Checkmate

Novel Excerpt

Chapter One: Drumthwacket

White Pawn to King’s Bishop Four

 

 

Friday, July 4, 2048

 

“Ladies and gentlemen, honored guests, Madam Governor. Checkmate here.”

New Jersey State Police Trooper Jake Merryman snapped to full alert as, around him, all conversation in the crowded conservatory stopped with an almost audible thud. At least twenty VIPs, with dozens more pouring in through the open door leading to the tented veranda, all gaped as a Wizard of Oz-sized head appeared above the round hors-d’oeuvres-laden table in the center of the fancy room.

Not surprisingly, the mansion’s holoprojector was state-of-the-art, the image it cast filling fully a quarter of the room. Jake had always wanted one of those, if only to watch football in glorious 3D. Smaller units had become fairly commonplace, mostly with government and corporate types. But one of these big systems, even refurbished, would cost him more than a year’s rent. Maybe the side gig he’d recently landed would help with that.

We’ll see...

Meanwhile, the face now captivating the assembly of state politicos, portrayed in glorious detail, was instantly recognizable.

A skintight black hood and a weird checkerboard mask concealed the entire head. Not an inch of skin showed. The visage was one that had become hugely famous over the last year, having been repeatedly displayed and discussed on every news outlet in the country. Everyone knew it. Everyone talked about it. Some kids had even worn homemade knock-offs last Halloween.

According to analysis, the voice behind that mask was that of a young, college-educated male, definitely Jersey. Whatever his identity, it seemed Checkmate was a local boy.

“Sorry for interrupting the party, but I’m afraid we’ve got a serious matter to attend to.”

Jake caught the eye of Sarah Burke, the trooper closest to him. After a few seconds, she tapped her ear, looking confused. And he could understand why. By now their earpieces should have been buzzing with chatter. There were at least twenty troopers stationed in and around the mansion. Somebody, whether a sergeant, one of the higher-ups, or even Colonel Rhona Johnson herself, should have been barking orders.

But there was nothing.

Jake pressed the transmit contact on his Cuff. “Merryman in the Conservatory requesting orders.”

For a second, he heard nothing. No static. No background chatter.

Without warning, music began to play in his ear.

It sounded like—the Beatles.

“I’d like to be under the sea in an octopus’s garden in the shade...”

What the holy hell...?

This was the Annual Gubernatorial July Fourth Gala, the social event of the state’s political season, held here at Drumthwacket, the governor’s mansion in the ritziest part of Princeton, one of the ritziest towns in the state. Only the crème de la crème of New Jersey’s political elite got invited—which was why Jake had welcomed the chance to fill in at the last minute. After all, how many bus driver’s sons got an opportunity to hobnob with the governor?

Not that he’d been “hobnobbing” with anybody.

The state troopers’ role here tonight was strictly security. He wasn’t allowed to eat or drink anything, much less “fraternize” with the guests. It stuck in his craw, making him all the more optimistic about his burgeoning side gig.

“Merryman,” said Burke, sidling up to him. She looked nervous. “What’s happening?”

“Comms are down,” he replied.

“You think?” she asked. Burke was a wiseass. But Jake didn’t mind that since she was also good-looking. He might even have considered asking her out except she was a bit too by-the-book for him. Sarah Burke lacked Jake’s “street smarts” as well as his keen understanding of how the world worked. “But that doesn’t explain the music!”

“Nope,” he admitted. He scanned the room again. “Where’s the governor?”

“Right there,” Burke replied. “She and her husband just came in from the veranda.”

Jake looked where she pointed. New Jersey’s governor, the Honorable Susan Lapidus, stood beside her husband and the state’s first gentleman, Dr. Joel Lapidus, Chair of the Philosophy Department at Princeton University. They were a handsome couple, tall and slender—young-looking despite being in their early fifties. Nestled in with them stood Gordon Neary, the Lieutenant Governor; Edgar Portermann, the state’s Attorney General; and Victor Cardellini, the Speaker of the Assembly. Add to that the chief justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court, Sally Cooker, and you had what were probably the six most powerful people in the state, all closed in on one another, weirdly reminding Jake of a football team at huddle.

Everyone else was staring up at Checkmate.

Where the hell’s the colonel?

Jake almost asked Burke, but the big floating head started talking again.

“Government is, or ought to be, a contract with the governed, a promise made by the electees to electors. For the most part, everybody here shares that responsibility. Some of you do so honorably. But some of you don’t, and that’s where I come in.”

“Somebody shut that off!” the attorney general demanded. Portermann had a deep voice, one that carried.

At that moment Colonel Rhona Johnson, Superintendent of the State Police, pushed her way through the crowd and into the huddle. She was a small, fit woman near sixty. Jake figured she might have been pretty once, but now either age or the job had turned her grim. He didn’t think he’d ever seen her smile.

She started talking quietly into the governor’s ear.

Checkmate said, “Somebody in this room is guilty of accepting over two million in bribes over the last ten months, all of it from Vladimir Antonov. I’m betting most of you have heard of him.”

