Independence Square, Cabinda, Freedom Day Parade
The festivities leading up to Freedom Day had lasted for the entire week, culminating in a massive parade through the capital to the government building in Independence Square, and this year’s event was even larger than the last one. Over four thousand Cabindans from all over the small nation had migrated to the capital city to participate, making the parade even larger than the ones which had formed to celebrate West Angola’s first World Cup qualification nineteen years ago. At the head of the parade in a quasi-open vehicle (protected by a screen of thick bulletproof glass) Michael Raven and his senior officials waved to the adoring crowds and led the snaking throng through the city. Seated next to Raven was his Foreign Minister, Raymond Hollis, and scattered through the crowd were members of Lieutenant Nichols’ strike team waiting for his signal.
Hollis tried to hide his nervousness as he glanced over at the President just a few inches away. The agreement he’d made with Nichols called for them to wait for his signal before taking Raven down, but if Nichols decided to strike now and remove them both, there was little he could do to stop him. With him dead, the cabinet would fall into infighting and chaos as the lack of a true successor to Raven and himself prompted them all to try to seize power. Nichols’ would undoubtedly prefer that result, and had likely been given orders to guarantee such, but Hollis Hollis was counting on Nichols not wanting to waste the opportunity he’d given him to get rid of Raven and avoid being captured afterwards. Essentially, he was playing off of Nichols’ desire for self-preservation rather than taking the easy way out. Once he was safely inside the government building and Raven was exposed out on his balcony with only his guards to protect him, Hollis would be insulated from the collateral damage of the assassination, and would be able to take power quickly and effectively, preventing the chaos that he saw approaching. Hollis didn’t see himself as a bad man, only as an ambitious man, and despite his friendship with Raven, his desire for power was greater.
Watching Hollis try to hide even the hint of his nervousness, Nichols smiled and said softly to himself, “He knows I can end his life right now and accomplish every goal I have for this mission. The fool gave me all the cards and he’s only just now realizing it.” He didn’t intend to kill Hollis yet, but he still enjoyed watching the traitor squirm. After Hollis had left to return to Cabinda, he and his XO, Sergeant Kevin Dorne, had hatched a plan to reveal the Foreign Minister’s involvement in the plot. After the assassination had been carried out, one of the strike team members, Private Christopher Alexi, would surrender to the Cabindan authorities, and under interrogation he would reveal to them Hollis’ complicity. Once he had implicated the Minister, he would activate the subcutaneous tracking device implanted in his arm, allowing Nichols and the surviving members of the team to stage a rescue operation and escape back to West Angola with the operational integrity intact. Extra care would have to be taken to ensure that Alexi didn’t reveal their allegiance or their ties to Namibe, but if they got away after spilling the beans on Hollis then the escape would only raise the suspicion of the Foreign Minister.
As the cheering continued, the government motorcade reached the government building, and, surrounded by his guards, the President got out accompanied by his senior officials. Hollis breathed a sigh of relief as they made it through the door way and into the relative safety of the building. Nichols had decided to follow the plan, and now he was safe from whatever attack the Lieutenant had planned. With a start, he realized Raven was speaking to him, “I’m sorry, Michael, what did you say?”
“I said we’ve certainly come a long way since our headquarters in your basement, Ray.”
Hollis forced a smile, “We sure have. Sometimes I wasn’t sure we’d get this far.”
Raven clapped him on the shoulder as they headed up the stairs, “You’re one of the main reasons we did. I and everyone else in this country owe you our freedom, and I’ll never forget that.”
Hollis’ smile was becoming harder to maintain, Dammit Michael, why’d you have to pick this moment to get maudlin with me? You’re just determined to make this difficult.
When the group reached the second floor, Hollis hung back with the other members of the cabinet as Raven stepped forward to the adoring cheers of the crowd and nervously clasped his hands in front of him in anticipation, also the signal to Nichols to execute the President. This is it. Just a few more seconds…
Down in the square, Nichols saw Hollis clasp his hands in front of him and tapped his earpiece. “Greg,” he said, addressing the team’s sniper concealed in a blind across the square from the balcony, “take him out.” Barely audible above the noise of the crowd, a gunshot rang out and the President fell backwards, blood trailing from a hole between his eyes. Nichols saw Alexi raise the dummy pistol he’d smuggled into the square, making it appear as though he had fired the shot, and shouted at him, “Look! There! That man shot the President!” As the crowd rushed away and police rushed towards him, Alexi dropped the gun and raised his hands in surrender. Nichols, confident that all was going according to plan, was about to turn away when he saw one of the policemen place his gun on Alexi’s forehead and shoot him. Surprise and alarm frozen on his face, the young Private crumpled to the ground. With Alexi dead, there was no way to reveal Hollis’ place in the attack, which meant that the Foreign Minister would likely be able to take power with very little unrest, something that Nichols couldn’t allow to happen. He quickly activated his earpiece again, this time addressing his XO, “Dorne, Alexi’s down and someone’s got to spill the beans. Don’t wait up on me.” Whatever reply the Sergeant might have made was lost as Nichols plucked out the earpiece and crushed it under his shoe, then rushed towards the gathering ring of policemen.
David Blake, the Chief of the Cabindan Police Department, was in the middle of screaming at his subordinate for killing the assassin when a civilian broke through the cordon. Cursing the incompetence of his mostly-green force, Blake drew his sidearm and brandished it at the newcomer, “Stop there or you’re dead.”
The man skidded to a halt, his eyes traveling between the gun and the body of the assassin several times before speaking. “I am this man’s co-conspirator. I surrender.”
Blake was caught off-guard, “You what?”
“I surrender. You have me surrounded and my partner is dead, and I have no wish to follow him into death.”
Recovering from his surprise, Blake motioned for his men to restrain their captive, “You may not get that wish when this is all said and done, and if you want to avoid it you will tell us everything. Do you understand?”
The man nodded, and Blake gestured to his officers, “Take the bastard away.”
Star United States 
