Surprisingly, an m40A3 sniper rifle turned up shortly after their arrival in Ogunquit. Anyone who has even been in the military knows that supply guys are god, and it would not take a lot of money to engage in an illegal act like stealing a rifle.
The 7.62x51mm NATO (official NATO nomenclature 7.62 NATO) is a rifle cartridge developed in the 1950s as a standard for small arms among NATO countries. When loaded with a bullet that expands, tumbles, or fragments tissue, this cartridge is capable of delivering devastating terminal performance known as hydrostatic shock (penetrating projectiles can produce remote wounding producing incapacitation).
The M14 and many other rifles that use the 7.62×51 round remain in service, especially in the case of sniper rifles and machine guns. The cartridge is used both by infantry and weapons mounted to vehicles, aircraft and ships.
Great care was taken to shelter the two from the theft of the highly prized m40a3. Although the weapon was stolen, it was previously dropped from the active inventory list. It surpassed its value as far as the military was concerned. The Marines were presently using a newer version of the sniper rifle (m40a4) and although there was nothing conflicting with the rifle, it was as good as if not better than its newer replacement.
The final cost for both men to purchase the gun in a cash deal was $100.00. The supply guy knew how the system worked and as an end result the gun long been written off. The link between Richmond, Curt and the supply guy was clearly more than just a chance arrangement and transaction.
The weapon was equipped with a specially designed silencer and of greater significance was a state of the art smoke eradicator. When fired, the silencer hushed the sound and the RAC-1219 electronic suppressor served two purposes: It suffocated the smoke reprocessing it back through the hot barrel where it was vaporized into a fine mist eliminating any trace of flash.
Ammo was easily available. They purchased 100 rounds of .308 Winchester (packed 20 rounds per box) for $2.00 per round. With a fascination to keep the dream alive, Richmond and Curt began to rationalize use of their fatal sniper skills.
One evening while consuming an unbelievable quantity of alcohol they became disturbed as their attention was drawn to a TV news clip about corporate executive compensation and how they flaunted their lifestyle. The piece was not endearing to the CEO’s.
The interview was on the subject of the approaching retirement of ChemCon CEO Jack Summers. They flipped to another local news channel and it was just a repeat of the previous channel.
“Hey! know what someone should do to all those bastards? Richmond remarked.
“Be in hiding just as those pricks receive their mega millions and when they exit the building - POW! Drive a bullet into their spine leaving them paralyzed.” Richmond said at the same time holding an imaginary rifle taking careful aim at the TV. With eyes smooth as glass all of his concentration was on the conceived scheme.
“Get enough of those rich bastards and in the long run you won’t be able to find a CEO anywhere agreeable to make a public appearance - and it’ll drive down the demand for those high golden parachutes and sweetheart deals” Richmond said again.
By now, Curt knocked back enough alcohol causing him to collapse on the bed. After learning of Summers huge separation package compared to their meager combined separation pay of $4600.00 one more swallow from the bottle of Jack Daniels and Richmond also nodded off.
The next morning The Boston Globe featured an article about ChemCon listing the address of the corporate tower in Boston. Richmond tore out the article and shoved it into the gun case. Two of its top executives in Islamabad, Pakistan were sentenced to 15 years in prison for failing to implement safety regulations and for a string of violations at the plant.
Jack Summers was to be honored for his illustrious career on July 3, 2010 in a ceremony at ChemCon Headquarters. His replacement was a hand picked senior executive groomed by Summers to take control of the most tarnished chemical company on the planet. The only other company to have been under attack was Danner Chemical when it swore under oath in a Senate hearing it did not produce chemicals harmful to military personnel in Vietnam. Danner produced the highly toxic mixture known as Agent Orange (Dioxin Poison). It began to affect soldiers and Marines in the late 1960’s when they returned with cancerous consequences.
A class action lawsuit from Vietnam veterans forced the chemical manufacturer to admit guilt. In a 1984 out of court settlement, Danner agreed to establish a fund valued at $180,000,000 (million dollars) for the claimants of the disease causing Agent Orange (Dioxin).
Many falsely reported they served in Vietnam. It was for the compensation Danner and the Veteran’s Administration could make available. One did have to prove that he or she was in country and here lies the fortune for so many wanna’-bees.
The staff at The Cunningham Presidential Estate in South Berwick were organizing their daily household tasks preparing for guests. Former President and Mrs. Vincen endeared themselves to former President and Mrs. Cunningham. The Summers, former Presidents Cunningham and The Vincens would soon have the advantage of the best lobster meal in the Northeast.
* * *
The Cliff House in Ogunquit was the Summers’ choice for vacation - one of the most valued pieces of real estate on the coast of Maine. Before he was chosen CEO of ChemCon, Jack and Siarah set aside the first weekend following Labor Day for their annual retreat, but the phone never stopped ringing. The continuing corporate meetings via telephone or computer conferencing, the wheeling and dealing were not always contributing to a restful time for Jack or his wife.
