The Art Of Politics

Chapter 8 : The meeting

Entering the fortified Situation Room styled bunker dad and I occupied a chair each while the Secret Service agents stood sentry. The screens were on, showing the faces of every leader of the countries that were ambushed by the bombs. They looked unhappy to say the least.

"Mr. President." The Japanese prime minister, Takaguchi Kawa, begun. "You are aware of what's happening right?"

"I do, Prime Minister Kawa. I do." He replied.

"Shouldn't you be doing something too Madam Vice President?" The Canadian Prime Minister, Everett Grant, asked me in the eye. He was well aware of my other life, as a former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent turned prime minister.

"Believe me Everett, I have already started looking." I said. "I only have two suspicions on my mind."

"Vice President Reagan." The Russian president leaned forward. "Are you telling me that you're suspecting my country of the attacks?"

"Anyone of you could be." I replied with a laugh. "China, North Korea, Cuba, maybe."

"You can't be..."

"There are insurgents that threatened to rebel against the Cuban leader, trying to ruin any chance of peace my father has offered."

"The vice president is correct." The chancellor of Germany said. "Anyone of us could be behind these attacks."

"Madam Vice President." Madeleine Gray, the prime minister of England said. "Can I say the truth?"

"Go ahead." I said, my voice grim.

"What is your agent instinct when it comes to these attacks?"

"You don't have to know Prime Minister Gray." I said. "I don't have to show my cards. To let the enemy win." She seemed stunned in respond.

"You're brilliant I must say." She added. "To keep your cards to yourself. Knowing when to put them on deck."

"And it won't be now Prime Minister Gray. When the time has come I will." She smiled at me.

"You reminded me so much of your mother."

"You kept dropping by the South Korean embassy in London." I said. "Mom always hurry me to my room so that you both can talk."

"Old times." She said cryptically.

"So? What will be your agenda here ladies and gentlemen?" Dad asked. "We're wasting time if there is no reason about this call."

"Mr. President. Didn't we have a summit at the UN two days later?" The Japanese prime minister asked.

"That would be the cover for you all to come." Dad said. "My daughter and I will be expecting you all to come." The leaders all nodded in agreement and terminated their connections. I looked up from my notebook as I was scribbling down notes again and saw dad pinching the bridge of his nose to fight off, probably fatigue.

"You okay daddy?" I asked.

"Yeah, yeah I'm okay. Just tired."

"I can tell." I said.

"I recommend that both of you should rest." Agent Barrowman said. A while later I sat in my room, on the bed as the notebook laid on the nightstand. Resting my head on the pillow I stared up to the ceiling as I planned for my next move.

"Who was it?" I muttered. "Who is behind this? How did they bypass the security of the White House?" I thought before I fell asleep.

Hours later

Someone kept knocking at the door as I woke up, listening to the rain splattering outside the window. Sleeping for hours made me feel better as I swung out of bed and opened the door. "Dad?" I asked as I saw him outside my door.

"Can we talk? Andrew's not around to hear our discussion." He said, entering the room.

"...Okay." I said. Dad locked the door and sat at the study table, I sat on my bed. We kept silent for a while until he cleared his throat.

"What do we have now?" He asked, looking at me. "Who do you think is the one that leaked the security details of the White House?"

"Dad, I'll tell you what I don't believe in : Shouldn't the White House be fortified to the teeth? I mean that the Secret Service are working around the clock to protect us."

"True." He said, leaning forward. "The White House has been rebuilt after the explosion."

"That means..."

"Someone sold our security systems on the black market."

"You're saying that we have..."

"A Benedict Arnold?"

"Ninety percent." Dad said, his expression grim. "I'm still hoping that there's not."

"I don't believe that however." I said. "I have my own theory."

"And what would that be?"

"First of all, the press knows that the White House is being rebuilt. The Secret Service did not disclose that whether the White House is under protection or not."

"Conclusion?"

"We accidentally let them endanger our lives. We gave them the slip."

"I see. That makes sense anyway." I folded my arms, clutching the pen and spinning it later in my fingers. "There's something though, something I learned from the Darkest Hour."

"Which is?"

"In the dossiers you came to the conclusion that Russians are backing a splinter group."

"Yes, that is correct sir." I said. "If I'm correct, it's either the rebel group from Cuba or the splinter group is conspiring to kill us both."

"And this will be the second time just like what happened during the JFK assassination."

"Countries will burn but America will fall the hardest." I said. "But if Russia wasn't doing their version of Operation Northwoods who wants Russia dead in the water as well?"

"Ukraine?"

"Ukraine's military capabilities is strong, but they can't stand up against Russia."

"China?"

"No sir. You know how lovey dovey these two countries are right now."

"Us?"

"Not to my knowledge sir. But I will consider it a probability."

"Cuba?"

"You serious?" I asked, staring at him. "I have read the Bay of Pigs files. Not pretty, no way, and not gonna happen."

"Our best enemy?"

"North Korea?"

"Exactly."

"No sir. The country could be the only one to be able to paralyse Sony and attacking us with WannaCry but to my standards... not really."

"You're saying..."

"North Korea... it's not a probability." I said. "You're making me wanna cry now sir. Our military experts even notes that North Korea could be bluffing with the whole missles thing. But they did fire missles that landed within the oceans of South Korea and Japan." I said in an alarming tone.

"What's it with you and WannaCry?"

"It's a meme. I'm still in university when this happened. Files got corrupted and all, and this meme started flying when the school reopened. When every professor asked on why they didn't hand in their assignments my classmates all responded WannaCry and every professor all said that they should be the ones that wanna cry, not the students." Dad chuckled in amusement. "So that's the reason that you keep using the word."

"What else?" I asked.