Plausible Deniability

November 8th, 2016 – The Presidential Election

TV screens flashed their bright lights from all across America as the whole country waited to see the results of the presidential election. If the Republican party won, the Governor of New Jersey, Christopher Christie, would become the next American president. If the Democratic party won, then the governor of California, Antonio Villaraigosa, would become the next American president.

Of course, there was always the off chance that the Party for Socialism and Liberation candidates, Peta Lindsay and Yari Osorio, would win the election. But nobody believed that, and they didn’t want to waste their vote. Plus, Lindsay and Osorio had tried earlier in 2012 and failed, after which they had admitted to going into the election not to win, but to expose a corrupt system. Where thousands had voted before for them, hundreds voted now.

As it got darker and darker outside, the news anchors frantically tried to come up with more information regarding the election. There were reports of miscounts. These reports were later shown to be false when the count was officially announced- and it was that Antonio Villaraigosa had won the election. Christopher Christie was wonderfully graceful about the whole ordeal- he shook his opponent’s hand and congratulated him. The announcement had come fairly late, and the next day would be a Wednesday- a work day for most- so many went to bed as soon as the announcement was over.

November 9th, 2016 – The Call

The very next day, as soon as the shops at the mall would be open, Trina went out to RadioShack. There she bought a cheap pay-as-you-go cell phone, providing to the cashier an identifying card that gave her the apparent identity of a Lucia Serano and paying for the phone in cash. Having provided the fake identity and the hard to track payment, which was a common way to hide one’s trail when making illicit purchases or doing shady dealings, Trina made a call in her car as she drove her car home.

“Terrance, it’s Trina,” she said and chuckled at the man’s verbal reprimands to not say her real name on the line. “Alright, Terrance- I’m sorry. Just- do yourself a favor and have your guys look into Antonio Villaraigosa. You might be interested in some things about him.” She hung up, and after she pulled into her driveway and stopped the car, she broke the phone and the SIM card inside of it before throwing it away in her neighbor’s trash can.

December 3rd, 2016 – The Birthday Party

“Oh yeah,” was what he said in response to the question she had asked him, “I kind of forgot.” They both chuckled as he blushed- he had woken up about an hour ago, and she had asked him first if he felt any different. When he got confused, she had told him he had just turned 26. Waving his hand and arm at her in a joking and dismissive fashion, he said, “I just got up, Sarah!”

Sarah just laughed at him. “Happy birthday, George,” she said to him as she handed him a wrapped present. It was a square and fairly hard, and George smiled as he read the note attached to it. “Your favorite big brother?” he read aloud questioningly, “I’m your only big brother, you dork!” They both laughed. George opened the present and smiled widely- it was the new Pink album. Pink was George’s favorite band. “Oh, wow… Thanks Sarah!” he said gratefully, and offered to make her some breakfast. She asked for eggs, and even though George was vegan, he made them for her and some extras for his mom for when she wakes up. When he brought her the eggs, she hugged him and said, “I love you George.” George merely hugged her back and said, “Love you too, Sarah.”

That was the moment their mother came downstairs. “What a beautiful sight,” she said jokingly, “it must be some sort of special day for this to be happening!” They all chuckled. “Mom…” George said grinning, “You do know it’s my birthday right?” She laughed and nodded, hugging George, who then brought her the rest of the eggs. “You cooked eggs on your birthday? But you’re vegan...” she looked at Sarah then and saw that she saw some and waggled her finger at Sarah in mock anger. “Ah, so you were put up to it, then!” They all laughed.

“Well,” his mom said to George, “I didn’t get you much, but I think you’ll like what I did get you…” She smiled widely as she took a small packet out of her pocket. Opening it up, George smiled intensely- it was a $100 Amazon gift card. “Wow, mom… Thank you! I have been wanting to get some new books for my kindle!” They all sat down at the table, and George’s mom looked at the newspaper. “Oh, now that’s interesting,” she said, “there’s a lot of controversy surrounding our President-elect, Antonio Villaraigosa.”

