Hearts United: The Reelection (Prologue)

“What in the hell happened?” President Jeffrey ‘JD’ Harrison bellowed as he walked into the Oval Office. His Chief of Staff James Brooks stood with the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Royce Davenport, next to him. “That was not a rhetorical question, gentlemen.” His fist hit the desk. “A man is dead. One of you better have a damn good explanation why.”

“Mr. President, the death of Naftali Conteh was unavoidable,” Royce explained. “He was involved in the movement of chips to sabotage voting machines.”

“Explain how a corrupt citizen from Africa has his hands in our election process. And why in the hell am I getting angry calls from the Ambassador?”

“Money is the root of all evil,” James stated as he took a seat on the sofa across from Royce with JD sitting at the top of the oval shaped carpet in the room.

“Money was of course the motivation for Conteh,” Royce said as he sat. “Unfortunately, it doesn’t end there. In the process of interrogating Conteh he revealed the name of the person who hired him to make the chips. That person’s interest is power.”

JD raised an eyebrow. “Name?”

Royce glanced at James, who answered the President’s question. “McClintock.”

JD sat up. “McClintock? The Vice President?”

“Senator McClintock, his father,” Royce clarified. “However, we believe the Vice President is aware of the actions being taken on his behalf.”

“You are telling me a person in my administration is conspiring to interfere in the presidential election process? Is that what you are telling me, Royce?”

“Mr. President.” James sat forward. “There is more that needs to be considered before you lose your cool.”

“Before—I’m already there.”

“Yes, sir. I can see that. However, there is more. It seems three names have emerged during this investigation. Senator Jeremiah McClintock, Richard Wainwright and….” James hesitated. “Edward Worthington.”

“Carolyn’s grandfather?” JD asked, surprised. “Is she aware of this?”

“No,” James replied. “That is the reason why we need to tread lightly.”

“Is there any chance she is a part of this?” Royce asked.

“I doubt it,” JD replied, a bit put off that the question was asked. “She’s my campaign manager.”

“It is not a far stretch, Mr. President,” Royce suggested. “We never considered Gavin would have betrayed us, yet he did. He was her husband.”

“Duly noted.” JD nodded. “However, Carolyn is my campaign manager and would more so kill Gavin than team up with him. How deep is this conspiracy?”

James exhaled. “We are pulling all the information from the different sources to see if we can determine, number one, if this is a conspiracy and two, who in the administration is involved.”

“Three, how significant is the conspiracy?” Royce added. “Your number one is moot. There is a conspiracy happening. The question is how serious it is and how daring are the people involved.”

“All right.” JD took a deep breath and sat back in his chair. “Give me all the details we have.”

Royce nodded. “There appears to be two paths merging. Each to culminate in the control of the outcome of the next election. We believe the purpose is to ensure a victory for Vice President McClintock. At one time we were not convinced he was aware of the efforts, however, that conclusion has been deemed false. It seems, not only is the Vice President aware of the efforts, his wife, Eleanor McClintock is the person steering the plot. What the Vice President does not know is whomever she is working with plans to eventually eliminate him as well.”

“Hold on.” JD held up his hand. “They plan to eliminate Jerry? The man they want to replace me? What kind of sense does that make?”

“It’s all about power, Mr. President,” James stated. “The VP seems to be the means by which they plan to place Senator McClintock in power.”

“You have to be joking,” JD chuckled.

“By no means do I believe the people involved plan on Eleanor controlling anything. They simply need her involvement to keep her husband in line. I think they are feeding her the line that she will eventually be VP under President Jeremiah McClintock once he takes over.”

“There is nothing to back that up at this time,” Royce continued. “Details are still a bit unclear on who is actually running this operation. The three names that have emerged came from different sources. Senator Jeremiah McClintock’s name was retrieved from Naftali Conteh. Edward Worthington’s name was delivered by Gavin Roberts and Richard Wainwright’s name was given by Senator Roth.”

“Gavin is involved in this?” JD questioned.

“Yes, it seems during the time he was Attorney General, as you know he was conspiring with others to show your weakness. We determined Carol Worthington, Senator McClintock and Gavin were working in conjunction with each other. The financial partner was never proven. However, we believed at the time it was Edward Worthington. Since their first attempt to eliminate you failed, we believe they went back to the drawing board and concocted this plot.”

“I would have to be killed or resign from office to make Jerry President,” JD advised. “Tampering with voter machines would leave the outcome in the hands of the voters. That seems a complicated method to a simple solution.” 

“True,” Royce said as he glanced at James.

JD saw the exchange. “Tell me what you don’t want to tell me.”

“Their plan to remove you from office failed.” James cleared his throat as he sat forward. “Mr. President, right before the holidays, there was an attempt on the First Lady’s life.”

“What?”

“We foiled the attempt without incident,” James quickly added. “The assassin was eliminated, and the story handled with the press.”

“When the hell did this happen and why wasn’t I aware of this,” JD yelled as he loomed over James who was still sitting.

James smirked at him. “I can’t image why anyone would keep an attempt on your wife’s life from you. Hmm, let me think. Could it be your reaction to news of this type is a little over the top?”

“She’s my wife, James. The mother of my children and the woman I happen to love very much.”

“We know,” James and Royce responded in unison. “The good news here is that the system worked exactly as it should. You, nor anyone else in the world was aware of the assassination attempt.”

“Mr. President,” Royce spoke. “We handled it, just as we have handled other threats involving you and your family without explanation. We are damn good at what we do. My agency prevents things from happening every day. That is the job you gave us to do. Your job is to concentrate on the country. Our job is to keep your mind clear to do your job.”

“Move on, Royce,” James ordered as he motioned for JD to sit back down.

“We believe the attempt on FLOTUS was the catalyst to get you to resign. That plot was foiled since you never were aware it took place. When that did not work the attack on the family members was done simply as a distraction.”

“From what?”

“Distraction from their plan to replace you as President by tampering with the election, is our guess,” Royce explained. “However, we simply do not have all the pieces we need to prove it and to put those behind the plot away.”

“Mr. President, your Vice President, Richard Wainwright, Senator McClintock and Edward Worthington are people of interest in the case you assigned to Absolute. From what we have gathered thus far, we believe this all started some time ago with the original Governor Mac McClintock.”

“I get the McClintocks, maybe Worthington.” JD shrugged. “Who is Richard Wainwright and what is his motivation?”

“We have very little on Richard Wainwright,” Royce admitted. “On the surface he appears to be an upstanding citizen. A little too perfect if you ask me. I’ve requested Adam Lassiter to look deeper at the man and his origins. In the meantime, I have requested the operatives involved in gathering what we have so far to come to the situation room to give you a full report.”

“I feel you need to hear everything we have in one sitting to understand the enormity of the situation,” James stated. “Mr. President, if these people succeed in interfering in the election, others will follow suit. If outside entities learn of this, they are sure to try their hand at it. If that happens, democracy as we know it, will be altered forever.”

JD nodded in understanding. “Based on the information you provided, this doesn’t sound like a terrorist operation or another country interfering in our election. This sounds like an elaborate plot to take over the government.” 

“That appears to be exactly what we have stumbled onto,” Royce agreed. “To complicate matters more, Africa may not be the only foreign Ambassador we will have to contend with. According to Senator Roth, Richard Wainwright may have Russian connections.” The look on JD’s face must have expressed what he was thinking. Before he could give the order, James spoke up. “I want everyone involved, in the situation room within the hour—everyone.”