People the world over arrived in Ogunquit every summer to visit the renowned Marginal Way, Perkin’s Cove and the opportunity to inhale the salt air and temporarily dissolve their problems. It was a place where lobster shacks, chocolate purveyors, ice cream vendors and gift shops prospered. With no less than 25 antique shops, many converted old Maine barns were overflowing with a “picker’s” dream. McDonalds even featured a lobster role on its menu.
Barbara Dean’s stunning home overlooking The Marginal Way, at one time a celebrated restaurant was now a gift shop in this magnificent quaint New England town of 1200 residents.
Perhaps it would be better to wait until Summers and his wife were in Maine to put their plan into action. Traveling to Boston presented problems with logistics, but so did Maine. With the president living just miles away, The Secret Service would relentlessly confirm each lead. The two men were undecided as to how they would execute their attack. The premeditated activity and the combination of the PTSD was about to take its toll.
The Secret Service thus far had not installed the most modern radar detection device: The Radio Equalizer which could instantly distinguish from where a shot was fired.
Their plan was to strike as the Summers’ were en route and consequently nobody expecting the assault. Within minutes of the Summers car coming to a stop, the assailants would have escaped the scene.
If all went according to their plan following the destructive hit, the first reaction would be that it was a random act of violence. These guys were about to become vigilantes with a distorted sense of duty to their country.
* * *
It was July 3, Siara Summers patiently waited for her husband to depart the headquarters of ChemCon. He was in heart and soul - a free man. A rich man who made it on the backs of thousands of civilians in Islamabad so many years earlier. He could not be held responsible for the actions of the company and, it was getting away with murder!
For weeks the press played up the pending retirement and vacation at the President Cunningham Estate. This allowed Richmond and Curt an opportunity to stake out a location from which they could fire their crippling shot. News reports were filled with anticipation and even made available the route from Boston to South Berwick.
On July 2, Richmond Rand and Curt Whitmore set up a practice firing range at the farm in Ogunquit. Richmond, lyin
g in a prone position with tripod, and Whitmore placed next to him began to make the necessary adjustment to the weapon and targeted an old rotten tree at a distance of approximately 1000 yards.
This was not as difficult a shot which caused the complex maneuver of killing a man from the distance of one and a half miles. This would be to a certain extent a close range shooting. The average distance would have been approximately less than 2,000 feet. At this distance, there was no need for a spotter, but the two were always together.
* * *
“Damn! A miss!” Another! Then another! After a series of adjustments they finally struck their target splintering the wood as the bullet hit its mark.
All that was needed now was to set up and wait for their victim. It was July 3, 1:00 PM as they waited, similar to Muhammad and Malvo the D.C. snipers who terrorized the eastern part of the country 6 years earlier. Malvo was ultimately put to death as the convicted mastermind in the shooting spree that killed 8 people. Muhammad received life in prison.
The press, was preparing a documentary on Summers. Their viewpoint was not endearing to ChemCon. CEO’s like Summers was compared to a Nascar event where people want to see rollovers and hazards - even death to validate their entrance fee. Most people who attend sporting events - especially those of a death-defying nature would like to see something go wrong. It was no different with the CEO of ChemCon.
There was an attitude accompanied by the quick tempered believers that these golden boys of business should be punished. There was a fragmented group of beer swigging radicals who followed this course of action - hopeful and eager for punishment - even at the threat of anarchism.
Richmond and Curt were on the leading edge of igniting the fires on a topic that irritated, aggravated and even motivated a segment of the population. Not since the Vietnam War was there about to be a firestorm of such division of public opinion.
All that had to be done now was prepare for the armor piercing round to enter the victim’s car, and if calculated properly, Summers would be paralyzed. The bullet would shatter his spine for all intents and purposes causing him to become immobile from the waist down. However, to hit a moving target was going to be a long shot.
Throughout all of this, Whitmore’s younger brother Tavis, the third man in the group wanted to be like to be like his brother. Incapable of joining the military, he didn’t have a high school diploma - a pre-requisite for military service. On this day, Tavis would shadow the Escalade from his position outside the ChemCon Headquarters in Boston. Richmond never met Tavis but Curt assured him his brother was responsible.
As the two lay in wait, Richmond’s cell phone began to vibrate. Tavis successfully followed the Summers’ car through Boston traffic onto Route 90 into New Hampshire and the Maine Turnpike. At this point it was ten minutes from the sniper, and as directed, Tavis remained on his phone updating the duo in “real time” - with an order from Richmond to keep the phone line open. They carefully calculated the attack and nothing was going to prevent them from carrying out their plan.
If caught, they would all be implicated in the crime of attempted murder with the likelihood of facing life in prison. Maine abolished the death penalty following their last execution in 1887. Anyone who has watched the movie The Shaw Shank Redemption - a prison movie filmed at the infamous prison in Maine they would think twice about doing the crime.
The pair earlier scouted out a section of wooded area adjacent to an old dirt logging path with an outlet leading to a remote state road once they fired their shot their shot.
