Ronald Crump: Assassination

By Lucius van Deck

The presidents of two countries equipped with nuclear ICBM threaten each other; one decides that, only by eliminating the other, his country will be free of being bombarded by a nuclear missile: “The US should know that the button for nuclear weapons is on my table” / “I too have a nuclear button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my button works!”. The plot begin!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lucius van Deck
• Release date: Jan 20, 2018
• ISBN: 9781370729531

Lucius van Deck

I was born on October, 1933. My parents taught me the first letters. From an early age I enjoyed reading and writing. My mother would say: “This boy likes reading and writing so much, he is going to be a lawyer.” She was almost right, because first before I becoming a lawyer, I opted for a career in weapons, as a cadet in the Brazilian Air Force Academy. I stayed in the Air Force for more than 30 years, being gradually promoted for merit until colonel rank. During my career in the Air Force, I graduated with a law degree in 1968. In 1986, already in civilian life, as a lawyer, I published a book about one of its branches, but I preferred to be a writer. because the lawyers cohabit in an environment of disputes. I find that unappealing, I prefer peace. I have nothing to complain about my career at the Air Force. While I was there I collaborated with the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) for 10 years, along with representatives from the United States, France, United Kingdom and Sweden in drafting the International Civil Aviation Security Manual. I believe that the collaboration of this group of experts was very important for the security of international civil aviation, and, consequently, for the world peace. I consider that the book I am publishing, nothing more than a fiction, contributes to world peace. I do not believe that the president of North Korean is capable of working out a conspiracy against the life of the President of the United States. The two countries are not in war. The sad episode during World War II that resulted in the attack on the plane carrying Admiral Yamamoto can not be repeated. I have not had time to publish a blog about this book yet, but I promise my readers that I will soon post it. I like to write poetry. I intend to publish a book of poetry.

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Ronald Crump: Assassination

by

Lucius van Deck

Copyright © 2018 Lucius van Deck

All rights reserved.

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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, incidents and their intermingle with real things are either the products of the author's imagination or used in a fictitious manner.

Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

Gratefulness

I would like to thank all authors of fiction literature.

Without your writings, which transported me daily to worlds and moments without compare, my life would have been much less interesting. Without you, my masters, I would have never written the first of these 118,000 words.

Prologue

But it is not only the author who needs to be imaginative.

The readers' imaginations essentially contribute to associate the stories with real events.

It is this association that gives life to the story created by the author.

All stories are pure fiction!

The writers write stories because the paper accepts everything.

One must imagine that the most incredible stories can happen at that very moment.

Feel yourself, dear reader, not as if you are watching a movie, on the contrary, put yourself in the film scene.

It is very pleasant to enjoy the story as a character.

The two main characters, powerful, are special, incredible, hilarious, they threaten each other as if they were two teens.

Shooting rockets or in command of powerful warships, or pressing nuclear buttons, they feel themselves superheroes of comic strip stories.

Delicious, delicious!

Ladies and gentlemen, the apocalypse is near, fasten your seat belts…the Disney’s cats versus mice are fighting.

I want the best of the world for the main characters and for their peoples…

If in the future - which I hope is near - they would invite me to sit with them around a table in a neutral place, I assure that, in an hour or so, I would make each of them feel in relation to the other as newest friends of childhood.

Humanity will be eternally grateful if it happens.

The Author

Credits

In 2007, at an Ibero-American summit in Santiago, Chile, Juan Carlos, the Spanish monarch, asked Hugo Chávez, Venezuelan dictator: Why don’t you shut up?

In minutes, all the world knew this unusual speech!

Which press vehicle among 1,000 has the credit for such unusual disclosure?

Who was born first, the egg or the chicken?

In today's world, where communications occur simultaneously at incredible speed, when it comes to pronouncements from very important people, natural accidents, an aircraft crash, a submarine disappearance, threats from leaders and their comments or analyzes, it is difficult to identify who deserves the credit for the first disclosure.

This story, set in the present world, would not come to life if the author closed his eyes to what is happening in the world.

To whom the world owes credit for the release of a recent expression that has earned the headlines of all world newspapers, radio and television broadcasters: fire and fury!

