The Homegrown Assassin

 

~ 1 ~

Eldon Jarrett drove his Jeep into the parking lot of the flagship of his family’s hardware stores. There were six stores in all, in towns within easy driving range of Fayetteville North Carolina.

Eldon was a veteran of Afghanistan and considered himself one of the fortunate ones who had gotten through the war without any injury or a serious case of PTSD. 

He was also fortunate in that the family business, Jarrett Hardware, was waiting for him when he returned. His father and founder of the business, Wilbur, had stayed on as general manager for two years longer than he had planned to, while Eldon did his duty for God and country.

But today, Wilbur was happy to hand the reins over to Eldon. All the store managers were waiting in Wilbur’s upstairs office to congratulate Eldon and have a chunk of the large cake that Eldon’s mom, Molly, had made for the occasion. 

Jarrett Hardware was a tightly knit organization. All of the store managers were the sons of the original six managers, who were all guys that Wilbur knew because Jarrett Hardware was more like a family than a business.

Eldon had grown up with them all, getting to know them  through the various celebrations of store milestones, Christmases and Easters. Eldon would have a very easy time of things because everyone knew their business, as they had grown up in it and, more importantly, they could all be trusted to manage their stores well. 

Wilbur had chosen the hardware business early on in life and started the flagship store in Fayetteville almost thirty years before. The main reason for his choice of business was that, to him, it didn’t matter if times were easy or tough, there was always something to be done around the house. Wilbur was an expert handyman and all the staff he hired as the business expanded were cut from the same cloth as him. So in addition to carrying a very practical inventory, there was always all kinds of solid free advice to be had at Jarrett Hardware.

After all the congratulations were done and the cake was in the process of being eaten, Wilbur got up and spoke.

“OK…I have to say that this is the day I have been waiting for for quite a spell. Eldon’s back from another ungodly war and all in one piece. So I’m pleased as punch to be able to turn the business over to him, while his mom and I head down to Miami and take a long overdue honeymoon cruise.

Everybody had a good chuckle over that. Then Wilbur got  Eldon to his feet. 

“Meet the new boss, hopefully the same as the old boss.” Wilbur said and everybody applauded.

Eldon looked out at the group and smiled. “I’ve known you all, pretty much all my life. I know your dads and moms and brothers and sisters. Hell, I even knew your dogs. This is a family business. It’s well-run by people who care about customer service and who get a lot of personal satisfaction out of helping people. It’s survived the big box threats, a recession or two, even a couple of wars. I have no reason to believe it won’t continue to thrive if you all simply keep on doin’ what you do. So no big sweeping changes. I’m just pickin’ up where my dad’s leavin’ off . And thanks to you, that’s gonna be a piece of cake. So have another piece, ‘cause it’s a horkin’ big cake.”

Everybody applauded, and the party descended into a series of conversations. A few of the guys asked Eldon about what things were like over on the other side of the ocean. He told them a few stories. None of the bad ones, which outnumbered the good ones by a considerable margin. But he was happy to be back on home soil with a future that looked bright despite the sea change that was taking place in Washington. 

Like most Americans, Eldon was only marginally interested in national politics. As long as people were doing OK, could afford houses and liked the idea of saving money doing their own renovations, like people in the smaller towns tended to, they would be fine.

At least that was the hope.

~ 2 ~ 

During the four years Eldon was overseas, the news from home had all been pretty good. The job market had been growing, along with personal incomes. The Democratic government had lowered the cost of a number of drugs that were causing middle-class families a lot of hardship. The hardware business was doing well and his folks were looking forward to a happy retirement. 

There was an election coming up, and it looked like the Democratic president was likely to win another term. But shortly after Eldon had arrived home and taken over the business, the president announced that he was dropping out and handing the candidacy to the vice-president. 

There were two problems with that. One, she was a woman and no matter how capable she was, a woman had never been president in his country. The second problem was that she had only had three months to campaign, hardly enough time to win over enough voters to dominate the election, which is what had to happen if the country was going to continue on the path of recovery from the Covid fiasco that the previous Republican president had presided over and totally blown, like just about everything else during his failed term in office.

Eldon wasn’t a political creature by nature. But over the past decade, almost every adult American had become one to some extent, and this had divided the country almost right down the middle. Eldon was the product of a small business-owning family and really just wanted the best for everyone in the towns where they operated.

In November of that year, the Republicans narrowly won the election and took both houses. Eldon knew the country was in for a hard time over the next four years. 

The new administration was very quick to act, mainly, Eldon noticed, because the new president was working almost exclusively through Executive Orders as opposed to having proposals created and debated and revised through Congress. 

Having experienced the destructive power of oligarchies first-hand in Afghanistan, he knew that putting that much power into the hands of a president who had already served one failed term in office was going to be a dangerous thing. 

For any number of reasons, Eldon reverted to his training as a soldier and began to study the president, whom he came to believe was a genuine threat to American democracy and the people of his country, especially the middle class and the poor. As he closely watched nearly everything this president did and said publicly, he found himself beginning to despise the man, because his agenda had little or nothing to do with the welfare of the people of his country, or the position that America held in the world as a game changer in any number of ways.

Eldon didn’t say anything to anyone about his feelings. He was afraid that people would tell him that he was over-reacting and that maybe the time he spent in Afghanistan did some damage to his psyche. But Eldon knew that this was not the case. He had been a good soldier. A smart soldier. A squad leader. Someone who could be counted on to make sane judgements. And it was because of this soundness, his squadron had made it through a gruelling four years with barely a scratch. 

But something inside him was telling him that this man, whose inability to care about the well-being of the people he was elected to lead, would eventually take the country into a vulnerable state it had never been in before.

It was then, after watching this man intensely for two solid months, that he decided that something needed to be done.

When he had finally made the decision, her felt a lot of the tension and anxiety he had been feeling since his return home begin to lift. He had a mission. And being the kind of soldier he had been, he felt right at home as he went about figuring out just how to accomplish his goal.

Three nights later at a local bar called McKlusky’s, Eldon ran into Juliet Rivers. 

Juliet was the daughter of Anson Rivers, who was basically a genius financial investor. The Rivers family went back several generations in North Carolina and originally made their fortune through coal mining. But when Anson Rivers took over the family business with his Harvard Business degree and killer vision into the market. He quickly sold off all the family holdings and started playing with the money. 

Starting with a base of around fifty-five million dollars at the time Juliet was just entering grade one, he had built the family fortune to more than four billion by the time she had finished MIT, graduating with a master's degree in computer engineering. 

But Juliet was no egghead. She was a smart, hip lady who had had her eye on Eldon since they were both in high school. So running into him at McKlusky’s was no accident. It was well-planned, and the result of Juliet scoping out the bar every night since she returned from MIT and had heard he was back in town.

Not only had Juliet grown smarter over the years, she had grown into a beautiful woman with naturally blonde hair, an hourglass figure and a face that was reserved for the great beauties of a bygone era. 

On the fourth night of her surveillance, with the intention of accidentally running into him, she finally did. In fact, he sat down right beside her at the bar and ordered a Coors Light.

“Eldon Jarrett, as I live and breathe.” Juliet said.

Eldon looked at her, smiling at him. It took several seconds before it clicked in. “Jules?” he asked.

“In the flesh.”

“What are you doing in this dive?”

“Hoping to be swept off my feet by the man of my dreams.”

“They both laughed. Then Eldon raised his hand to her cheek. “My god, you’ve turned into a movie star.”

Jules just laughed and took hold of his hand. “Truth be told, I was hoping I’d run into you.”

“Well, I took over the business from my folks, so you could have walked in there any time.”

“But then I couldn’t get you to buy me a drink.”

“Well sure, Jules. Anything you like.”

They spent the next two hours catching up. Eldon told war stories. Jules told stories about computers and all the stuff she had learned how to do with them. She also talked about how, on her 24th birthday, she was going to be the proud owner of one billion Yankee dollars to do with as she pleased.

“That brings me right back around to my original
question.” Eldon said. “What the hell are you doing in here?”

“You want the truth?”

“Always better than bullshit.”

“A little more than four years ago I headed up north to MIT. And all the time I was gone, I was learning new things, making new friends, thinking about this town and what I would do when I came back. But the only image that was bright in my mind was you, El. Just you. Not my family or any of the other friends I had in high school. Just you.” She took a deep breath. “I figured there must be something to that. So here we are.”

Eldon just looked at her for quite a while. Then he finally said, “You know, I always thought of you as the one who got away. Then I went to fight over in that hellhole, and it took up pretty much all my bandwidth. But you were always there, small and remote, but always there, Jules.”

Jules wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him. Then she whispered. “Let’s go somewhere where we can be naked.”

