The Twisted Utilitarian

The man in the baseball cap rested his rifle on the ledge of the rooftop, squinted into the eyepiece, aimed at his target, and fired. The bullet pierced the President’s heart, causing a dark splotch on his white shirt, blossoming into a deep rouge. Joy transformed into terror and chaos. People screamed. People cried. Trying to get away from the man that they came to listen to. His cheesy smile morphed into confusion and surprise, clearly etched on his face. The secret service rushed onto the stage. The wail of sirens reached everyone’s ears, moving towards the crowd. Makeshift barricades were constructed to relocate his army of supporters out of the way for the ambulances. He was quietly wheeled out amongst the chaos, into an ambulance, where he was pronounced dead.

Meanwhile, the man in the baseball cap exited the building and had arrived at the safe house. He dialled his client,

“Hello?”

“It’s done. Transfer the funds.”

He hung up, threw the mobile on the couch and started to clean his gun.

***

The Speaker of the House, Richard answered his ringing mobile. It was the head of the Secret Service. He listened to what the man had to say.

“What! He’s dead? What are you talking about?” he replied, “Ok, I’ll sort it out. Bye.” He ended the call.

“Dammit!” He sat down at his desk and put his head in between his hands and rubbed his eyes. His assistant, Rose ran up to him and handed some folders to him. A few of them had paperclips. A few of them didn’t.

Finding her breath, she asked, “Excuse me, sir… What should we tell the media?”

He replied, “Tell them he’s dead. And get me the Vice President on the phone.”

“Yes sir”, she acknowledged.

Richard came out of his office and looked at his surroundings. He could feel the contained panic in the air, it radiated off his staff.

His assistant came up to him, “Sir we can’t get across to the Vice President”

“Where is he?” He demanded.

“We’ve triangulated his phone. It’s at his house. We’ve sent someone at his house to pick him up and bring him here at the Capitol Building.”

“Good. When he gets here bring him to my office.”

She submitted and hurried to convey his message.

 ***

The man in the baseball cap walked out of the house and drove to the safe house. When he arrived, he dialed his client,

“Hello?”

“It’s done. Transfer the funds.” Before he ended the call, he asked, “Why did you ask me to kill them, the two most powerful men in America?”

The person at the other end of the line replied to the question, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, “They were both corrupt, low-life scums that rigged their own elections and could easily be bought off with money. They could sniff out a cheque a mile away.” He laughed, then hung up.

The man with the baseball cap threw the mobile on the couch and started to clean his gun.

***

Rose rushed to tell him that that the Vice President had been killed. She was secretly happy that they had been taken out of office. She believed that it was an act from God. Nobody could legally get the President impeached and thrown out of office. She knew because they had tried. Twice. They had even tried to get the Vice President impeached too, but it had failed, and they ended up looking embarrassed by the two scums. She knocked on his door.

He replied, “Come in.”

“Sir, the Vice President has been killed. The same way as the president. A bullet to the heart.” A choked sob escaped her mouth and a tear rolled down from her eye.

“Relax, take a deep breath. Now speak.”

She inhaled, exhaled, and then spoke.” What should we tell the people? Do we say that they’re both dead? That the vice president’s alive but in hospital? That America has no one leading it. Their president and vice president have been killed.”

“We tell them the truth. Call all the major news outlets and say to be outside the Capitol building at nine o’clock sharp, I’ll be giving a speech.”

“Okay, anything else?”

“Yes, remember to breathe.”

She smiled. “Yeah okay, I’ll try.”

Richard thought, oh my god women and their emotions. They’re sensitive to everything.

***

The next morning the press were gathered outside the Capitol building. There was extra security to make sure that there wasn’t going to be a repeat of the previous day. Richard walked up to the podium.

“Hello, my fellow Americans. I stand here today with great difficulty, extremely saddened by the death of our remarkable president, and vice president. They were both killed by a monster. A heartless, cruel, cold-blooded monster. The presidency comes to whoever is next in the line of succession, which is me, as I am the Speaker of the House. As the new president of the United States, I vow to you that I will find this brute and make sure that he gets the punishment he deserves. The FBI and CIA have already opened up an investigation to find out who killed these two great men. If you have any information regarding the murder of our leaders don’t be hesitant to tell the police. You will get what you deserve. Likewise, I will always tell you the truth and remain transparent to the American People.

I believe – that in these tough times we have to stick together as a nation, not grow apart. I understand that times can be difficult and exhausting sometimes, but we as Americans have to boost ourselves up. We can get through this. We must get through this. If you need help don’t be afraid, reach out for help. If you feel scared that you or the people around you are in danger don’t hesitate to call the police. As a security precaution, for the next week, there will be an increase in the number of police officers that patrol around malls, schools, and offices all around America. On a final note, I want to let all Americans know – that this new administration genuinely cares about every single American. In God We Trust. Thank you.

Richard walked off the stage and went to his office, locked the door, and dialed an unknown number. He ordered.

“Get it done. The third politician. The name is on the list. I’ll transfer the funds.”

He ended the call and started typing on his computer.

He begins,

Operation Paperclip Brief

(In honour of the 1945 operation to recruit German scientists to aid our post war military research, where army officers would attach a paperclip to the folder of those whom they wished to bring to America.)