George nodded and looked grim, “Indeed- including accusations of membership in MEChA, a racist Latino group.” He shook his head angrily. “I bet they’ll want to have public schools teach in Spanish, too, soon.” His mom looked at him and grinned. “I doubt it, George, but you always do take the cynical or pessimistic viewpoint.” George grinned back, claiming to be a realist.

December 23rd, 2016 – The Bomb

The CIA had evidence- technically the whole world did, as it was on the internet as well-, and with its powers they checked it and confirmed it: Antonio Villaraigosa had been a member of MEChA, and a radical one at that. The very constitution itself of the MEChA organization stated that a Chicano or Chicana student, “must take upon themselves the responsibilities to promote Chicanismo within the community, politicizing our Raza with an emphasis on indigenous consciousness to continue the struggle for the self-determination of the Chicano people for the purpose of liberating Aztlan.”

Aztlan is a hypothetical Mexico that regains an extra one-third above and beyond their already current land, taking up American states such as New Mexico, Arizona and California, all the way up to parts of Washington. And the President-elect of the United States has never publically denounced the liberation clause of the MEChA constitution. The Director of the CIA, Terrance Smith, personally took over the investigation when these facts were brought to his attention. He went on to determine that the President-elect was a threat to national security.

Instead of alerting other organizations and cooperating to make sure that the future President would not try to fulfill his Chicano “duties”, he went to his office and summoned his most trusted agent in the Clandestine Services branch- his brother, Luke. As soon as his brother arrived, the Director told him to sit and informed him of their current situation. The Director’s brother frowned, and asked what the Director wanted him to do. “Take him out.” Nodding grimly and with understanding, Luke left the office and made a few appointments. One of them was with his contact in the Directorate of Science and Technology- he needed a distraction in order to allow the assassination to take place.

January 20th, 2016 – The Bomb’s Placement

The subway train operator nodded to the other man, who wore a suit and a tie, and took the money the suited man offered him as well as the bag. “Remember- don’t open it until you’re on the train, coming back from Shady Grove and are at the Forest Glen station,” was all the suited man said, and the train operator simply nodded and smiled. “I won’t, I won’t,” he said, simply, as if he was having difficulty with the English. The suited man walked off and the train operator walked back to the train- his train for the day.

Getting in, he walked through the train car to the front of the train and got into the driver’s compartment. Getting ready to go, he set the bag down at his side and waited for his start time. When it occurred, started the train moving, and stopped it at the first stop on the red line in Maryland, the Glenmont station. He opened the train’s doors to allow people to board, and a few seconds later he was going. He took his route to Shady Grove, and then back towards Glenmont again. When he got to Forest Glen the second time, he opened the bag.

What he saw made him fear for his life- it was a bomb that would go off in less than five minutes. He put the train’s brakes on and fled, running as fast as he could out of the train and to the elevators. The elevators were all currently going up, and he got on one as soon as he could. Running out of it on the next floor, he jumped the security gate and ran towards the exit. He saw the same man in the suit and the tie going down the side exit, but just kept running, fearful for his life. A few seconds later, the bomb blew up. He had not cleared the exit, and was dead from the blast.

January 20th, 2016 – The Bomb’s Explosion

The man in the suit and tie was sitting on a rear facing seat in the subway train. He was reading the newspaper as he talked. An observant eye might be able to spot the Bluetooth device going up from within his suit to his right ear, as well as the light shining from within its clear frame. The man, though he was talking, talked almost silently- the Bluetooth device must have amplified sound receiving technology.

The man in the suit and the tie looked up as the subway train sounded its alert to the station it was arriving at. Looking back down to his newspaper almost immediately, he nevertheless remained silent as he listened to the announcement of the station, nodding as the name was called out, and then starting to talk again.

This went on for four more stations. At the fourth, the man got up as the subway train arrived at the station, and touched the side of his Bluetooth device at his ear. He got out of the train calmly, collectedly- slowly-, and walked straight towards the metro station’s exit after taking the elevator up from the floor the trains arrived to and departed from. He walked through the tunnel towards the main exit, but instead of taking it, opened a side door to go through a shorter tunnel and up two flights of stairs and out into the open air.