Three weeks later, Jules received her billion dollars. It came in the form of a password-protected memory key inside a special delivery birthday card from her dad and mother, who had moved to New York City. On the key was a password and account number to a Cayman Islands account with one billion dollars in it. She and her dad had worked out the password a couple years earlier.

She was sitting in the sunroom of her family house, which she now shared with Eldon. A few minutes later, Eldon walked in carrying a bouquet of roses. He kissed her and handed her the roses. “I know I can’t compete with a billion dollars.” he said, noticing the card on the table.

“You don’t have to, hun. It’s nothing more than the icing on the cake.”

“So I guess we should go out and celebrate tonight.” he said. “McKluskys?” 

They both laughed about that.

“You know, it’s funny,” Jules said. “I knew this money was coming, but now it’s here and I haven’t got the slightest idea of what to do with it, or if I even need it.”

Eldon just laughed. “Oh, I’m sure you’ll figure something out.”

“I did some research yesterday. If I just leave it in the Cayman Islands account with a five percent annual interest rate, it will pay me fifty million a year, and I don’t have to do a damn thing.”

“Then don’t do a damn thing. Find a hobby you like or a worthy cause to support.”

Jules picked up the roses and smelled them. “There is one thing I want to do for sure.”

“Oh, and what might that be?”

“I want to marry you, El. I want to do it today. I’ve been waiting till I got this money because I want it to be for both of us. So what do you say? How many times will you get a marriage proposal from a billionaire?”

Eldon sat down on the chair beside her. “Are you sure about this?” 

“Yep.”

“Absolutely sure?”

Jules nodded.

“OK. I guess we can do that.”

 That crack earned him a hard whack on the upper arm.

~ 3 ~

They got into Eldon’s car and drove to a wedding chapel on the outskirts of the town and a Justice of the Peace named Robert Jones married them in front of two paid witnesses.

They then drove home and made love for a couple of hours, ordered a pizza and ate it while they looked over possible destinations for their honeymoon. 

 Two days later, after Eldon was sure everything was running just fine in the stores, they drove down to Atlanta and caught a flight to London. England, where they stayed for a couple of nights. Then they rented a very nice Mercedes and took a ferry to France. They spent the next two weeks driving around Europe, eating in the best restaurants they could find and sleeping in the most luxurious accommodations available wherever they went. It was more like a dream than anything.

Jules wanted to stay, but Eldon felt uncomfortable about leaving the business for any more than a couple of weeks. So they dropped their car off in Rome, caught a flight back to Atlanta and drove back home with a camera full of memories.

“You know,” Jules said while they were flying over the Atlantic. “You could hire or promote someone to run the whole show for you, and you could do whatever you wanted.” 

“I’ve been thinking a lot about that. I really have. But I’m not ready to jump ship just yet.”

Jules said nothing because she knew that there was no point. She was a smart lady and understood there was a lot of family pride and personal emotion for Eldon tied up in those stores.

When Jules was in high school, her father had taught her all the things she needed to know about playing the market from home, the way he did. Because she had a mathematical brain she caught on very quickly, and while she did not partake in any market activity while she was in school, she kept a close eye on it and got to be very good at spotting trends.

When they got back home, Jules activated her account in the Caymans and withdrew five million which she put into her chequing account at the local BankAmerica branch.

Once she and Eldon were all settled in comfortably. She opened up an e-trade account and started buying and selling stocks. She used two of the five million she had deposited in her BankAmerica account as her capital base, and for a few hours every weekday she floated around buying and watching and selling. It was an interesting and profitable pastime.

Eldon still went to work every day, but as he got more accustomed to the process, he started to get a bit bored. Then one day, he got a call that changed things. 

The call was from one of the guys in his Marine squad, Hollis Creighton. Like Eldon, he was in retail management, working as general manager for a fair-sized furniture chain called DeRosa Home Furnishings. They were located just fifty miles north in Raleigh.

Hollis explained his situation to Eldon. The long and short of it was that the new tariffs the current administration had instituted had essentially made it impossible for DeRosa to continue operating, since they sourced most of their furniture from Canada. The retaliatory Canadian tariffs had essentially killed their profit margin, and he found himself, with a wife and two young kids, out of a job.

Almost immediately, Eldon thought back to the conversation he’d had with Jules about hiring someone to take over his job while he could do whatever he wanted.

One week later, Hollis was introduced to the store manager team. It was a long commute, so Eldon gave Hollis a very reasonable rate on renting his house, which was empty because he was living with Jules and his folks were living in Tampa now, so the house was just sitting there while Eldon waited for a good time to put it on the market. But the real estate market, like almost everything else in America, was starting to feel the effects of the idiotic trade war that Washington had started. Fortunately for Eldon, his inventory consisted mainly of American-made materials.

Within two weeks, Hollis and his family were moved in. Hollis and Eldon worked together for about another week and then Hollis, who was a great manager, took over completely, leaving Eldon pretty much to his own devices.

The next morning, his first in his footloose and fancy-free mode, Eldon opened his computer with his coffee and toast and started to read the news. None of it was good. The number of companies that had folded over the past several months was astronomical. The economy was quickly approaching recession and from all accounts, it was going to be a bad one. 

As he continued to monitor the situation, the smugness and smarminess of the current president made his skin crawl. He was a man who could do nothing but complain. He had no leadership skills to speak of. All he had was a big mouth that constantly spewed lies and half truths, and unlike any other leader in Eldon’s lifetime, he was quite literally despised by more than half the population of the country. And now, most of the world as well.

When he talked to Jules about it, she said something, quite offhanded that got Eldon thinking in a whole different way about the issue. 

“You know,” Jules said as they were watching the news. “I don’t think it would be a bad thing if someone were to put him out of his misery. Maybe if that happened, the people in Washington would start changing their tune.”

“You mean, like actually kill him?”

“Yeah. Would anybody miss him? I don’t think so. Would the person who killed him become some kind of a national hero? Maybe.”

“Wow. You must really hate him.”

 “No I don’t hate him. I don’t know him at all. What I hate is how he is abusing his power and ruining our country. And it’s right down to us, sweetie. Look at the pickle your friend Hollis ended up in. He never asked for that. And there’s probably a few million other people in the same boat as he was. He was just lucky that he knew you and the timing was right. There’s gonna be a lot of very, very destitute people out there. I’ve already started supporting food banks in six towns around here.”

“You never told me that.”

“No, I didn’t but we’ve got more money than we could ever spend, and neither of us are spoiled brats, so why not put some of that money to good use?”

At this point, Eldon was off in another space. When he came back he kissed Jules on the cheek and headed off downstairs to his own office in the large house.

~ 4 ~

Eldon knew he could handle a rifle. His dad had been a deer hunter and taught Hollis how to use the Remington 30/30 that he used.  And the Marines had trained him on M27 Infantry Semi-Automatic Rifle.

What he needed was a sniper rifle. But he also needed to keep any research he was doing away from his own computer and IP address.

So he drove over to Charlotte, which was a large enough city for him to be anonymous and virtually invisible. He wore a hat and sunglasses and entered the large library on the Wake Forest campus and logged onto one of their computers. He searched for assault rifle collectors and found the list to be quite substantial. He copied it onto a flash drive and left as quietly as he had arrived.

When he got back to Fayetteville, he sat down with Jules and explained his plan to her.

He was a bit surprised that she didn’t try and talk him out of it. In fact, it was quite the opposite. All she said was “How can I help?”

They took the long list Eldon had compiled and mapped out the locations of each of the individuals in question. They used Google Maps to scope out the houses and the neighbourhoods they were in. Many of them were upscale areas in the suburbs of some of the smaller cities in North and South Carolina. 

As Jules dug deeper into the profiles of the owners of the houses, one name jumped out at them. The name was Orville Timms. He was wealthy but wheelchair-bound. He lived in the suburbs of Columbia, South Carolina and had one of the largest collections of assault rifles in the continental US. He was a former army sniper who had been seriously injured in a helicopter crash in Vietnam, where he fought. He was honourably discharged and sent home after his recovery. His family helped him until he got the feel of things in his new life, then he moved into a large ranch-style house, that was specially modified to suit his needs. He despised the idea of anyone helping him and had learned to master driving a specially equipped Dodge cargo van so he could do all his own shopping and travel to wherever he wanted to go without any assistance.

He was close to eighty years old but still had his wits about him. He also had a special holder built for his power chair that allowed him to carry an H&K 38 pistol. 

Although Eldon and Jules didn’t know it at the time, Timms left the rear door to his house unlocked, in the event that he should run into trouble and someone needed to get into the house.

Three nights later, with the GPS disabled in Juliet’s Mercedes, they arrived in Columbia. Eldon put on a pair of surgical gloves and a ski mask and ran up the driveway of the house, into the carport and around the back of the house. He walked quietly and carefully in the half-light of the moon. The house was completely dark. He was prepared to cut out a piece of door glass to unlock the house and enter. Almost instinctively, he tried the back door and, much to his surprise, it opened. 

