Super Sniper

by Rawlin Cash

  Edward Hale walked into the Oval Office with a feeling he’d never had in that place before. He was no stranger to feeling powerful, but in the Oval Office he had always been aware that his position on the totem pole was not quite at the top.

  Until today.

  “Come in,” Meredith said as he entered.

  He walked up to her and shook her hand.

  “I hear our friend in Jeddah has had a little accident,” he said.

  “He was no friend of mine,” Meredith said.

  Hale looked at her knowingly.

  He had something on her now. He knew her secret. He knew she was president because of the Saudis. He also knew that the first visit Jamal Al-Wahad ever paid her came long before the day of the first assassination.

  She’d lied about that.

  Part of what she’d said was true. They were threatening her. They were threatening her daughter. They’d killed her boyfriend as a show of force. But they’d been in contact with her for a very long time.

  And she’d known more about their plans than she let on.

  She was looking at him cautiously.

  He had her. He knew it.

  What he knew wasn’t just enough to have her removed from office, it was enough to have her executed for treason. And the CIA was not in the habit of letting a foreign agent sit in the Oval Office, unless it suited them.

  “I hear he had strange sexual tastes,” Meredith said carefully.

  “He’s dead now. Whatever he liked, whoever he liked, no longer matters.”

  She looked into his eyes. She’d been a good choice, he had to admit that much. She was intelligent. She was discrete. She had mettle. Whatever had to be done, she’d be up to the task.

  “You’re acting awfully smug for a man who’s talking to his boss,” she said.

  He smiled. At last, the game was up. They could speak plainly. He’d show her his hand, and she’d show him hers.

  “You met Jamal Al-Wahad seven years ago. He came to your office in the capitol. He came to your office regularly during those first few years you were in office.”

  “Yes he did.”

  “And some of what he said has been recorded.”

  “There’s a recording for everything these days,” she said.

  “You knew they’d come for you eventually.”

  She looked at him. Her face was firm. “Let me tell you what happened,” she said, “and then you decide what you want to do about it.”

  “I know what happened. It’s the same thing that happened to Dayton. The Saudis came to you. They said they’d help your career, they’d provide money, they’d remove obstacles, and one day, one day far in the future, they’d come looking for a favor. And by that time, you’d be in a position to give it to them. Does that sound about right?”

  “Yes,” she said. “It does. But that doesn’t make me a traitor.”

  “I doubt the Pentagon would see it that way.”

  “The Pentagon wasn’t in the position I was in.”

  “And what position was that?”

  “They didn’t just offer the carrot, Hale. There was a stick too. A big, huge, shitty, fucking stick. If I didn’t play along with what they wanted, it wasn’t just my career they were threatening.”

  “Is that supposed to make me feel sorry for you, Meredith? Because you’re sitting in the Oval Office. You’re president of the fucking country.”

  “I didn’t get into this because I wanted to be a Saudi puppet. I was born in Wisconsin. I couldn’t have pointed out Riyadh on a map if my life depended on it. When I ran for public office, it was because my father asked me to. He was a teacher his whole life. My mother was a nurse. My father’s brother made it big in business. He got really rich. And my dad resented it. I went into politics because I promised my father.”

  “You’re going to make me cry.”

  “Fuck off, Hale. You’ve bent with the wind too. Don’t pretend you haven’t. I’ve had a look at your file. Everyone you ever commanded is dead, and they’re as likely to have died at your hand than at the enemy’s.”

  “That’s different.”

  “Is it?”

  “What are you saying?”

  “I’m saying, we both got here by doing what we had to do. And if anyone else was sitting in our seats, they’d have done all the same things we did. They’d have gotten here the same way we did. There’s no clean path to this office, Hale. You know that. You don’t get here without getting mud on your shoes.”

  “So I should ignore the fact that you were put in office by a foreign adversary?”

  “You should give me a chance to take off my shoes,” she said. “Maybe I won’t dirty the carpet as much as you think.”

  There was a bar cart by the wall and Hale subconsciously looked toward it.

  “Can I get you a drink?” Meredith said.

  He nodded. “Scotch.”

  “Ice?”

  “No.”

  She poured them each a drink and Hale took a long sip.

  “We’re in a predicament here,” he said.

  She took a sip of her scotch.

  “The Saudis spoke to you years ago, they groomed you, now you’re president because of what they did, and you’re trying to tell me you had no hand in any of it. You were just afraid for your life.”