The author grants to this spectacular press the credit of which it is worthy and thanks, in his name and in the name of his readers, the services that it renders to the humanity.

Fire and fury.

The presidents of two countries equipped with nuclear ICBM threaten each other. The US should know that the button for nuclear weapons is on my table / I too have a nuclear button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my button works!. The plot begin!

Oh my God!

Contents

Chapter One - One has to be eliminated!

Chapter Two - The monster will pay for this!

Chapter Three - A Message to Garcia

Chapter Four - Tell the North Korean that I accept the job!

Chapter Five - Even monkeys fall from trees!

Chapter Six - Preparations - Phase One

Chapter Seven - The Princess Who Was Crowned Queen Of The Lambada

Chapter Eight - Preparations - Phase Two

Chapter Nine – Let’s get out of here

Epilogue

Chapter One

One has to be eliminated!

Rio de Janeiro

Viviane Barros woke early. If she had been an exceptionally sensitive person, perhaps she might have felt that within a month she’d be dead. But she never would have felt that her death would be linked to Hyun Joo Won and to the planning of the assassination of the president of the United States.

She left her house with her daughter in a hurry, stopped off at a hospital, and by 7a.m. was in the city center, outside the US Consulate. Other people were already there, and many more would arrive soon after, organizing themselves into a queue, with the purpose of getting visas to enter the US.

Most were people who wanted to go on holidays, who would almost certainly get visas. Viviane, however, was worried. Less than three years had passed since her deportation from the United States. She could still remember her dialogue with the inspector in the Regional Service Center of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), in Dallas, Texas.

Your tourist visa expired more than two years ago and you are still in this country. Even worse you are illegally employed. You know that this breaks our law?

Of course, but I had no choice.

What do you mean?

My four years old daughter, Aleksandra, is on the waiting list for a bone marrow transplant. She is waiting for a donor whose marrow will be compatible with hers, so that it won’t be rejected. You can check this, just ring M.D. Luis Mauro Hospital, in Houston.

I don’t need to check your story. I believe it’s true. However, even so you cannot stay here longer than the period granted to you on the I-94 card.

I know, but in Brazil, where my daughter is living, I can’t find a job that will allow me to save the money needed to pay for the transplant. Here, I’ve been working a lot and I already have a large part of it.

I’m sorry, however, no matter how good your reason is, the law does not allow an exception for these cases.

Viviane Barros was judged by the Deportation Court, where she repeated the same story to Judge Werber Wayne, better known as ‘WW, the Intransigent’.

Five days later, she was put on board of an American Airlines plane, with a stop-over in Miami, whose final destination was Rio de Janeiro.

The story about her sick daughter was true. As also, apparently, were the stories about her life that Viviane had told those who had met her in the United States. This facet of human curiosity, making people want to know about the past of other, is interesting…

Tell me about yourself. Where are you from and why are you living in the United States?

In answer to numerous questions like this, she candidly summed up her life. Nevertheless, she left out countless unimportant events. Principally though, she omitted those familial episodes which had transformed her infancy and adolescence into a painful phase which she wanted to forget.

I’m Brazilian. I was born in Rio de Janeiro and my father was a civil servant. He earned little. He died when I was fifteen. My mother always helped to support the family, giving private English classes. That’s how I learned to speak English when I was young. My brother also speaks well.

You speak very well.

Viviane knew that the praise was gratuitous. Her English was reasonable and her daily vocabulary pleased Americans, who tended to be friendly to those who spoke in their language. Since the majority of them also only spoke English, they admired those who were able to speak another language.

Thanks, you’re very kind. I know my limitations…

But, go on, tell me the rest.

What more can I say? I studied until I finished the equivalent of high school. I practiced the usual sports of that time, swimming, volleyball, that sort of things. And I began to work.

If the person she was talking to was a woman, the following question would almost always be about the music and films that were important to her during her youth. And also about boys. If she was talking with a man, especially with someone who had intentions other than just talking to a stranger, Viviane almost always heard something along the lines of: I bet you won a beauty contest!