America needs people that are modern and have an advanced way of thinking. Someone who understands the old generation and new generations to come. She doesn’t need the same old politicians that can easily be lured in with money and have a backward way of thinking when we are trying to go into the future.

This operation involves surveillance on Americans who are fit to be politicians, and persuasion into politics, indirectly. Placing political ads on websites that the subject visits is one way to influence them. The ads must encourage them to choose a career in politics. If they are not influenced, then they will be persuaded directly. These actions influence Americans to learn more about American politics and lead them to believe that they can change and wipe any injustices in American politics.

 Reflection

My imaginative piece, “The Twisted Utilitarian” was written for purpose of the module studied this term in Preliminary English; Reading To Write.  I drew my main inspiration from F.Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby”, American politics, as well as a book I am currently reading called “The Assault On Reason” by Al Gore. One of the themes that I have included in my short story is transgression, which is also portrayed throughout “The Great Gatsby”. Fitzgerald writes in prose-fiction form, installing literary techniques and quotes to communicate his ideas. Similarly, I embedded literary techniques and quotes in my short story to share my ideas and allow my reader to connect with my characters.

In “The Twisted Utilitarian”, my target audience is directed at adult and young adult readers as it is written in the third person has formal language, and is a political thriller. I wanted the reader to reflect on whether or not the main character transgressed or was what he did morally acceptable? My story challenges people’s morals and philosophies on what they believe in. This is shown in the dialogue between the hitman and his client:

“Why did you ask me to kill them, the two most powerful men in America?”

The person at the other end of the line replied to the question, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, “They were both corrupt, low-life scums that rigged their own elections and could easily be bought off with money.”

 The exchange between the two men makes the reader contemplate if the events that occurred were right or wrong. The Vice President and President were bad people, but did they deserve to be killed? Was the hitman that killed them morally pure or evil, after all, he took two lives and we observe at the end of the story he is ordered to kill another. My main character believes in utilitarianism, which is the moral theory that focuses on the greater good that will benefit humankind and society as a whole and that the most ethical choice is the one that will produce the greatest good for the greatest number. However, what utilitarianism means to him is distorted and twisted because he believes that he has the right of killing whoever he wants to and forcing events and people to come about in an unnatural way.

In the beginning of my story, the President is murdered. The setting is described with visual imagery to convey the chaos and disarray to the reader. It is shown through the quote,” His cheesy smile morphed into confusion and surprise, clearly etched on his face. The secret service rushed onto the stage. The wail of sirens reached everyone’s ears, moving towards the crowd. ” Through these quotes, the reader can imagine and feel the range of emotions, and panic the characters are going through. They are shocked at the events that had taken place. In the module Reading To Write, F. Scott Fitzgerald has a unique way of writing, where he used imagery and mystery to keep the reader absorbed in his prose-fiction novel. Similarly, I used imagery and mystery to keep the reader engaged in my story.

When writing my story, I focused more on showing rather than telling. I wanted the reader to figure out what happened.  The repetition of certain sentences leads to ambiguity because the reader sees what happens in the first situation

“… drove to the safe house. When he arrived, he dialed his client,

“Hello?”

“It’s done. Transfer the funds.”

Ambiguity is shown here to reveal to the reader the events that had unfolded. The events are not clearly stated; however, the reader makes these conclusions from the given information.  This quote is ambiguous because it is the second time it is said in the story. The first time is when the hitman killed the President, so the reader can presume that the second time the hitman says these words is when he has killed the Vice President, because in the previous paragraph before the quote mentions that they can’t get through to him, making the reader feel worried about what happened to him.

The political and historical allusion is evidently depicted in The Twisted Utilitarian when the hitman has a conversation with his client; “…rigged their own elections and could easily be bought off with money.” In this day and age politicians and their representatives can manipulate and tamper with the results of their election. This can be shown in the 2016 election in America. They are also easily bribed because they need the money to spend on their election campaign. The historical allusion is shown at the end with the motif of Operation Paperclip. “Operation Paperclip Brief (In honour of the 1945 operation to recruit German scientists to aid our postwar military research, where army officers would attach a paperclip to the folder of those whom they wished to bring to America.)” This operation is a real operation that was conducted in America when more than 1,600 German scientists, engineers, and technicians, were taken from Germany to the United States, for U.S. government employment, between 1945 and 1959. The main purpose for Operation Paperclip was U.S. military advantage in the Soviet–American Cold War and the Space Race. I named my character’s operation, Operation Paperclip because the operations are a bit similar. In my story, Richard’s operation is to get current corrupt politicians out of office and replace them with newer, younger politicians that are not corrupt. However, a note that I must make is that he does not consider that the new politicians can eventually become corrupt over time as they get more powerful.

In this module, Reading To Write I have developed my reading and writing skills by appreciating, analysing, and trying to understand how and why different texts convey ideas and relationships. While dissecting texts, I learned how to better develop my skills as a writer and cultivate a deeper understanding of the world, myself, and the lives of others. This allowed me to treasure and value the texts I read, whether the reading was for leisure or school. The texts studied at school, such as the speech Racism is Destroying the Australian Dream, The Great Gatsby, and critiques of The Great Gatsby have granted me to understand different people’s opinions and ideas of the world, and the lives of others. Thus, I develop into a better human being and writer because I become more educated about different opinions and viewpoints in the world.