He stepped into what he was saw was the kitchen. He listened carefully but heard no alarm sound. He got out his penlight and started moving through the house. 

From the kitchen,  he moved quietly through a large living room with a massive TV that dominated one end. He continued down the hallway to the far end. There he saw the hospital bed and power chair right beside it. In the bed was a sleeping Orville Timms.

Eldon approached the bed and noticed the holster and the .38 tucked into it at the side of the chair. Quietly, he withdrew the pistol and snatched the cell phone off the bedside table behind the chair. He then walked back to the gun room, which was really two rooms with the dividing wall removed.

There was a long, low worktable in the centre of the room.  All along the interior wall was the largest gun rack he had ever seen outside of a gun shop. Below the mounted guns was a cabinet filled with various boxes of ammunition. 

Because Eldon had done his research, he knew exactly which gun to take and which ammunition went with it. The Barrett MRAD was the gun. It was mounted with the scope and suppressor already in place. He slid the glass door on the cabinet and took two boxes of .338 Lapua loads and two cartridges, which he tucked into his shoulder bag. He took the gun from its rack on the wall and turned to leave the room. 

Much to his shock and surprise, Orville Timms was sitting in the doorway to the large room, holding a 38., identical to the one Eldon had taken from the holster on his chair. 

“That’s a pretty powerful rifle you got there.” Orville said. “You planning to kill someone important?”

“Yes sir, I am.”

“Republican or Democrat?”

“Republican.”

“OK. I can live with that. Those fuckers have caused just about every war we’ve been in, including the one that put me in this fuckin chair.”

“I figured you’d report it stolen, and that would get you off the hook.”

Timms just laughed. 

“You leave that gun right where you use it. If you’re planning to kill who I think you’re planning to kill, last thing you want is to be caught with the weapon. I’ll get it back sooner or later.”

“So you’re OK with this?”

“Hell, son. Every day I’m seeing the mess that bastard is making. I’d do it myself if I could.”

Timms then took a look at the ammo that Eldon had taken and straightened him out on that. He wheeled over and got out three boxes. One contained sixty steel-tipped Lapua loads. The other box of ten Mercury-tipped loads and explained the difference between them. He also wheeled over and pulled out a cleaning kit and gave it to Eldon, explaining just how to use it.

Now get your ass out of here and God speed.” Timms said.

“You’re a good man, sir.”  Eldon said as he walked by.

“Tell that to my kids. Maybe they’d come visit more often.”

Eldon went out the back door and down the driveway. He hid in the bushes and called Jules. She showed up two minutes later, backed the car up the driveway and popped open the trunk. Eldon wrapped the gun in a blanket and left his bag there too. He climbed into the passenger side.

“You’re not gonna believe what just happened.” Eldon said. And they drove off into the night.

What neither Eldon nor Jules realized was that there was a high-resolution camera mounted in the arch of the garage that was wirelessly linked to Timms’ laptop. It snapped a shot of the driveway every five seconds all through the night and clearly captured the licence plate of Jules’s car. 

The next morning after having a couple cups of coffee and watching the news, Timms opened his computer and made a pic of the licence plate. He then picked up the phone and and dialed a familiar number. A man’s voice answered.

“Something interesting is going on.” Timms said. “A young fella broke into my house last night and took the Barrett. He’s got some big plans, something we’ve talked a lot about ourselves. I get the feeling he’s well-intentioned but in a little over his head. He could maybe use some help. I’m texting you the plate number.”

“Okay, Orv. I’ll free up some time to look into it.”

“Much appreciated. Don’t want him fuckin’ up due to inexperience or lack of skill.”

“Roger that. I’ll wait for the text.”

~ 5 ~

The man Timms had called was Jason Wainwright. He was a about fifteen years older bit older than Eldon, but like Eldon, he was an ex-Marine, an elite sniper who had worked mainly with a small group of clandestine contractors in Africa, killing Russians and Chinese movers and shakers, and some native African oligarchs, as both countries tried to get a foothold on that continent. He did two tours in the Marines and then went freelance for the next five years. He travelled further afield and made a hell of a lot more money with his skills. 

Jason had met Orville Timms at a gun show in Columbia and despite the almost two generations between them, the two men hit it off and, over the course of the next year, became good friends, Jason became Orville’s go-to guy if anything should ever go sideways in his life. They also shared a common passion for guns and a common hatred of the current president, enough to want him out of the picture. Not because they were dyed-in-the-wool Democrats, but because the man in power was batshit crazy and had no concept of what America was really all about. 

Jason had all the qualifications to do the job of getting rid of the president, but he knew he would be at or near the top of the FBI persons of interest list. So instead, he put himself out there as a trainer and instructor, taking care to make it sound fairly innocuous. He had met and thought about training several different people. But he either didn’t believe they were serious or they were just plain assholes who could afford a big gun. But this referral was from a trusted source and he took it seriously enough to make the trip up to Fayetteville.

~ 6 ~

The next phase of Eldon’s operation was finding a place where he could get a real feel for the gun, and get some idea of how far away from the target he could be to make an accurate hit.

When they got back home to Fayetteville, it was late morning, and they were both pooped. So they backed the car into the garage and locked it. They went to bed and slept for the better part of the day. 

Jules had gotten up before Eldon and put a pot of coffee on and then got on her computer. She had an idea that just might work. She looked up farm properties for sale or lease and came up with three prospects, none of which were more than a half hour's drive from Fayetteville. When Eldon came down, he poured a coffee and sat down with Jules who was doing this search on her laptop. 

“There are three farms for lease or sale.” Jules said. We can go and check them out tomorrow and see which one would be the best for you to practice.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Eldon said and took a sip of his coffee.

Eldon went out to the car and brought in the gun and his bag. He set the gun down on a coffee table in the TV room, then started emptying his bag. Jules came over and sat down beside him.

 “Mr Timms gave me two different sets of rounds. Steel tips for practice and Mercury tips for the project.” Eldon said.

“What’s the difference?” Jules asked.

“I looked it up before we went to bed this morning. The steel tips, depending on where you hit the body, can go right through and if you’re real lucky, you might survive. But the mercury tips, they mushroom out and if they hit a bone or the spine they basically explode. You don’t walk away from one of those hits. A centre mass hit will blow your lungs and your heart apart and disintegrate your spinal column, and you’re a total goner.”

“What about distance?”

“That’s why I wanted the Barrett. I read that it’s accurate ` up to 1600 yards or so. Of course, the closer you are the better your chances of an accurate hit.”

“But the closer you are, the better your chances of getting caught too.” Jules said.

“Yeah, well, that’s why I want to get real good with the gun. I want to be able to take the shot, watch him fall and then head back to the car and get the hell out of there as fast as possible. The gun’s not comin’ back with me. That was Mr. Timms’s advice. He said he’d get it back sooner or later. He’s probably already reported it stolen. The main thing we have to do now is just carry on business as usual. When we talk to whatever agent we get, we just tell’em we’re looking for a place in the country.”

After he had his coffee, Eldon went into the TV room. He reassembled the gun and laid it out on the coffee table in the den. He loaded the two cartridge casings with 5 each of the Lapua steel tips. It was a little more difficult than he thought, but he wrote that off to being a novice. He jacked in the cartridge and stood up with the gun, taking aim at the TV screen across the room. The gun was heavy and felt solid. But it was also well-balanced and surprisingly comfortable to hold. But he would be would shooting from a position where the gun could be in the crook of a tree, or on its fold-out legs on a rock or elevation of some sort.

Eldon thought a lot about what he was getting himself into doing this. But he found that it didn’t really bother him. Mr. Timms never really saw his face because he kept his mask on. The only other person in the world who knew what was going on was Jules and since they were married, there was no way she could be made to testify against him on the off chance he should be found out. 

These thoughts rattled around in his head, but he mainly wrote it off to a natural nervousness that accompanied what he was getting ready to do. There was never any real doubt that he would do, or at least attempt to do, the kill. It was something that had to be done. The infection this man was already causing in his county was being felt everywhere. He made no attempt to soften the blows either. He was an evil, vicious man, the worst possible human being for the job of running any free country. Sooner rather than later, Eldon believed, everyone in the country, outside of the greedy bastards who were encouraging him to bankrupt as much of the country as possible, so they could buy it all up for pennies on the dollar and add to their wealth, would hate him. His death, hopefully, would serve as a warning for anyone else who might want to pull the same kind of shit, because at the end of the day, they were all cowards and parasites. 

If the situation continued to decline, his country would become nothing more than a third-world failure. He didn’t want to see that happen. He was proud of his country, at least he was until it made the biggest mistake in its history. The only way to, hopefully, salvage things, he believed, was to eradicate the virus at the source.