Viviane was a beautiful woman. Tall, a well sculptured body, a very Latin ass, an open smile and captivating eyes. In short, she was attractive, but she had never possessed the beauty of a winner of a Miss this or that contest.

"Only if it were the Miss Xuruca contest", she would answer, jokingly.

Miss Xiuriuca? What does that mean?

She would then explain about the cacophony formed by this words in Portuguese and the meaning of the word ‘mixuruca’ (unattractive)

But you said that after your studies you began to work. At what?

The secretary of some second-level executive in a large company. That’s what I did my whole life. I answered calls, typed letters - sometimes having to correct them -, organized their agendas, well, those things which secretaries do everyday. And I never went to bed with any of them!

This last revelation, spoken suddenly and incisively, unsettled the men. Finally, the tale of the high risk pregnancy, Aleksandra’s illness, the waiting list for the transplant, and a request to change the subject.

At 9:30, those in the queue were allowed into the Consulate. Viviane was the third to enter. An official examined her new passport and typed her name on the keyboard of a computer.

Viviane swelled dryly. Oh my God, please help me!

The official only returned the passport and said to her decidedly:

You were deported less than three years ago. In accordance with American law, you cannot receive a new visa.

Viviane suffered a fit of dizziness. She was put on a couch and shortly afterwards seen by the Consulate’s doctor. And it was he who intervened on her behalf and let her be seen directly by the consul.

Mr. Consul, I know I have broken American law, however, my daughter has been waiting for years for a donor to appear whose marrow will be compatible with hers…

The consul remained silent. Viviane continued:

Yesterday I got a call from the M.D. Luis Mauro Hospital, in Houston. They have a donor. I’ve bought plane tickets for both of us and have even booked accommodation in the Luis Mauro Center Visitors Lodge. You can ring them to confirm this. I have the number here, the area code is 713…

Ms Viviane, I believe what you are telling me. However, I cannot go against the law.

What do you mean?

If you were deported less than five years ago, I cannot give you a visa.

But, can nothing be done? Could you not…

At most, I can send the Department of Justice a recommendation that, exceptionally, you be given a visa.

And if they turn me down?

You could appeal to the Administrative Unit in the INS head office in Washington.

And if my appeal is unsuccessful?

You could sue for revision of your case in a district court in the US. But all this will take time and would mean that you’d have to be represented by a specialized immigration lawyer…

You don’t appear to understand the seriousness of my problem. I have to bring Aleksandra to the hospital in the next forty-eight hours…

I can give her a visa. Her and the adult accompanying her. But this adult cannot be yourself.

Sir, she cannot travel without me. She is a handicapped child… Since she was small she panics if neither myself nor my mother are near. And my mother is in hospital, she fell and broke her pelvis. To come here just by myself, believe it or not, I had to leave Aleksandra with her in the hospital…

Ms Viviane, I am sorry, but legally I can offer you nothing else. I am very sorry, but this is the law, the consul said bringing an end to the conversation.

Viviane left the Consulate with tears in her eyes. But, determined to obtain a visa, she decided to send an e-mail to the president of the United States explaining her problem. Given the importance and urgency of the subject, she imagined that she could break through the barricades erected by the bureaucracy and get an immediate answer. She wrote the e-mail, ending it with a dramatic appeal: May you and God help me to save the life of my child.

In seconds, the e-mail reached the White House, at the same that time the president Ronald Crump and the Secretary of Defense were in a meeting with the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, studying the advisability of initiating a war against North Korea that would be called Operation Pacific Ocean Storm. And throughout the next thirty days the president’s attention was entirely devoted to study these operations and the accompanying complicated political maneuverings, including the dispute between China and neighboring countries over the construction of artificial islands in the South China Sea, which could have been undone, to the benefit of North Korea, the cooperation the US had been receiving from Asian nations. US President, Ronald Crump, offered to mediate the dispute, but the unexpected proposal was rejected by China. On several occasions, Beijing has stated that the United States does not play a role in issues considered bilateral by the Chinese. China claims the sovereignty over almost all of this strategic sea, whereby the equivalent of trillions of dollars in trade is transported annually. There is also speculation about the existence of vast oil and gas reserves.

