The Second Term

Wednesday, March 31, 2021, 10:30 PM Central Daylight Time

Joe was trying to stop the flow of blood from his arm when he saw that Max was running toward them, a pistol in his hand. Joe, woozy, trained his rifle at Max and said loudly, “Drop it.”

For one second, Max looked as though he was about to raise his weapon to fire it. But then he dropped it on the stage. Joe crawled forward and grabbed it, then crawled backward to the President.

Pandemonium had broken out in the audience. The Secret Service agents, banished to the outskirts of the arena by King, had reached the President in an impressively short time, and now surrounded him and Joe. Joe finally dropped his and Terry’s weapons and was leaning against the rostrum.

“The Vice President and the Speaker of the House,” Joe said to one of the Secret Service agents. “This looks like a conspiracy. Like Booth and Lincoln. You’ve got to warn them.”

“Do you have any other weapons on you?” the agent asked him.

“No,” Joe said, and slid down to the floor, suddenly feeling both the wound in his upper arm and what felt like a broken ankle from his ride down the ladder. Then he sat up again.

“Kyle and Terry,” he said. “The sniper in the back of the arena and the other guy over there. You’ve got to get them. Kyle shot me. Terry there was going to take out the President. Kyle was supposed to take me out, then Terry could take out the President and blame it on me. Max saw that the plot would be exposed, so he was trying to get me first. He’s fourth in line to the presidency. He needed to take out the President, the Vice, and the Speaker. You’ve got to get Kyle, and protect the other two, if they are still alive.”

“Terry was going to shoot me?” the President said, blankly.

“For Max,” Joe said. “Max wanted to take over, then pin the whole thing on me.”

Joe’s head began to swim. The Secret Service agent was yelling into his mouthpiece.

“Seal the doors,” the agent said. “Announce to the crowd that they should get as low as possible and no one is to leave. And I need a medic up here.”

“Is someone else shot?” Joe said.

“It’s for you,” the Secret Service agent said. “You’re bleeding out from your arm.”

“Oh,” said Joe, and passed out.

“This guy saved my life,” the President said. “From Terry? The guy I pardoned? And Max? My Secretary of State?”

“I don’t know. It looks that way, maybe,” the Secret Service agent said. “We can sort it all out later.”

He turned to another agent who had just arrived. “Where’s the secure room for POTUS?”

“It’s behind the stage here,” the other agent said, and ran off to clear a path.

A shock of pain from his shoulder and leg suddenly woke Joe back up.

“Terry and Kyle,” he blurted.

“Terry’s here,” the agent said. “We’re looking for Kyle.”

Joe fell back and the room began to swim again. A medic arrived and began to cut his sleeve off to apply a tourniquet.

“You saved my life. I’m gonna give you the Medal of Freedom,” the President said.

Joe turned toward him, a quizzical look on his face.

“The same thing you gave Max and Terry?” he said.

The President looked confused.

“Colored ribbons,” Joe said.

He tried to raise his head to look for his family again, but had to lie back again.

He suddenly thought of Vaneida.

Vaneida – I had something I had to tell her.

Then he lost consciousness in earnest.