By C.M. Rich (Magnetman)
May
31st, 20XX, 4:49 PM , Eastern Standard Time
His fingers were intertwined
with each other tightly, turning his knuckles shades of white
and purple. It was only a tiny glimpse of the kind of pressure
this man felt as he sat on the couch within the circular-shaped
room, surrounded by a handful of his cabinet members.
“So…Where do we go from here?”, he asked dejectedly,
snuffing out his fourteenth cigarette for the day amongst a growing
pile of its similarly-fated brothers.
The room was uncomfortably silent; a theme that had persisted since
yesterday.
Finally, the president of the free world stood up violently, angry.
“Alright…Someone want to tell me what the hell is
going on? And cut out the bullshit this time.”
“Jim…”, his trusted ally and long-time supporter,
John Avery, said empathetically under his breath as he placed a
hand on his shoulder.
“Don’t ‘Jim’ me…I want…I
need to know what you’re hiding. What all of you are hiding.
How the hell are we going to fix this mess if we can’t even
be straight with each other?”, the second-term president
shouted towards the other members of his cabinet.
“Sit down, Jim.”, Avery said, gesturing towards the
couch. “Let’s talk.”
“Let’s”, James Weaving said, simultaneously relieved
he was finally going to get some real answers, and worried about
what they were. After all, some of his best friends were intentionally
keeping them from him- none of them could be considered good at
this point.
“To get right to the point…We’ve been at war.”
“Yes, of course. We’re still in the Middle
East , cleaning up.”
“No”, John corrected, “not that. That’s
nothing.”
“Nothing?”
“Yes. The war I’m talking about is one we’ve
been fighting privately for the past decade. A war within.”
The president leaned forward, his hands interlaced in front of
his face once again. He knew a cigarette wouldn’t be too
far away.
“Since the early 1990s, the
United States
government has been actively engaged with members
within.”, John continued. “It’s a civil war,
Jim. One that we hope the history books never talk about.
They call themselves the ‘Four Horsemen’. I believe
you know them better as the Ryder family; Vincent, Whitaker, Fabian,
and Dane. Firstly, they’re not really blood related- their
bond goes deeper than that.”
“Bond…?”, Jim echoed again.
“They’re the last remnants of our top black ops unit
from the 1980s. It was a unit so secret, so hidden by miles of
paper work and back door funds that only a handful of people know
they even exist. You’re the first president since Reagan
to even hear their name: The Pale Riders.
As you’re well aware, public assassinations are subject to
extreme criticism and possible out casting from the UN if found
to be backed in any way, shape, or form by a major government.
But…Let’s just say that there’s always another
Saddam out there, only if we catch it early, we can avoid such
messy situations as the Iraq War. Or
Vietnam
, for that matter.
That was what the Pale Riders were there for. They did the dirty
work and took none of the credit, knowing they were providing the
most important service for the
United
States
. You wouldn’t believe the situations these
men have prevented from ever becoming public knowledge. Situations
that would make the
Bay of Pigs look
like the Geneva Convention.”
“…Dirty work, huh.”, Weaving muttered, his teeth
now gnashing down on a cigarette. “So, how do we get from
being dark patriots to private enemy number one?”
“The Riders, or the last remaining four after the Chernobyl incident-“
“… Chernobyl ? You mean…?”
John merely nodded quickly, as if it should have been common knowledge
by now.
“Yes, well…The Soviets weren’t completely incompetent,
you know.
Yes, after that incident, the Horsemen, as they were then designated,
retired from active duty relatively young due to radiation poisoning.
In retrospect, that would have been the best thing for us- to let
them die so quietly and out of the way. Instead, perhaps out of
sentimentality, a few of us felt they deserved the best possible
treatment, and they all managed to escape death. After which, they
were given new identities, and as a reward for their hard work
and willingness to self-sacrifice, they were handed top-level jobs,
two of which were within the Pentagon, the other two were presiding
over secretly government-owned public companies.
They were different after that, however. It wasn’t long before
they started making requests. Big requests. And if we failed to
deliver, certain…secrets would be leaked to the media. We
had to comply.”
“Extortion of the highest level.”
“Yes, unfortunately. We don’t know what made such fine
patriots turn so bitter towards the country they nearly died for,
but they did. Things quickly escalated out of hand, so action was
taken to completely cover up their past. Within the past decade,
there has been a…power struggle. In short, the Horsemen
want to take control over the
United States
, but do so out of the public eye. They want to
run a puppet government.
