The Krakow Klub (53 page)

President Henry Wilkinson took a deep breath,
a small sip of
water
and prepared for the most
important speech
of
his career.

There would be no teleprompter to guide
him.

There would be no makeup artist
to make him look younger.

There would be no hairdresser to give him
that perfectly groomed appearance.

He was to be completely on his own. Just him
and that camera. He suddenly felt invigorated and strong. He would
speak from his
heart, and
speak to the hearts
of all Americans.
This had to be
his finest
hour. Untold numbers of lives depended on what he accomplished in
the next few minutes. He took a deep breath and noted that the red
light had come on; he
was
now live on TV.

“My fellow Americans. I address you today
with both joy and a heavy heart. You saw that horrible crash that
reportedly ended my life. That crash was part of a
well-orchestrated
plan by an organization that you’ve
never heard of until today, the Krakow Klub. This secret cabal has
declared war on this nation and everything it represents.

“Their plan has been developed and honed to
near perfection over many years. Billions of dollars have been
invested to assure its success. This treacherous group has used
those billions to infiltrate both our military and our civilian
government. Their tactics
are based
on
bribery, blackmail,
threats,
and money.
Huge sums of money have been spent over many
years
. The degree of success they achieved is
frightening.

“A few days ago, I was forced to appoint
Carla Montrose as my vice president. I refuse to call her President
Montrose
because she was never the legal
president. She
was involved
in the planning of
that horrible inferno intended to assassinate me. Her plan
was foiled
by a remarkable individual
possessing enormous powers. I will introduce him a bit later.

“Carla
Montrose’s
occupation of the Oval Office was critical to the success of the
Krakow Klub’s plan. I confess to you that, in a moment of cowardice
and weakness, I willingly complied
with their orders
and
named her to be vice president by executive order. That
decision could have sealed my fate, as it did the fate of two
innocent EMTs and the driver who were in the ambulance with me.

“The very next day, less than twenty-four
hours after I appointed Montrose to be my vice president, I began
to have severe chest
pains,
and my heart
rhythm was very abnormal. They placed me in that
ambulance,
and our motorcade headed toward Bethesda. I
was not supposed to survive that ride. A van full of highly
explosive materials was to see to that.

“It grieves me to report that my own White
House physician, Dr. Wesley Newton, was also part of the bold
conspiracy. He administered a powerful drug that induced symptoms
of a massive heart attack.

“I now know that Newton had drugged me and
controlled my life for many years. He diagnosed me with a serious
heart condition when my heart was completely healthy. To treat this
so called condition, he prescribed a medication that affected my
brain. This mind altering drug made me susceptible to orders that
originated with the Krakow Klub. During that time, I confess that I
was unwittingly serving them and not the people of our country.
And, for that, I will always have regrets.

“Now, let’s move on to the terrorist attacks
that
happened
in
the
aftermath of that fiery ambulance scenario. These attacks were not
the work of some jihadist group. They were planned and executed by
the Krakow Klub. Public fear and chaos
were
essential to their
plan,
and they used the
dreadful situation to set the stage for a military takeover.

“
Once their
minion,
Montrose, was in the White House, they were ready to declare
martial law. And she did just that. Following her orders, the
entire government would have soon been controlled by the military
and freedom, as we know it, would have been lost, probably
forever.

“These people have a single goal: World
domination! They came very close to being successful, but I am
here
to assure you that it will not happen.
A group of fanatics and anarchists will not fell the
United States of America
. We will destroy them. They will
not be allowed to defeat us. They will not take away our freedoms.
Have faith; there are powers available to us that will lead us to
victory!

“There will be much more information to come
later, but for the moment, time is of the essence.

“
As commander-in-chief, I have
sent orders to all members of the joint chiefs of staff, and at
this moment confirm those orders. All United States military units
are to stand down from whatever orders they have received in the
last forty-eight hours.
Those orders did not come from me,
your legitimate president. All orders by that traitor, Carla
Montrose, are immediately null and void. All military personnel are
ordered to return to their home bases at once. I am aware that some
military commanders are under the control of the Krakow Klub. Be
aware that I have a list of those
involved,
and all of them will soon be relieved of command and placed in
custody.”

Wilkinson stood and motioned for John Scott
and Jim Slater to join him. He introduced them and briefly
explained their roles in saving his life and in securing the White
House.
He did not go into details about the
congressional approval that gave John twenty-five years of
authority in the government. He did announce that he would name Dr.
Jim Slater as his chief policy Aadvisor, whose primary job would be
to help in restoring the government.

He ended the brief speech by standing behind
the desk and speaking in a strong voice, “There is much to do
immediately. And there will be much more to do in the coming days,
weeks and months.
But I will rise to the challenges
and with the help these two gentlemen,” pointing to John and Jim,
“and with the support of every loyal American, we will restore our
precious freedom. And we will then use the full force of the law to
punish those conspirators who would destroy us.

“God bless America and all that we stand
for.”

The press went berserk. In a matter of
minutes, the news wires all over the world were lit up with the
news of what had been happening in Washington, DC.

****

The order to stand down and return to base
brought great relief to the military
and
the
public in general. All military officers who had been arrested
because they were loyal to the government
were
released, and many of them were reinstated immediately into their
previous command position
.

