The Land of the Free (26 page)

In the chaos that followed the
horrific news from the Pentagon and the abrupt dismissal of the Chief of Staff,
reports of troop movements in the DC area reached the White House
sporadically.  It was all Torres could do to keep his team focused, and above
all, away from TV sets.  Throughout the White House, people were weeping, or
looking like they were completely in shock.  One of the first reports received
was of the occupation of the NSA and Fort Meade, achieved by blocking several
key roads.  Bearing the fingerprints of Morningstar Security was a simultaneous
attack on the communications systems employed by the NSA.  Key cables were
severed, satellite communications equipment failed, and redundant failsafe
means of communication that were not thought known outside the NSA also
failed.  Employees were prevented from entering the complex, and those who had
arrived were sent home.  All were promised they could return in several weeks
after “certain issues of governance” were worked out.

Undersecretary of Defense Mac
Johnson stormed into the situation room exclaiming, “Secretary Matheson is
missing, presumed dead at the Pentagon.  Half of our facilities in the DC area
have fallen, and I haven’t heard from the other half.”

“Who is it, Mac?” asked Morgensen. 
“Are they Chinese?”

“Reports are all over the map,
Madam Secretary.  Some say it’s Chinese, some say they’re Americans.  You’re
probably dealing with a mix.”

“Any word from Andrews?” asked
Torres.

“It’s fallen, Sir.  I’m afraid
there’s no quick way out for you now.”

“Is there anything in the area we
can call on?”

“Quantico and the Pentagon had the
only forces that could put up any kind of fight.  The others all have
administrative and ceremonial functions.  Now they’ve fallen too.  Nobody else
even has enough soldiers on site to protect themselves, never mind save us
here.”

There was an awkward silence in the
situation room as the gravity of what they were facing began to sink in.  As a
result of their posturing over an island on the other side of the world, they
had left the nation’s capital undefended.  They had done this repeatedly over
the years, sure that they could never be attacked, and were now confronting the
gravity of their miscalculations.

“If it were an invasion fleet we
would have seen them and been ready,” said Mac Johnson, to no particular
effect.  The staff in the situation room did not even look around at each other
trying to size up the situation.  There was no posturing, no attempts to
outshine colleagues.  All anyone did was to stare down at the table or the
floor.  Some wiped moist eyes.  They had been caught off guard, and they had all
contributed to the assumption of invincibility that had led to this tragedy.

Torres finally spoke up.  “How
secure are we here in the White House?”

“We have Secret Service staff of
around 20.  Perhaps a few dozen Marines nearby,” said Johnson.  “Beyond that,
Capitol Police and Security are all that stands between us and them.  If we’re
a target we should assume we can’t hold anyone off for more than an hour or
two.”

“Are there any reports of troops in
DC yet?”

“Actually no, Sir.  It appears
they’re securing all possible sources of resistance first.  But I can’t see it
being too long.”

“Can we get any troops here from
outside the region?” asked Torres.

“I don’t know Sir,” said Johnson. 
“First of all we don’t have many stateside to begin with, as the Secretary has
recently said.  “Secondly, I’ve been getting unconfirmed reports that Air Force
bases around the country have come under attack by some sort of Special
Forces.  They’re armed with heavy stuff, the latest weapons.  Any plane that
leaves the hangar is destroyed, and the bases are falling to the attackers.”

“How did China get that stuff to
begin with, never mind get it into the country?” asked Torres.

“They didn’t,” interjected John
Corson.  “The Chinese troops are only securing lightly defended targets right
now.  Your Air Force bases are under siege by Morningstar Security
mercenaries.  They’ve been at the core of this all along, and I’d bet a good
dollar they’re the ones behind the massacre at the Pentagon.”

“Ellis!” exclaimed Torres with
disgust.  “So that’s what he had in mind.”

Bill Connolly burst into the room
and interrupted everyone.  “I just got a video from the commanding officer at
Laughlin AFB.  It had that Border Patrol Agent who disappeared recently also. 
He’d been abducted in northern Mexico and held at a massive base staffed by
Chinese troops until he escaped.  They crossed the border into the United
States early this morning.  It’s the Chinese.  They’re behind this.”

“Get him on the line,” said Torres.

“We can’t Sir.  Laughlin’s been taken
over.  There’s nothing standing between that army and most of the underbelly of
the United States.  Lackland in San Antonio’s fallen too.”  Connolly opened his
laptop and played a video for the group.  It showed the massive base at San
Gustavo, interspersed with snippets of Cam Burrows speaking about being
abducted by Chinese forces in Mexico.  Torres watched it with a frown and an
occasional shake of his head.

“We’re facing a highly coordinated
operation,” said Morgensen.

“It’s a wonder that they haven’t
taken us already,” said Kurdi.  “Command and control are always the first
objective.”