I’m afraid you’re considered one of their puppets,
Jim. You were picked because of your blessed ignorance of this
entire situation.”
“…What do you mean ‘picked’?”, Weaving
scoffed. “Do you actually mean to tell me that these…Horsemen
managed to rig the most important election in modern society?”
“Yes.”
“This is…unreal.”
“I’m afraid its very real, Jim.”
The two men stared down at the paper-littered table before them
for a few seconds.
“…And you’re certain the Horsemen were responsible
for what happened in Los Angeles ?”
“Affirmative.”
“…What was it?”
“…We don’t know. Some sort of new bomb the Horsemen
contracted using extortion funds. They’ve hidden everything
from us, right down to who was working on it and where. We literally
know nothing about it.”
“…Are you lying to me?”
“What?”, a stunned Avery blurted.
“Are you lying to me? Answer me.”
John sat in silence for a few more seconds, realizing his old friend
was in the right for asking such a question after being lied to
for so long on a daily basis.
“No Jim…I’m not. We don’t know what it
was, but we have reason to believe this was a test for the weapon.”
“A test? What makes you think that?”
“The Horsemen were seen departing towards the Western Coast two
days ago, before the blast. It’s rare to see them leave in
a single group. We had a hunch something big was going on, but
we lost track of them shortly after they arrived there. Our spies
were all found dead within hours.”
Weaving stood up and slowly walked towards the window facing the
lawn of the White House. Perhaps lost in thought, or just plain
lost, John knew the inevitable action Jim would come up with.
After half an hour of silence, James Weaving came to an understanding.
“ Nuke LA. ”
“You…You can’t be serious.”
“I’m deadly serious. What have we got to lose at this
point? Los Angeles is
lost, John. Gone. And if there’s any shadow of a doubt that
the Horsemen are near there in one place at one time, we have no
choice but to take it.”
“Jim…Think this through. We can pass off this whole
disaster as…As a terrorist act. The Mechanical…Menaces
are already prime candidates for a scapegoat.”
“A scapegoat? You think passing on the blame to an innocent
party will solve any part of this?”
“…They’re hardly innocent.”
“I know who they are! I know they’re not the most upstanding
citizens out there. I know some of them don’t even qualify
as citizens at all, if any. But I also know that we have no reason
to believe that they had anything to do with this, especially if
it’s a FACT these Horsemen’ are involved.”
“Jim, listen to me. We can’t publicly acknowledge the
Horsemen. Revealing just that alone would, without a shadow of
a doubt, unravel the
United States
as we know it. There’s so many dirty little
secrets that they were involved in that we’d never survive
the media maelstrom.”
“…You’re worried about your job? You honestly
think keeping a job is so important to you that you’d intentionally
ruin lives and hide the truth from the people you serve to save
it?”
“It’s not like that….Not at all. You’re
missing the point. If the public finds out about this, the entire
government collapses. We’re not talking about jobs…We’re
talking about the collapse of capitalism and democracy. Not only
would we go down, but our allies…Yes, our allies, whom the
Horsemen have done
‘favors’ for, would also be dragged down into the muck.
Jim…Its not in our best interest to be honest at this point.
Mistakes have been made…BAD mistakes…But I’m
not willing to call it a day on them just yet.”
The President looked his ally dead in the eye for his next response: “You
can’t keep covering up lies with more lies. It has to stop
somewhere.”
“I know…We know…But you have to understand…We’re
protecting the legacy of the
United States
, and everyone who relies on it.
Jim…We can’t use a nuclear weapon on our own soil.
We just…can’t.”
“Well then…What do you propose we do, then?”,
Weaving said, wearily.
“Watch. And wait.”
“…And that’s it? You say we should take no action?”
“No, I’m saying we hold off on taking action. At least…Wait
until we know more about what happened. Once we can confirm the
exact location of the Horsemen, then we move in, and take them
down as quickly as possible. We can’t afford to go in blind
on this one, however.” , Avery said, blankly.
“…The Maniacs. Should we count on them?”
“I wouldn’t. However, they may be useful. I’ll
call the director of the CIA, come to think of it. He may think
of something for them.”
“Please do so.
And John…”
The President addressed his trusted ally as he swiftly made way
for the door.
“…No more secrets.”
Avery merely gave a shallow, yet sincere smirk, exiting and leaving
the President alone for the first time in many, many hours.
President Weaving sank deeply into the leather office chair before
the grand desk of the Oval Office.
It was time for another cigarette.