Bouncer Round 6 #21

Title: ARTICLE 20

Genre: YA Thriller

Word Count: 68,000

Query:

On the eve of the Inauguration the President-Elect and Vice President-Elect are assassinated.

Although the Constitution clearly outlines the line of Presidential succession under Article 20, it cannot take effect because the President-Elect was not sworn in at his time of death. With the country still in mourning, the United States Congress invokes its right as outlined and chooses the incumbent, President William Travers, to remain in the White House for another four years

17-year old Jenna Rae Powell is the oldest daughter of the fallen President-Elect. With the country beginning to forget about the assassination, and stone-walled at every turn as she asks questions into the death of her father, she and Michael Stratton, the Secret Service Agent assigned to protect her, begin their own investigation.

Wading through the varied promises, conspiracy theories and cover-ups that seem to run rampant in Washington, Jenna and Stratton are suddenly aided by Stryker, an assassin who had originally targeted Powell but then had his fifteen minutes of fame snatched away. His only request is that when they find the assassins he is allowed to kill them himself.

The chase throughout Washington becomes more and more dangerous as they follow clues and a trail of bodies that lead them higher and higher into the levels of government.  Every path they take suddenly leads to a dead end . . . with a sniper waiting on the roof for them.

ARTICLE 20 is my YA Thriller, complete at 68,000 words.

I graduated from John Jay College of Criminal Justice.  After several years on the NYPD, where I had to retire due to an injury, I continued to work as a security consultant at a number of locations across the city and in Washington D.C.

First 250:

The morning of the Inauguration had finally come and the principals were quite different from what the voters had dictated the day of the election in November.  President-Elect John Powell and the Vice-President Elect James Mathers were assassinated just a week before and since the Powell was not sworn in on the steps of the Capitol as provided for in the Constitution; the line of Presidential Succession as outlined could not take effect.  With the country still in mourning, the United States Congress invokes its power and chooses the incumbent, President William Travers, to remain in the White House for another four years.

As the voters settle back into their normal lives, the city quietly prepares for the Inauguration celebration, and a teen-age girl stares out of the window of her Georgetown home, wondering how it all changed and why.

           

Seventeen-year old Jenna Rae Powell is the oldest daughter of the former President-Elect and she took his loss hard. A senior in high school the day her father accepted the presidential nomination at the Democratic National convention, she was thrust into the spotlight and became a breath of fresh air on the campaign.

            

Her penchant for speaking her mind, in spite of any type of political incorrectness or protocol, had made her the darling of the paparazzi. Now, the cameras are still there . . . but for a much different reason. With each flash they became far more intrusive as anyone with a camera seemed intent on getting that private, tear-filled moment where her guard is let down and she was NOT going to let them have it.