The Kid Who Became President (13 page)

I'm quite good at video games, actually. Once I learn the ins and outs of a game, I can beat just about anybody. Certainly any
grown-up
. My dad tried to play me a few times, and he was totally pathetic. Trujillo probably wasn't any better.

But I was rusty. I hadn't had the chance to play any video games since the election. And if Trujillo had played World War Four with his son and was good at it, he could be tough to beat.

If I lost the game, I knew, my presidency would be a failure. The newspapers would eat me alive. I felt incredible pressure to win.

I also felt like an idiot. Trujillo had tricked me into playing his video game. It was too late to back out. After all, playing a video game had been my idea in the first place.

I pushed a button on the intercom and asked the captain to bring us an Xbox 360 Pro system and a TV set. He sounded surprised by the request but said he would get whatever we needed.

A few minutes later, a guy opened the door and wheeled in a cart with the equipment. As he was setting it up, he stole a few curious glances at Trujillo and me. Then he left and locked the door behind him. Trujillo put his disc in, pushed the
POWER
button, and
WORLD WAR FOUR
appeared on the screen.

According to the designer of this game, World War Four will be fought between the two super-powers left after World War Three — the United States and Cantania. North America and South America appear on a split screen, showing the two continents side by side.

“What's the object of the game?” I asked as I picked up a controller.

“Total nuclear annihilation.”

“You have nukes, too?” I asked.

“But of course,” Trujillo replied with a smile. “It would not be a fair fight if one side had an advantage, would it, President Moon?”

He was looking at me with a grin so big I could see his yellowed teeth. All his life, I guessed, Trujillo had hated and feared the power of the United States. Now his nation was an equal to mine, at least on-screen. He was loving it.

Both nations had an arsenal of a hundred nuclear missiles. Some of them could be dropped from airplanes, others launched from submarines, and some could be fired from the ground. Each player also had a nuclear defense shield — sort of an umbrella you could move around the screen to stop incoming missiles before they hit the ground. The buttons on the controller were used to launch missiles, and the analog stick moved the shield around.

The idea was simple — wipe your opponent's country off the face of the earth before he does the same to yours. This game would
not
win any Parents' Choice Awards for software that is good for kids.

“Shall we begin, President Moon?”

“A warm-up game would be sporting,” I said.

“As you wish,” Trujillo agreed. “That will allow me to destroy America
twice.
”

Trujillo hit his
START
button and immediately fired ten nukes from his submarines off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. Red lines on the screen showed flight paths as the missiles made their way toward American soil. I barely had a chance to blink when Trujillo launched ten more nukes from his bombers streaking across the sky.

Missiles were coming in from all directions. I rushed to defend my biggest cities — New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago — plus Washington, D.C. My shield stopped most of the nukes that were heading for those places, but I couldn't stop every one. Trujillo started hitting targets in the smaller cities. Ankeny, Iowa, was wiped out in one shot. I lost Hilliard, Ohio; Bibb County, Alabama; and Fayetteville, North Carolina.

When each nuke hit a target, the area for miles around would turn gray, the color of ashes. That meant it was contaminated by nuclear fallout and declared uninhabitable.

“Death to America!” Trujillo yelled when Spring, Texas, was incinerated.

I went to stop the nukes that were heading for the smaller cities, but then Trujillo began aiming for the bigger ones. Quickly, I lost Philadelphia, St. Louis, Houston, San Francisco, and Baltimore. The map of America was turning gray.

“Just like I told you,” Trujillo shouted gleefully, “without a military advantage, my country can crush yours like an insect!”

“It's not over yet,” I shot back. But in short order I lost Boston and Los Angeles. My situation was hopeless. When Trujillo sneaked a nuke past my shield and wiped out Washington D.C., a huge mushroom cloud rose over America and the whole country turned a sickly gray.
GAME OVER
, the screen said as the Cantanian national anthem played.
THE UNITED STATES HAS BEEN DESTROYED. CANTANIA RULES THE WORLD.

I slammed my fist against the table. I hadn't had the chance to fire a single missile. “
Hahahahahahaha!
” Trujillo chortled triumphantly. “Victory is joyous!”

“Hit restart,” I said tersely.

“Why so serious, President Moon?” Trujillo smirked after he had reduced the United States to a pile of rubble. “It's only a
game.
”

“Shut up and play,” I said. “This time it counts.”

For all I knew, Trujillo might have had the game programmed so that America would
always
lose. I wouldn't put it past him.

But I couldn't worry about that. Clearly, the strategy I used in the practice game didn't work. I had to come up with something different, or Trujillo would destroy me just as easily again. And I had to think of a better strategy fast.

It occurred to me that because the United States was so large, it was impossible to defend
all
of it from incoming missiles. Cantania was a tiny country, about the size of Rhode Island. It was easy for Trujillo to defend his land.

Thinking it over some more, I realized that America's size also gave me an advantage. I could afford to lose ten, twenty, even thirty large cities and still stay alive. But if I could land just one or two nukes on little Cantania, I might be able to wipe out the whole country.

I decided to attack.

When Trujillo pushed the
START
button this time, I already had my finger on my
LAUNCH
button. I fired off ten nukes from my subs, another ten from my planes, and ten more from my ground-based launchers. I was pressing the
LAUNCH
button as fast as I could.

Trujillo had only gotten off a few shots when he saw thirty of my nuclear missiles heading for Cantania. If just a few of them reached the ground, he would lose the game right then and there. He had no choice but to stop firing at me and devote his energy to defending his country.

