The first insatllment of a serial suspense novel
Chapter I
The Death Chamber
As he entered the death chamber, John Cardinal felt nothing but satisfaction and defiance. He had done so many things in his life no ordinary person would have done. He had walked through a mall with a severed head in one hand. He had had dinner with the Italian ambassador, taken a bullet in his thigh, and seduced the ambassador’s dark young wife all in the same night. He had harvested a liver for his girlfriend off his neighbor – without the neighbor’s prior consent or anesthesia. Now it was his turn to die.
He wondered. Who was to blame? His cold, domineering mother? The high school English teacher-lover who gave him a “C” for effort? The avuncular family doctor who first introduced him to prostitution? Or the President of the United States, whose budget cuts forced him out of the home for the criminally insane? By now it mattered little; all of them were dead by his own hand. He took pride in his unique position – he had killed off the roots of his own evil. He was a self-perfected man.
Cardinal sat down in the electric chair. A pair of state policemen started strapping him in. Slowly a curtain behind a large window rose, exposing a jury of witnesses. He recognized his enemies among them: the Secretary of State, the Archbishop of Canterbury, conservative radio talkshow host Bush Limburgher.
The officers tightened the leather bindings until Cardinal grunted. Over the shoulder of one of the deputies, he saw the metal door to the chamber swing open. In stepped Marsha, the blonde, vaguely muscular, stunningly beautiful public defender. She was dressed in a tight, low cut blouse and a miniskirt – the kind of outfit a woman would only wear in a cheap suspense novel.
“Cardinal,” Marsha said. She trained her bedroom eyes on him. “The President has issued you a full pardon.” The jury jeered as the curtain went back down.
“It’s about time,” Cardinal said, curling his lip. “And just like him to wait they strapped me in.”
Next Episode -- "The Mission Refused"