“Hello...hello..yes, it’s me...oh..oh…” and Mr. Granger lapsed into silence. For two whole minutes he listened without speaking, and then with a quiet “thank you” he hung up the phone.
After a minute of leaning back in his chair and looking up at the ceiling, he slowly pulled a pen from his cup of pens and picked up a notepad. On the top he scribbled,
Ex-President Gilman exonerated.
Then, he drew a line through this, and wrote below,
First Lady Adela Gilman murders witness who proves Mr. Gilman’s innocence.
Staring at this headline, he nodded, and then proceeded on, his pen scribbling furiously from left to right across the notepad and then back to the left.
During the Supreme Court hearing of the United States vs. Gilman, Mr. Gilman was presumed guilty by all parties and was about to be announced as such. However, before the verdict could be issued, a man by the name of Jack Hoffman revealed himself as a defense witness, testifying on behalf of Mr. Gilman and accusing Mr. Snyder Reed, who was Mr. Gilman’s Chief of Staff, of orchestrating the entire attack. Barely had Mr. Hoffman finished speaking when a woman by the name of Katrin Van Gorben appeared in the audience, corroborating everything that Mr. Hoffman said. She approached the bench, but before she could take the witness box, Jack Hoffman was shot with a .38 round. The shot punctured an artery close to his heart and within seconds he was dead. The shot was fired by former first lady Mrs. Adela Gilman. After she fired the shot, she was immediately arrested, the weapon confiscated, and she and Mr. Snyder Reed were both questioned using enhanced interrogation techniques in the following days. It was clearly determined that they were the two individuals behind the orchestration of the EMP attack. Further investigation revealed quite a comprehensive list of individuals, from military and international defense departments to intelligence agencies, who were involved in this attack in exchange for promised position in the new government following the attack. All individuals involved have been sentenced to death.
Mr. Granger laid down his pen and leaned back again in his chair.
+
Inauguration Day, 2034. The Capitol Grounds were packed with crowds, waving American flags, as they waited in eager anticipation for President-elect McCraiben to come into view. American flags and patriotic banners hung from the arches and windows and balustrades. Above on the Capitol platform where the microphone and podium stood, the Senators and Congressmen had already seated themselves, after having made their way through the crypt of the Capitol to the entrance.
Haley, having been selected by the President-elect to be his Chief of Staff, stood at the bottom of the stair in the crypt, where each dignitary passed on their way out to the exterior balcony. The procession began with two Marines, who then stationed themselves by the door and assumed the duties of opening and closing the door at appropriate times.
For inaugurations past, both previous presidents and previous first ladies would have walked out first; however, after the attack there remained no one who had served in either of those roles. This was a somber realization as Haley watched the next group of individuals, the minority leaders, walk past her to the door. The door opened, they were announced, and shaking hands left and right made their way to their seats.
As they were seating themselves, James Landon came down the steps and approached Haley, standing next to her.
“I thought I would come join you to watch Joe as he makes his way out.”
“We can’t call him Joe anymore,” said Haley, smiling.
“Why not?”
“Don’t you remember what you said last spring, when we met, and we said hello to the Gilmans? You said that the presidency is an office, and that they can’t be a real person, but an office, that we can’t have a true relationship with them.”
At the top of the steps appeared the Senate and House Majority leaders and the Speaker of the House, led by the Clerk of the House. The Vice President-elect, a good man and friend of the Senator’s, followed. Behind him, walking tall and resolute, came President-elect Joseph Franklin McCraiben.
He was dressed in an immaculate suit and red tie, and his hair was combed professionally away from his temples. His great eyebrows furrowed over the deep set eyes as he stepped down the staircase carefully, the last man in the procession. Haley stood quietly at the foot of the stairs, watching as he descended. How different he looked, how presidential.
He paused as he approached the doors to the exterior balcony, and held up his hand in a motion for the door attendees to wait. He turned back to Haley and stepping to her, stood in front of her without speaking, and there was gratitude in his eyes.
“You’ll be wonderful, sir,” she said softly.
The corners of his mouth turned upwards faintly. He took a deep breath, and then placing his hand for an instant on her shoulder, he turned back to the group. She saw his shoulders straighten. One by one the other members of the group were introduced and made their way out onto the balcony, until it was just him, his figure rigid, like a soldier ready for battle.
The band outside changed their tune to the introductory march, bright and cheery and patriotic.
Ladies and Gentlemen, the President-elect of the United States of America, Joseph Franklin McCraiben,boomed the loudspeaker.
A roar from the crowd could be heard through the closed door in front of him. She saw him place his right hand briefly over his heart and then bring it back to his side.
The doors opened, and sunlight fell into the room.
