Chapter 679 - 318: Kennedy, Enemy of the World
The conference room door was pushed open.
A man walked in.
He wore an exceedingly plain gray jacket and carried a black, unbranded briefcase.
His looks were so ordinary that he would instantly vanish in a crowd. He had no distinguishing features, no expression; even his eyes were like stagnant water.
He was the consultant.
No one knew his real name.
All they knew was that he had spent fifteen years in the Central Intelligence Agency’s Special Activities Division, specializing in the kind of wetwork that could never be entered into a file.
Now, he was one of Washington’s expensive, underground crisis management experts.
"Sit."
Kane pointed to the chair opposite him.
The consultant sat down, placing the briefcase on his lap.
He didn’t wipe away any sweat, as if he couldn’t feel the room’s temperature.
"I assume you’ve been briefed on our requirements."
The old director from Antai Insurance spoke, his voice hoarse.
"We need to solve a problem named Leo Wallace. We want him to disappear. Like an accident, or a tragedy. In short, we want him silenced."
The consultant nodded.
He opened his briefcase and took out an encrypted laptop.
"Technically, it’s very simple."
The consultant’s voice was steady.
"Security in Pittsburgh may seem tight, but it’s actually full of holes. Although Wallace has police protection, he likes to appear in public. He likes visiting construction sites and communities."
"A professional shooter, a rifle with a high-powered scope, from a distance of one thousand meters."
"For only two million US Dollars."
"We can arrange for a deranged gunman, or stage a car crash with brake failure. The success rate is over ninety-five percent."
The atmosphere in the conference room relaxed slightly.
A few directors exchanged glances, a hint of grim satisfaction in their eyes.
Two million US Dollars? To them, that was cheaper than buying a bottle of water from the vending machine.
As long as they could get rid of that madman, they would willingly pay two hundred million.
"Then do it."
The representative from Johnson said eagerly.
"Arrange it for tonight. I want to see his obituary tomorrow morning."
"One moment."
The consultant raised a hand, cutting off the man’s excitement.
He tapped a few keys and turned the laptop screen toward the group.
"I conduct risk assessments. Before the trigger is pulled, I am obligated to show you all the political consequences."
A complex relationship chart appeared on the screen.
At the center was Leo Wallace, surrounded by countless lines connecting him to the Unions, energy giants, and even certain corners of Washington.
"On my way here, I reviewed your meeting minutes. I saw that you mentioned Kennedy."
The consultant looked at the old director who had proposed the assassination.
"You said Kennedy touched a piece of the pie he shouldn’t have, and that’s why he had his brains blown out in Dallas. You believe Wallace, like Kennedy, is an anomaly trying to subvert the established order, and can therefore also be eliminated."
"That is a fatal miscalculation."
The consultant’s voice grew cold.
"Let’s review 1963 and why Kennedy died."
"Because he made himself an island. He offended nearly every powerful group of that era."
𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚
The consultant held up five fingers.
"First, the Central Intelligence Agency and the military-industrial complex."
"After the failure of the Bay of Pigs Invasion, Kennedy fired the legendary director Allen Dulles and threatened to shatter the CIA into a thousand pieces and scatter it to the winds."
"He tried to de-escalate the Cold War, signed the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, and even planned to withdraw troops from Vietnam. He stood in the way of the arms dealers’ profits."
"Second, the Mafia."
"The mobs in Chicago and New York helped him in the election, but after taking office, he had his brother, Robert Kennedy, launch an unprecedented crackdown on organized crime."
"Union leader and mob associate Jimmy Hoffa wanted to strangle him with his own hands. The Mafia felt betrayed."
"Third, Wall Street and the steel magnates."
"In 1962, to control inflation, Kennedy fiercely attacked U.S. Steel for breaking its promise and raising prices. He used the FBI to audit their books and forced the giant to retract the price hike. This froze his relationship with America’s top capitalist class."
"Fourth, the Federal Bureau of Investigation."
"Edgar Hoover held blackmail material on Kennedy’s private life, and Kennedy planned to replace Hoover upon his retirement. For Hoover, this was a battle for survival."
"Fifth, the Southern segregationist forces."
"He promoted the Civil Rights Movement and supported equality for Black people. This crossed a line for the far-right forces in the Southern States, especially in Texas. In Dallas, many saw him as the destroyer of the Southern way of life."
The consultant looked up, his gaze as sharp as a knife.
"Kennedy was waging war on spies, the military, the mob, capitalists, and segregationists all at once. He had made enemies of the world. When the shots rang out, not a single powerful faction was willing to stand in front of him and take a bullet."
"But Leo Wallace is different."
The consultant switched the image on the screen.
It showed the construction site of the Pittsburgh Inland Port, a power plant of the Energy Association, a rally for the Steel Union.
"Look at his allies."
"First, the energy giants."
The consultant pointed to Sterling’s name.
"ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips, the Coal Association—these titans of a bygone era are now in bed with Wallace. Wallace gave them electricity contracts, the Computing Power Special Zone, and a weapon to fight you pharmaceutical capitalists."
"If Wallace dies, who stands to lose the most? The energy giants. Their revival plans would be terminated. What do you think they would do if they found out you were behind it?"
"They would cut off the entire East Coast’s power grid. They would mobilize all their resources in Washington to launch an antitrust investigation against you."
"Second, armed forces."
The consultant pointed to the icons for the Union and militias.
"Kennedy offended the Unions, but Wallace controls them."
"The steelworkers and truck drivers of Pittsburgh don’t just have votes; they have guns. The per capita gun ownership rate in Western Pennsylvania is every bit as high as in Texas."
"If Wallace were assassinated on the street."
"Those workers wouldn’t see it as an accident. They would immediately assume it was a conspiracy by Washington and the capitalists."
"You would be facing a workers’ uprising."
"Angry workers would storm your local pharmacies and burn down your warehouses. Radical militia groups might even carry out retaliatory attacks on your executives."
The consultant looked at the pale-faced Kane.
"At that point, you won’t need lawyers; you’ll need the National Guard. But do you think, in an election year, the White House would dare send troops to suppress a working class avenging its martyr?"
"Finally, and most importantly."
The consultant closed his laptop.
"Leo Wallace is a populist leader. He has built a closed, fanatical community of interest."
"Within this community, he is the sole prophet."
"Kill a politician, and you eliminate a rival."
"But kill a prophet, and you create a god."
"Once he’s dead, all of his proposals will become divine scripture. The Industrial Revival Alliance will become a religious organization. His successor, whether it’s that chief of staff named Ethan or the one named Sarah, will undoubtedly use his death to launch a holy war against the pharmaceutical industry."
"Your stock prices will plummet to zero. Your offices will be overrun by angry mobs."
"Your names will be written in the history books as the culprits who ignited a second American civil war."
The consultant leaned back in his chair and delivered his final conclusion.
"That is my risk assessment."
"Assassination cost: two million US Dollars."
"Potential consequences: total loss of assets, loss of personal safety, and national turmoil."
The room fell deathly silent.
Only the old director’s heavy breathing could be heard.
The consultant packed up his laptop and latched his briefcase.
His featureless face looked numb under the dim light.
He didn’t wait for the directors’ reply, simply pushing the door open and walking into the dark hallway.
The door closed with a soft click.
Seated at the head of the table, Robert Kane released his grip on his tablet, grabbed a damp towel from the tabletop, and haphazardly wiped the sweat from his face.
"He’s been scared witless by a murder from a bygone era."
Kane tossed the wet towel onto the table, his voice regaining the arrogance that comes from long-held power.
"This crisis management expert took an exorbitant consultation fee only to give us a pile of clichés from sixty years ago. Comparing that punk Wallace to Kennedy? That’s the biggest joke I’ve heard all year."
The old director from Antai Insurance also sat up straight.
He had been trembling just moments ago from the story of Kennedy’s assassination, but now he sneered.
"He is indeed biased. Most of the threats he mentioned are based on the premise that Leo Wallace is irreplaceable."
"First, the energy giants. Do Sterling and his cronies really care about Leo Wallace? They only care about the Computing Power Special Zone and that ten-billion-dollar energy consumption contract."
"That kind of contract can be signed with them no matter who takes over."
"To capital, Wallace is just a temporary landlord who happens to be holding the keys right now. As long as we can offer a better set of keys, Sterling will personally push Wallace down the stairs."
"That’s right," Vance chimed in, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "The so-called ’armed forces’ are also an exaggeration. In a tiny place like Pittsburgh, he might have a few die-hard Union loyalists."
"But in the context of all of Pennsylvania, or in Harrisburg, his ability to mobilize people is nothing to speak of."
Vance paced back and forth a couple of times in the stuffy room.
"He’s just an opportunist who has exploited loopholes in social media and the public’s short-term discontent."
"The only part of this that’s truly tricky for us is the energy giants turning against us."
Kane sat up straight, his eyes cold and sinister.
"As long as those oil guys are still on his side, we can’t get the power back on, and our cold storage facilities are losing money every hour."
Kane looked at Vance.
"Since the energy giants want computing power and profits, then we’ll give those things to them. We can even promise that if Wallace disappears, we’ll use our lobbying resources to help them push for energy deregulation across All of America."
Kane’s finger tapped heavily on the tabletop.
"We need to talk to the energy giants."
"We need to tell them that Wallace is too unstable of a variable. Today, he can give the energy companies benefits to deal with us; tomorrow, he could team up with us to deal with them. This kind of person is a destroyer of order and doesn’t serve their long-term interests."
"As long as they withdraw their protection from Leo and agree to join us in eliminating this uncertain factor, Wallace, the rest can be solved with a single, perfect accident."
Kane looked at Vance.
"Vance, go talk to Sterling again."