Chapter 1
“Mr. President, are you ready?”
“Yes, thank you.”
The makeup artists fluttered their brushes around the President’s face and neck like butterflies. He was ready. He was always ready. His face radiated confidence bordering on insanity. He absolutely did not give a damn what anyone thought of him. He was the fucking president, elected by his own people.
Except sticky sweat was trickling down his back.
“People of America! I officially declare that today is the day when I must admit: we need the territory of Greenland. We need it! The enemy could attack us from the north, and we must be prepared for such a turn of events. Military bases in northern Greenland must protect the safety of our citizens, the prosperity of our country, and the peaceful skies above our heads. As long as I am President, you will sleep soundly. God bless America!”
Camera shutters started clicking from every direction. The President was used to it. His eyes would recover from the flashes soon enough, and his vision would return. Everything had gone better than he expected. People were used to his bold statements, and the journalists immediately started shouting questions over one another. His people would deal with them.
He hurried to his office. Closed the door. Exhaled. The office was dark and cool. Just as he had ordered, there was no one there. He wanted a drink. Damn it, he deserved a good glass of aged Scotch. It had been a hard day.
He walked over to the bar, took out a heavy tumbler, and picked up the decanter. He rarely drank. But today he needed it. He wanted silence in his head. After tossing in a couple of ice cubes, he started pouring the drink into his glass when a sudden ringing from inside his desk drawer made him spill the contents of the decanter.
“Shit.”
The President froze, unsure what to do. No one had ever called him before. He hadn’t even known there was a phone in there. He put down the glass and the decanter and cautiously approached his desk. Opened the drawer.
There was a phone inside. No caller ID.
“Hello?”
“You did everything right today. Good boy. We didn’t make you President for nothing.”
The voice cut off. The phone died. From that moment on, it was nothing more than a useless device. For a second, the President felt afraid. Sticky sweat broke out across his back again. Maybe today he deserved two glasses of Scotch.