~ 7 ~

Two days later, Jules and Eldon visited a 450-acre farm that was used primarily for growing peaches and apples. What sold them on it was that it was a long and relatively straight, single vehicle wide strip of dirt trail bordered that ran right up the middle of the orchard. It ran the entire length of the property and looked to be invisible from the country road on which it was located. The farmhouse was in very nice condition and completely furnished. 

The owner, a man named Carl Gilligan, had run the fruit business all his adult life. But he had passed away and his wife, Amelia, had already moved down to Tampa where the family had a vacation home. The agent they dealt with told them this would be an ideal location for a country getaway and that if they wanted, they would have no trouble in making a deal with one of the neighbouring farmers to take care of peaches and apples, and that revenue would more than cover  property taxes and the upkeep.

Eldon walked off the hidden roadway, that ran right up the centre of the orchard and was a little more than 2000 paces until it hit the woods that bordered the property. He reckoned this would easily be 1500 yards.

He walked through the dense forest at the far end of the road, which was about fifty yards deep and opened on the other side to the large meadow of the neighbouring farm.

“This is perfect.” Eldon said when he came back.

“And it’s very well concealed. I walked out to the county road while you were walking the dirt track and never saw you once.” Jules said in a low voice. The agent was in her car on the phone. Jules was sitting on the porch steps. “And the house is pretty nice. I also looked in the barn while you were pacing off the road and found a small tractor with a trailer and a whole lot of empty wooden boxes.” 

 “Yeah, well is is a fruit farm. I’d be worried if there weren’t any boxes.”

“I really like it here. Maybe instead of leasing it, we could just, you know, buy it and live here.” Jules said.

The agent, Theresa Driscoll, got out of her car and walked over to them. 

“I know this is a lease property but I was wondering how much they would be asking to sell.” Jules said

“Two million two.” Driscoll said. 

“How much will they take in cash right now?” Jules asked.

“Probably two million.” Driscoll replied.

“Is there Internet?”

“Yes. It’s satellite but it’s pretty reliable.”

“Call her and tell her two million cash.” Jules said.

Driscoll smiled and pulled her phone out of her pocket. 

An hour later, they were sitting in Driscoll’s office in Fayetteville. 

They were all signed up. Jules gave her a check. And hour later, after the check had cleared they came back. Driscoll handed Jules the keys, the deed, and a sheet of paper with all the utility numbers. They shook hands and that was that. 

They had lunch downtown and then drove home. Eldon took his car and headed out to rent a van while Jules piled up all the stuff they wanted to take with them in the front room. 

Half an hour later, Eldon came back with a mid-sized panel van and a pile of boxes he got at the car rental place. They loaded it up with all the stuff they wanted to take, including Jules’s computers and most of their clothes, plus all the food they had in the house, which they put in the back seat and the trunk of Jules’ car. Then Jules left.

On the way out of town, Eldon stopped by the hardware store and talked to Hollis. Hollis told him that business had slowed a bit but that they were still doing OK. They talked for a little while. Eldon told him where exactly he could be found and took off heading west.

He arrived at the farm in time to see that Jules had already emptied her car. Together, they emptied the boxes from the van and Jules set about finding places for everything in the huge country kitchen and the rest of the house while Eldon drove off to a farm supply store and purchased eight hay bales, which is all that would fit in the van.

That night, they were too tired to cook dinner so they just made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and sat on the porch watching the sun go down.

“Well, that didn’t take very long at all.” Eldon said.

“I like it here. Look at that sunset over the field. It’s like…heaven.” Jules said.

They spent the better part of the next day, getting everything organized, arranging to get their hydro and electricity hooked up and setting up Jules’ computers. Later that day, Eldon moved the hay into the small barn and returned the van to the rental place and, in his own car, drove back to the farm.

~ 8 ~

Jason Wainwright got Jules’s address from a friend in the North Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles. Once he had the name and location, he packed a bag and some other stuff and headed to Fayetteville. He checked into a Holiday Inn on South Raeford Road. The next day, he drove to the address he had found for Juliet Jarrett. 

There appeared to be a lot of activity going on. A young couple, whom he assumed were Juliet and Eldon, were going in and out of the house with boxes and armfuls of clothing.

Jason waited until they were done and had closed up the house. Juliet got into the Mercedes sedan. Eldon got into the panel van. They took off in different directions. He decided to follow Eldon, who only made one stop at a hardware store in town. He came outside with another guy. The two men talked for a while and shook hands and then Eldon got into the van headed out of town in the same direction the girl in the Mercedes had gone.

He followed the van west out of Fayetteville. Half an hour later, it turned into a stone driveway and pulled up in front of a mid-sized farmhouse in the middle of a pretty substantial orchard. He parked at the side of the road and got out his binoculars. It didn’t take him very long to figure out that the couple were moving into this house. So he opened the Google Maps app on his phone, dropped a pin at the location of the house and took off back into town.

The hardware store was close to closing up when Wainwright walked in and saw Hollis Creighton standing behind the counter, talking to a customer. So he fiddled around looking at some power tools until Creighton was free. Then he walked over to the counter.

“Hi…” He looked at Hollis’s name tag. “Hollis is it?”

“Yes sir. What can I do for you?”

“Jason Wainwright. Just looking at houses in the area. Umm, I was driving by a couple hours ago and I saw
you out front with another guy. He looked really familiar. He wasn’t by any chance in the armed forces overseas.”

“As a matter of fact he was. His name is Eldon Jarrett. His family actually owns this store and five others like it.”

“I thought he looked familiar. We were in different units…but I’m sure we’ve had a beer or two. Does he still live in town?”

“As a matter of fact, he just came by to tell me that he and his wife Juliet, had bought a house in country, about half an hour out.”

“So he’s married?”

“Yeah, happened pretty quickly after he got back a few months ago. Jules comes from a very wealthy family. So I guess you could say he lucked out twice.”

“OK. Well, if you see him, mention my name…Jason Wainwright, Lieutenant.”

“Will do. We talk at least a couple times a week.”

Thanks, Hollis. I love this store, by the way. I’ll be back once I buy something.”

“Good to meet you, Jason.”

Wainwright turned and left the store with some information he didn’t have before he entered. He believed it was always good to know all the players in any given game.

~ 9 ~

Later the following morning, Jason Wainwright drove out to Jules’s and Eldon’s farmhouse. They were sitting on the front porch drinking coffee. Jules was doing something on her laptop.

Jason got out of his car and walked over to the porch. 

“Eldon Jarrett?” Jason asked.

“Yes sir, and who might you be?”

“Jason Wainwright. I’m a good friend of Orville Timms.”

“Oh yeah? How is Orville?” Jason asked. But in the back of his mind he was freaked out and thinking…what the hell is going on?

“He’s doin’ just fine.” Jason said. “He sends his regards and he also sent me along to do a little work with you.”

“A little work?”

“Yeah.” He climbed up onto the porch and perched on the railing Then he took out his cell phone. He dialled a number, then put his phone on speaker as it rang. On the third ring Orville picked up. “Jason, what’s happening?” 

“Orville, I’m here with your young friend, Eldon. I think maybe you two should have a brief chat.”

“So his name is Eldon. Alright, put him on.” 

Wainwright switched off the speaker and handed the phone to Eldon.

“Mr Timms.” Eldon said.

“Hello Eldon. My friend Jason here is going to help you out with your shooting. He’s handled a lot of big guns like  the one you have. He’ll turn you into an expert in no time.”

“Who is Jason to you, sir?”

“Just a good friend. We share the same concern you do. Jason’s killed a lot of people with big guns. He’ll give you some pointers you won’t regret.”

“OK, well thank you, sir.”

“Just listen to Jason, son. He’s a good man and you can learn all you need to know from him.”

Eldon handed the phone back to Jason. He listened privately for a moment then said, “OK, Orville. You take care now.” And he disconnected.

Eldon got to his feet and shook hands with Jason. “This is my wife, Jules.”

“Ma’am. Pleased to meet you.” Jason said.

Jules just smiled. “What a strange world this is.”

“Well, you can never be too prepared if you’re going after  big game.” Jason said.

“Can I get you some coffee?” Eldon asked. 

“That would be great. A little milk and no sugar.”

Eldon went into the house. Jason stayed perched on the railing.

“So what do you think of your husband’s mission, Jules?”

“I bought this farm so he could practice in private. That should tell you just about everything.” Jules said. “I’m wondering, though. How did you get to be someone with enough skill to train a sniper?”

“You can thank Uncle Sam for that. Eight years in Special Forces and five years freelancing. One hellhole after the other. I’d do this job myself, except, well, I’d be one of the first people they would look at. Your husband has a really good chance of getting away clean because he has no history as a sniper. The Feebs will chase their tails for six months, interrogate anyone who’s ever even looked sideways at a big gun, and then some other bullshit will come along to take its place.”