The president, also, along with his advisors, was very busy planning a 12-day trip to Asia, including Japan, South Korea, China, Vietnam, and the Philippines. The visit would serve to assess the necessary support for his efforts to pressure North Korea into abandoning its nuclear and ballistic missile programs. Despite the bellicose tone of his twitters, the American president would have preferred a peaceful solution. However, something told him that the Korean president preferred the nuclear war. At the same time, in Pyongyang, the President Hyun Joo Won also believed that President Crump wanted the nuclear war.

Both, and their employees, needed a crystal ball or a psychological treatment!

• • •

On the 31st day, President Crump became aware of Viviane’s e-mail, and recommended that her request had to be granted. The Secretary of Justice carried out the order, sending an e-mail to the consul in Rio de Janeiro.

If the truth be known, Viviane had a very painful childhood, as is common with an alcoholic and domineering father. A city policeman who had reached the position of police detective, he spent most of the day absent from the home, to which he only returned after having gone to several bars, where he got drunk, leaving behind a large part of his meager salary. It’s true that he was not corrupt, unlike many police officers he did not let himself be bribed by the racketeers of the illegal jogo do bicho, a lottery mode. That was, perhaps, his only virtue. In the regard to the rest, he was gross and capricious. Possibly due to his professional deformation, he trusted no-one, not even Olga, Viviane’s and Roberto's mother, of whom he was insanely jealous.

Olga, what did you do this afternoon?

I left at two and was back at five. I gave classes.

To the father or the son?

You know very well that I only give classes to children.

That’s what you say, but you can’t prove it!

Olga took a deep breath and stayed silent. Her husband went on:

What clothes did you use? That red dress which shows up the curves of your ass?

Olga really had been a beautiful young woman, full of life, when she met the man who would become her husband, a tall handsome guy, a new recruit in the city police, from where he intended, at the first opportunity, to join the Civil Police, in which he intended to build a career; starting as a detective and ending up as police chief. From dating to marriage was almost a single step, just like Barros would also only take a single step in his career, never rising above detective. On the other hand, Olga continued to study English, a language in which she had been interested since she was young. When she married, she was in the penultimate year of her course.

During their first year of marriage, her husband brought her to her classes and picked her up afterwards. The following year, when she had graduated, he forbade her to teach: A married woman’s place is in the home!, was the refrain he would repeat with conviction.

It took years for Olga to get pregnant. Roberto was born first. And just nine years later she gave birth to Viviane. With the children costs went up and her husband ended up allowing Olga to teach, in order to increase the family’s income: But you can only give classes to children, he commanded, waving his finger at her. At the beginning he only let her give classes where they lived. Later, he agreed that she could go her students’ homes: But only when the student’s father is working, he ordered, menacingly.

Although at the time of these arguments, Olga was no longer the same girl who had made boys whistle as she passed, she still caught the lustful eyes of older men. Despite the first signs of her more than thirty years appearing on her face, her body still preserved the same exuberant curves of her youth.

As her husband’s accusations continued, Olga would end up replying: When we married, you already knew the body I had. Now, just because I’m older, do I have look like a bum just like you? And then she would angrily add: I’m not a drunkard, I don’t stagger around the streets like you! It’s only natural for people to want to look at me…

The argument would continue in this tone, always ending up in blows and awful personal insults:

You don’t fool me, you’re no more than a whore. You’re a slut., the policeman would shout, not worried about the attentive ears of the neighbors.

When these scenes occurred, and they would become ever more frequent, little Viviane would cry softly. Roberto, nine years older, would hug her paternally and the two would find a dark corner of their room to hide in until the torment had passed. For Viviane, in all those so painful moments, which lasted for years and years, Roberto was the hero, the only protector upon whom she could rely. For Roberto, Viviane was like his daughter, and it was up to him to protect her. For both, their father was the devil, but this did not mean that their mother was a saint, since, after all, the doubt always remained: what if daddy was right, does mother behave badly? Why does mother have to go out so much, leaving us alone in the house? Does she have a boyfriend? To admit this hypothesis was horrible for both children, but their father kept making his accusations.

