Matthew Reilly - Area 7

Portico of the Capitol Building. The new President had his

hand on a Bible.

"... and will to the best of my ability.. "

"... and will to the best of my ability..."

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Matthew Reilly

"... preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of

the United States, so help me God."

"... preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of

the United States, so help me God."

Fifteen years, Caesar thought.

Fifteen years, he had waited.

And now, at last, it had happened.

It hadn't been easy. There had been several false

starts--including one who had made it to the election as a

vice-presidential candidate, only to lose in a landslide. Four

others had made it to the New Hampshire primary, but then

failed to secure their parties' candidacy.

And of course, you always had some--like that Woolf

fellow--who would quit politics before they had even begun

to truly explore their presidential potential. It was an extra

expense, but no matter. Even Senator Woolf had served a

useful purpose.

But now ...

Now, it was different ...

Now, he had one ...

HIS THEORY HAD BEEN BORN OUT OF A VERY SIMPLE FACT.

For the last forty years, every American president bar

two has hailed from two very elite clubs: state governors and

federal senators.

Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon were all senators before

they became President. Carter, Reagan, and Clinton were all

state governors. The only exceptions were George Bush Sr.

and Gerald Ford. Bush was a member of the House of Representatives,

not the Senate, and Ford's rise to the Presidency

stands in a category of its own.

But, as General Charles Russell had also discovered,

men of influence were also men of extremely unpredictable

health.

The ravages of their political lifestyles--high stress,

constant travel, chronic lack of exercise--often took a great

toll on their bodies.

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And while getting the transmitter onto the heart of a sitting

President was nigh on impossible, given the narrow

source of American Presidents--senators and governors--

getting it onto a man's coronary muscle before he became

President wasn't out of the question.

Because, after all, a man is just a man before he becomes

President.

THE STATISTICS FOR THE NEXT FIFTEEN YEARS SPOKE FOR

themselves.

Forty-two percent of U.S. senators had had gallbladder

surgery during their time in office, gallstones being a common

problem for overweight middle-aged men.

Of the remaining fifty-eight percent, only four would

avoid some sort of surgical procedure during their political

careers.

Kidney and liver operations were very common. Several

heart bypasses--they were the easiest operations during

which to plant the device--and not a few prostate problems.

And then there had been this one.

Halfway through his second term as governor of a large

southwestern state, he had complained of chest pains and labored

breathing. An exploratory procedure performed by a

staff surgeon at the Air Force base just outside Houston had

revealed an obstruction in the Governor's left lung, detritus

from excessive smoking.

Through a deft procedure involving state-of-the-art

fiber-optic cameras and ultra-small wire-controlled surgical

instruments called nanotechnology, the obstruction was removed

and the Governor told to quit smoking.

What the Governor did not know, however, was that

during that operation the Air Force surgeon had attached a second piece of nanotechnology--a microscopic radio

transmitter the size Of a pin-head--to the outer wall of the

Governor's heart.

Constructed of evanescent plastic--a semiorganic material

which, over time, would partially dissolve into the

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Matthew Reilly

outer tissue of the Governor's heart--the transmitter would

ultimately take on a distorted shape, giving it the appearance

of a harmless blood clot, thus masking it from discovery by

any observation techniques such as X-rays. Anything larger

or more regularly shaped would be detected on an incoming

President's first physical, and that just couldn't be allowed to

happen.

As a final precaution, it was inserted into the Governor's

body "cold"--unactivated. The White House's AXS-7

antibugging system would detect an unauthorized radio signal

in an instant.

No.

Activation would occur later, when the time was right.

As usual, at the end of the procedure, one final operation

was performed: a fine-grained plaster mold of the Governor's

right hand was made.

It would also be necessary, when the time came.

THE GUARDS CAME FOR HIM TEN MINUTES LATER.

Cuffed and chained, General Charles "Caesar" Russell

was escorted from his cell and taken to the waiting plane.

The trip to Indiana passed without incident, as did the

somber walk to the injection room.

The record would later show that as he lay spread

eagled on the injection table like a horizontal Christ, his

arms and legs bound with worn leather straps, the prisoner

refused to take the last rites. He had no last words, no final

expression of remorse for his crimes. In fact, throughout the

whole pre-injection ritual, he never said a word at all. This

was consistent with Russell's post-trial actions--indeed, his

execution had been fast-tracked because he had lodged no

appeals of any kind.

The military tribunal that had sentenced him to death

had said that so heinous was his crime, he could never be allowed

to leave federal custody alive.

They had been right.

At 3:37 p.m. on 20 January, the grim procedure took

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place. Fifty milligrams of sodium thiopental--to induce

unconsciousness--was followed by ten of pancuronium

bromide--to stop respiration--and then, finally, twenty milligrams

of potassium chloride to stop Russell's heart.

At 3:40 p.m., three minutes later, Lieutenant General

Charles Samson Russell was declared dead by the Terre Haute county coroner.

since the general had no living relatives, his body was

taken from the prison by members of the United States Air

Force for immediate cremation.

At 3:52 p.m.--twelve minutes after he had been declared

officially dead--as his body was being rushed

through the streets of Terre Haute, Indiana, in the back of an

Air Force ambulance, two electroshock defibrillator paddles

were applied to the dead General's chest and charged.

"Clear!" one of the Air Force medical personnel yelled.

The General's body convulsed violently as a wave of

raw electric current shot through his vascular system.

It happened on the third application of the paddles.

On the electrocardiogram monitor on the wall, a small

spike appeared.

The General's heartbeat had resumed.

Within moments, it was pulsing at a regular rhythm.

As General Russell well knew, death occurs when the

heart is no longer able to deliver oxygen to the body. The act

of respiration--breathing--oxygenates a person's blood,

and then the person's heart delivers that oxygenated blood to

the body.

It was the supply of reoxygenated blood coursing

through Russell's arteries that had kept him alive for that

crucial twelve minutes--blood that had been biogenetically

crammed with oxygen-rich red cells; blood which during

that twelve-minute period had continued to supply Russell's

brain and vital organs with oxygen, even though his heart