Eldon came out with a mug of coffee and handed it to Jason.

“Special Forces?” Eldon said. “Guys I was with thought they were the scariest group goin’.”

“We had our moments.” Jason said. Then he looked around. “I see you have a dirt road up the centre the orchards.”

“Yeah, and it’s pretty damn straight too. I reckon it’s between fifteen and sixteen hundred yards.”

“With the gun you have, you want to be no more than 1200 yards for maximum accuracy. Beyond that, the bullet loses altitude pretty quickly. The big advantage you have going for you is that this asshole thinks everybody loves him. So he’ll have minimal protection to maybe a couple hundred yards out. And he’s a golfer and tennis player, which makes him kind of a sitting duck. Couple that with the fact that you’re leavin’ the weapon at the shooting site, that pretty much triples your chances of getting away clean. But we’ll get into the logistics later.” Jason said. “As soon as you’re ready to start, we’ll work on your shooting skills.

“Well, we’re all settled in here. So why don’t we have a little lunch and then get it done.” Eldon said.

~ 10 ~

The first thing that Eldon and Jason Wainwright did was head out to the track that ran up the centre of the orchard. 

Jason drove a stake he had with him into the center of the track and, using a digital counter, began to pace down its length carrying a second stake and a hammer. Eldon walked along with him.

He stopped when he got to around 1100 yards. 

“You don’t want to be any further out than this.” Jason said. “Because the bullet will drop and depending on a number of climate factors, especially wind and humidity, anywhere from twelve to eighteen inches over the next few hundred yards or more. But eleven hundred and closer you’re in good shape. Ideally, of course, you’d like to be as close as possible.”

He handed the device to Eldon. 

“If you look through it and point it at the stake I drove, you’ll get an exact reading for distance. Orville would have given you one if you hadn’t woke him up in the middle of the night and he’d had his wits about him.”

They started to walk back. “I’ve brought some silhouette targets for us to use. I’ve mounted them on a thicker stock so they won’t blow away when the bullets connect with them.

As they walked back to Jason’s car, they chatted about the whole idea of actually killing a high-profile figure. Jason was feeling Eldon out to see just how serious he was, because he was not prepared to waste time on anybody who wasn’t all in.

“I know you’re probably wondering what my real motive is in doing this.” Eldon said.

“You’re right about that.” Jason replied

“I spent four years watching the Afghan people just trying to survive and have a normal life with the Taliban nippin’ at their heels and making their lives a living hell. I can see a lot of what happened over there happening here. People say that kind of thing can’t happen here. We’re this heavy-duty democracy and freedom is everything. But I’ll tell you, there isn’t a country on this planet that’s not capable of bein’ turned into a dictatorship, with the right set of assholes in power. I think this is what we have happening now. And so far, people’ve been just sittin’ back and takin’ it. 

“I’m not one of those people, Jason. I joined the Marines because I was a fighter and the fuckin’ fight’s not over. I might have married a girl who has a ton of money. But I’ve got a family business and a bunch of people working in it that I care about. And if the people who run this country do anything to fuck that up, I’ll kill as many of them as I have to till it gets unfucked.”

Jason said nothing until they got back to his car. He leaned on the hood and lit a cigarette.

“You’re a pretty intense fellow, Eldon.”

“Yes sir, I am.”

“Good. You’ll need as much of that intensity as you can muster.”

“Just make me a shooter, Jason. I’ll take care of the rest.”

“Yeah, I’m pretty fuckin’ sure you will.”

After they had set up three sets of targets fastened to stakes driven into the ground at 1000 yards, Eldon and Jason  loaded up the eight haystacks onto the tractor’s trailer, set them up behind the targets and drove stakes in behind them to keep them fairly steady when the bullets hit them. 

Then they went back to their zero. They got three wooden fruit crates from the barn and stacked them up on top of each other. They were about eight or nine inches below Eldon’s shoulder height.

Jason, who was a bit taller than Eldon, took the gun. “Watch what I’m doin’, Eldon.” He pulled down the two feet attached to the barrel of the rifle and rested them on top of the boxes. He then spread his feet apart and flexed his knees slightly until his the gun was pointed at the target 1000 yards down the dirt road. The targets were silhouettes of the upper torso and head.

“You wanna be very relaxed and comfortable with the gun. You also need to find a low branch where you can rest it. That’s essential.” Jason said. “That will also help relax you because the branch will take most of the weight of the gun. The real key is relaxation. If you’re tense, you’re likely to jerk the gun when you pull the trigger and you would probably miss altogether. You don’t have that luxury in this situation.

“If you’re comfortable and sure of your sighting, all you have to do relax your body, keep breathing and squeeze the trigger very slowly. The gun will do the rest of the work and the bullet will be gone before your body has any chance to react. You got that?”

Eldon nodded. 

“Okay.” Jason said. “Come on and take the gun. The first time you pull the trigger, it’s gonna be a jolt. That’s why you’ve gotta practice. The more you shoot, the more control you get, the less jarring your shots are gonna feel. You want to get that down to zero.”

Eldon took the gun and emulated Jason’s stance.

“Good.” Jason said. “Now relax those legs and take a deep breath and let it out slowly as you gently squeeze the trigger. Aim for the center mass circle”

Eldon did exactly as Jason had instructed. Jason was sighting with the distancing scope. The shot came out of the gun and blew Eldon back. But because his legs were relaxed he managed to keep his balance. The bullet hit the target about half an inch under the top of the head.

“Holy shit. She really kicks.” Eldon said. “How’d I do?

“You missed on the high side. That’s to be expected, because there’s a natural tendency to lean into the shot. That will disappear the more rounds you shoot off. If it’s any consolation, that was not a terrible first try. At least you hit the silhouette.…just barely.”

Eldon looked into the scope and saw that the shot went through the target a good foot higher than where he was aiming.

“With a mercury-tipped round that one, would have blown his head clean off.” Jason said. “You just keep aiming for the center mass circle. The next shot will be easier because now your brain knows what to expect. The key to the whole thing is calm, slow movement. You don’t ‘pull’ the trigger, you just gently ‘squeeze’ it.

They spent the next half hour with Eldon shooting and Jason analyzing and providing instruction all along the way. By the time they were done. Eldon had shot more than fifty rounds, and was capable of emptying an entire 5-shot cartridge into an area pretty much the size of a silver dollar, centre mass inside the chest circle.

“That’s about it. You just come out here every day and shoot off ten or fifteen rounds and Bob’s your uncle.” Jason said. “Your Marine weapons training had a lot to do with how quickly you were able to adjust to the bigger gun.”

Fifteen minutes later, they had taken down the blown-up targets and Jason tossed them into the trunk of his car. He gave Eldon the rest of the targets. 

“Don’t get a swelled head over this.” Jason said. “But I think you’re pretty much a natural.” 

Eldon offered Jason another coffee for the road which he accepted. A few minutes later, they were sitting on the porch. Jules was inside playing the market.

For the next fifteen minutes, Eldon and Jason Wainwright sat on the front porch. Then Jason reached down and handed Eldon a small black bag. In it were a couple more boxes of cartridges half a dozen light blue wiping cloths, and three pairs of surgical gloves

“Before you head out.” Jason said.” You need to take the gun apart and with the surgical gloves on, wipe down every piece of it with one of the cloths. After that you only handle the gun and the ammo wearing the gloves. The people investigating the kill will be taking it apart and looking for any traces of DNA. These cloths and the gloves will keep them from finding anything that could lead them to you. Being thorough and super careful is the key to maintaining your invisibility.”

Jason finished his coffee, got to his feet and shook hands with Eldon.

“Thanks for this lesson, Jason.” Eldon said. “Listen, can we do anything for you? I mean, this was a valuable education. Can we at least take you out for a great dinner.”

Jason just smiled. “I think it’s better, in the long run,  if we are never seen with each other. The FBI is really good at putting two and two together. Right now, they have zeros. We need to keep it right there. Just complete the mission. That’s the best thing you can do for me and Orville and everybody else in this country for that matter, though half of them will never admit it.”

“Don’t forget to pick up your brass and bring them and the cartridge with you before you scoot off and get rid of everything as effectively as you can.”

Jason and Eldon shook hands and Jason nodded politely to Jules, who was now standing on the porch. “Eldon, Missus. Good to meet you both.” 

Jules just smiled.

“Give my best to Orville.” Eldon said.

Jason nodded ,then he got into his car and was gone. 

“That didn’t take very long.” Jules said, as Eldon climbed up the porch steps and joined her there.

“No. I surprised myself at how quickly I got used to the  gun.” He took a deep breath and took hold of Jules’ hand.

“Now the tricky part starts.” Eldon said.