Jake certainly had. Antonov was a Russian gangster who operated a number of import/export and civic construction businesses out of New Brunswick. Though Antonov kept a low profile, in law enforcement circles he was widely rumored to be the king of New Jersey’s underworld—not that anyone, from the state troopers to the FBI, had ever been able to prove that. No indictments. Not even a subpoena. But in the past two decades, whenever something shady went down in the state, fingers pointed at Antonov.

Though he would never say so, Jake admired the guy.

Antonov was someone else who understood how the world worked.

At the mention of Antonov’s name, the quiet in the drawing room got even quieter. Weirdly, it reminded Jake of elementary school—the silence that fell whenever a kid was called out by the teacher for screwing around in class.

“For God’s sake, governor!” Speaker Cardellini exclaimed. “Ed’s right. Can’t we shut this off? How’s he even doing this?”

But before anyone could answer, the floating head continued, “I’ve managed to secure records of funds transferred to an account in the Cayman Islands that’s registered to a phony corporation with only one shareholder. Every dollar of those funds came directly from a holding company owned by Antonov. I also have backups of Cuff messages passed between Antonov and this person, in which the terms of the bribery are spelled out. Basically, Antonov wanted certain business deals to be fast-tracked through the state assembly. Favors for cash.”

“You two!” someone barked.

Jake and Burke snapped to attention as a sergeant marched up to them. Jake, being a last-minute addition to this detail, didn’t know the man. But Burke clearly did.

“Sergeant Staunton!” she said.

Staunton was in his forties, average height, and with narrow shoulders. His dark hair was cut military short, half his face hidden behind a thick beard. He wore, as they all did, a formal trooper’s uniform, complete with billed cap. He stood in front of them, glowering, with Checkmate’s oversized head at his back. “We’ve been trying to reach you both.”

“Our earpieces are on the fritz, sergeant,” Burke said.

“How so?”

“Well, they’re playing music,” Burke replied.

“Music?”

“Yes, sergeant.”

“They don’t play music.”

“They do, now,” Jake said, offering his earpiece to the sergeant. “Oldies.”

In the middle of the room, Checkmate said, “The proof of these crimes has been compiled and sent to every major news outlet in the state. A full copy can be found on a nanocard in the right breast pocket of the perpetrator, Assembly Speaker Victor Cardellini.”

Murmurs swept through the crowd like a shockwave. Several of the VIPs actually staggered a step.

“That’s a lie!” Cardellini declared.

Every head turned toward him.

When the governor spoke, Jake expected her to say something like, "These serious charges will need to be fully investigated," or "Speaker Cardellini, let's talk in private." But instead, she turned to the red-faced speaker and said in a loud, clear voice, “Vic, would you please empty your pockets?”

Cardellini tried for “outraged” but only managed “desperate.” “What? No! I’m telling you, this is a lie!”

“That’s easy enough to prove,” the governor pressed. “Just show us.”

“I won’t give in to this... terrorist’s false accusations!”

Governor Lapidus’ expression hardened. “Victor Cardellini, I am ordering you to empty your pockets.”

Cardellini went so pale that Jake wondered how he didn’t faint. “I need to make a call,” he said.

“Later.” The governor nodded to Attorney General Portermann, who turned to Colonel Johnson and said, “Rhona, would you please assist the speaker? I’m afraid he may have lost something.”

Expressionlessly, Johnson stepped up to Cardellini. “Please raise your arms, Mr. Speaker.”

“I will not!” Cardellini exclaimed. “Don’t touch me!”

“Don’t make it necessary for me to call over a trooper.”

“You won’t find anything!”

“Then you’ve got nothing to worry about, do you?” said the lieutenant governor.

Hovering above the table, Checkmate had gone still, almost as if he, too, were watching the drama unfold. But that couldn’t be right. This holoprojection had to be a recording, didn’t it?

Checkmate can’t be here, can he?

Looking like a trapped animal, Vic Cardellini let the colonel pat him down. She did so respectfully but thoroughly, finally pulling something out of his tuxedo’s breast pocket. Even though he stood twenty feet away with a crowd between them, Jake could see perfectly well what it was.

A bishop, a black chess bishop.

Cardellini stared at it in utter, speechless disbelief.

Johnson locked eyes with the governor who said, “Turn it over.”

Nodding, Colonel Johnson examined the bottom of the chess piece. “There’s a nanocard taped here.”

Cardellini seemed to shrivel. His hands shook and he was visibly sweating. “It’s a lie,” he said again, but the fire behind it was gone.

“Arrest him,” the A.G. told Johnson.

The colonel flagged a nearby trooper, who wordlessly shackled the speaker’s hands behind his back.

“This is crazy!” Cardellini exclaimed.

Johnson ignored him, instead instructing the trooper, “Escort the speaker to the barracks. Nobody books or even questions him until I get there.”

“Yes, ma’am,” the trooper replied smartly.

As Cardellini was marched out, he screamed for a lawyer, the sound becoming ever shriller as he disappeared through the conservatory doors.