Roberto was a bit shy, a good student, hard-working, and got on well with his colleagues, except for certain periods when he isolated himself. On these occasions, if anyone tried to come near him, he would react explosively. Only his sister dared stay beside him, her mouth closed, staring into the distance. He would pretend that he didn’t see her, but he wouldn’t push her away.

Roberto only stopped witnessing these fights at twenty, when he left home and entered the Air Force Academy. For Viviane, the torment would still last another four years. On the day of her fifteenth birthday, only news of her father, who had promised to arrive home early for her birthday party, reached their house. He had been murdered in a fight in a bar a block away from where they lived. As they would later find out, the other man had called him a cuckold, and had got walloped in the face. He replied, though, with a well aimed shot through the heart of the violent police officer, Barros.

From then on, Roberto doubled his efforts to look after his sister.

• • •

Although the e-mail with the favorable decision of the Secretary of Justice arrived in the Consulate in Rio de Janeiro, the visas were never issued because little Aleksandra died the day before, causing Viviane to commit suicide. Of the Barros family, now all that remained were Olga, just outside the hospital, and Roberto, a widower, lonely, sad and, above all, furious with what he considered to be Mr. Ronald Crump’s inexcusable neglect of the life of a child, a child to whom, since he had no children of his own, he had transferred all his paternal love.

• • •

Press releases from South Korea

According U.S. Department of Defense and thousands of international medias, Crump said: Today I hope I speak not only for our countries, but for all civilized nations when I say to the North: Do not underestimate us. And do not try us. We will defend our common security, our shared prosperity, and our sacred liberty.

The 38th parallel that separates North and South Korea is the line between peace and war, between decency and depravity, between law and tyranny, between hope and total despair," the president said.

The whole world wondered how a president of the most powerful nation in the world was able to say such foolishness!

Incredible, fantastic, extraordinary!

Peace is not built with such words!

If the King of Spain was present, he would have exclaimed:

Why don’t you shup up?

• • •

Since the end of President Crump's threats, Hyun Joo Won felt somewhat relieved, not because it was his 33th birthday, but because he had visited several parts of the city and had been warmly applauded by the people.

He was greeted by the president of The Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, and was honored by a reception in which children dressed in red clothes, danced and sang. He kissed a number of them and did not mind when some of the children’s muddy shoes stained his impeccable suit. Pyongyang radios were continually playing the famous American song 'Happy birthday to you', despite this being rather pathetic considering President Crump's threats. However, there was no Korean song to substitute it, and the song was very popular throughout the country. They remembered 2014, when Denis Rodman, of the Chicago Bulls, had his 'Marilyn moment' in North Korea when he sang 'Happy Birthday to Hyun Joo Won' before a basketball game.

On this day, Hyun took several liberalizing measures, the most important was the suspension of gasoline rationing, since China and Russia declared that they would not cut off the supply of gasoline to North Korea.

As a result, although it was Sunday, there were enormous traffic jams, allowing the occupants of officials vehicles to properly appreciate the public buildings, specially decorated for the occasion with colored lights and pennants.

That night, already in bed, the Presidente Hyun Joo Won was still thinking about Crump’s threats:

It’s just too much!

Afterwards, he fell asleep.

Hours later, he had a horrible nightmare. Standing at the bottom of his bed - repeating the same famous words spoken by general Norman Schwarzkopf (Stormin Norman) about Saddam Hussein - the American general John The Tiger Zummach said: You are neither a strategist, nor a schooled in the operational art, nor a tactician, nor a general, nor a soldier - other than that, you are a great military man.

Hyun replied, You're wrong, I’m a North Korean army general!, the press of my country distinguished me as a military genius, like the great military geniuses of the past, Sun Tzu, Clausevitich, Patton, Montgomery, Bradley, MacArthur, Võ Nguyen Giáp, Ho Chi Minh, Rommel. Press assigns me the classification of modern military genius.

Get dressed. President Crump has ordered your arrest.

Accusing me of what?

Threatening world peace with the launch of intercontinental ballistic missiles equipped with nuclear warheads. You will be prosecute in the United States.

I don’t recognize the right of any American court to prosecute me.

It won’t be an American court; it will be an international tribunal.

