The Last Election (28 page)

“No, sir,” replied the doctor. “Please come in.” Holden stepped into the room behind the doctor. Clark and Martineau cautiously followed, not at all knowing what to expect once they entered the room.

President Emmanuel Bonsam was sitting in a wheelchair and wearing a hospital gown. He was strapped across the chest to the wheelchair, but that was only to prevent him from falling out of the chair. His head was tilted back and off to the side and there was a vacant look in his eyes. He remained motionless as the party entered the room. It was an eerie sight to behold.

“Like I said before, I have never witnessed such a thing. His brain activity readings are unlike any I have ever seen,” said the doctor, “but look at him.”

The visitors turned their eyes to Bonsam. He looked like a hollow shell of a man. “Is he faking it?” asked Holden quietly.

“He couldn’t be. Our top physicians have run a battery of tests that all indicate there is nothing physically wrong. But every test run to determine the cause of Bonsam’s mental irregularities has been inconclusive. It is as though his body and mind are no longer connected. Watch this.”

The doctor stepped over to the equipment tray, picked up a reflex hammer, and then walked over to Bonsam. He leaned over and tapped his knee twice, but nothing happened. “He’s not even having monosynaptic reflex reactions.”

Holden stepped forward and reached for the hammer. “Here, let me give it a try.”

The doctor quickly pulled the hammer up to his shoulder and turned halfway away from Holden. “No, no, no! I’m not about to let you start banging on the president’s knees with a hammer.” Holden turned around and stepped back to Clark and Martineau, looking as innocent as an altar boy.

“There’s something else,” the doctor said. He paused as if he were searching for the right words to explain what he was about to say next. “The president continues to mumble now and then. Most of it is unintelligible gibberish, however he keeps coming back to the word…” he paused again.

“What?” Holden asked impatiently.

“Fire. At least that’s what it sounds like.”

“Fire?” whispered Martineau as she turned to Clark. “I wonder why fire?” Clark didn’t know what to say, so he just shrugged his shoulders.

“Now here’s the strangest part,” the doctor continued. “One of the physicians who examined Bonsam this afternoon heard the mumblings. This physician had spent over a year in Honduras following the Hurricane Mitch disaster providing medical care to the Hondurans. He swears he recognizes some of the sounds coming out of Bonsam. He said that they sound exactly like some of the words he had heard spoken while he was treating sick and injured members of the indigenous population.”

“What do you make of that?” asked Holden.

“I don’t know. But we have contacted a linguist from the State Department who has conducted extensive studies on the languages used by the indigenous peoples of North and South America. He will be here tomorrow morning. I’m hoping he can shed some light on the subject.”

Holden thought about what he had just heard. “Okay. Let us know what he finds.”

They witnessed orderlies place Bonsam back on his bed. He remained motionless and silent, his eyes vacantly staring toward the ceiling as an orderly covered him with a blanket. Holden turned to Clark and Martineau and said, “Let’s get out of here. This place is giving me the creeps.”
 

The three made their way back to the elevator without speaking. As they began their descent, they had no way of knowing that at the same time a team of commandos had just parachuted onto the roof of the medical center.

Chapter 70

The rain started to come down much harder. It provided the perfect cover for the commandos as they went to work. A pair of the commandos dragged away the dead bodies of the two Secret Service agents who were guarding the roof, while others hooked up their rappelling gear to the ropes they had recently attached to the railing that circled the roof of the medical center.

The lead commando peered over the edge of the roof with his infrared binoculars and saw that the only commando on the ground at this time was in place by the hedges near the center’s entrance. He then reached down and removed a rocket-propelled grenade launcher from the duffle bag beside him. It was a Russian made RPG-7, which was capable of firing shoulder-launched anti-armor warheads.

The presidential limo had been pulled to the entrance and Holden, Clark, and Martineau were escorted to the vehicle while Secret Service agents held umbrellas over their heads. They climbed into the limo and once seated the agents shut the door and notified the driver to take off. As they pulled away, Holden said, “Frankly, I’m not too surprised that Bonsam ended up this way.”

The commander had loaded a warhead into the RPG launcher and was set to fire. As the motorcade pulled away from the hospital, he drew a bead on the Presidential limo, and a moment later he fired the missile. The missile streaked downward, but struck the ground about four feet behind the limo.

Inside the limo, Clark was about to make a remark about Holden’s last comment, when all of a sudden a large powerful blast exploded behind the vehicle. The force of the explosion lifted the rear of the limo into the air and propelled it forward. The momentum forced the limo to do an end-over-end roll. As it violently rolled onto its roof it continued its forward movement. The limo rocked upward so that its front end rose. It balanced on its rear bumper for a moment, its headlights shining straight into the sky. Then with a rush it tipped forward and slammed wheels down onto the road.

Inside Bonsam’s room, the doctor had been leaning over his patient to examine him one last time before calling it a night. Bonsam’s eyes were closed and his breathing had become deep and regular. The doctor looked down at Bonsam, still puzzled by his condition. Suddenly Bonsam’s eyes flew open, his pupils raging with fire. Fear overwhelmed the doctor, but before he even had a chance to gasp, Bonsam’s hand was clutched around his throat, cutting off his airway. Bonsam slowly pulled himself out of the bed and stood up, his grip on the doctor’s throat becoming stronger. The doctor was horrified as Bonsam’s fiery eyes stared into him and his grip intensified. Bonsam let out a deep strong yell as he crushed the doctor’s windpipe, and then threw him to the floor where he slowly suffocated. Bonsam quickly spun around to face the window, and a moment later he heard the sound of the missile exploding on the ground below.

