CORY WAS PLOTTING her next move, she was analyzing the live satellite feed of The Preacher's mass convoy which were now travelling east by road to Louisiana. The president was alone in the meeting room until Lucinda Gates barged inside and slammed the door.

“Maddie, what have you done?” Cory used the remote to switch off the big screen and turned to her.

“Calm down Lu, what's wrong now?”

The fuming Gates bluntly indicted. “You sent me to do your errand of setting up the fundraiser event in New Orleans; and while I am over here, you have plotted an unscrupulous presidential scandal in the history of the White House—now honestly, tell me—did you ordered the assassination of Anne Rosewood?”

“Calm down and sit now!”

“No, I will not sit down! Tell me, Madeline—why?”

She saw Cory was quiet, Gates continued to justify her thoughts at her.

“Rosewood was just an old crippled who don't stand a chance to win her place back in the Whitehouse—but you had her killed! Do you know the implication if this scandal reaches the public—we will all go down for murder!”

The inexpressive Cory reacted with an unctuous tone of voice…

“That will not happen because that shitty God’s Army will take the rap for her death—so let’s stick to the designed schedule of our second victorious term in office for now.” But Lucinda rationalized the solemnity cause and effect out aloud…

“The semen milking project also almost leaked out and you had them too killed to cover that up in Detroit…do you know that there are still lots of shemale sympathizers out there, and they will someday dig up the truth—and soon Rosewood’s killing will be known to them too—this is very obvious with too many coincidences happening at once!”

“Look here, I know how to cover my tracks in everything I do. Nobody is going to take the word of that Preacher or his religious fucked-up terrorist group as the truth out there, okay? Now lower your voice when you speak to me…”

Cory was getting agitated with the scarifying Gates who was sounding very unconstructive like her VP—and it also made her laugh tensely with derision at her old-time friend...

“Look at you—you are acting more paranoid than my nigger Vice President.”

Gates was still digesting the woman’s unsavoury words…

“So you are laughing now—'ha-ha'—now share with me this joke of yours on why you put a hit on Rosewood?” Lucinda was getting more sardonic.

“Can’t you read in-between the lines? Okay, for one, Rosewood is dispensable—and she was no longer a worthy opponent since the launching of my New Economic Order—and the people know that too. So now after her death, I have a new platform to step into—I am going to walk right into my opponent's camp next and I will share my condolences with them—and soon that will sway most of her supporters right over to me—and this is all going to happen tomorrow when we both attend her funeral.”

Lucinda Gates was flabbergasted for a moment at the supercilious woman who was with not a mote of mores in her malevolent exploits. Gates questioned back…

“Then, what about your own fundraiser in Louisiana tomorrow—are you going to put that on hold too?”

“I got that Mary Freeman in as my last-minute replacement to represent me. It is about time she did some serious footwork in the party and not be sitting pretty with her VP position that she won on in her popularity contest.

Gates realized that Cory was deleterious, and was plotting to put her Vice President at harm’s way in New Orleans in case there was a rebel attack.

“The CIA and the rest of the feds are anticipating a possible attempt of violence. What happens if the Preacher attacks her at the fundraiser?”

Cory felt cornered and she diverted back instantly.

“Hah! No, nothing will happen to Freeman, I don't think that the Preacher is that dumb enough at all to attack us. He will be facing a ton of resistance the moment he and his ill-trained monkey-army enters the city limits of New Orleans…”

Gates can see her vile deceits well and she grilled her more…

“But what if, Madeline—what if he attacks—he has been gung-ho since Texas’ prison breakout and so far had assailed 4 prisons as we speak; he has a few thousand followers right now backing him. What if he does endangers Mary Freeman in Louisiana tomorrow—remember this—she is still your VP!”

The President laughed with snider...

“So you rather want me to be taken out instead in New Orleans—is that so, Lucinda?”

Gates was perplexed at this moment. “No, that is not what I am saying…” she was scathe and could not find the right thing to reply at that moment…

“This goddamn Anne Rosewood's killing is a big mess—a very damn big mess!”