Still filling the room’s center, the masked holo spoke one final word.

“Checkmate.”

The projection ended.

Meanwhile, Staunton, with Jake’s earpiece to his ear, said, “I don’t hear anything.”

Jake almost told him, Who cares? Did you see what just friggin’ happened?

Then, without warning, a figure burst out from under the serving table, knocking the skirted tablecloth aside and overturning the shrimp tower in the process. Food went flying. People screamed.

“What the hell?” Staunton exclaimed, whirling around.

Jake stared, not quite believing his eyes.

The figure wore all black, his face covered by a checkerboard mask. He pushed through the crowd, knocking down at least four people on his way to the veranda exit. As he neared it, two troopers converged on him, their hands on the butts of their guns.

Checkmate threw something at the floor.

Jake recoiled, covering his mouth as thick white smoke filled half the conservatory.

The VIPs went into full panic, falling over each other to escape the spreading billows. With the door to the veranda blocked by smoke, they instead started pouring out through the two interior exits, fleeing deeper into the mansion.

As they did, however, Jake noticed that nobody seemed to be coughing or clawing their eyes. Whatever this stuff was, it didn’t seem to be in any way toxic.

“Come on!” Staunton ordered. “This way.”

“Wait!” Burke exclaimed. “We can get him!”

“And we will!” the sergeant replied. “Follow me!” He plowed a path through the panicked crowd.

Burke and Jake swapped glances. Then they did as ordered.

The three departed the conservatory through a side door, navigating through an ornate library and down a short corridor that ran past the governor’s private office, before spilling through an exit that put them on the south lawn. Their timing proved perfect. Just as Jake got his bearings, Checkmate sprinted past them, no more than ten feet away, having cut around the rear of the big house. Nobody else seemed in pursuit; likely, he’d lost them in what Jake supposed amounted to a good old-fashioned smoke screen.

With a cry, Staunton took up the pursuit, running full tilt.

Somewhere behind them, Jake heard Colonel Johnson command, “Full lockdown! Full lockdown! Nobody leaves!”

He and Burke took up the chase as well.

“We gotta call for backup!” Burke exclaimed.

“I’m trying!” the sergeant replied. “Comms are down! Hey, you! This is the state police! Stop where you are!”

This did nothing, of course, as Checkmate made a beeline across the manicured lawn. He was maybe fifty feet ahead of them, neither gaining nor losing ground, running with his arms flailing, like a panicked child.

Ahead, the lawn gave way to a curved drive that led from the mansion to the security gate. The latter stood wide open, and Jake could only guess that whoever was stationed there hadn’t heard the lockdown call.

But at least the guy wasn’t blind.

As they all neared the gate, a trooper stepped into view from inside the security booth. To his credit, he instantly blocked Checkmate’s path, his gun drawn.

Perp’s going to throw another smoke bomb, Jake figured.

But that didn’t happen. Instead, the masked fugitive collided with the trooper and they both went down hard on the tarmac.

Staunton, Jake, and Burke reached them moments later. By then, the trooper had Checkmate on his stomach and was shackling him.

“We got him!” Jake exclaimed. He was breathless, but still laughing like a kid at Christmas. “I don’t believe it!”

“Pull off his mask,” Staunton said. “Let’s get a look at this guy.” He tapped on his Cufflight and shone it down on the captured—what? Jake wondered. Domestic terrorist? Not really. Criminal? Sure, kind of. Vigilante? That was probably closest to the truth.

But that was for the brass to figure out. All that mattered now was that he, Jacob Merryman, would be getting an “assist” in the capture of the most wanted man in the state.

With Checkmate trussed up, the gate guard, whose name Jake didn’t know, rolled the perp over. Then, with a nod from Staunton, Burke reached down and pulled off the mask.

The face underneath blinked up at them.

He was older than Jake had figured, forty, at least. He had several days stubble on his chin and eyes that looked more wild than calculating.

“He paid me!” the man declared. He sounded lucid enough, but nothing like the holoimage. “A thousand bucks!” He grinned, showing yellow teeth.

Staunton blew out a sigh. He moved his Cufflight across each of their faces, one after another. “Well, troopers,” he said. “Any of you been drinking tonight?”

It was a weird question.

“What?” Burke asked.

“Yes or no. Drinking?”

“No,” she said.

“No,” said the gate guard.

“Of course not,” said Jake.

“Good,” Staunton replied. There came a faint whoosh from the sleeve of his raised arm, barely a sound at all.

Something sweet hit Jake’s nose. Still a bit breathless from the run, he inhaled it without thinking, and the world immediately started spinning. He didn’t fall. Instead, he felt himself kind of float down to the tarmac beside the shackled man, the Checkmate who definitely wasn’t Checkmate.

The last thing he saw before everything went black was both Burke and the gate guard collapsing beside him on the governor’s driveway while Staunton looked grimly down at them.

The last thing he heard was Sergeant Staunton saying a word. Just one word.

“Checkmate.”