Holden, Clark, and Martineau lay in a twisted heap on the floor in the back of the limo. Clark was the first to come around and he clambered up onto a seat. The limo was surrounded by smoke and in the heavy rain it was impossible to see anything on the outside. His ears were ringing but as he looked down at Holden and Martineau he was still able to hear them groaning.
They are alive!

Moments after the missile exploded, the team of commandos rappelled their way down toward the eighth floor. Inside the medical center, panic had broken out. The explosion shocked everyone. Even the Secret Service agents on the eighth floor were moving about haphazardly as they tried to get a grip on the situation. Just as the lead agent was about to order his team to move to protect the president, commandos burst through the windows. The commandos fired their machine guns on full automatic, spraying bullets down the corridors. The Secret Service agents drew their weapons, but they were no match for the heavy firepower of the commandos. The agents went down like flies. One tried to make a call for help, but was shot before he could speak.

The lead commando burst into Bonsam’s room. “Time to go, Mr. President,” he said as he tossed Bonsam an assault rifle.

Bonsam caught the rifle with one hand. He looked at the commando and said,
“
Kamoasumnida
.”

“
Aneiyo
,”
responded Commander Gu
Limja
. Commander Gu then raced back into the hall and shouted out orders in Korean to the rest of the commandos.

Most everyone in the medical center was reacting to the disaster happening out front and was completely unaware of the events taking place on the eighth floor, however, two Marine MPs who had been on the ninth floor had heard the gunfire directly below them. Knowing that the president was on the eighth floor, they reacted quickly and raced down the stairs to the floor below.

As they approached the eighth floor door, one of the MPs whispered, “There should be Secret Service here.”

His partner was thinking the same thing. He then said, “Look!” as he pointed to smoke coming under the door into the stairwell. He slowly opened the stairwell door and peered cautiously around the corner.

There in the smoke-filled air stood President Bonsam. He remained standing there motionless with his hands behind his back. The MPs looked at one another, then moved into the hallway and slowly approached Bonsam. The MP who had opened the door spoke first. “Mr. President, are you all right? What has happened…”

Before he could say another word, Bonsam pulled the rifle from behind his back and fired at the MPs. He slowly walked toward them, unloading his entire clip. The anger was back, and so were the visions of flames. He kept firing into the bodies of the MPs long after it was obvious that they were already dead.

Commander Gu was revolted by the sight of the bloodbath that Bonsam was unleashing. When Bonsam ran out of bullets he let out a yell through his clenched teeth, and reached for another magazine. Commander Gu stepped up and grabbed Bonsam’s arm before he could get another magazine, “Sir, we need to get out of here.”

Bonsam spun around and faced Commander Gu, still burning with anger. Gu
Limja
was momentarily speechless. He had experienced the horrors of war many times over the years during his covert operations south of the demilitarized zone, but nothing that compared to the horror he felt when he looked into Bonsam’s eyes.

Clark had leaned over to check on the condition of Martineau. “Kenna! Kenna! Can you hear me?”

Martineau’s eyes fluttered open and she rubbed them with her fingers. She looked around the haze of the limo trying to get her vision to return to normal. When she was finally able to focus, she looked at Clark and said, “Holden?”

“He’s right here, Kenna.” Clark slid over in his seat so he could check on Holden. He cautiously turned Holden over so they could see his face. Martineau gently stroked his cheeks and said, “Mike, are you all right?” Martineau started to smile as she saw Holden open his eyes and look up at her, but at that instant they were struck by a blinding flash of light as a stun grenade exploded next to the limo.

The commando who had been hiding in the bushes was now at work. The noise that came from the flashbang he had tossed next to the limo was even louder than the missile explosion. He followed the flashbang with several smoke grenades. Everyone in and around the limo was now totally disoriented. The commando sprang from his hiding place and raced toward the limo. His protective mask and earplugs allowed him to move freely about the smoke-filled area while those around him rolled on the ground gasping for air.

The commando was searching for one person in particular and he located him in less than a minute. He walked over to the president’s military aide who was sprawled out face down on the ground and coughing heavily. The commando then pulled out a two-foot long machete from the sheath attached to his belt and swung it down with tremendous force, striking the aide where he lay.

Commander Gu and his team led Bonsam out a side door of the medical center and onward to the rendezvous point. Bonsam caught a glimpse of the crumpled presidential limo through the rain and the smoke as he raced on. He shouted to Commander Gu, “They’re dead! They’re dead!”
 
Gu wasn’t so sure, but there was no way to find out at this time.
   

A moment later the ground commando came sprinting to join them. Commander Gu took the satchel that the ground commando was carrying and handed it to Bonsam. Bonsam let out a wicked laugh as he took the case and then he and the commando team boarded the stealth helicopter that had just moments before landed at the rendezvous point. The helicopter took off, and along with President Bonsam, vanished into the night.