~ 11 ~ 

For the next few days, they watched as much of the news as they could stand. It seemed like every day was some kind of Christmas in hell as the Executive Orders came fast and furious. Bit by bit, the country was being eroded and its people weakened and sickened. 

The people who were hit the hardest right away were all the fruit and crop farmers in Texas, Florida and California who relied heavily on migrant labour to pick the fruit and vegetables they grew. 

With ICE agents camped out at the front gates of many of the larger farms, the number of workers who showed up to do the harvesting dwindled to a small fraction of the people who were needed. The hardship this imposed on these farmers was astronomical and it was only a matter of time before this would manifest itself in scarcity and equally astronomical price increases for fruits and vegetables. This was not governing. This was racist stupidity run amok. 

During the following week, Eldon practiced methodically until he was out of ammo and he deemed himself good to go. 

In preparation for the trip, Jules had gone into town and purchased a used MacBook for cash. She told Dave Robbins, the store owner, that she wanted to have a small Mac to use as a journal on their travels. A used one would be just fine. Dave knew she worked on big machinery and totally understood. 

In the meantime, Jules got busy on the little computer figuring out a way to hack into the White House server. Once she had the methodology, she and Eldon made a five-hour Sunday drive down to Atlanta. Late in the afternoon they got to a Starbucks in Marietta Georgia, just outside Atlanta. Jules had totally emptied out the Mac and registered it under under a fake name. Using the Starbucks server, she hacked into the White House. She very quickly found the scheduling office, and downloaded the President’s schedule onto her hard drive.

“You know,” Jules said, “It’s amazing just how easy that was to do. It’s like these people have no real clue about cyber security.’

“No, Jules, you’re just really good at this stuff. You’d make a great cybersleuth.” Eldon said.

They thought about staying in the Atlanta area overnight but the weather was extremely hot and humid so with a couple of Arby’s sandwiches and Cokes, which they paid for in cash, they took turns driving and made it back home by close to midnight.

They now had almost everything they needed to do this job. The only thing they didn’t have, but soon would, was the ideal opportunity.

~ 12 ~ 

Their target was well known, an ex-TV celebrity and very big in commercial real estate. He had come from wealth and had managed to build and destroy several smaller empires. When he got into politics, enough of the American voting public saw him as an alternative to the typical political animal that almost every other president had been. He has cemented this reputation in their minds by countless appearances on TV talk shows. He was very much of the belief that people would vote for him because he was not a politician, very well known and considered to be, at least from the way he talked, one of the richest and most successful people in the country.

What these people, very few of whom were well-educated or particularly bright, really liked about him was that he carried the same prejudices they did. He hated the massive job stealing influx of refugees that flooded the country from the various turmoils in South America, Central America and the Caribbean even though that was completely false. He also preached that he would reinstate the country’s white Christian heritage, despite the fact that he had never set foot in a church of any kind until he announced he was running for President. He believed that women and no business in politics or anywhere else except the home making babies and that trans-gender people had no place in American society, especially the military. He openly ridiculed the whole climate change issue, including alternative energy, which he believed was nothing but bullshit. He was definitely a throwback to an era that had long since passed in America. He wore his bigotry corruption on his sleeve for all to see. He believed that the office of President gave him permission to behave any way he liked, and the Republican party that put him in power did not offer a single solitary objection to anything he wanted to do, no matter how outrageous, costly and harmful to America’s image and stature in the world, that might have been. 

In short, he gave pissed-off, mainly underachieving Americans a bully pulpit they had never had before and their faith in him was deeper than mere voter preference or party politics. It was hero worship and he sucked it all up and kept stoking the anarchistic flames until there were enough rubes in his flock to get him elected, after which, of course, he completely abandoned them. Had no intention of fulfilling whatever hopes and dreams they may have had. In fact, he wanted nothing from them but their shared hate in return for being their vox populaire.

His real agenda was to wreck the country so that the billionaires who supported him could sweep in and buy up everything they could find at pennies in the dollar.

This was the single largest con that had ever been played on the American public and it demonstrated, in spades, just how much pure ignorance there was in that country.

In the beginning, meaning his first term in office, he promised the moon and delivered virtually nothing outside of massive tax cuts for the rich. He also mismanaged the Covid pandemic which took close to a million lives and directly or indirectly affected the lives of at least five times that many people.

Most of what he did during his term in office was play golf at one of the several clubs he owned and host political events at his southern mansion. He was, in fact, the most useless president the country had ever had. So after one term, he was replaced by the former Democratic Vice-President, who through whatever alchemy brilliant politicians possessed, managed to slow the Covid crisis to a crawl, bring the economy of the country back to levels it had not seen in quite some time and enhance America’s damaged reputation around the world. At the same time, this administration began to develop America’s AI capability, institute massive road and bridge improvement projects, and make substantial moves to create a much greener economy to keep up with some of the more progressive countries of the world.

But the Democratic president, who was in his late seventies, made a fatal error by failing to groom and promote a successor, his vice-president, in enough time for that person to really impress the American people and get them on her side. His pulling out of his re-election bid, with only three months left before the election, proved to be a fatal faux pas. It allowed the former Republican President to worm his way back into office with the help of a few of his billionaire cronies.

What happened after that was the beginning of a true American tragedy. Because the new president immediately set about to undo, quite literally, everything the previous administration had done. 

And that is exactly when Eldon Jarrett, who had been paying close attention, decided that enough was enough.

~ 13 ~

As it turned out, this president was not all that difficult to target. He had a very cavalier attitude toward security, mainly because part of his insanity was the egomania that allowed him to believe the whole country loved him, despite tons of evidence to the contrary. 

In the little bubble that surrounded him, he refused to let anything negative intrude. In fact, he actually had an assistant who would accompany him everywhere, sift through all the media flotsam and jetsam and read him all the positive stories that emanated mostly from the right and far right wing of the country, who were just dumb enough to consider him some kind of hero.

After studying the schedule that Jules had managed to hack from the White House, they had decided on two targets to examine. The first was a golf course in New Jersey, which he liked to play, mainly because it was not far from Washington and also because he owned it. The second was the tennis court at his home in the south.

 They arrived in New Jersey on the second day of their scouting mission. They drove around the chosen golf course several times. On the last trip around, Eldon got out and walked into the woods that bordered a couple of longer holes on the course. He found a tree where he could rest the rifle very close to the deep rough that bordered the fairway of a long hole that ran alongside the dense lines of evergreens next to the rough on the hole. He was virtually invisible through the trees and weed bushes, but he could clearly see a good three hundred yards in either direction, including the tee of one of the farther holes. This meant that if he could nail the target at the farthest tee he could see, anyone wanting to pursue him in a golf cart would have to go down the fairway a good distance to find an opening in the thick woods where he would set up. This would give him a fair amount of time to make it back to the car, providing he didn’t run into anyone along the way. But he couldn’t imagine that happening because the woods all around him were quite dense, and his arms were already covered with scratches and small cuts. 

He then called Jules and had her come and pick him up. The road that bordered the trees was not particularly busy, but there was enough traffic that the car could be noticed. Jules pulled over near the spot where she had let Eldon off. She was talking to him on the phone, so anyone driving by would not be able to see her face, and they would think she was just being careful and not talking and driving at the same time. When he was sure there were no vehicles coming either way, he very quickly he sprinted out of the woods.

“It looks pretty good, there’s an elevated tee just a few hundred yards from where I can set up and coming through the woods would be a total pain in the ass for anyone, as you can see from the scratches on  my arms.” He said as Jules pulled onto the roadway. “I know you won’t be pulled over for long. But everybody and their uncle’s got a camera these days. That could be a problem.”

“You know, I was thinking about that after I let you off. Maybe we could, you know, steal a licence plate.” Jules said. “There are a lot of cars like mine, especially around here.”

“That’s not a bad idea.” Eldon said and then he chuckled.“This is making a badass criminal out of you.”

“Anything for the cause.” Jules said as they hit the main highway. “So do you still want to go to Florida.” 

“Maybe.” Eldon replied. “Let’s go home first. I want to have another look at the maps online again. Something been bugging me and I can’t figure out what it is. But this location is a good one.”

They had dinner in Richmond, Virginia and stayed overnight in a motel near the Blue Star Highway. Then, next morning and loaded with coffees and bagels, they made the rest of the trip back home to Fayetteville.

Along the way, they talked about the recognition factor which seemed to be the only thing troubling them. After some discussion, they decided that they could simply steal a licence plate. That way, any smartass who decided to take a picture of their car, which would only be visible next to the golf course for a moment or two, would completely misdirect the police or anyone else looking for them. 

When they got home, Eldon had another closer look at the Google Maps image of the Florida compound. While he was was zooming in, he noticed the thing that he had not remembered on his first examination of the property, and that was a twenty foot high security tower which sat on the property line just adjacent to the tennis courts. 

