The Next President

Labor Day Monday, September 6, 2004\ \ Upward of half a million people filled Chicago's Grant Park chanting for the appearance of the man they believed would be the next president of the United States, blissfully unaware that the lectern at which he would speak was already targeted in the telescopic sight of an assassin.\ For most purposes, the day was perfect. The sun shone from a cloudless sky, Lake Michigan glistened sapphire blue, and a breeze off the water moderated a temperature of eighty-two degrees. Streams of people continued to arrive on foot from all directions. Traffic on Michigan Avenue, Lake Shore Drive, and all the east-west streets from Randolph to Jackson was at a standstill. Most motorists simply turned off their engines, stood outside their vehicles, and listened to the coverage of the event on their radios.\ But no help was needed to hear the chant of the crowd. It rolled across the lakefront as if the city itself was calling out. Demanding the man who would make history.\ "FDR, FDR, FDR..."\ The throng pleaded for the appearance of Senator Franklin Delano Rawley of Wisconsin, who was already a historic figure by virtue of becoming the first black man to be the presidential nominee of one of the two major political parties.\ Presently at the lectern, the city's mayor was doggedly doing his best to finish his speech. A ripple of laughter raced through the crowd as a gust of wind almost carried off the final page of the mayor's oration. Sitting behind the mayor on the stage of the James C. Petrillo Music Shell were the candidate's family and an elite selection of local, national, and party dignitaries. They looked out at the immense, expectant gathering with undisguised joy.\ The polls said their man was ahead of the incumbent by only five points, scarcely more than the margin of error, but many of the pundits said this was an election year that would be unlike any other. Two hundred and sixteen years after electing George Washington as its first president, the United States was electrified by the possibility that it might elect Franklin Delano Rawley as its first black president.\ "FDR, FD—"\ The chant seemed to catch in everyone's throat for a split second and then it changed to a roar as the candidate appeared.\ Like rolling thunder, the multitude's shout of approval reached the fifteenth-floor room at the southwest corner of the Hyatt Regency Chicago. It was all the easier to hear because the small floor-level window panel to the left of the room's heating and air-conditioning unit had been carefully removed. The rectangle of thick safety glass and the fat black rubberized seal that had held it in place lay nearby, ready for quick replacement.\ J. D. Cade lay in a prone shooting position just back of the empty window frame in the shadows of the darkened room. He'd registered at the hotel the day before under the name of Jack Tenant with his hair colored silver gray by a wash, brown contact lenses over his blue eyes, a well-groomed but newly grown beard, and two-inch lifts in his shoes. He'd checked out via the TV fifteen minutes ago, but a DO NOT DISTURB sign hung on the outside of the safety-latched door to his room. Now he watched through the scope of his McLellan M-100 sniper rifle, the barrel steadied by its tripod, as Senator Rawley arrived on the stage of the music shell some 2,950 yards away.\ It had been almost forty-one years since John F. Kennedy was killed by a sniper. The Secret Service hadn't forgotten the lessons it learned from that tragedy, but in the manner of their counterparts at the Pentagon, they had prepared for the last war. The helicopters, the agents on rooftops, the entire security cordon were all positioned on the assumption that no current sniper rifle had an effective range beyond two thousand yards.\ The exception to this limit was the .50 caliber McLellan M-100, which was used by the Navy SEALs and had an effective range of three thousand yards. The round it fired was powerful enough to shoot down a large aircraft, not to mention kill a man. But the special agents protecting Senator Rawley — Orpheus, by his Secret Service code name — operated under the assumption that this weapon was the exclusive, tightly guarded property of the military.\ Nevertheless, J. D. Cade had one, and the hotel room he'd obtained was beyond the security cordon. A picket fence of high-rise buildings on Randolph Street stood between the Hyatt and the park, but he had a clear field of fire, between the BP-Amoco Building on the east and the Prudential Plaza Building on the west, to the northeast-facing stage of the music shell.\ Senator Rawley, known as Del on all but the most formal occasions, had just stepped onto that stage and was waving to the adoring crowd. He was already in J. D.'s crosshairs, but at the moment the flags on the stage showed that a swirling wind was blowing. Over a distance of almost three thousand yards, a strong wind might move even a .50 caliber round far enough to kill someone walking along Michigan Avenue or sitting on a boat in the Monroe Street Harbor. J. D. had to be patient. When the wind died, so would his target.\ Del Rawley was not a classically handsome man, but even seen through the narrow field of vision of his scope, J. D. could recognize the intelligence in the man's eyes and the star power in his smile. Having studied his target, he knew that Rawley was a vet like himself, a former combat medic. He had earned his bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Wisconsin, had been an educator and an author, had served in the House of Representatives and now the Senate, was a devoted husband, father, and grandfa—\ The wind died, the flags went limp, and J. D. Cade squeezed the trigger. The .50 caliber round flew at a speed of 2,500 feet per second, but it had to cover a distance of 8,850 feet. Travel time was 3.54 seconds.\ Given the intervention of fate, that was long enough for the course of history to be changed.\ What J. D. Cade couldn't see outside the lines of his crosshairs was the man in front of the music shell stage lifting his young daughter, who in turn proffered a rose to the candidate. Del Rawley pricked his finger on a thorn, but bending over saved his life.\ The round that should have torn his head off passed over him, streaked between the mayor of Chicago and the governor of Illinois, who were seated behind him, smashed a hole the size of a beach ball through the back of the music shell, and expended its lethal energy by cutting down a six-inch-thick maple tree at its base.