With the phone line open Tavis, continually informed the two men of every movement as the Escalade moved closer. With trigger finger firmly placed and Whitmore also lying on the ground Richmond waited for the car to be in sight and just as the black Cadillac Escalade passed, he squeezed the trigger! The force of the projectile ripped through the passenger’s side of the vehicle.
In less than a millisecond, the bullet sliced through the door into, Jack Summers. Mission accomplished! The Escalade came to a sudden stop. Richmond and Curt were positioned far enough away that it provided them time to safely disappear.
In an instant, what was to be a carefree retirement with millions of dollars in reward suddenly vanished. Police and medical personnel arrived within minutes. The victim rushed to the only hospital in York, in grave condition as news of the tragedy traveled quickly to the Presidential Compound.
A team of physicians rushed the severely wounded patient into surgery. Doctors cut into the wound discovering the damage had totally destroyed any remnant of what moments earlier was a healthy vertebrae, but now merely flesh and bone particles. The only option was to clean the area of fragments, and sew the patient up. The diagnosis: Jack Summers was paralyzed from the neck down and now a paraplegic. His dynamic life destroyed in an instant. Now came the realism of dealing with the reason for the incident.
Richmond and Curt managed to make a clean getaway. Eventually, Tavis, after getting lost and barely avoiding a speed trap returned an hour late to the old barn. This was his first time meeting Richmond who was less than enthusiastic about the younger brother! Once back at their meager residence there was uncertainty how they were going to notify the media this act of spiteful vengeance was somehow compensation for executives who disappointment the public. It was a cowardly attempt by three unbalanced disturbed madmen at correcting what Congress and the political leaders are elected to do. Lawlessness is not the American way to deal with any single individual’s vision of the law.
Using an old Remington typewriter from an old desk in one corner of the barn, Richmond typed a letter on plain white paper and for the fear of being caught slipped on a pair of rubber gloves when handling the incriminating evidence.
* * *
The letter read:
“This is only the first of what is to come. Each time an executive is rewarded with such absurd retirement or buy out benefits, we will take revenge!
We will travel to all parts of the country to take out punishment on the board of directors and the CEO’s who rape the public.
Be careful! We will strike again!
* * *
There was no means of identifying the sender. The trio traveled to Boston to mail their letter, steering clear of revealing their location.
The Boston Globe and radio station WRAC, the all talk station was the first to break the news. In the first day, the phones buzzed off the hook - every line glowing! The shooting created an inferno of disgust for CEO‘s. Strangely enough, a majority of callers were in favor of the shooter. How bizarre for the public to embrace the idea of a vigilante method of justice.
Soon, the news and reasons for the shooting was the movement throughout the country. News organizations were adding up the pros and cons with the shocking conclusion: In favor of the vigilante’ justice!
* * *
Tavis Whitmore wasn’t a smart boy. A high school drop out, who tagged along with anyone with a hair brained idea and usually ending up on the short end. One occasion occurred when two adolescent teens convinced him they should enter a neighboring farmers pasture and slaughter a calf.
Carrying knives, the trio selected a calf and began to slaughter the animal. The screaming calf attracted the attention of the owner who caught the trio in the act of the butchery. The other two boys scattered and Tavis got caught holding the bloody knife. The farmer and the Whitmore’s were neighbors and friends. To avoid prosecution, Tavis not only was obligated to pay for the dead calf ($250.00), but to work for the neighboring farmer for an entire summer bailing hay and carrying out back breaking chores. One would think he learned his lesson.
* * *
Curt was flipping through the pages of the Boston Globe and noticed an article about the CEO of CelerateAir under attack for his inadequate performance in the discharge of his duties. Three years earlier Donald Ross convened with the CelebrateAir Board of Directors to forge an acceptable c
ontract for his compensation and a golden parachute when it came time for his departure.
One clause in his contract stated that if after two years he didn’t perform according to the terms set forth in his employment, he would have the opportunity of early retirement and a buyout of one hundred million dollars. Fifty million in stock options, full medical and dental coverage and the privilege of family members “bumping” cash paying passengers and travel First Class anywhere world CelerateAir flew.
It was an obvious slap in the face at the rank and file who came to blows with the unions when mechanics were forced to forfeit 20% of their pay, and cut their work week by 4 hours. The mechanics union ratified the contract to take a reduction in pay from $32.00 to $28.00 per hour. Flight attendants were laid off, and forced to take a pay cut. Many who worked their way to senior flight attendant with the best routes, abruptly found themselves out of a job. It was unreasonable, and the rank and file loathed Ross.
Preceding his position with the company three years earlier, CelebrateAir stock plunged from $75.00 per share to less than $4.00. In a frantic hunt for a new CEO, the company selected the resume of Donald Ross an repugnant airline capitalist who, along with his high priced lawyers and crucial decision makers arrived from Cougar Airlines, a commercial world wide air freight carrier, to the CEO of FirstLove Airlines. In all three instances, Ross played his cards skillfully, always with the trump card close to his lawyers: If his managing skills were found to be substandard, he would always have the option to take the buyout with all of its reward.