The Last Election (27 page)

Clark then looked over at Clay and said, “Clay, you’re coming, too.” Then he quickly left his office to begin preparing for this unexpected trip.

Clay looked at Martineau and said, “Why me?”

“Obviously you’re an important part of this team,” she replied, realizing she was slightly tipsy.

His voice rose. “What part?”

Martineau walked over to Clay, put her arm around his shoulders, and turned him toward the door. As they walked out of the office, Martineau replied, “I am appointing you Deputy Vice President.”

Mason and Emily stood at the door of the office as they watched Martineau and Clay walk toward the hotel lobby. The last thing they heard as Martineau and Clay rounded a corner was, “What the hell is a Deputy Vice President?”

“I have no idea, I just made it up.”

Chapter 67

The limo carrying Clark, Martineau, and Clay stopped directly in front of the West Wing entrance of the White House. As soon as Clark and Martineau stepped out of the limo, Secret Service agents whisked them inside. By the time Clay got out, they were long gone. A Secret Service agent came up to him and said, “Who are you?”

“Clayton Jackson, Deputy Vice President,” he replied.

“Yes and I’m
Harald
V, King of Norway. You wait here,” he told Clay as he tapped the antenna of his radio against Clay’s chest. The agent started to turn to walk away, but another agent came running up.

“President-elect Clark just ordered us to get this man a White House security badge, top level access,” he said.

The first agent turned back to Clay showing no emotion whatsoever. Clay looked back and quickly smiled. “Come with me,” said the agent, “I’ll take you to get a badge.”

“Thank you,
Harald
,” Clay replied.

Clark and Martineau were led directly to the Oval Office. “Would you mind telling us what is going on here?” asked Clark, but the agents remained silent.

The lead agent stepped into the Oval Office and closed the door behind him. Clark looked at Martineau as he shook his head in confusion. A minute later the agent opened the door and said to Clark, “You may come in now.”

Clark looked toward Martineau and they moved toward the door. “Not you ma’am,” said the agent. “Not yet anyway.”

Clark was about to protest, but Martineau quickly said, “I understand,” and motioned to Clark to keep going.

Clark entered the Oval Office and saw Vice President Michael Holden sitting behind the desk of the president. That made no sense at all.

Holden motioned Clark forward, so Clark proceeded ahead until he was standing directly in front of the desk. He noticed that Holden was intently viewing a document that lay on the desk before him. Holden looked up and greeted his visitor. “Clark,” he said with a nod.

Clark returned the greeting, “Holden.”

“That’s Mr. President to you,” Holden replied. He turned the document around and slid it across the desk to Clark.

Clark looked at Holden with bewilderment as he picked up the document and examined it. As he scanned the page, he started to realize what he was reading. “… and I am unable to discharge the powers and duties of the office of the President of the United States, and until I transmit a written declaration to the contrary, such powers and duties shall be discharged by Vice President Michael Prescott Holden as Acting President.”

Clark’s eyes darted to the bottom of the page, and much to his surprise he saw the freshly scrawled signature of President Emmanuel Bonsam. He looked up at Holden. “How in the world did you get Bonsam to sign this?” he asked.

“He didn’t,” replied Holden. “I did.”

Clark stared at Holden with a blank look on his face. Finally he said, “Um, you can’t do that.” Holden folded his arms across his chest, tilted his head to the side, and glared at Clark. “Mr. President,” Clark quickly added.

Holden stood up and looked Clark straight in the eye and said, “This stays between you and me, Sam.” Holden then leaned over and pressed a button on his intercom.
 
“Send her in.”

Martineau entered the office and approached the desk, taking a position next to Clark. Holden’s mood quickly turned jovial. “Ah, Madam Speaker, it is nice to see you again,” he said as he reached out to shake her hand.

“It’s nice to see you again, too, Mr. Vice President,” she replied sincerely.

Clark leaned over toward Martineau and out of the corner of his mouth whispered, “That’s Mr. President to you.”

Martineau leaned back toward Clark and out of the corner of her mouth whispered, “What?”

“Enough with the formalities,” said Holden. “Kenna, you and I have some important government business to take care of,” he said as he held up the Acting President document, “but we will worry about that later. Let’s make ourselves more comfortable.” He set the document on the desk, then walked over to one of the couches and sat down, motioning for Clark and Martineau to take a seat on the couch across from him.

“Sam, Kenna, can I get you something to drink?” asked Holden. As Clark and Martineau sat down, Clark glanced at Martineau and then back to Holden and said, “No, we’re good Mr.
Pres
—”

Holden cut him off. “Sam, you don’t have to call me Mr. President,” he said.

“Okay,” replied Clark happily.

 
“You can call me sir.”

Clark looked at Holden and blinked a few times.

“Just kidding,” Holden said, and he moved forward to sit on the edge of his seat.

