Is Cain Able?

By Richard Vadim

A political intrigue novella involving the first unelected President of the United States.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Richard Vadim
• Release date: Jan 2, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223318019

Book preview

Is Cain Able?

Richard Vadim

Is Cain Able?

by Richard Vadim

Published by Richard Vadim

Copyright © 2022 Richard Vadim

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law. For permissions, contact: [e-mail]

This work is a product of the author’s imagination.  Any references to people or places are imagined or used fictitiously.

First Edition

To My Family

Table of Contents

Kidnapped

The Ascension

The Run

A New Plan

Signed, Sealed, Delivered

Vice Grip

Double Deal

Resistance

Full Court Press

Sanctified

The Inevitable

Fly in the Ointment

Contingency Plan

A Hiccup

Suspicions

Threats

Slippery Slope

Wrong Place? Time?

Reboot

Groundwork

O.K. Corral

Oz

Nativity

Epiphany

Epilogue

Kidnapped

Bernard Albert Wouk ambled about the McMillian Reservoir Grounds in Northwest Washington, DC.  In the early part of the twentieth century, a slow-sand filtration system located here was essential to supply DC residents with potable water.  However, the subsequent development of more modern filtration systems led to the closure of this facility.

Bernard looked across the flat ground to a neat row of twenty-foot-tall concrete containment vessels, many now overgrown with vines or other vegetation from decades of idleness.  Spotty clouds provided a patchwork of shadows across the cluster of monoliths as if some primitive beings were trying to spotlight this row of unearthly tombstones marking their prehistoric graveyard.

In 2000 this site was designated a DC Historical Landmark, and in 2005 it was placed on the List of Most Endangered Properties. 

These two designations had given Wouk pause when he received a request from the National Cemetery Administration to evaluate the site for some memorial.

An associate professor of Classical Archaeology and head of the Landscape and Memorial Architecture Design Department at Penn State, Bernard Wouk could not wait to find out what the Government had in mind for this protected area.

On this day, after driving the neighborhood, Bernard took note of the size and location of the site, situated between Michigan Avenue NW on the north, North Capitol Street on the east, Channing Street on the south, and First Street on the west.  He photographed the site from various angles.

Finishing his superficial inspection, Bernard left the site and strolled along First Street.  An errant breeze tossed his long red-brown hair and rifled his extensive beard.  Trim, in his early forties, Bernard walked along unperturbed, studying the images on his camera through Ray-Ban glasses.  

He was unaware of the black Suburban idling at the curb ahead of him.  Two large men in off-the-rack suits exited the vehicle and stood waiting for him on the sidewalk.  Startled by this human wall, Bernard’s eyes widened, and his mouth dropped open.

​Mr. Wouk? the broader of the barriers asked.

​Yes?

​The man withdrew a packet from his coat pocket and flipped it open for a moment in front of Bernard.  Secret Service, Mr. Wouk.  Would you mind stepping into the car?  He motioned toward the open door of the monstrous vehicle.

​What’s this about?

​We’ll explain in the car.

​May I see those credentials again?

​The hulk smiled and obliged.  Bernard lifted his sunglasses and studied the documents and the men.  After another few moments, he returned the credentials.                But my car is parked up the street there.

​We’ll return you to it afterward.

​"After what?

​In the car, please, sir.

​Looking around and seeing no avenue for escape, Bernard walked to and entered the vehicle, sliding to the far side of the rear seat.  One of his abductors sat beside him, the non-mute one across from him.  The car moved into traffic.

​Where are we going?

​To see the president, Mr. Wouk.

​President of what? Bernard scoffed.

​The monster smiled.

​Bernard sat back and removed from the inside pocket of his tweed jacket the engagement letter bringing him to Washington.  There certainly was no mention of visiting the president of the United States.  He would have remembered that.  Bernard looked out the window.  The vehicle turned left onto Michigan Avenue NW, which soon became Columbia Road NW. 

​When they turned south onto 16th Street NW, Bernard breathed more easily.  While still dumbstruck, he knew DC’s streets well enough to know that they were indeed heading in the direction of the White House.  Soon they were passing through its gates.  You weren’t kidding, he addressed the communicator.

​No, we don’t kid.

The Ascension

Walker Cain sat at the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office, flipping pages in a file before him.  Closing the folder and leaning back, the president rocked slightly, closed his eyes, and allowed his mind to take him back to the beginning of his political career.

Walker was in his last year at Harvard Law and enjoying himself at a lavish private party at the Tasting Counter, hosted by his closest friend, Silvester (Sly) Wheelhouse.  While the Cains might have been among the one-percenters, the Wheelhouses enjoyed life in the tenth-percenters stratosphere.   Joseph Edward Brandishiron (Jeb), one of Sly’s peers, rounded out the Three Amigos, as they called themselves. 

​When Sly and Jeb revealed to Walker a plan to use their families’ power and money to establish a conglomerate to buy up water rights in California, Walker’s home state, he laughed and threatened to run for governor and, if elected, establish regulations to rein in their planned plundering of natural resources.

​Walker expected a jovial reply, but Jeb and Sly went quiet, stared at him, and then each other.  Following a brief unspoken communication, the upper echelon of the Three Amigos smiled at Walker and simultaneously addressed him