The way the Alumni group worked was on three levels. The first was the Alumni themselves, the special group of people that had met and formed the core of the unit back at the turn of the century. Below that elite number were the beta members, those like Mancini himself who were aware of the group’s existence, ideals and goals — although not necessarily who the group actually consisted of.
But they shared the same ideals, and craved the same goals, and were willing to go to great lengths to achieve them. They would know one member of the core group at least — the person who had originally recruited them — and maybe even as many as two or three; but they would never know everyone that was involved. Such compartmentalisation was the cornerstone of the group’s security.
Below the beta members were the ‘gophers’ — those who served the higher members across the whole spectrum of the American administation, from local police to journalists, and from speech writers to special forces operatives, all doing the work of the Alumni without even knowing who it was they were working for.
Mancini was proud to be a beta member, one who actually knew what was going on, and was delighted that he would now get his chance to meet the elite members of the core group.
It was they, after all, who were giving him his chance of redemption.
3
Manipulation of people was a skill that Hansard had developed very early on indeed, long before his career in military intelligence had even started. It was something of an innate quality, and one which his privelaged upbringing and education had then honed to a razor’s edge.
With Mancini, the man had been recruited by Hansard many years ago, whilst still in the United States Army. Back then, Ellen Abrams had been a Senator who had campaigned for the right of American women to fight with men on the front line of battle. She had finally got enough agreement up on Capitol Hill that a special working group was put together to test the feasibility of such an arrangement.
Private Rebecca Maria Mancini, younger sister of Stephen, was part of that feasibility study, and after graduating near the top of her infantry class, was sent at Senator Ellen Abrams’ recommendation to the front lines of Iraq.
She lasted three weeks before she was killed, and Hansard had met with her brother soon after, stoking his hatred of Abrams — for Hansard had already foreseen that she would one day be President.
Hansard had then brought Steve Mancini on board to his programme, encouraging him to leave the Army and join the Secret Service, where Hansard’s connections helped him to quickly climb the ranks, with the aim of one day being on the Presidential detail.
But Hansard’s manipulations had not ended there — he had also ensured the painful break-up of Mancini’s marriage by setting up his wife to have an affair, which further increased his hatred of women.
And then as the years progressed and the time came closer, Hansard arranged for an after-works Secret Service party to leave Mancini drunk in the arms of a street hooker.
Mancini went privately to a clinic soon after, and then for a second opinion after that, but the verdict was unanimous — Stephen Antonio Mancini was HIV positive, with a bleak outlook ahead of him.
Not wanting to let the Service — or, indeed, his three estranged children — know about it, Mancini went straight to Hansard and asked for his help. Hansard agreed to help hide evidence of the disease from the doctors at Mancini’s annual Secret Service medical — an easy task, as there was no actual disease in the first place, Hansard having paid the orignal doctors to provide false reports — and to cover it up after his death, which Mancini now fully embraced.
For instead of crawling away to die quietly in a hole, Mancini would be going out all guns blazing.
4
Mancini once again thanked his lucky stars for Hansard’s help throught the years. Hansard had given him something to live for after the terrible death of his sister — revenge on that bitch Abrams, that fucking bitch who sent his little sister out to that shit hole to die.
But little Becky hadn’t just died, Mancini reminded himself — her legs had been blown off when her platoon had been ambushed up in the northern badlands, and then she had been dragged, still alive, by a four-wheel-drive through the streets of a grotty little town as an example to others, before being beheaded with a long-bladed knife. The footage, filmed by the terrorist group behind the atrocity, never made it on to US television — that bitch Abrams had managed to cover up the whole incident to protect herself, although she never pushed the whole ‘women on the front line’ crap any further afterwards — but Mancini had seen it on the internet, with his own eyes.
And then after his bitch of a wife had cheated on him, Hansard had been there for him, supporting him through it.
And now he was HIV positive, Hansard was going to cover the whole thing up, so that his kids would never know — and they would be set for life too, each of his three children set to receive ten million dollars upon his death.
For he would surely die on this mission, Mancini knew. He would put a bullet through the back of the head of that bitch Ellen Abrams, and he would then aim his weapon at others, and his Secret Service buddies would have no option but to gun him down.
But what a way to go!
5
Hansard stood at the head of the conference table and held up a hand for quiet.
‘Ladies and gentlemen,’ he announced grandly, ‘the time is nearly upon us. I realize that most of us need to be elsewhere tonight to prepare for tomorrow’s events, but I have a special guest with us here, someone who should make us realize what sacrifice really means.
‘I know you all know of this man — his name, and his role in the proceedings — but I think it is important for us all to see him, here in the flesh, a member of our group who believes in our aims and ideals so thoroughly, so totally, that he is willing to make the ultimate sacrifice.
‘Ladies and gentleman, I give you the man who will willingly die for these beliefs tomorrow; I give you Stephen Mancini, the man who will kill the President of the United States of America!’
The gathered members of the Alumni roared their appreciation as Mancini entered the room, and Hansard watched the scene with calculating eyes.
He saw the spirits in the room lift as they saw the patriot who would lay down his life for them, saw the Alumni draw strength from him just as Hansard had known they would, for there was simply nothing as powerful as a human sacrifice. They cheered, they applauded, they whistled, and Hansard knew they would remain strong, and would see it through to the end.
And then he studied Mancini, a man who had lost his sister, his wife, his children, and now his health, who was being given the chance for redemption, to prove himself as a true patriot, and Hansard watched the man’s private joy as Mancini saw the men and women gathered in the room and realised for the first time the true power of the Alumni. He watched the adulation from the elite group wash over Mancini, and the man seemed to grow physically larger from the attention, swelled with pride at his importance to the group’s plans, and Hansard knew Mancini would not let him down.