You can not be here. I read in the newspapers…You are in the United States preparing a force to invade my country.!

Tiger Zummach replied: "Yes, we are preparing a force. Initially, we can bombard all strategic targets: highways, railroads, ports, dams, power plants, factories, warehouses, etc, to show you how much we are able to. But to avoid such destruction, we decided to put you behind bars to see if you stop with this childlike craze of firing ballistic rockets like fireworks. The playtime is over for you!

"Frightened, Hyun woke sweating heavily. He went to the fridge and got himself some water. He went back to bed, but wasn’t able to go back to sleep.

Thousands of ideas had gone through his mind before the sun came up…

• • •

In Brasília, and throughout the rest of Brazil, the favorable impact of the week’s visit to the country by the Prince of Wales, Charles, still lingered. Landing in Brasília with a party of twenty-eight employees of the Royal Household, they had gone to a series of preliminary engagements in the capital, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, with the most important item on their hectic schedule being the meeting with President Michel Temer, as part of the preparations for the UN Conference on the Environment and Development to be held in 2018 in Rio de Janeiro. The meeting took place in the bay near the city of Belém, in the state of Pará, close to the mouth of the Amazon river, on board the royal yacht Britannia, especially brought from Great Britain to the outskirts of the Amazonian forest, to give greater pomp and importance to the event.

The international press followed all stages of the royal intense marathon closely, highlighting the ecological performance of the ‘green’ prince, now elevated to the heights of being one of the celebrities most concerned about environmental preservation of the planet.

In the same week, the Canadian Maurice Mathieu, the UN’s environment secretary, was also in Brazil, where he met various government and private figures, including the national executive secretary of the conference. Praising the initial official measures that had been taken, he took part in the closing meeting of the next Forum of Development and Environment Debates of Rio de Janeiro. In an interview with the newspaper Noticiário do Rio, he stated, in response to the journalist Luís Mauro, that: I don’t think that the question of violence will cause any major difficulties. Any international conference faces these problems, no matter where it is held. Not just in Rio. Nova York, for example, faces the same problem, and every year the General Assembly is held there. I’m certain that the preparations for security will be adequate and that Brazilians will cooperate a lot.

These reports, published in the international press, came to the notice of Hyun Joo Won on the morning. A few hours later, in a routine report, his Minister of Foreign Affairs, Kim Min-seo, stated that the ambassador of North Korea in Brazil had been at a speech given by Maurice Mathieu, in Itamaraty Palace, to which all ambassadors accredited to the Brazilian government had been invited. Mathieu spoke about the preparations for the United Nations Conference on the Environment and Development, informally known as UNCED Rio. 26 years had passed since the last UNCED, and very little concrete has been implemented. The world was still pulped. What would future generations be like?

The presidents and heads of state, Min-seo said, of more than 170 countries should appear at this conference.

Interesting, very interesting… Hyun Joo Won commented, after having remained silent, thinking, for a few minutes, before going on to examine other subjects. At the end of the report, trying to show his indifference to the previous conversation, he told Minister Min-seo that he would like to receive summaries of all reports about the upcoming conference that were published in Brazilian newspapers:

Inform our ambassador in Brasília, he ordered.

• • •

Bob Woodward was born on 25 March 1943, in Geneva, in the state of Illinois. He graduated in History from the University of Yale. After serving in the Navy as a communications officer, he dedicated himself to journalism, where he gained fame when, with Carl Bernstein, he uncovered what was to become known as the ‘Watergate scandal’, leading to the resignation of President Nixon in 1974. He wrote several books which became bestsellers, including All the President’s Men and Veil: The Secret Wars of the CIA.

As Associate Editor of The Washington Post, Woodward was highly regarded in the United States, where his stories were not questioned, due to the care taken in obtaining and checking the information gathered for his reports. He did not reveal his sources, keeping them extremely well hidden. He was possibly the best regarded investigative journalist in the world.

Hyun Joo Won read that the press reported that a book publisher would publish another investigation book called The New Commanders in which the author would reveal some details of the preparations for Operation Pacific Ocean Storm. Moreover, it would also reveal that during all these difficult months, the responsibility for the political leadership indispensable to obtain support and cooperation for the American decision to make war fell, exclusively, on President Crump's shoulders.

