So, before his first appointment, he sat down at the desk and pulled the package toward him. And, as he did, the ribbon, already weakened by drops of acid, fell away from the box. As he leaned forward to see what had happened, the top of the box flew back, and a cobra’s head reared up in his face. Frozen in horror, Rust remained immobile, and the creature struck like lightning, burying its fangs deep in his neck.

President Ted Rust pushed himself away from the desk and slammed his fist down on the buzzer to summon his secretary, but when she entered the room the president was already sprawled out in his chair in a near-paralyzed state. When she saw the five-foot cobra coiled on top of the desk, she screamed and ran out of the room.

Seconds later, a team of Secret Service agents took control of the situation and called for emergency medical help for the president, who already appeared cold and lifeless. One agent then pulled his .38 service revolver and fired three shots directly into the serpent’s body.

But the severe wound it had sustained only served to enrage the creature, and it slithered off the desk and charged the agent. Another agent appeared with a riot gun. One of the officers screamed out, “Blow that sucker’s head off!” The blast of the shotgun shattered the glass doors. The headless cobra lay writhing at the agent’s feet.

By now it was too late for President Ted Rust. The venom injected in his neck had entered his brain within seconds. There followed an almost instantaneous paralysis of his autonomic nervous system. He stopped breathing. Within minutes, Ted Rust was dead—the first American president ever to die by snake bite.

Thus, Shiva had claimed his second victim. There was one more yet to come.

THE CHAIRMAN OF THE Federal Reserve System, which has responsibility for the money supply of the nation, has been thought by many to have power second only to the president.

The board of governors of the Federal Reserve System had been in marathon session all weekend, trying to coordinate a monetary policy to mitigate the crisis. They had worked night and day to devise a plan that they could coordinate with their counterparts in other developed nations. They had conferred with officials of the World Bank, the Bank for International Settlements, the International Monetary Fund, and the heads of major banking institutions.

As the crisis deepened, a workable solution eluded them. The magnitude of the financial crisis simply could not be grasped while the tragedy unfolded. All they could do was monitor the situation, keep a steady hand, and keep looking for a solution.

The meeting adjourned, and the chairman stepped outside and entered his waiting limousine. He sat down first, then put his feet down. He felt something spongy under his feet and was about to complain to the driver when he felt the fangs enter his calf.