Chapter 29

Chapter 29—Reginald lays out plan

9:40 a.m., Wednesday, December 21

The SUV grew very quite, and remained so for an uncomfortable length of time.
“Kennedy will serve as our model,” Reginald finally stated. “Even though that plan was severely flawed, both in design and implementation, it was exquisitely effective.”
“How can you characterize it as exquisite?” James asked. “We do not even know who was ultimately responsible for it.”
“Exactly. The public still does not know.”
“And you do?” James asked.
“Of course; but that does not matter. The mere fact that initially Oswald appeared to be a lone gunman, and then he was taken out by Ruby, who just happened to be terminally ill and in need of money. The whole thing was a work of art. I got to know some of the operatives involved, and I have read every book written about it. I can assure you that the ultimate goal of those involved was realized. That’s what makes it exquisite. We will use that assassination as our model, but with major modifications and, hopefully, improvements.”
“How? How will you do it?” Allison asked.
“The only way to be sure anymore is with a bomb. Everything is bulletproof. And bullets get deflected—shooters miss their targets. There are just too many uncertainties with a rifle. Things can go wrong. This has to work perfectly, the first time. We will get only one shot at this.”
“Where would you stage it?” James then asked.
“We would want it to be in the Midwest someplace. Somewhere conservatives, red-neck conservatives, are thought to be in abundance.”
“I assume the bomb would be placed outside, where he was speaking, perhaps?”
“No, we will blow up his car.”
“How would you deal with the armor? Presidential motorcades are very well armored. I know that from personal experience.” Allison said.
“Here’s how we do this—at least as my plan stands right now. We will target the motorcade with rocket-propelled grenades. We will not know for certain which car he is riding in, so we take them all out. Every car in the motorcade, even if there are a dozen. It would not be a problem. We will hit the first and last cars with at least two grenades each.”
Reginald paused for just a few seconds, and looked first into James’ eyes, then into Allison’s. He was clearly enjoying himself. It was obvious that he had already given this matter a lot of thought, and he liked the way his audience reacted to him.
He then continued, “Now, we all know that it is a virtual certainty that POTUS will survive the initial attack. Those vehicles are battle ships on wheels. But we are not actually seeking to destroy the target with this attack. All we are trying to do is to derail the motorcade, and get POTUS to break from it. It is a cinch that he will be immediately whisked off to a hospital. That’s where the real hit actually occurs.
“Depending on how many hospitals there are in the city that we choose, we will have bombs buried at the Emergency Room entrances of each of them. Enough explosives to take out a whole wing of the building. The Secret Service will have checked everything along the route that the President will take, and all alternative routes. They will have welded all the manhole covers along those routes. But they will not have checked the hospital Emergency Room entrances—and there are always manholes outside the hospitals. All we have to do is select a trip that we know he won’t back out of, and then set traps at the emergency room entrances.”
“Now, we all know he’s going to become more and more active, politically, supporting troubled candidates in key states. We should be able to nail one of them down.” James said.
“We won’t take a chance on just one. We will be prepared for several targets. We can relocate the RPGs, on a moment’s notice, but the bombs will present a slightly different challenge. I will have to figure this part out. I’ll need to contract the best people.
“But the beauty of it is, if for some reason he skips all the cities we have prepared for, no one will ever be the wiser. We will simply have to regroup a bit. I always have contingency plans.”
Allison and James exchanged eye contact, but said nothing. Then Reginald continued. “Now, back to the hospital emergency room entrances. We will also have placed smaller explosives inside the actual entrances of the hospitals, in the event that the President is delivered to the hospital in such a way that the original bomb placement might be ineffective. That could happen.”
“How would you get the explosives into a hospital? Don’t they have security?” James asked, a little like an advocate for the Devil.
“All Emergency Room doors have electronic door openers. And they all are subject to inspections and scheduled maintenance. There is plenty of room inside the openers for a small C-4 device. The metal of the enclosure would serve as shrapnel, making the explosion more lethal.”
“Damn, Reg, you’ve certainly got all the details worked out,” Allison said, obviously impressed.
“Not the case. Not at all the case,” Reginald quickly countered. “I have a lot of details to work out. But I do have the overall structure planned. The tricky part is to make sure that the right people get blamed. Otherwise the whole plot will implode, our efforts will be wasted. If that happens, we are as good as dead.”
“I might be of some help with that,” James offered.
“How?” Reginald asked.
“I’ve got a friend, a spook, whose organization has a highly placed operative in one of the most radical conservative group. I really think that we could do enough work with them to make them look responsible.”
“That’s not how it happens,” Reginald said. “Too much can go wrong with that approach. You need to leave that part to me, and to Steve. Once the event has occurred, we do not want to point the blame to any one person or organization. We will let the press and the pundits work at that. All we have to do is make it look like a right wing conspiracy. We’ll deal with generalities only—no specifics. And the rest will happen automatically. There will be a feeding frenzy. Steve and I will work out a series of press releases, plant the right rumors, and the rest will happen automatically.
“The critical thing here is timing. Because the conclusions drawn during the first twenty-four hours will rule the day.”
“Day, month and year,” Allison immediately followed. “Steve will be instrumental here. If we have the stories ready, he can plant them.”
“How much help are you going to need, Reg?” James asked.
“I’ll let you know. But the less you guys know, the better, as far as I’m concerned. I’ve got some guys in the Service that I can use in a limited way. And I have plenty of help available for work in the field. All I need is money, a lot of it.”
“What do you need to get started?” Allison asked.
“All of it.”
“Okay. And how much is that?”
“A hundred million.”
“You can’t be serious!” Allison exclaimed in shock, her chin dropping, exposing her lower teeth.
“What did you think? It isn’t about lining my pockets. For this to work it has to be done right. I will need to bring some very specialized talent onboard—expensive people. I want to learn more about James’ insiders. He and I will deal with that. We might find them helpful—at some point.  But I am not going to do this on the cheap. I can promise you that I will not ever come back asking for more. And I will guarantee you that I will get the job done. But that is what it’s going to cost. Can you come up with it?”
“I suppose I will have to.”
Reginald countered, “Al, no one knows better than you that once you’re President, you will have unlimited access to resources. Surely there are some foreign sources you can tap.”
Allison did not have to consider the matter. As they all understood, the alternative was not acceptable. “When do you need it?”
“I need it in gold, by the end of next week.”
“In gold?”
“I am not interested in dollars, or any other currency. And neither are the people I am working with. You can do this, right?”
“You’ll have it by next Friday—one week from tomorrow. But you need to get started now.”
 “I already have,” Reginald replied. “Now, regarding payment. Let’s say we base the amount on the close of the US markets today. I will expect payment by noon on Friday the 30th. Is that acceptable?”
Allison did not even acknowledge Reginald’s last request. Her response was assumed.