“We’ll operate under the premise
that time is short,” said Morgensen, walking into the room and turning off her
cell phone.  “We assume that we are a target, that we need to put together a
response quickly, and evacuate the President to safety in a hurry.”

As she took her seat, an aide
entered and whispered something into Mac Johnson’s ear.  Johnson turned in
alarm and asked, “This is confirmed?”

The aide nodded, adding, “Yes Sir,
I’m afraid so.”

Johnson then said, “You need to
tell the room what you just told me.  Include any other details you know
about.”

“There appears to have been a
high-altitude nuclear detonation in the vicinity of our forces in Taiwan. 
Communicating with our forces is impossible at present, as the atmosphere is
charged with so many ions.”

“EMP?” asked Johnson.

“Looks like it,” said the aide.

“Then we’re dead in the water,”
replied Johnson.  “You can forget about using any of the equipment over there.”

“Explain!” demanded Torres. 
“What’s EMP?  And why can’t they do anything?”

“Electromagnetic pulse Sir,” said
Johnson.  “A nuclear explosion at high altitude doesn’t destroy anything on the
ground with its fireball or shock wave.  But it floods the region with an
enormous wave of electrically charged particles.  It’s like a localized version
of what a massive solar storm could do, but it can be far more intense in the
region of the detonation.  On a small scale, you can use a conventional device
to wipe out a small grid.  The outcome is that any microchip in the area
experiences a surge in induced current so massive, it’s destroyed.”

“You mean our military microchips
are not shielded against this?” demanded Torres.

“Certain ones are shielded,”
replied Johnson.  “But it’s only a relative shielding factor.  A true nuclear
EMP can overwhelm even most of those.  And our biggest vulnerability is that
the number of shielded chips is small.  The proliferation of electronics in
weapons systems has run far ahead of our ability to go back and retrofit
shielded chips everywhere.  A weapon system might have some surviving
subsystems, but also a number of dead ones, and the whole can’t work without
all its parts.”

“And you also used Chinese chips,”
said Millie Howe.  “When my husband was still active in the Navy, he identified
a flaw in Chinese chips that made them particularly vulnerable to EMP of just
this kind.  He tried to get the Navy to exclude them from any combat system,
but couldn’t get your predecessors to take him seriously.  He retired shortly
after that.  Today the vulnerable chips are included in the majority of
military electronics.”

“Great news!” said Torres,
sarcastically.  “What about casualties, what are we going to see?”

“Any plane in the air will probably
crash, though the pilots may survive if they’re lucky.  Ships may not be
mobile,” said Johnson.  “The blast itself won’t sink ships or destroy buildings
on the ground.  Troops won’t develop any radiation sickness.  I should also say
that after the static in the atmosphere clears, we may be able to communicate
with at least the biggest ships.  Some communication systems were
systematically hardened for EMP resistance, if I’m not mistaken.”

“Then we have no way of
responding?” asked Torres.

There was silence in the room for a
long five seconds or so.  Connolly finally responded, “There’s always the
nuclear option.”

“I’m guessing you don’t mean that
metaphorically, Bill,” said Torres.

“No Sir, I mean it quite
literally,” said Connolly.

“All my life, I’ve believed it’s a
complete failure of statesmanship and war craft to have to resort to nuclear
strikes,” said Torres, somberly.

“But it’s definitely complete
failure of governance and vigilance to allow your nation to be defeated and
occupied, particularly in this fashion,” replied Morgensen.  “What else would
you do now?”

Torres said nothing in reply. 
After another pause, Mac Johnson spoke up.  “Our surface forces in the region
are incapacitated right now.  But EMP doesn’t penetrate the water too deep, so
our subs could still launch their Tridents.  And we have our ICBMs –
InterContinental Ballistic Missiles – here at home.  They should be ready.”

Everyone in the room could feel the
crushing weight that had just descended onto Torres’ shoulders.

“Mindful of the President’s
reservations, we have to explore every alternative,” said Hanna Morgensen. 
“And the value of our investments in China is not to be taken lightly.”

Jess Linssman became sick to her
stomach at the thought that the principal argument against a nuclear strike on
China was the value of corporate investments.  She excused herself and left the
room.

Torres took the departure as a
signal to winnow down to a small number that would have to make the decision. 
“Ladies and gentlemen, I’d like to go into executive session now.  Mr. Corson,
Mr. Ferguson, please stay on.”  John and Lyle were in the process of getting
up, but sat back down at the President’s request.

The only ones left after the room
was cleared were Morgensen, Connolly, Kurdi, Johnson, Corson, Ferguson and
Torres.  “I don’t know who I can trust anymore, so I’ve asked Mr. Corson and
Mr. Ferguson to stay on.  They know more about this than any of us, and I need
to keep everyone honest.”