Eldon took a deep breath. He turned to Jules and said. “I missed this altogether the first time I looked at the compound. because I was only looking at it from ground level. See that tower?”

“Yeah. It’s pretty high up.” Jules said. 

“And they’ll be able to see a long way. I don’t think we’d have a snowball’s chance in hell of making any kind of shot there. So it’s back to New Jersey. Which is fine with me, because I really like the setup there. I’ve seen video of him on YouTube. His protection crew rides around in golf buggies like him. He’ll probably have a pair riding with him and whoever he’s playing with.”

“It’s also gonna be a long run back here. Maybe we should be thinking about that too.” Jules said.

“I did think about that.”Eldon replied. “They’ll probably put up roadblocks in almost every direction.”

“So what did you conclude?”

Eldon showed her on the Google Earth map. “Maybe we don’t leave New Jersey right away. Instead of heading south north or west, which is what I think they would be expecting, we head toward the ocean. We can stay at one of the hotels along the shore. Check in a few days before we go to the golf course. Check out any security on the first day and make the hit on the second day. If it looks too dangerous, we back off, and figure out a new plan.” 

If it does work out, we can just drive back to the hotel and hang out for a couple of days, and watch the news, sit on the beach. If they’re looking for anything it will be a car like yours but with a different plate, and heading away from the golf course.”

Two days later they packed up. Eldon took the big gun apart, put it in a green garbage bag and hid it in a suitcase. Then they headed back headed back to New Jersey again. 

As they drove up through Virginia, Jules asked. “I thought we were gonna steal a plate.”

“Yeah, but not here.” Jason said. “We’ll do it when we get to New Jersey.”

It was high season along the New Jersey shore. But Jules got lucky and was able to book a suite for an entire week at a place called The Wave Resort, right on the ocean in Monmouth Beach about a half hour’s drive from the golf course where they would make their attempt. 

At the end of the day, they arrived and checked into The Wave Resort. Their suite was quite nice and overlooked the ocean and a long stretch of beach both north and south. 

At a Starbucks along the way north, Jules hacked into the President’s schedule again and found out that he was scheduled to play golf at his course in New Jersey on both the Sunday and Monday. They decided that Monday would be their target day, because that would give them the Sunday to check out his security and their perimeter patrol schedule. 

But first things first. That night they went out for a late dinner, then drove around the town of Monmouth Beach until they found what they were looking for out behind an auto repair shop that was closed for the evening. The shop, like most auto repair places, was on a grungy looking side street, so there was little to no traffic. There were several older cars sitting in the back waiting to have work done on them. There were about a dozen other cars sitting out front. 

Eldon got out of the car. He told Jules to drive around the block, while he went to check out the cars in the back. On the third one, he lucked out and found a licence plate on the rear of the car that was in pretty good shape considering the damage to the vehicle it was attached to. He got out his adjustable sprocket wrench, which he had bought online a while earlier, and after a bit of tugging got the bolts holding the plate to the car loosened. He shoved the plate into his bag and walked around to the front of the abandoned garage. About thirty seconds later, Jules pulled up and he got in.

“A New Jersey plate in not too bad condition.” Eldon said. “Good fortune is on our side, hun.”

“Let’s hope it stays that way.” Jules said as she drove them back to their hotel.

~  14 ~

They spent the next three days just hanging out. They slept late, watched as much news as they could take, fooled around a lot, ate in the best restaurants they could find and went for long walks on the beach where they talked about, among other things, having kids.

They both agreed that a lot was going to depend on how things went on Monday. Eldon remarked that he didn’t feel in the least worried about what he was going to do. 

“I have the feeling that people will be happy about this. I mean, everybody, even his supporters, ‘cause they know that he’s fucking evil.”

“Well, I guess we’re gonna find out.” Jules said, betraying a  it of nervousness.

“Yep. We sure as hell are.”

The time passed quickly and pretty soon it was Sunday. They spent most of the day doing their recon. The first thing they learned was that there was no security on the ground outside the golf course. But there was a black sedan that drove slowly down the side road every couple of hours. But it never stopped. 

On Monday morning, Eldon casually wheeled his suitcase to their car, which was parked in the basement of the hotel. He put it in the backseat of the car. He got in and pulled on his gloves.  A few minutes later, Jules came down and got into the car. She pulled it a little forward so that Eldon could switch the plates which he had wiped clean earlier that morning.  Once he had done that he got back into the backseat of the car and they took off and headed west. 

While they drove he opened the suitcase and started to put the rifle together. By the time they got to the entry point along Highway 18 he was ready. He pulled a mask over his face. They waited until there was no traffic coming either way. 

“I’ll call you when I’m done. I’ll be right here…just me and no gun.”

“OK. Be safe. I love you, El.” 

“Love you too, Jules.” 

‘Wait for me at the place on 34.”

Eldon jumped out of the car and ran into the woods. He was still wearing surgical gloves, which he had used to load the cartridges, wiping down each bullet before inserting it and then wiping down the cartridge casing before he snapped it into place, just in case he had to leave before he was done. 

He moved slowly and methodically to the spot he had picked two days before. He was wearing a long-sleeved dull green thick khaki shirt and black cargo pants. His face covering was also a dull green.

A few minutes later, he was in position. 

Being a Monday, there weren’t a lot of people on the course. Over the next hour, only a twosome and a threesome went by. 

Finally, after another thirty minutes. He spied his target on the green of the hole before the one he had chosen as his kill zone. 

The electric carts pulled up beside the tee. One man got out of each cart. Behind them, in another electric cart were two Secret Service people, who drove up the rough across the fairway about thirty yards or so.

As they walked to the tee, Eldon looked through the scope and realized the second man was the Vice President. There was a bit of rummaging around in their golf bags, standing at the rear of the carts. Both men took out cans of soda. 

Eldon didn’t have a shot just yet and wouldn’t until they both got up onto the slightly elevated tee.

He called Jules. “This will be over in a few minutes. Head to the pickup spot.

The better part of a minute later, the two men got up on the tee. The protection detail moved another twenty yards down the fairway. Eldon reckoned that sitting in the cart and looking in the general direction of the tee, their view of the muzzle flashes from the gun would be almost zero if they happened to look that way, because of the denseness of the evergreens running down the rough and the fact that he was using a suppressor. The two men on the tee stood talking. The President was explaining something to the Vice President who was nodding. Both men were looking down the fairway so they were, more or less, facing Eldon.

Eldon aimed the rifle squarely at the President’s chest. Then he relaxed his body and gently squeezed the trigger. As soon as he felt the bullet explode out of the rifle, he shifted a few degrees and fired another shot. This one hit the Vice President a few inches lower, but it was just as effective.

 As soon as both men hit the ground, Eldon got out the wiping cloth and wiped down the eyepiece of the site and the hilt of the gun. Then he ejected the clip, stood the gun up against the tree he was using, and picked up his brass, jamming it all in his shoulder bag. He then walked briskly back the way he had come.

He made his way through the woods and hid behind a largest tree at the roadside. He had taken off his mask and his gloves. 

About thirty seconds later, Jules pulled up. Eldon was standing in the trees, He waited until there was no traffic coming either way, then climbed into the car. It took off and drove down to Colt’s Neck Road and turned right. As they were driving, with a couple of cars behind them, they saw the black sedan speeding in the opposite direction. A mile or so later they turned left and continued on into the town of Freehold. 

They stopped at the Dairy Queen. Jules went in and got them a couple of Blizzards, while Eldon moved the suitcase into the trunk and quickly switched back the plates. He took off the long-sleeved top he was wearing and shoved it in the suitcase and put on a short-sleeved LaCoste shirt. He wiped down the licence plate just as Jason had showed him, and stuffed it into the garbage bag along with the cartridge, three remaining bullets and the two spent shells, all of which were clean.

Still wearing one glove, he then took the bag over to the large trash container at the side of the DQ and stuffed it in making sure to cover it thoroughly.

No one saw him do this. He walked casually back to the car, slipping off the rubber glove and putting into his pocket. A few seconds later. Jules came out of the DQ and handed him a small Blizzard. They then walked over to the car and leaned on the hood while they ate their frozen treats. 

“So, you got a twofer.” Jules said. 

“Yeah. How about that.” 

“And I think we got away clean.” Jules said.

“Looks that way.”

When they finished their Blizzards, they got back in the car and headed east. On the way, Eldon cut up the face mask into small pieces and did the same with the rubber gloves. He then opened the window and, tossed everything out piece by piece as the car drove along, heading back toward Monmouth Beach.

When Eldon closed the window, he breathed a substantial sigh of relief. Suddenly, life was back to whatever passed for normal.

“So what are we gonna do now?” Jules asked.

Eldon chuckled. “I don’t rightly know, darlin’? We’ll watch the news for a while. See if I fucked up in any way.”