He saw the flames erupt out from the main tunnel- the one he had taken the side tunnel away from- across the street, and nodded grimly to himself. Bringing up his right hand to touch his Bluetooth device, he waited for three seconds before he said, “It’s done.” He tapped his index finger to the device again, and went to the nearby trash can. Upturning it, he rummaged through the debris and found a small black bag. Opening it, he saw a revolver and one round of ammunition. Loading the revolver, the man sighed, and stuck it inside his mouth, pointing it at its roof. He shot.

January 20th, 2016 – The Bomb’s Effects

George and Sarah were on their way to the Forest Glen metro station to go down to DC. Sarah had begged George to take her to see the inaugural events, and George had agreed- he kind of wanted to see what this new president would make of himself. They arrived at Forest Glen station just as the bomb went off. Seeing the flames erupt out of the main tunnel, George told Sarah to call 911, then call mom and tell her that they were alright, and then to wait for him and not follow. Then, he got up and out of the car and ran off towards the station. He thought he heard a gunshot, but he was too focused to look back and see Sarah going off towards where the sound had come from.

Once inside he was the witness of unimaginable destruction and despair- there were very few survivors in the tunnel leading out of the station, and George did not know what to do to help them. Seeing a person he thought to be dead- his clothes were singed and his exposed areas of skin were completely burned off- George heard the man whisper for help. Running over, George didn’t touch the man but knelt down beside him.

“Help is coming, just hold on.” George took off his backpack and gave the poor soul some fresh water. Then the sirens came. Police officers were the first ones in, and they all pointed their weapons at George, who slowly put his hands up, water bottle in tow. They got to him and, standing him up and patting him down, asked who he was and what he was doing here. George explained that he arrived just as the bomb went off and ran in to see if he could help.

That was when Sarah came running in, tears streaming down her face. Police stopped her, but she screamed that George didn’t do anything, and that there was a dead man by the metro station’s sign across the street. Some of the police were sent off to check it out as others took down George’s and Sarah’s story while yet others waved in the emergency medical services. When they were done giving their reports, the police officers came back, confirming that there was, indeed, a dead man by the sign. “Suicide,” said one officer grimly.

The police officers nodded to each other, and their leader sighed. “So these two are likely innocent,” said their leader. Kicking at the ground, the officer screamed in frustration. A few moments later, he composed himself and addressed George in short, clipping sentences. “I am sorry. You are free to go.”

As George and Sarah got into their car, George felt oddly at ease. He turned on the car and started to drive, knowing that it was the shock that was keeping him functional, and he wanted to get Sarah home safely before he broke down. Sarah turned on the radio and turned it immediately to music station Hit 99.5, Washington’s Hit Radio Station- but it was news that came across. Having turned it on late, they didn’t catch the whole speech, but they caught the snippet that, “…President of the United States is dead, killed by one of his own Secret Service guards. There were explosions on all metro lines near the entrances to DC...” George turned off the radio in disgust and drove home numb.

January 21st, 2016 – The Aftermath

Terrance sighed as Luke gave him the report. “God save us,” Terrance said, sighing, “Five agents dead just as a distraction?” Luke nodded and said, “I kept the destruction to a minimum, but it took a lot to allow us to get our man in disguised as a Secret Service agent.” Terrance merely nodded, saying he knew but asking if the cost had been too much. Six agents- one for each metro line plus the assassin- dead, and thousands of civilian hurt and killed. They turned on the TV.

On its screen was the former Vice President-elect- now the President-, vowing to find out what had happened and to bring the terrorists to justice. That wasn’t what shocked the two. What shocked them was the insignia on the new President’s shoulder- it was a section of the Flag of Aztlan, the one with the face in the middle and the white section which also held 7 stars. They looked at each other in horror.

“We didn’t investigate the Vice President?!” Terrance asked in disbelief.