Torres placed a call to the Chinese
embassy, which had to scramble to find the ambassador.  When he finally
appeared by video-conference, Torres demanded that “You immediately withdraw
your forces back to the secure port facilities, and back across the Mexican
border.”

The ambassador reacted as though he
had been asked to stop an invasion of Martians.  “Sir, I assure you China has
done no such thing.  The embassy is operating normally today.  We have no
special instructions of any kind.  It is inconceivable that my government could
have ordered such a thing.”

Frustrated by the exchange, Torres
hung up the line.  “He’d react like that regardless of the truth behind it.”

He turned to the group.  “Defense
and retaliation are the questions now.  Defense is easy.  I’ll call home whatever
forces are able to respond and come home.  It’s retaliation we need to
discuss.”

“Retaliation against the Chinese?”
asked Morgensen.

“Of course, who else?” said Torres.

“Rhetorical question, Mr.
President,” said Morgensen.  “We don’t have irrefutable proof they are
responsible.”

“And we likely never will,” said
Connolly.  “The urgency of this situation demands action in the absence of such
proof.  They know that US policy is never to exclude first use of nuclear
weapons.  It was the foundation of our deterrence policy.  To not use it now
would eviscerate the very concept of deterrence.  And secondly what’s with this
crap that we don’t have proof?  It’s Chinese soldiers, Chinese guns, Chinese
FN-6 missiles taking down our aircraft before they can get off the ground.  And
given our covert operations lately, they have the motive of retaliation.  What
more do you want?”

“I’m afraid I have to agree,” said
Morgensen.  “The situation is now beyond the capabilities of the conventional
forces that remain at our disposal.  At the end of the day, what we are
contemplating does not constitute a first strike, since our forces were
technically attacked by a nuclear weapon.  We have to strike back now and
retain the capability for further strikes.  The negotiations to come will not
be pretty, and we need credible threats.  Use the ICBMs now, and keep the
Tridents as a further threat to force withdrawal.”

“Could we hit
them
with an
EMP?” asked Torres.

“There’s no time to reprogram the
ICBMs,” said Johnson.  “Our EMP-producing missiles are on our ships.  Guess
where those ships are.”

“So what the hell were they
thinking?” asked Kurdi.  “To invade the US and not assume you will be sent back
into the stone age, glowing?”

“That’s troubled me from the
start,” said John Corson, who had been quiet to this point.  “I had to decide
early if what we’d stumbled on was plausible.  In the end I decided that if it
was real, there had to be a plan to neutralize the nuclear response. 
Otherwise, it was irrational.  When did this all start?  Maybe eight hours
ago?  And here we sit, still able to launch the nuclear strike?  Right now it’s
looking pretty irrational.”

“As of this moment, our ICBMs are
online,” retorted Johnson.  “How long that remains the case, I can’t say.  You
have to assume also that our ability to communicate will only last as long as
it takes them to seize control of our facilities.  And at that point, our
ability to retaliate is in fact neutralized.  Mr. Corson, we may only have a
small window of opportunity before any plan to neutralize our ICBMs comes into
play.  The Chinese plan probably factored in the time we would waste arguing
about the matter.”

“Are we in agreement then, that a
prompt nuclear retaliation is in fact our only viable option?”  The Cobra was
finally showing her hand.  “I hate to rush such a decision, but it will soon be
out of our hands completely.”

“Give me five minutes, Hanna,” said
Torres.  “It’s my name that will be attached to this decision in history, not
yours.  John and Lyle, come with me to the Oval Office.”

“Five minutes may be all you have,
Mr. President,” said Morgensen.  “There are reports of troops in DC now.”

…

“Gentlemen, I’m probably the most
manipulated man in America, and now’s not the time to be taken in by bullshit. 
Did anything in there strike you as off?”  Torres sat down in his chair across
the desk from John and Lyle, who were still a little overwhelmed.

“Sir, the whole premise is fishy.”
said John.  “We’ve been aware of the attack for close to an hour now, and it
began long ago.  You’ve had time to launch a counterstrike and so far as we can
tell, there’s been no move to take out that capability, nor to occupy the White
House and capture you before you can give the order.  The Chinese ambassador
was correct.  It’s inconceivable that they would order this and leave
themselves open for annihilation.  Surely they have an idea of how trigger
happy those people are in the situation room.”

“Are you suggesting it’s not the
Chinese behind this?” asked Torres.

“Chinese assets and Chinese soldiers
are being used Sir, there’s no doubt about that,” said John.  “But is the
Chinese government involved?  There, I’m beginning to develop some doubts.”