He was good. He zipped his shield around the screen expertly, picking off my missiles just before they would have hit the ground.

Every so often he would manage to get off a shot at the United States. I ignored his missiles. I just kept firing. Playing aggressively, I had the upper hand, and he knew it.

“You learn fast, President Moon,” Trujillo said as he stopped another one of my missiles. “But Cantania will still prevail.”

He was trying to distract me. I kept firing. The screen was filled with nukes heading for Cantania.

A little counter at the top of the screen indicated how many missiles each of us had left. Trujillo still had almost all his missiles. My counter was already down below fifty and falling with every push of my trigger.

It occurred to me that if I couldn't get through Trujillo's defenses soon, I would run out of ammo. Then he could go on the attack, easily picking off American cities one at a time.

Still, I stayed with my strategy. Every time he stopped one of my nukes, I launched three more. Trujillo's planes were just circling around with nothing to do. He had to use all his concentration to defend Cantania.

Finally, I managed to get one nuke past him, and half of Cantania turned gray. One more good shot and the game would be mine.

After five minutes, I had only ten nukes left — three in my submarines, three in my bombers, and four in my ground-based launchers. I could have fired them one at a time, rotating them to try and confuse Trujillo. But he was so fast with his shield. I decided to just let them all fly in one all-out, last-ditch attack.

I pushed the button and breathed a sigh of relief as the missiles left their bases. From my point of view, my game was over. If one of my nukes hit the target, I would win the game. If Trujillo stopped them all, he would win. It was out of my hands. I hit the trigger one last time just to make sure I was out of ammo. Nothing happened. My missiles were all gone.

I'm not sure if Trujillo noticed that I had stopped firing. He was concentrating heavily on the screen. Those last ten nukes were streaking toward Cantania, plus ten or twenty I had fired earlier.

Trujillo flicked his shield around the screen, blocking my nukes milliseconds before they would have reached their targets. He was like the goalie on a bad hockey team, stopping shot after shot on goal. He couldn't keep it up forever, I figured. At some point, one of my shots would have to make it through.

With just a few remaining nukes on the screen, one of them did get through. It was a sub-based missile I had launched from pretty far out in the Atlantic. Trujillo ignored it so he could stop my other missiles, and by the time he got his shield back to stop this one, it was too late.

“Go, baby!” I shouted.

The missile missed his shield by a pixel or two and crashed into Cantania. A big mushroom cloud rose over the country.

GAME OVER
, the screen read, as the American national anthem played.
CANTANIA HAS BEEN DESTROYED. THE UNITED STATES RULES THE WORLD.

I relaxed in my chair, exhausted from concentrating so hard. I looked over at Trujillo for the first time since the game began. He was sweating and breathing heavily. He threw down his controller in disgust.

“Good game,” I said.

I pressed the intercom button and notified the captain that Supreme Ruler Trujillo and I had completed our negotiations. Almost immediately, the door opened.

“Captain,” I said calmly as I picked up my briefcase, “Mr. Trujillo and I have resolved our differences. Please notify our respective governments. There is no need for us to go to war. No need for soldiers to die. The crisis is over. Cantania's forces will retreat.”

“Never!” Trujillo shouted. Suddenly, he came up behind me and grabbed me around the neck so his forearm was wrapped tightly around my windpipe.

“Give me the football!” he shouted in my ear.

“What football?” I choked. “I don't have a football.”

“The briefcase with your nuclear codes!” he yelled. “Give it to me or I will kill you.”

I let go of the briefcase and he took it with his other hand.

“That's a good boy,” Trujillo said, keeping a firm grip on my throat.

“Mr. President!” the captain exclaimed.

“Make one move and the president is dead!” Trujillo shouted at the captain. “I control the president of the United States and its nuclear arsenal. How does it feel, President Moon? Without your planes and guns and bombs, the United States is powerless.”

“The minute you walk out of this room you'll be killed,” I choked out.

“I'm not afraid to die!” Trujillo gloated. “Can you say the same, President Moon? Because you're going to be my human shield until we get back to Cantania. There I will parade you through the streets for the entertainment of my people.”

“We had a deal,” I choked.

“Did you really think I was going to give up because you beat me in a
video game
?” Trujillo laughed. “Foolish boy.”

How stupid I was! How could I allow myself to be alone in a room with a ruthless dictator and no Secret Service agents to protect me in case he tried anything?

At that moment the image of Agent John Doe flashed through my mind. He was still in the hospital after the attempt on my life. If only Doe were here, he would kick Trujillo's butt. Wait!

Doe had taught me the Secret Ninja Death Touch! It was the deadliest system of self-defense ever created! He told me it was only to be used in life-or-death situations. If this wasn't a life-or-death situation, nothing was.

I reached behind and pressed my thumb on that certain part of Trujillo's body, the neurological shutdown point where you can disrupt an attacker's nervous and circulatory systems.

“Hey!” Trujillo shouted. “Get your hand off me!”

“You get
your
hand off
me,
” I replied, as I pressed harder. The pressure of his arm around my neck loosened a bit as Trujillo struggled to push my hand away.

I pressed harder. Trujillo gasped and a few seconds later fell backward. He slumped to the floor, slamming his head on the table on the way down. By the time he hit the ground, he was unconscious.

 

Front page of the
Washington Post,
December 30:

 

MOON BEATS TRUJILLO AT HIS OWN GAME: CANTANIAN LEADER HUMILIATED, FORCES RETREAT, WAR AVERTED