  “My daughter’s life.”

  “You want me to believe you were completely innocent?”

  They stared at each other, and each finished their scotch.

  Meredith went to the bar and poured them another.

  “What if we’re both right?” she said.

  “In what way?”

  “It’s true that they came to me first. They threatened me. I didn’t really have much choice but to do as they said. There was no one here I could turn to. The Secret Service? The Capitol Police? If the Saudis wanted to hurt me, there was a million ways they could do it, and I knew it.”

  “But,” Hale said.

  “But, like you’re suggesting, I’m not an angel. I thought about what they were doing, and there’s always been a part of me that was tempted. There was a part of me that hoped it would work out this way.”

  “Now we’re getting somewhere,” Hale said.

  “Sure, I knew I’d benefit. And I knew I’d have to compromise. I’d have to do some things the Saudis wanted in the Middle East, but all administrations have to do things the Saudis want in the Middle East. It’s pretty much the defining feature of our foreign policy.”

  “Well,” Hale said, “it seems you’re a person who’s able to make compromises. I think that’s important in a politician.”

  “In a president?”

  He looked at her. “Sure,” he said.

  “And what sorts of compromises do you think would be particularly helpful?” she said.

  Hale smiled. “I think we can deal with them as they come up.”

  Meredith put out her hand.

  Hale looked at her a moment, took a sip of his scotch, and then shook it.

  Sixty

  Hunter took a military flight to Biggs Airfield and picked up a rental car. He got onto the 54 at Fort Bliss and took it north as far as the 375 through Smugglers Pass before hitting the 10. The drive through the mountains reminded him of his ride to Jeddah a few days earlier. The land was so similar. The road was almost identical. He doubted the people were as different as they seemed. The Texans with their leather boots and drawls, the Saudis with their robes and scarves, their royalty and their slaves. The culture was different, the rules were different, the way things were done was different, but how could the people be?

  The highway took him north through the valley of the Rio Grande past Canutillo and Vinton. He could see New Mexico to his east across the valley but didn’t cross the state line until Anthony.

  Thirty minutes later he was entering Las Cruces. He drove through the town and went into a coffee shop on Main across from the Rio Grande Theatre.

  “Anywhere you like,” the waitress s
aid.

  He took a seat in a booth by the window and watched what little activity there was on the street. The waitress came over with a menu and Hunter asked for black coffee.

  “You eating?” she said.

  She was the prettiest sight he’d laid eyes on in a while and he let his gaze linger a second before looking at the menu.

  “Steak and eggs,” he said.

  She turned to leave and he asked if she had a newspaper.

  She returned with the coffee and a copy of the Sun-News. On the front page was a picture of Hale with the president. They were announcing sweeping new powers for the CIA and Hale’s promotion to National Security Advisor. It was a big deal, a lot of power, but it was easy to justify things like that in the aftermath of a national tragedy.

  They’d pinned the assassinations on a lone anti-government lunatic from West Virginia. There was a picture of the guy in handcuffs being taken into federal custody. There was also news of a massive new arms deal with Saudi Arabia. It was the biggest arms deal in history and was designed to secure Saudi Arabia’s position as the third most powerful military on the globe.

  It was already back to business as usual in Washington.

  The more people got killed, the more things stayed the same.

  Hunter flipped to the local section of the newspaper and looked through sports results, school council meetings, municipal elections. He was satisfied. It was a good place to grow up. At least, it was as good a place as there was left.

  He watched the waitress work. There were no other customers but she kept herself busy polishing cutlery.

  “You grow up here?” he said to her.

  She stopped what she was doing and nodded. “Born and raised.”

  “You like it?”

  She shrugged. “Sure.”

  That was good enough for Hunter.

  She brought him his breakfast and he ate it and left her a good tip. Then he drove to the address Fawn had given him and watched the house from his car.

  It was a nice enough place on the corner of Lauren and Nevada. The lawns were dry. The fences were chain link. It wasn’t a rich neighborhood. But it was good. Good folks with their cars parked in their driveways and trees growing on the front lawns.

  After watching a few minutes, the front door opened and a woman came out. Behind her was the girl. The woman waited for the girl at the gate, holding out a hand for her. Then the two of them, hand in hand, walked down the sidewalk toward the convenience store on the corner.

  Hunter watched in the mirror as they entered the store. When they came out, the girl was holding an ice cream and the woman was talking to her.

  They looked good together, woman and girl.

  They looked like they were going to be all right.

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