In another press release, Hyun Joo Won read that a famous psychic revealed that due to the determination of President Ronald Crump, US forces commanded by General John The Tiger Zummach would begin to bombard all strategic targets in North Korea with such intensity that would lead to the unconditional surrender of Hyun Joo Won. After this triumphant victory, the psychic said, the president of the United States would decide to withdraw from his theater of operations the troops stationed in South Korea, because it would be certain that the president of North Korea would be convinced that the confrontation with a military force of such magnitude is irresistible. The president of the United States would be convinced that than the countries involved in the use of arms would know from this day on that better than participating in wars would choose to build political and commercial relations.

Reading those predictions, the president of North Korea was very shaken, after all, days before, he had read that President Crump threatened to completely destroy North Korea.

Feeling very tired, Hyun Joo Won went to sleep.

Again, he had another terrible nightmare.

The seer went on to say:

For the leader of North Korea endowed with excessive ambition - which a few months before, as had been speculated, would include the conquest of Japan and the invasion of South Korea, when, after that, his empire would be powerful enough to carve the history of reunification with South Korea, now, ONE MAN, ONE SINGLE MAN, would be responsible for the abrupt suspension of North Korea's expansionism: US President Ronald Crump, who would not have hesitant to send from distant America, in the largest logistics operation known to the world, more than half a million soldiers, thousands of tanks and combat and transport planes, dozens of warships and highly sophisticated communication resources.

It had been THIS MAN, the seer continued to speak, who, leading other presidents and heads of states, had obtained international cooperation to annihilate North Korea troops, one of the most powerful armies in the world and one of the four countries capable of firing ICBM against the United States.

It had been THIS MAN, who had not hesitated to bomb the joyful city of Pyongyang and other important Korean cities.

In Japan and South Korea, the population greeted the United States with effusive demonstrations of gratitude and affection. And Hyun Joo Won saw on television news a South Korean waving a banner which read: Crump did it. It was Crump who had done it.

The seer continued speaking: at this time, according to an opinion poll published in the United States, nine out of every ten Americans believed in the leadership of President Crump.

Another journalist also revealed The President has a history of vengeful political actions. Moreover, whoever crossed Crump paid for it.

Crump has a good memory, and we have to be careful.

After these predictions and revelations, Hyun Joo Won woke up frightened.

After a few seconds, he thought, almost out loud:

When two important political leaders, both vengeful, hate each other, only there is room for one to survive!

He then completed the thought:

ONE HAS TO BE ELIMINATED!

Chapter Two

The monster will pay for this!

Roberto Barros was celebrating his birthday. He was years older than Hyun Joo Won. He had not taken sides during the recent threats exchanged between the United States and North Korea. He did not approved the expansion plans of Hyun Joo Won. On the other hand, he had come to hate Crump for not granting the visa to his sister Viviane, which resulted not only in her death but, worse, in the death of her beloved Aleksandra.

Roberto did not know that Crump had authorized the concession of a visa for Viviane. When the Consulate had rung the Barros family home, they heard about the two deaths and left no message.

He was now in the reserve with the rank of Colonel, having been a soldier by vocation and having dedicated himself completely to the Air Force throughout his career. He graduated in the top third of his class in the Aeronautics School and did his pilot training in Fortaleza Airbase, where he did very well in the fighter plane course. Later, he piloted helicopters and military transport planes. When he retired from active service he had more than 8,000 flying hours. He knew all the capitals of South America well and had flown the heavy C-130 airplanes several times on journeys to Washington D.C., always landing in Andrews Air Base, where the American Air Force planes used by the top ranking presidential staff were based. He saw Air Force One, the American presidential plane parked there. He knew Paris, London and Lisbon, where he had been several times on numerous missions. And Miami, sightseeing.

When he was still a major, he was transferred to the Serviço Nacional de Informações (the National Inteligence Service - SNI), an organization subordinate to the President of the Republic, whose official task was to provide the president with psycho-social, military, economic and political information needed for decision making.