Maxxine provided her list of conspirators to
the
president,
and massive numbers of arrests
of military associated with the Krakow Klub
started
happening all over the country.

General Lew McGowan chose to take his life
rather than face
court-martial
. He left a
detailed confession describing his association with the Krakow
Klub. The document detailed his actions and the actions of his many
associates aligned with the organization. He included a long list
of officers he knew to be a part of the conspiracy. His confession
drove the final nail into the coffin of a large number of his
conspirators.

Erik Stoellar and the Krakow
Klub had spent untold billions over twenty years to build their
empire It only took a few hours to crumble into the dust of
history. Its passing left only bitter memories and pain for those
who had been affected.

Purging the military of all the Krakow Klub’s
infiltrations would take much longer. Even Maxxine didn’t have a
complete list of all of those who had been compromised. Eventually,
significant changes in military procedures would result from the
attempted coup.

However,
the
insurrection was not completely over.

****

Lt. Colonel Steven Collins watched the
president’s telecast with
ever-increasing
fury.

He couldn’t believe that he had come so close
to success only to
be foiled
at the last
minute. His cruel face
became twisted
into a
snarl. He was in a murderous
mood,
and that
could only mean disaster to someone, or, more likely, to a great
many. His menacing eyes revealed the dark and vicious soul that
lurked just below the surface.

****

Julia and Sylvia had been watching the TV
since the
shuttlecraft
had left, waiting
anxiously for news from the White House. They both sighed in relief
when there was a news flash that the president would address the
nation from the Oval Office.

General T had been in constant communication
with Maxxine and was feeling quite proud of the part that he had
played in keeping the island and his charges safe.

All three gave a cheer when they saw John
Scott and Jim Slater standing with the president during the
telecast. They weren’t the only ones. All around the world, the
news spread like wildfire and was translated into untold languages.
Now, it seemed that the world might be a safer place, at least for
a while.

****

After concluding his speech, President
Wilkinson rose from his desk and thanked the cameraman, his
secretary, and the Secret Service agents for their support and
assistance in this critical time.

He went to his wife and gave her a kiss,
saying softly, “I will have you escorted to our quarters now, my
dear. Please rest and I will join you very soon.”

He thanked Dr. Allen for his care of his wife
and then dismissed everyone, except John and Jim.

“Mr. Scott, John, the nation owes you a great
debt for stopping the Krakow Klub. There is much more work to be
done, but with your help, we can locate each and every person
associated
with the evil group. I will be
calling on you and Dr. Slater quite frequently in the coming
weeks.

“And, now, I’m going to take care of my wife.
She has been through unspeakable pain during the last days. I’m
going to devote myself, full time, to her complete recovery. I’ll
provide her with any, or all, help that she needs. Which, by the
way, won’t be at the taxpayer’s expense.”

John nodded in complete understanding. “She’s
probably in a very fragile state at the moment. But, from what
you’ve told me about her, she’s a strong and resilient woman. I’m
confident that she’ll come through this like a champ.

“First, she thought that you were dead in
that horrible accident. No one should ever have to experience such
a devastating event. I understand that she was in total shock for
hours and couldn’t leave her quarters. I’m quite sure that Dr.
Newton probably had her heavily sedated.

“I can only imagine what’s going through her
head right now. First, you were assassinated in that horrible
accident. Then, she was held as a virtual prisoner in the White
House by Montrose and her gang. Then she was attacked and subdued
in her quarters so that the tracking device could be removed. Then,
most unbelievable of all, she wound up in a prison cell
on
my space station, attended to by robots.”

John had
been curious
as
to how the transponders had
been switched
, but
now he believed that he had the answer. He explained that the
transponders
were all placed
in the
same
spot on every human’s skull.
Knowing the exact location
, the device could be removed
by measuring the site precisely and removing a small piece of
tissue with great accuracy. The tissue would contain the
transponder. Such transplants would
eventually be
rejected
by the body of each
recipient, but
the time it took for that to happen would be enough for their
purposes.

“Obviously, to do this, she was sedated with
a powerful narcotic of some kind. A small sample of tissue
was also removed
from Montrose’s skull. Then,
they simply switched the two samples, placing Montrose’s
transponder into your wife and, vice versa.

“The radiologist from California
had been flown
to Washington, DC, and he performed the
procedure. After he had done his careful measurements, he could be
confident that he could obtain the devices without the use of the
scanner. The man
was duped
into his
role,
so I don’t think that any charges
need to be brought
against him.

“I’ve been watching Dr. Allen and he’s
competent, caring, and professional. I think that he’d do an
excellent job heading up the medical office here as your new White
House physician. But, you’ll probably have to use your powers of
persuasion. I have a feeling that Washington, DC, is about the very
last place that he wants to be right now.

“As for me, I’m going to go back to my island
for a little rest. In the meantime, you can continue to clean up
the military. I’ll provide you with all Maxxine’s reports to help
you make your decisions. She has complete information on most
everyone
that was a part of
the
network,
but it’s still possible that a few may have
eluded her detection. She’s working on that premise right
now,
and I’ll get the results to you as they
become available.