Cory warranted her well thought aberrant strategy with mordant hilarity.

“It is not such a big mess at all—but it is good publicity for us tomorrow—and if at all that Scarface Jesus-freak did attack New Orleans, and also if Mary Freeman does go down tomorrow—it is better publicity with two casualties—one each on both camp...

That will pay off well for any of Rosewood’s death suspicion on us; and at the end of the day, Freeman’s death will serve well for the greater good of our party.”

What she heard had disgusted Lucinda Gates who responded with abhorrence...

“How could you undermine her—Mary Freeman was the reason you are in office as the president today—and now you are treating her like she is some despoil figure!”

“Come on admit it, Lucinda—she is just a weakling and a huge liability to us. Her matriarch methods are more fitted like of that dead senile Rosewood—and it has no room for such ineffectuality in my New Order Policies. Just imagine if Mary Freeman had been the President instead of me—we will be going spirally down in every cornerstone in the economic and the progress of this country; now those are facts, don’t you think so?”

Now Gates saw the ungrateful side of the president. “No, you are wrong Maddie, she is a very capable woman—and she even trusted you and stood loyal behind your back in the sovereignty of this administration.”

Cory mocked back with risqué malediction…

“Yes, one more added fact that she knows for sure is that I am more capable than her; that’s why she was just a toothless loyal dog that I have been feeding so far—but in my book, she is just a piece of furniture—Mary Freeman is just another replica of Rosa Parks who is comfortably warming her butts in my office—if that bus driver had refused to drive that bus that day, do you think Rosa Parks could have driven the bus herself? No, the bitch can’t do jack shit!”

It was getting even more repulsive and scurrilous to hear, leaving Lucinda Gates tarry on the spot; she stood silent and kept listening…

“I need more capable people in positions for my next term in office and if that Mary Freeman gets her brains blown out tomorrow—I will welcome it as a sign of good news and will move on searching for the next fresh blood as my new Vice President.” Cory stared into Gates…

“Lucinda—you are my first choice if that standing opens up next!”

Now Gates became mordant as how Cory had been to her a moment earlier…

“Why? So that you can get me killed some day in one of your future election publicity schemes?”

President Madeline Cory now laughed out loud in titer at the outlandish assumption—and she slurred after her fourth gin and tonic that morning...

“Don't be ridiculous, we both have been friends for more than 30 years and that is why I trust you the most in my office.”

Lucinda Gates still felt that she has to knock some sense into her before it was too late. “Please Maddie, if you say that you trust me—believe me, that it is going to turn ugly if something bad happens to Mary Freeman tomorrow. Even if you want her out there in New Orleans’ fundraiser, that is fine—but the least, give her the best protection; please, I urge you to engage your Kraken team to keep her safe and alive—because I don't think the local authorities will stand a chance against those shemale revolutionists’ attacks!”

“You have once again underestimated the local law enforcement agencies—I have noticed that there has been an impressive improvement in their performance. I feel their momentous presence tomorrow is far sufficient...

“No, I will not release my top-secret Kraken yet—and certainly not for this middling fun-raiser occasion!”

The veto silenced Gates momentarily, she stared back blank a few seconds and stopped to proffer any more suggestions—realizing that Cory vehemently wanted her Vice President dead tomorrow night in New Orleans—just like her refusal the prod action to rescue Samantha’s step-grandson a month ago—it seemed like it has been preordained that there will a lot of deaths will follow until her coming election agenda.

“Then you have made up your mind that she should also die like the others; and if that is so, I wash my hands—I quit! I don't want any part in these deviant and deceptive plots of yours, Maddie!”

Gates walked away to the door and she opened it—two female Secret Service agents stood alert outside when the door was ajar, and they heard the president’s stentorian voice calling from inside...

“If you walk out that door, you may as well tender your resignation immediately, this instance!”

The door closed back slowly…

Lucinda Gates did not leave the room—it would be signing her own death sentence if she had done so. Cory will requite if anyone had stepped out of her clandestine circle—soon she will be another one in the President’s hit-list and would end up dead like Rosewood.