which instantly inflated. As he bobbed in the center of large pool he waved bravely to the cheering crowd while the two mermaids caught up with him and began to guide him toward the shallow end of the great tank.

  The Secret Service, not being in on the circus-like prank, ran like Keystone Cops along the edge of the pool carefully eyeing the strange procession of Nicholas and the two female divers making their way to the exit point at the end of the pool. Kevin Feeney knew he was in for an earful from his Secret Service bosses and could only hope for a bailout from a contrite candidate, who would hopefully confirm that the security detail was deliberately duped by Nicholas and his campaign staff.

  All these thoughts of accusation and possible redemption were erased in a heartbeat as he watched Nicholas being literally dragged up the slanted concrete incline leading from the pool by the mermaids who by now were frantically waving for assistance. Kevin was the first agent to arrive, and as he waded into the ankle deep water he could see that Vice-President Louis Nichols had collapsed and was unresponsive. The Secret Service agent dropped to his knees in the shallow water and immediately began to perform CPR on the already dead Vice-President of the United States.

  *

  Philip Johnson, President Braxton’s Chief of Staff, received a call on his cell phone from Christopher Worthy, Head of the Secret Service. “Sir, I had to short circuit my boss on this as I could not reach him. Louis Nichols was pronounced dead five minutes ago in Orlando General Hospital. The doctors think he had a pulmonary embolism. I’m on another line with his detail chief right now. AP and CNN are just picking this up but they have no background. We’re trying to stay ahead of the media on this sir, but I just don’t have anything more for you right now. I’ll call you when I get more from his security detail.”

  *

  An autopsy performed three hours after Nicholas’ death confirmed the original suspicions of the emergency room physicians that Vice-President Louis Nicholas had died from a pulmonary embolism, most likely the result of a clot breaking away from a vein in an extremity, exacerbated by the higher pressure and exertion during his dive at the water park. The clot migrated to his lung, causing an interruption of blood flow to his right ventricle, resulting in sudden death by heart attack.

  *

  Late in the day President Braxton, his Chief of Staff, White House counsel legal advisors, the Speaker of the House, and the Senate Majority leader met in the Oval Office. Braxton took the lead.

  “Gentlemen, with the somewhat bizarre and unexpected death of Lou Nicholas today, we come to a rare area that has only been tested twice in constitutional history. Fortunately, this situation was anticipated by section two of the 25th amendment, so the process is clearly laid out. I have the responsibility to nominate a candidate who must be confirmed by a majority vote of both houses of Congress. Although I intend to put a great deal of thought into a potential replacement, the confirmation part will be the most dramatic. I thought Chief Justice Fleming’s recent confirmation was a battle, but that might have been a cakewalk compared to what this may turn out to be. That said, I would appreciate your candor and wise counsel to the moment.”

  The Senate Majority Leader, Sy Burgess, spoke up next. “Mr. President, you have a clear majority in the House, but your opposition, my party, controls the Senate by six. I pledge my loyalty to the process and promise fair and honest hearings, but if you go too far afield philosophically with your choice, getting a majority in the Senate may be a problem. I want to avoid a constitutional crisis here, but your choice has to be someone - and I hesitate to beg the question here - who is eminently qualified to assume the Presidency in the unlikely event you cannot serve for any reason. For example, Gerald Ford had been a Congressman for over twenty years when Spiro Agnew resigned and there was no doubt he was superbly qualified for the position. Nelson Rockefeller was a different story, but at least he had some political experience.”

  “Point well taken, Sy,” replied Braxton. “I know you and Lou frequently differed both in style and substance when he was President of the Senate, but you now have a lot more leeway there. I do appreciate your pledge of support. Mr. Speaker, what have you to say?”

  “Well, sir, as much as I disagree with my colleague, Mr. Burgess, on many political issues, I’m afraid I have to side with him here. I urge you to be cautious and not overreach, from a philosophical standpoint, on this nomination. Echoing Sy’s assessment, and God forbid, we’re potentially talking about a transitional President here.”

  After a short period of silence, Braxton responded. “I am aware of the importance of this nomination, gentlemen, that’s why I asked you here today. Like most of my predecessors my choice of Lou Nicholas was fifty-one percent political expediency and forty-nine percent qualifications to be a transitional President. He helped me win with a razor-thin Presidential Elector majority. The political animal in me validated that controversial choice. I’m sure that if it had come to that, Lou would have shed his cloak of occasional flamboyant behavior, risen to the occasion, and performed ably as a principled leader and a statesman.”

  A collective response of charitable silence followed the President’s now moot verbal demonstration of support for the departed Lou Nicholas.

  After a respectful moment the Majority Leader continued. “I’m relieved to hear you say this, Mr. President. One thing I will say, sir, unlike some of your predecessors, I never heard you say that you would be including Lou Nicholas in every major decision made by your administration. I’ll give you credit for your foresight and candor there.”

  Braxton concluded by gently saying, “I appreciate your frank advice provided here today, gentlemen. I hope none of the remarks made here today will find their way into any eulogies planned for Lou Nicholas next week. In spite o
f his colorful idiosyncrasies Lou was a good man. I hope we can bury him with a spirit of collective respect.”

  CHAPTER 5

  THE SELECTION

  “The vice-presidency isn’t worth a bucket of warm piss.”

  John Nance Garner (Former Vice-President, 1932)

  *

  Louis Nicholas’ death presented both a dilemma and an opportunity for Jonathan Braxton. High on his agenda at the moment were sensitive negotiations taking place in Beijing, China, about finally settling the issue of de-nuclearization of the Korean peninsula that had been painstakingly grinding on for many months. There were promising signs that slow progress was now being made by the United States, accepting the Asian principle of patiently moving from point-to-point in halting steps, frequently without explaining why a specific point was agreeable or not so. For Braxton and his negotiators this was like watching paint dry, but the President was determined to stay the course, as solving the Korean nuclear problem on the heels of secretly dealing a knockout punch to Iran’s illicit demands to acquire nuclear weapons would be the diplomatic coup of the twenty-first Century. His new dilemma was that if there was a breakthrough in these negotiations, this might dictate extensive international travel for him to be present at the end, where the leaders of the parties to the negotiations might have to make last minute compromises to save the talks from failure. He would be heavily criticized for making any such travel without a Vice-President in place, so a decision to replace Lou Nichols was forced into the top of the inbox for Braxton and his close staff.

  His opportunity was both unique from a constitutional standpoint and, depending on the artfulness of his choice and given the disarray of the opposition party at the moment, Braxton had the chance to effectively place the person he chose as his new Vice-President as the frontrunner to become President in the next presidential election cycle. Given that reality, there would be no shortage of politicians vying for Braxton’s favor as a potential new political partner.