Madam President ✓

61. I Regret Ever Agreeing To This

  "CARE TO EXPLAIN HOW THE FUCK SHE'S STILL ALIVE?" President Ivanov screamed at his press secretary, who'd just informed him of the unsuccessful  attempt.

  Lyubov looked down. He knew he'd fucked up again. He just didn't know how much more of his shit the president would put up with.

  "Sir..." he cleared his throat. "Our assassin missed her cervical spine."

  "He. WHAT?!!" The president kept on yelling and the press Secretary knew better than to interfere as he punched his office wall hard. Blood trickled down his knuckles. Lyubov gulped. The president was a very strong individual.

  "He.... h-he missed." Lyubov stuttered. "Mr.President..... I am so sorry."

  "You hired this one, did you not?"

  "Yes sir."

  "Very well. You will take care of it then."

  "It'd be too soon. Now she knows someone's after her. She'll be more cautious about even leaving the house and we don't have any assassins among the staff at Walter Reed anymore."

  President Ivanov breathed through his nose, trying to work through his anger. His poor press secretary was under the impression that it was for a completely different reason than what president Ivanov was thinking of.

  He failed.

  "Fine. When does our assassin's plane land?"

  "Around seven. Why?"

  "I'll deal with him then. As for you-"

  The president stepped forward, then stopped and reached into his jacket pocket. Lyubov hoped and prayed he was just trying to make him piss himself.

  "A handy little device, isn't it?" The president looked over what appeared as a tiny gun- less than half the size of his palms. Instead of bullets, it was filled with tiny needles- so tiny you'd have to strain your eyes to see them, coated in a liquid made to kill anybody of any size instantly. The liquid took years of development, but it now served their assassins well because of how undetectable it was.

"Sir.... Why are you showing me this?"

  "Because I want you to understand something." The president said. "He was close. Even though he missed, it should have killed her. So what's your explanation there?"

  "It.... Uhm.... I...."

  "That's what ran through my head too, until I realized something-"

The president paused, a memory of his father hitting him. Long before the liquid was invented, they had to get their hands dirty. He watched once as his father strangled the minister of finance to death. He knew his father would have been proud of how he rose to power; and how he was handling it for the most part. He might have disapproved of the way he handled the Ebola pandemic- but who could have seen that coming?

  The virus hadn't been seen in years when it suddenly started popping up around the world and disappearing just as quickly. Bio terrorism may have been right up his alley, but he didn't do that. He was just as puzzled as the rest of the world. Officially, the American's story was that a woman brought it back there after travel abroad. That was believable- but how did it infect her family's county in the first place?

  He gave up on trying to find the person responsible so he could hire them after a while. It was clear they didn't want to be found.

  The president continued. He smiled at his press secretary and casually wiped off the gun with the end of his shirt as Lyubov stood there terrified.

  There was a needle in his chest muscles two seconds later. Betrayal passed through both of their eyes for different reasons. When Lyubov started seizing and gasping for air, the president cruelly stood over him.

  "Next time you give our assassins needles with expired liquid coating, try a bit harder to cover it up."

  They both knew there wouldn't be a next time.

  He leaned in closer.

  "Oh, my sweet, sweet Lyubov-" he grabbed his hair, forcing him to look into his eyes. "Did you really think I'd never find out you were a double agent?"