\ Barnes & Noble Guide to New FictionReaders raved about this book by the author of the page-turner, Digger, who brings us a "captivating" cat-and-mouse suspense story focused on J. D. Cade, a trained killer who is being blackmailed by people who want the next President of the United States, an African-American, dead. Full of "twists," a "well-written, timely thriller."\ \ \ \ \ Publishers Weekly\ - Publisher's Weekly\ The latest entry in the election year tradition of political thrillers from the campaign trail is this tough, stylish tale about a reluctant assassin who can't bring himself to follow orders to kill the Democratic nominee for the White House. The assassin is successful businessman J.D. Cade, a former army sniper who is being blackmailed into killing Franklin Delano Rawley, the black senator from Wisconsin who's engaged in a tight battle with the incumbent in the 2004 election. Cade knows neither the identity of his blackmailer nor why he wants Rawley eliminated. All he knows is that his nemesis has threatened the life of Cade's 21-year-old son, Evan, if Cade refuses to do his bidding. The blackmailer's leverage is a secret in Cade's past: three decades ago, Cade killed a man named Alvy McCray, the last death in the great Cade/McCray blood feud. Cade fears that revealing the secret will reignite the family vendetta, which has been simmering for more than a century on the Illinois-Kentucky border. Although Cade attempts to kill Rawley in Chicago, his long-range rifle shot just misses. His next step is to ingratiate himself with the Rawley campaign, posing as a major donor. Although he then gets several opportunities, he still cannot liquidate his target. In desperation, Cade decides to try to discover the identity of his blackmailer, whom he plans to murder instead. Flynn (Digger) propels his plot with potent but flexible force, using just the right mix of pressure and release to maintain suspense deep into the story. He also shows a patient touch with his characters, allowing Cade and several others to develop well beyond the status of simple role players. (June) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.\|\ \ \ Library JournalIn this second, somewhat disappointing novel by the author of Digger, J.D. Cade--a wealthy Vietnam vet and former super-sniper--must kill black senator and leading presidential contender Del Rawlins or a rogue government group will destroy Cade and his family. As Cade, a cross between Clint Eastwood and Harrison Ford, gets to know and like Rawlins, he tries to work his way out of his lethal dilemma. While the book is sometimes exciting, it generally lacks suspense: the reader just knows everything will work out. Also, the plot is convoluted and full of implausibilities, as when Cade, a complete stranger, becomes an almost instant intimate of the candidate. These and other coincidences just don't work. For larger collections. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 3/1/00.]--Robert Conroy, Warren, MI Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.\\\ \ \ \ \ Kirkus ReviewsThe presidential hopeful is African-American, but few are the real changes rung here on the old send-a-sniper-to-kill-the-candidate caper. Whenever crack shot J.D. Cade misses, blame it on something spectacularly unpredictable: front-runner Del Rawley suddenly bending to take a rose from a little girl, for instance, causing Cade's .50-caliber slug to pass harmlessly over his head. In one sense, Cade is relieved. He likes Rawley, thinks he's something special in the way of politicians. All things being equal, he'd be happy to see Rawley's steady hand guiding the US ship of state. But, alas, all things are far from equal. Cade, trained as an assassin during the war in Vietnam, is being blackmailed in a particularly nasty way. Take Rawley out, or your son dies, the mysterious conspirators tell him, and not for a minute does he doubt the capability behind the wicked threat. Thus, when his first attempt fails, he immediately sets about planning a second. Still, he truly would prefer not to kill Rawley, whose presidency would be of such benefit to the country. In addition, there's the matter of sexy Jenny Crenshaw, Rawley's campaign manager, to whom Cade is more than little drawn and who would be immensely let down to discover she's been nurturing a viper in her bosom. Clearly, the only way to fend off a variety of disasters is for Cade to force his enemies into open confrontation, which he does. In a climactic scene set in the Hollywood Bowl, good killer faces bad killer, the fate of the nation hanging in the balance. Once again (Digger, 1997), Flynn provides plenty of plot, but a lethal shortage of characterization.\ \ \ \ \ Publisher's Weekly\ - Reed Business\ ...tough, stylish tale about a reluctant assassin who can't bring himself to follow orders to kill the Democratic nominee for the White House....Flynn propels his plot with potent but flexible force, using just the right mix of pressure and release to maintain suspense deep into the story. He also shows a patient touch with his characters, allowing Cade and several others to develop well beyond the status of simple role players.\ \ \ \ \ amazon.com\ - Jane Adams\ A decent, resourceful man with his own code of honor, J.D.[Cade] must untangle the web of political deceit and intrigue that dates back to his own service in Vietnam in order to free himself from a shadowy adversary who will stop at nothing. An original, suspenseful thriller that will keep you turning the pages...\ \