Holden reached out to a large screen laptop computer that was sitting on the coffee table between the couches. He tapped the mouse pad a few times until the screen came back up. “I have something you need to watch. You’ll clearly see why I had to become the Acting President.” He double clicked the play button icon on the screen and turned the screen so Clark and Martineau could see it as well. Clark watched Bonsam’s meltdown with amazement. Martineau’s mouth fell open.

At the point where the agents first began to do battle with Bonsam, Holden clicked the stop button. “That melee went on for another twenty minutes. Two of the Secret Service agents are still in the hospital. Another one was bitten on the hand and required stitches.”

“Where is Bonsam now?” asked Martineau.

“He’s resting comfortably,” Holden said as he made quotation marks in the air with his fingers while he said resting comfortably, “and spending time with his family. The White House doctor said that the president is suffering from exhaustion and that he needs privacy.”

“So you mean you’ve got him locked up somewhere,” said Clark.

“Precisely,” replied Holden. “But as far as the rest of the world knows, he’s resting comfortably and spending time with his family.”

Chapter 68

Holden went on. “By the time we got Bonsam to the hospital,” he said, again making air quotation marks when he said hospital, “he looked like he had blown a major gasket. He was rolling his head from side to side and babbling incoherently. The first doctor to examine him lifted his eyelid and shined a light into his pupil, and the doctor nearly jumped out of his skin. His little flashlight went flying to the back of the room.”

“What happened?” asked Martineau.

“I’m not sure, but whatever the doc saw really freaked him out.”

“Could the doctors tell what was wrong with him?” asked Clark.

“No. Not initially. The doctor then hooked Bonsam up to an EEG to take a look at his brain activity,” said Holden, “or lack thereof. You know you don’t feel anything from an EEG right, but when the doctor flipped the switch Bonsam’s body went rigid, which freaked out the doctor even more.”

“What did the EEG tell them?” asked Clark.

“The doc looked at the results and said he was dumbfounded, said he had never seen anything like it before,” replied Holden.

“What was so unusual about the results?” asked Martineau.

“He said the readings showed that Bonsam’s brain activity was off the chart. Yet Bonsam was lying there like a total veg, drooling all over himself. The doctor was completely baffled.”

All three sat in silence for a long time. Finally Holden said, “Anyway, President Bonsam will remain under observation and I will remain the Acting President. I will do everything within my power to ensure a smooth transition between administrations. I’ll be working out of here, Sam, so you can use my office while you start getting things together. Meet me back here at 1:00 p.m. tomorrow and I’ll introduce you to my transition team.”

“Thank you, Mike,” said Clark, “for everything. No VP has ever had to deal with a situation as bizarre as this. If there is anything I can do for you, don’t hesitate to ask.”

Holden thought about it a minute then said, “Sam, have you ever been to the Mediterranean?”

“Huh?”

“Oh, never mind.”

Chapter 69

The next afternoon Clark and Martineau spent several hours interacting with Holden’s transition team. There was much to do since Clark had been more than a little preoccupied with other matters in the days leading up to the election and hadn’t had much of a chance to interact with his own transition team. It was late into the night when Martineau said, “We never had any dinner, Sam.”

“I’m hungry, too,” Clark replied. “Let’s order a pizza.”

“Does Pizza Hut deliver to the White House?”

“You know, I don’t know. Add that to my list of questions to ask the transition team.”

“You got it. I’ll place it on the list between your questions regarding Homeland Security and the questions about the economic sanctions against Cuba.”

“I’m pleased to see that we have our priorities straight!” Clark and Martineau sat back and laughed out loud. It had been a long day. A minute later Holden showed up.

“Hi, just wanted to stop by to see how things were coming along,” said Holden. “Anything you need?”

“Yes,” said Martineau, “can you tell us if Pizza Hut delivers to the White House?”

Clark burst out laughing. “Sorry, Mike, we’re just a little hungry.”

“Come with me then,” replied Holden. “I’ll have the cooks whip something up. When you’re done, let’s take a ride out to check on Bonsam.”

Clark and Martineau exchanged surprised glances. “Okay,” Clark said hesitantly.

A light rain fell as the presidential limo pulled up to the front door of Bethesda National Naval Medical Center.
 
Clark, Holden, and Martineau were ushered inside by Secret Service agents and led to the elevators. An agent pulled out his radio and contacted the agents upstairs to let them know that the visitors had arrived. When he was finished, he turned to the group and said, “Mr. Acting President, Mr. President-elect, Madam Vice President-elect, please follow me, I will take you to the president.”

“That’s a lot of presidents,” Clark remarked as the elevator doors closed. Martineau rolled her eyes.

As the elevator doors opened at the eighth floor, another agent greeted them. He looked at Holden and said, “Right this way, sir.” Holden and the agent walked down the main corridor with Clark and Martineau close behind.

Bonsam’s doctor was waiting for them outside the door of Bonsam’s room. “Any change?” asked Holden.