“I can trace things back to a visit
I had from a Chinese envoy that was adamant that we couldn’t pay our debts back
and that they wanted compensation of a different sort.  I thought they meant
Taiwan.  Secretary Morgensen steered me into massively fortifying Taiwan. 
That’s how we overcommitted our troops over there to begin with.  Now that it’s
happened, she wants me to launch a nuclear strike with no more deliberation
than if I were to order some kind of training exercise.  I don’t think the
prospect of 500 million deaths means anything to her.  And what you saw in
there, with her holding back her opinion, was that she was pretending to be
neutral at first and then to be swayed by the situation.  She knew all along
where she wanted this to go.”

“One other thing has always sat
badly with me, Sir,” said John.  “Derek Ellis captured Frank and me, and initially
demanded to know everything we knew.  I let on that I knew it was China backing
him, which I didn’t know with certainty at the time.  He seemed to squirm when
I said it, which kind of made me believe it.  But something else changed right
then.  He broke off the questioning and we were allowed to escape fairly easily
soon after that.  I now think he may have been playing me.”

“I understand that, John,” said
Torres.  “The Cobra’s been playing me all along.  We never let word get out,
but I was almost killed by some ninja on the golf course.  He was a Chinese
national with some mental problems.  The Cobra was quick to pick up on those
details.  So quick that I came to suspect she’d arranged the whole deal to make
me think the Chinese were after me.”

“If she was playing you Sir,
perhaps the envoy was also,” said John.  “Unless you’ve spoken to the Chinese
premier directly, I wouldn’t trust anything you’ve heard.  I can add that
Connolly is a traitor.  I’m sure about that.  I don’t know about the others. 
But it’s possible that there’s been a big Kabuki theater put on for your
benefit.  My gut says that’s a lot more likely than China plotting this
takeover.”

“There’s another point I should
add,” said Lyle.  “Back in the situation room, Mr. Connolly mentioned it was
Chinese FN-6 missiles taking down our planes while still on the ground.  If you
see the missile at work, you’d call it a Stinger missile because that’s what
the US calls its version.  The FN-6 is something we saw back in Israel and I
think it was stocked for when an attack had to have deniability.  I’d recognize
it if I saw it.  I saw a lot of weapons down in San Marcos, but no FN-6
missiles.  And as I understood it, the air bases are under attack by
Morningstar, not the Chinese troops.  So there’s no way he could know they were
FN-6 missiles, and they probably weren’t.  His comment that FN-6 missiles were
used here strikes me as a Freudian slip.”

“Me too,” said Torres.  “But what’s
the objective here?”

“The objective is to manipulate us
to destroy China while they neutralize our power and occupy us.  It removes two
superpowers from the scene in a single blow,” replied Lyle.  “The classic
strategy used by plotters without enough power to achieve their objectives
directly.”

“And who?” asked Torres.

“Whoever Morgensen works for.  And
Ellis.  And Connolly.  You probably have a better idea of the powers behind the
scenes than we do,” said John.

“Unfortunately I don’t,” said
Torres.  “All I know is they control the world’s central banks, they own the
world’s economic and political systems, and they send people like Morgensen to
steer governments.”

“Maybe it’s a foreclosure,” said
John.  “You and your predecessors spent the country into ruinous debt, and now
the owners are taking what they feel is their property.”

“Sure, after having insisted on the
reckless spending and borrowing in the first place,” said Torres, leaning back
in his chair to assert himself.  “Look, my time is short, John.  They’ll be
here any second now.  I’m not launching that strike, and that may be my last
decision as President.”

“Sir, there’s one more thing you
have to do,” said John.

“What’s that?”

“Before you lose access to the
airwaves, get on the tube and tell the people the truth.  Tell them what
happened, what you refused to do, and who they’re facing.  They’ll fight to the
last man, but they need you as their legitimate leader to tell them the truth. 
They’ve faced deception for too long, and they see through it.”

Torres cringed at the thought. 
“The ones who could resist hate me.  They think I’m trying to implement exactly
that which is coming.  They’re ignorant people, John.  They’re prisoners of the
system, and now they’ll only be prisoners of a different system.”

“The system that imprisoned them is
falling apart as we speak, Jackson,” said John, sensing his moment and pushing
ahead by speaking on a first name basis.  “If you say nothing, the cops, the
soldiers, the bureaucrats will quickly fall in line with the new order and it
will indeed be a prison.  You have to get out there and tell them it’s
not
legitimate.  That the people are the rightful masters of their country.  That
they are within their rights to resist tyranny.  That public employees have the
duty to support the people.  That after we restore our freedom, they’ll be held
accountable for what they’ve done.  You have to issue the orders for our troops
to return home.  Not to command the people or deport them to FEMA camps.  But
to fight alongside them to repel the invaders.  Anything less and you’ll be
remembered as a traitor who rolled over and let it happen.”

The look on Torres face was that of
a beaten man.  Looking at him, neither John nor Lyle had any degree of
confidence that he could mobilize himself, never mind the people, for the
battle that lay ahead.