John F. Kennedy is celebrated as one of Americaâs greatest presidents, but his legacy hides a dark truth. If he had lived to serve a second term, he would have triggered a nuclear war, wiping out much of the worldâs population. Nineteen years after the disaster, a group of scientists in an underground bunker develop a method to send a personâs consciousness back in time. Their only hope for survival is agent Wayne Bronson, who must inhabit the body of Lee Harvey Oswald in 1963. His mission: assassinate Kennedy and stop the apocalypse before it begins.
John F. Kennedy is celebrated as one of Americaâs greatest presidents, but his legacy hides a dark truth. If he had lived to serve a second term, he would have triggered a nuclear war, wiping out much of the worldâs population. Nineteen years after the disaster, a group of scientists in an underground bunker develop a method to send a personâs consciousness back in time. Their only hope for survival is agent Wayne Bronson, who must inhabit the body of Lee Harvey Oswald in 1963. His mission: assassinate Kennedy and stop the apocalypse before it begins.
Wayne Bronson peered down the scope of a bolt-action
rifle. He was tracking a moving target 80 meters away.
The target was a cardboard cutout of a thug with a gun
pointed in Wayneâs direction. There wasnât anything
specific about the caricature on the cutout that said
âthug,â it was the vibe of his look, like a mobster
hitman from Hollywoodâs Golden Era.
The head of the target was in the crosshairs of
the scope. Continuing to track the target, Wayne
held his breath and pulled the trigger. CRACK! Nice
shot. Right in the forehead, just as he had done many
times before.
Wayne pulled back the bolt to load the next
round. The next target moved into view. Once the shot
was lined up, Wayne pulled the trigger again. CRACK!
That one hit the target in the mouth. A lethal shot all
the same.
Another forehead shot. Another. Oops, pulled
the trigger a little too late on that one, missed entirely.
Another forehead shot. Another. Wayne continued
until there were no more targets on the conveyor.
An alarm buzzed. Wayne stepped out of the booth
and took off his ear protection. His friend, Terry âRatzâ
Ratzkowski, approached him.
Ratz was in his early twenties; much younger than
Wayne. He was slightly shorter and sported a shaggy
hairdo that resembled a grown-out mop top. In the
bunker, military regulations regarding hairstyles were
lax and there were no celebrities to dictate new trends.
Ratzâs hair was the popular style in 1968, when theyâd
first entered the bunker . . . nineteen years ago.
Wayne, in his forties, favored a more conservative
cutâshort on the sides with a little more length on
top, neatly combed to the side. He was accustomed
to this style, having experienced military life outside
the bunker, when regulations were far stricter. His
unshaven face was framed by salt-and-pepper scruff.
Both men were in excellent shape. The government
spared no expense on the bunker gym, and with little
else to occupy their time, Wayne and Ratz spent a
considerable amount of it there.
âNice shooting, Wayne.â
âThanks, Ratz.â Wayne handed him the ear
protection and rifle. âGood luck.â
âIâm going to need it,â said Ratz with a sigh.
Indeed, he needed it. But luck was not on Ratzâs
side. Wayne watched him get off a couple of good
shots, but most were complete misses. He wasnât the
only agent to struggle with the archaic bolt rifle, but he
was particularly bad.
Ratz came out of the booth and handed the ear
protection and rifle to the next agent in line. Wayne
turned to Ratz as they left the shooting range. âBetter
luck next time.â
âI donât need luck. I need skill. I am no good at
sniper shooting with that piece of shit.â
It annoyed Wayne that Ratz was so hung up on his
lack of bolt rifle sniper skills, because he was so good at
EVERYTHING else.
Hand-to-hand combat: Ratz would have his
opponent on the mat in an arm-bar before they had a
chance to throw a punch. Deductive reasoning skills:
During game night, Ratz would have deduced it was
Mrs. Peacock in the conservatory with the wrench,
while Wayne was still trying to get a high enough roll
to make it to the billiard room. And Wayne didnât even
want to get started on Ratzâs Monopoly expertise. He
would have three hotels up before Wayne even had a
monopoly to build a house on.
On top of that, the dude could win a debate on
any subject. Heâd convinced Wayne it would be ethical
to go back in time to kill baby Hitler.
Despite the flawed premise. Time travel was not a
thing. Yet.
Ratz could also play the guitar. The list went on.
Ratz and Wayne walked together through the
corridors of the bunker toward their rooms.
âWho cares if youâre not a good marksman?â asked
Wayne.
There was a frustrated tone in Ratzâs voice. âIâd
like to be good at it. At least I can run up to my
enemy and shoot him from a few feet away. Maybe I
should just be satisfied that I can get the job done one
way or another.â
Wayne smiled. âThatâs the spirit. See you at the
gym.â
Ratz nodded. The two parted ways and headed
back to their rooms.
The Patsy is author D.J. Hupp's debut novel, and in it he tackles one of the most well-known and much speculated about events in American history: the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963. The story launches via an alternate timeline that blends historical detail and creative fiction to build an imaginative, exciting account of the events behind Kennedy's tragic death that day.
In The Patsy, JFK was not the target of an assassin on 11/22/63, but rather went on to successfully fulfill his first four years in office and even won a second term. However, his policies set the US on a disastrous collision course with the USSR, which culminated in worldwide nuclear obliteration, except for a handful of government employees, scientists, and their families who made it into secret underground bunkers where they've survived for the past 19 years. During this time, research on time travel advanced to the point that the bunker leaders developed a plan to send an agent back in time to kill Kennedy before his actions could lead to the eventual destruction of civilization on the planet's surface.
The main character is 41-year-old Wayne Bronson, a young West Point graduate, when he entered the bunker. An expert marksman, trained on the same bolt-action rifle Oswald owned, he is tapped by the bunker commander to be sent back in time, inhabiting both Oswald's mind and body, in order to implement their plan to kill the president as his motorcade passes through Dealey Plaza past the Texas Book Depository: an event which never occurred in their timeline. The author makes the setting and time period come alive through strategically placed references to books, music, movies, television shows, and iconic Dallas landmarks and institutions. As a contemporary of the time period and a local to boot, the story was a magical trip to the past. I was fascinated by how Wayne's exciting fictional mission was so cleverly woven into the historical record of the actual events, including the known movements of the major figures involved on the days before, during, and beyond the assassination itself, as well as the imagined aftermath of the changes the manipulation of events had on the new present and especially Wayne's life.
With its clever mix of fact and fiction and the very human reactions of the formerly bunkered characters to their sudden freedom, I recommend THE PATSY to readers of speculative or historical fiction.