It was eminently clear that the new chairman of the Federal Reserve board was not making the slightest attempt to maintain even a thin veneer of political neutrality. He emerged as campaign manager, traveling companion, and chief confidante of President Mark Beaulieu. The new president declined to fill the now-vacant vice president’s office, and he did not replace the late Benjamin Benares as chief of staff. Tauriq Haddad became, in effect, the surrogate president, chief of staff, and vice president.

Two weeks before the election, Mark Beaulieu was scheduled to deliver a rousing speech at a giant patriotic rally at Soldier Field in Chicago. Tauriq Haddad arranged the entire event, complete with flags, banners, marching bands, and an enormous pyrotechnic display of an American flag to be set off at the end of the president’s speech.

The event was carried on national television with arrangements for retransmission worldwide. Everything, down to the wild applause of the crowd, was carefully orchestrated. Nothing was left to chance— nothing, that is, except the unexpected.

At the closing of the president’s speech, he stood before the blazing American flag. But, just as the crowd rose in a thunderous ovation, a swarthy man in the front row pulled a .44 Magnum from under his coat and screamed, “Death to the New World Order!” He fired a volley of five shots at the stunned leader. With the sixth shot, the gunman turned the weapon on himself and ended his own life.

Four of the five bullets scored direct hits on the president. He was wearing a bullet-proof Kevlar shirt, but his head and neck were unprotected. The first shot missed, the second and third struck him in the chest and did no damage; but the fourth struck him in the neck, and the fifth ripped into his face and tore away part of the scalp. The scene was even more horrifying than the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963 because high-definition color cameras with telephoto lenses were trained directly on the president’s face at the time. The audience saw every horrifying detail as the popular young president instantly fell dead to the platform.

When the screams and pandemonium of the event finally ceased, a strange hush settled over the stadium. The pyrotechnic flag burned itself out, the sporadic hissing and popping of the fireworks casings adding to the surrealism of the moment. Immediately the stage lights came up full. Secret Service agents hurried about trying to cordon off the area, but it was now too late for protection. The president of the United States lay dead, murdered before the stunned eyes of the world. No one spoke. No one in the crowd even moved.

After several solemn minutes, a lone figure strode across the platform with a wireless microphone in his hand. In the quiet, his hard leather heels echoed loudly on the wooden platform. It was Tauriq Haddad.