“Yeah, I guess we should.”

“Be interesting to see how the country reacts.”

“Yeah. But let’s be honest. The damage he did is gonna take a while to repair.”

“You’re right. But you gotta start somewhere.”

“Can’t argue with that.”

They avoided the main roads all the way to the coast. When they got into their room, they turned on the TV. The news of the assassinations was everywhere. 

The Secret Service and the FBI were out in force, The murder weapon was found in the woods some 320 yards from the bodies of the President and Vice-President. 

The gun matched the description of one that a retired US Marine collector in South Carolina had reported stolen a few weeks before the shooting. The gun was sent to the FBI lab in Washington for analysis.

In a news interview, the FBI agent, a man named Hollis Keene from Atlanta, in charge of the investigation, was quick to point out that they were pursuing several investigative options, “This was, in our opinion, definitely the work of a military professional, and in the US there are only a few hundred people in the country with the expertise to handle a gun like this, then get away as cleanly as this killer appears to have done. We will be interviewing anyone with the experience level it would take to execute an assassination of this kind.

Eldon shut off the TV. “They don’t have a clue.” he said.

“No they really don’t.” Jules replied. “So let’s just finish out our week here and head home.”

“Best idea I’ve heard all day.”

~ 15 ~

Eldon and Jules spent the next three days watching the news, finding good restaurants and taking long walks on the beach. They kept pretty much to themselves, which is how they liked it. 

There was a giant manhunt on for the assassins of the president and the vice president. All the opinionated people with any sort of TVQ were pontificating night and day about the formerly alive president’s disdain for personal security, even though he was quite literally despised by billions the world over.

As they got onto the 95 to head home at the end of their week, they were tanned and relaxed. They never discussed anything about what they had done, and were both surprised at how quickly the memory had faded. The only police checkpoint they encountered was just north of Trenton, which slowed the traffic to a crawl for a good thirty minutes. 

They answered all the questions the highway patrolman put to them, and from the look of the car, which was a good $220,000 worth of German engineering, their clothing and appearance, and the casualness of their responses they were quickly waved through and had the road pretty much to themselves until the first onramp in Trenton. 

As soon as they joined the southbound procession, they both breathed a huge sigh of relief.

“Well, it looks like the cops have a mystery on their hands.” Eldon said.

“Looks that way.” Jules replied, as they drove on through Philadelphia and Washington, across the Potomac and down to Richmond, where they decided to spend the night. 

They found a nice motel and then cruised up and down the main street and finally settled on a place called Rudy’s Ribs and had some of the best barbecue they had ever tasted. 

The next morning, after breakfast, they got back on 95 and four and a half hours later they were home.

 

~ 16 ~

With the President and Vice President out of the political picture, the Speaker of the House, a much more moderate Republican, as it turned out, was immediately sworn in, took over the Oval Office and slowly began to undo a great many of the insane Executive Orders the former President had issued. People working in politics and government in Washington breathed a huge collective sigh of relief. As the next few weeks passed and the American people saw what was happening, they too breathed a similar sighs of relief.

All of the deceased president’s billionaire department and cabinet appointments were rescinded in favour of more experienced people. All advisors were unceremoniously declared persona non grata in the US government and were politely asked to return to wherever it was they called home. The so-called Department of Government Efficiency was disbanded. The multi-billionaire, who was appointed to head it, was strongly encouraged to focus on improving his own  private sector businesses.

The Republican party’s political stance on a number of key issues moderated and the business of governing the country became job number one. The new President wanted progress not revenge, because he did not have any real political axes to grind. 

The so-called Freedom Caucus was quietly disbanded. 

A committee was formed to determine who would be re-arrested from the 1500 arrested and later released rioters who stormed the capital after the Democrat victory in 2020.

 The President’s widow insisted on returning all documents
that had been stored at her home in Florida. She then sold the estate for $140 million and moved with her son to England where he attended Oxford and studied political science. 

All the other children of the now-deceased president raged at the injustice of their father being assassinated and accused the FBI basically sitting on their hands. But this was simply viewed as a tempest in a teapot, which eventually dissipated as the investigation lumbered along. The FBI interviewed the hundred and seventy-one people who could have actually made the shots and every single one of them alibied out. 

The investigation continued to crawl along, and it became obvious that whoever did these killings was extremely well prepared and skillful, leaving absolutely no usable physical or forensic evidence.

As the months wore on, the news of the assassinations was slowly replaced by good news about favourable trade deals the US was making with countries around the world, including with China, as well as a steadily improving domestic economy and the actual paying down of the national debt.

The USA’s relationship with its two main North American allies, Canada and Mexico strengthened. The migrant crisis slowly became manageable. The government created a temporary special visa for farm, domestic and food service workers. And the US Military, at the new President’s order, turned its attention to the root causes of migration, by working with the countries involved, mainly in Central America, to help stabilize their governments.

The US sent Senator Bernie Sanders to Ukraine to broker a peace deal as both sides were actually nearing total depletion of their weaponry and ground force capabilities. 

The peace was an uneasy truce, but a truce nonetheless with the proviso that Russia provide the means to help Ukraine rebuild several of its cities, while the Ukrainians agreed to send agricultural experts to Russia to teach their farmers, especially in the southern regions, new and more productive farming techniques. 

After he had served out his term, the former Speaker ran again and won. And this time he chose his Cabinet with the best qualified people, regardless of political affiliation.

Between the US and China, the AI world grew in leaps and bounds and AI found its place in the economies and the day-to-day functions of most companies.

The US continued its massive infrastructure rebuilding process and started incentivizing and encouraging the oil companies to add EV charging stations to their retail gasoline facilities.

Ukraine did not join the European Union, but was encouraged to work with the Russians in this laissez-faire arrangement, where the two countries would trade skills. 

This was seen as capitulation by Putin, and several months later, he and a few of his more vocal supporters in the military, were assassinated by a Finnish assault squad, sent  by that country, for fear that Russia would turn its attention to Finland in the same way as it had with the Ukraine, and the Fins were having none of that.

With that, a new, more moderate, Russian regime emerged and the political tensions in that part of the world eased considerably.

The American alternative energy sector, especially solar, and wind, began to grow at an astonishing rate, as did the country’s influence over emerging nations in Africa.

On the vehicle front, hydrogen-fuelled vehicles slowly took over the alternative energy vehicle market took over as lithium availability decreased. Here again, the US led the way.

~ 17 ~ 

Over the course of the next few months, the world became a much more pleasant place to be alive in. There was always the risk of things running amok, but the one thing the world was learning was that global cooperation was the key to global peace and prosperity.

In Fayetteville, eleven months after they had returned from their ‘vacation’ in New Jersey. Eldon and Jules Jarrett became the proud parents of twins. A boy and a girl. 

Eldon continued to oversee the operations of the store, part time, and turned down several very lucrative takeover offers from larger businesses. It was never about the money for Eldon. It was always about the people. Because, as his father was fond of telling him. ‘Without good people, Eldon, you’ve got nothing but a bad business.’

One day, about a year a few months after the assassination of the President and VP, Jason Wainwright showed up at Eldon and Juliet’s farm.

He and Eldon sat on the porch and drank some coffee while they talked.

“I just thought I’d drop by to see how you’re doing. Any bad dreams or general weirdness?” Jason asked.

Eldon thought about it for a few seconds and then shook his head and said. “You know, I really don’t think about it all that much and when I do, it’s only for a few seconds and then it’s on to something else.”

“Good.” Jason said. “That’s the psychopath in you. He’s takin’ care of you. A lot of people think it’s a bad thing, you know being a bit psychotic. But they’re wrong. It’s like that part of you that’s your spirit guide. You think you could ever do something like you did again?”

Eldon thought about that. “I guess it would all depend on the reason for doing it. You know, somebody comin’ after my family, my friends, my business, my country.”

Jason just smiled. “That’s a good answer. Means you’re alright.”

They talked for another hour. Jason told him all about the horse business and he told Jason about the fruit business, which he had taken a real interest in and had managed an entire harvest himself. He hired a harvesting company with a tree shaker, and that made the job very easy to manage.

The work was not backbreaking like some of the other types of farming. He hired a Mexican American crew of six, who came a large Winnebago and got the job done in less than a week. 

He wasn’t planning to do it for the rest of his life. But doing it once gave him a pretty good indication of how profitable it was. 

The two men finally shook hands. Jules came out and gave Jason a hug. 

“One last thing I wanted to tell you. Orville’s finally passed on. A couple weeks back. Left me his whole gun collection.”

“I’m sad to hear that.”Eldon said.

“Aww don’t be. He did what he wanted with his life. That’s a lot more than most of us can say.” Jason replied.

Jason nodded to them as he got back into his car, waved goodbye and took off, leaving Jules and Eldon and the whole damn country to get on with things.

FIN