Bobby Akart - First Strike

“Maybe they didn’t know—” Hank said as his voice trailed off.

“He didn’t, but she, or shall I say, the other he, did.”

“Wait. What? The dead guy was picked up by a—?”

Mike interrupted his question. “Quite possibly. Yes. We might be onto something here. We have a working theory, anyway. The only issue is motive.”

“The watch is high end,” observed Hank. “Robbery doesn’t make sense. Are you thinking a crime of passion? Or just an accident gone bad?”

Mike winced as he finished a sip of his drink. “Not an accident. The next two victims, if connected, rule that out. Crime of passion is a possibility. But again, how does that connect the three killings?”

“I have a theory,” interjected Jessica.

“Whadya think?” asked Hank.

“Okay, this sounds very Netflix or Hulu-worthy, but what if our suspect is a frustrated male who is trying to find himself in an LGBTQ world. Especially the Q part. I saw a documentary once about a guy who killed gay men in Toronto a while back. He thought he was gay but tried to deny it. He apparently grew angry with himself and took it out on other gay men.”

Hank turned to Mike. “Viable?”

“Absolutely. Listen, serial killers come in all shapes, sizes, and sexual orientations. To kill like this, they must have a serious screw loose. Anyway, I have our people taking the Key Largo vic’s photo around to all known LGBT hangouts in the Keys.”

“You might have to go beyond that,” added Jessica. “If he is dressing as a woman, he may be trolling all the bars. Especially the late-night ones.”

Mike finished his Jack on the rocks and hoisted himself out of his chair. “We don’t have enough people for this. I’m gonna have to ask Tallahassee for more help.”

He walked away to the bar, allowing Hank and Jessica to talk.

Hank finished his drink but kept his seat. “He’s taking this hard, isn’t he?”

“Yeah. Mike loves his job, and he’s driven to solve these murders. The break in the case helps, but it also concerns him. He didn’t mention this, but the witness who works at the Coconut Grove bar vaguely remembered the couple. The woman was described as very attractive, and the grainy image pulled from security footage bears that out. Hank, he’s looking for a person who’s capable of morphing from man to woman easily. It’s a helluva challenge.”

Hank glanced toward the bar and saw that Mike was chatting with the bartender. “Well, I have another challenge. However, this one is for you. I need you and Mike to agree to move back to Driftwood Key for a while. And I’m talking about tomorrow, if not tonight.”

Tuesday, October 22

Oval Office

The White House

The White House was bustling with activity as panicked staffers raced around carrying sealed banker’s boxes with files destined for an undisclosed location. Outside the West Wing, white unmarked box trucks were lined up to accept the cargo. The vast majority of the staffers would be furloughed until further notice as the president prepared to be removed to a safer location, one whose floors, walls and ceilings were impenetrable to a nuclear blast.

While the National Security Agency was not prepared to affirmatively state the U.S. was under an immediate nuclear threat, the combination of the events of the last three days and the saber rattling by the North Koreans was enough to evacuate the Helton administration to a more secure facility.

Since President Truman had been in office, U.S. presidents have had access to fortified bunkers to ride out a nuclear war. If the missiles were in the air, the president would be hustled back into the PEOC. However, it was designed to house only a few people for a very limited time. Another option was Greenbrier in the Blue Ridge Mountains of West Virginia. Formerly a nuclear bunker for Congress, it’s now a tourist attraction but can immediately be repurposed in a state of emergency.

To the north of Washington was Raven Rock in the hills of Southern Pennsylvania. It is mostly dedicated for the military. Peters Mountain, also known as Spy Mountain, was a fortified bunker north of Charlottesville, Virginia, dedicated to America’s intelligence agencies.

The Cheyenne Mountain Complex in Colorado was the most well-known of them all. Built deep within a mountain, it housed NORAD, the North American Aerospace Defense Command, charged with the responsibility of defending America from a nuclear attack.

Today, the president was going to be evacuated as part of the U.S. continuity of government readiness condition known as COGCON 1. In the event of a credible threat of nuclear attack, the Administration and the U.S. government would be relocated to a secure, fully staffed bunker.

His destination was Mount Weather, a mountain peak near Bluemont, Virginia, just fifty miles outside Washington. Run by FEMA, Doomsday City, as it was known, had been activated and kept in a constant state of readiness since the terrorist attacks of 9/11. Mount Weather was built during the throes of the Cold War and was capable of taking a direct hit. It housed the president, his aides, and hundreds of others necessary to operate the government during a time of war.

All of these facilities were designed to ensure continuity of government during an anticipated foreign invasion, nuclear war, electromagnetic pulse attack, or a natural catastrophe of enormous magnitude.

The evacuation was not the president’s idea. He had to defer to the defense department. However, the decision aligned with one that he’d made. He was tired of America living under the thumb of her enemies. Namely, North Korea. If Israel and India could take the bold step of beating back their archenemies, so could he. However, there was more to his decision-making process.

President Helton’s family had experienced the horrors of the Kim regime. In fact, he was surprised nosy reporters or opposition researchers for his political opponents had never picked up on it.

His uncle, the brother of his deceased mother, had joined a humanitarian contingent to visit a disease-stricken village in the western regions of North Korea. Part of Doctors Without Borders, the beloved uncle of the president had been like a father to him growing up. He’d paired with another medical provider, an epidemiologist who happened to be the mother of Secretary of State Carolyn Sanders.

While examining and treating patients in a remote village away from their assigned areas, the two encountered a North Korean security patrol. They were brutally beaten simply because they were Americans. Their mauled corpses were returned to the Doctors Without Borders camp. It was explained to the director of the contingent that criminals had attacked the two and were immediately killed by brave North Korean soldiers.

Nobody ever believed the story. Days later, the group was expelled from the country, and any chance of learning the truth was lost.

President Helton had discovered the commonality with Secretary Sanders many years ago at a political fundraising dinner. They compared notes, comforted one another, and became longtime friends. They also shared a solemn promise. To avenge their loved ones.

When he was elected, the president never imagined he’d have the opportunity to exact his revenge on the murderous regime. He’d laid the groundwork to gain the opportunity by bringing Sanders into his cabinet. Once in office, he learned how the U.S. government worked. In secret. He established a commission of loyalists to find an opportunity, as well as a justification, for wiping Kim Jong Un off the face of the planet.

That opportunity was now.

After clearing the Oval Office, the president retrieved a celebratory cigar he’d planned on smoking following his inauguration. He’d gotten caught up in the moment, and the opportunity, or just the right occasion, never presented itself.