The Candidate Read Online Free PDF

Buchanans look like a couple of bird watchers you’d strike up a conversation with on a hiking trail in Vermont. Thoughtful, compassionate, and a little dull.
    Still, they seem like lovely people, a reflection of Americans’ core decency. As they approach the end of the police line, a young mother hands Judy Buchanan her baby and Judy holds it up and makes a funny face—the baby smiles in delight.
    Then there’s a flash of light and a deafening boom and Erica’s world goes black.

CHAPTER 4
    ERICA COMES TO A MOMENT later. She’s lying on the ground, an intense pain shooting through her right shoulder, which took the brunt of her fall. But otherwise she’s in one piece. Screams and cries for help fill the air. Erica looks over to where the Buchanans stood, now a scene of horror and carnage. Bodies and body parts lie bloodied and mangled. She stumbles to her feet, afraid she’s going to vomit; she suddenly feels cold, frigid, and realizes she’s going into shock. But people need help; they’re crying and screaming. Erica sees a teenage girl lying on the pavement—all that’s left of her right leg below the knee is the jagged tip of her shinbone. The girl is frozen, looking down at the place where her leg was thirty seconds ago. Erica races over to her as the wail of ambulances is heard in the distance. The girl is wearing a belt, and Erica swiftly takes it off and wraps it tightly just above the girl’s right knee. Then she lifts the thigh, angling the leg up, and the blood flow diminishes. Two EMTs arrive and take over.
    As the first responders flood the scene, Erica realizes she’s just in the way. She stands up, and that’s when she notices the twisted, lifeless bodies of Fred and Judy Buchanan. A terrible sadness washes over her, grief for the loss of these two sincere people who clearly loved their country and each other. Then fear takes over. If she’d been standing ten feet closer to them, her own body would look like that right now. Her hands start to shake.
    She goes back over to her pod—who were just far enough away from the blast to escape injury—and picks up her mic, sucking air, willing herself to stop shaking and do her job. “This is Erica Sparks reporting from the campus of Case Western Reserve University, and a bomb has just exploded near the entrance to the Veale Center, where the final Democratic primary debate was scheduled to start within the hour. Both Fred Buchanan and his wife, Judy, have been killed. As you can see, the scene here is one of carnage and chaos. First responders have arrived in force, and the injured are being taken to local hospitals. We have no count of the casualties and fatalities yet, but I would estimate them in the dozens. This is simply horrific.”
    Erica sees a campus security guard standing nearby, his uniform covered in blood. She goes over to him, her pod following, taping.
    “Did you see anything suspicious before the bomb exploded?”
    The man is fighting back tears. “I was over there on the Ortiz side. When Buchanan was shaking hands, I thought I saw a teenager, or maybe he was a young man, pushing forward to get close to him. Next thing I knew the bomb went off. Oh, this is terrible, just terrible.” The man turns away from the camera, unable to continue.
    “Once again: a bomb exploded less than five minutes ago here at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.”
    A man and a woman, both in dark suits, approach Erica. They flash FBI badges and signal for her to stop taping.
    “This is Erica Sparks reporting. I’ll bring you any updates as they happen. Now back to GNN headquarters in New York.”
    Manny turns off the camera. The female FBI agent says, “We’ll need that footage.” Manny looks to Erica and Lesli, who both nod assent.
    “Let us know if there’s anything else we can do,” Erica says as the agents take the camera and walk away. “Get the backup camera, Manny.”
    Erica grabs her bag, takes out her cell, and turns it on.