Casing the Colors © Week 20

Casing the Colors © Week 20 • • • CHAPTER 36 • • After the successful allied summit meeting, Secretary Stevens, General Bennett and Kate Gordon were on a plane headed back to the United States when Bill called President Wellford to get a reading on the situation in Atlanta, after hearing from Scott that there was new trouble. Stu's voice was tense. "Atlanta and Pittsburgh are powder kegs. Rebels have broken through the inner city perimeters, trapping civilians in the middle. There are a horrible number of casualties." Pete Lowell, who was with the President, broke in. "I've been on the phone with the TV networks and it's playing all right with them so far. If Scott could get back out onto the lines, it would really help us with the media." "General Gordon and General Volti have already given me full reports," Scott said. "Paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne at Fort Bragg are moving in to reinforce our Atlanta positions. General Gordon's Ranger units are in place outside both cities. I'll get back out to the lines as soon as we brief you on Europe." "Right," President Wellford answered, "but keep this line open in case I need to talk to you. We've got one hell of a mess here." Stu Wellford was colliding with the reality of civil war and Scott was reassuring as he attempted to calm him. "Stu, we need to use this line to talk to Europe and our troop positions. General Gordon and Pete Lowell are there with you and you can depend on their advice. Use your code to break into this line if you need us." "Stu," Kate said, "President LeNoir told me this morning that French troops will be in place on the Italian border by noon tomorrow, with American troop placements to supplement them. Germany, Britain and France will be ready for the Italian assault by mid-afternoon. We'll give you all the details when we see you." They closed the telephone line. "Bill, I didn't tell the President," General Bennett said after mulling over how much information would be safe with Secretary Stevens, "but Phil Carlson is expecting a massive counter-assault from Miguel sometime tomorrow night. Intelligence reports put the action at somewhere between El Paso and Tucson. The good news is that the refugees now in Texas seem to be out of harm's way. If we can get the Italian attack started early tomorrow, it would divide media coverage and occupy Miguel and Raqqa on two fronts. But, President Wellford has to give the order." By the time they were on the way to the White House, they had a plan. General Bennett gave the Oval Office presentation to a group consisting of Stu Wellford, Bill Stevens, Jim Gordon, the Joint Chiefs, Pete Lowell and Kate Gordon. Stu sat quiet for a few seconds after Scott Bennett ended his remarks. "How many Italian casualties will there be?" he finally asked. "Perhaps a half million," Scott replied. "It's unavoidable. If we don't stop the terrorists in Italy, all of Europe will be threatened." "What about the southwest, how many casualties there?" the President persisted. "Up to a hundred thousand," Scott said, observing Stu's reaction. "Most of them Hispanic, is that right?" Stu continued, cross-examining the General. "Yes," Scott, answered, "plus military casualties." "Does the Italian government know what is going to happen?" Stu asked, turning toward Bill Stevens. "No, Stu," Bill said firmly. "Their security is too weak to risk briefing them." "What will the terrorists do when we hit them?" Stu asked. "We can't be certain," General Gordon answered, taking the lead in what had obviously become another presidential confrontation, "but we expect to see commando strikes against strategic targets, and possibly chemicals." Stu pivoted his chair away from Bill to look directly at Jim Gordon. "Chemicals?" he said, his voice hoarse. "What the hell does that mean, General?" "Stu, we know that Libya, Iran and Iraq have chemical weapons capability. Whether they would use it is another question. It could backfire if the Mexican refugee camps in Texas or the Africans in Sicily are devastated along with their targets. But, it's a possibility and we've included it in our planning." "Here in the United States?" Stu stopped in mid-sentence, his eyes tracking the room for support. Realizing that he was almost alone with his military advisors, he sat silent, waiting for them to take up the defense of their proposal, buying himself time to think of a way out of the dilemma he had helped create. "We expect the biggest problem here in America will be street riots, not chemicals," Scott said, trying to be positive. The terrorists will undoubtedly start trouble tomorrow in the urban centers they control to divert our resources and attention before their border assault. But, our most important objective, whatever they do, will be to hold the Mexican border. If Miguel's army breaks through in large numbers, we would face military action in US civilian areas outside the inner cities and that could trigger the collapse of our popular support." "General Bennett, you don't give me many options," Stu replied. "I can't say no and if I say yes, we're likely to be lighting matches to both Italy and America." "Stu," Jim Gordon interrupted, cutting off Scott, "we don't have many options to offer you. Boats are unloading African terrorists in Sicily, half of Sicily is marching toward Rome, we've got a million Mexicans in refugee camps in Texas and Arizona with more arriving every hour. Raqqa and Miguel have converted our inner cities into armed rebel strongholds and tomorrow night Miguel will attack frontally across the Rio Grande. Give me another reasonable option and I'll run with it." In the uncomfortable silence, the assembled group studied the floor and wondered what Stu would say. He searched for a way to forestall a global confrontation with the terrorists, a confrontation that seemed to his military colleagues to be not only inevitable but necessary. General Gordon's strong voice filled the silence. "We have to face the fact...now...that Raqqa and Miguel mean to destroy America and Europe, and if all we can do is sit here arguing about how to avoid the reality of guerrilla warfare, we might as well admit that we're finished." "Where is the Attorney General?" Stu asked. "In his office, I suppose," Bill Stevens offered offhandedly. "Call him." "Why, Stu?" Bill asked. "What can George add?" "Damn it, Bill, I want to talk to him. I don't have to explain why," Stu replied, his voice rising in anger. "I wasn't trying to stop you," Bill answered, "but, Stu, we need a decision. Now. Not after the Justice Department chews over it and it's been leaked and spread all over the front page of the Washington Post. We need to act." The two old political friends stared at each other cross the Oval Office desk, locked in a wordless battle of wills. Pete Lowell broke the deadlock. "Stu, we'll get George. But, promise you will decide this morning." "I promise," Stu sighed, "I promise." "Kate, can you give me a hand?" Pete asked as he headed for the door. Scott followed and stopped them outside the office. "We've got to keep Stu under control. Kate, can you bring George here yourself, instead of phoning him? Set the situation up with George before Stu spreads his view on the table. You know what I mean." Bill Stevens appeared in the corridor. "We've got a problem, friends," he said. "Stu is never going to agree to the attack on Italy. He seems paralyzed by the thought of killing civilians without warning their governments. That's what he wants to talk to George about. What the hell do we do?" Scott Bennett answered, leaving no room for argument. "Bill, go back, ask Jim to come out, and then keep Stu occupied. Tell Jim I want to check some details with him. We need to secure the White House quietly, without alerting anyone. Are we all together?" he asked, looking from one to another of the small group. Bill, Pete and Kate were silent, their eyes meeting in the unspoken understanding that any debate would be both useless, and perhaps personally dangerous. They all knew exactly what Scott was proposing and could only hope that Jim Gordon would keep him from going over the top. Kate studied the man she knew so well, trying to decide if he would fight to deliver America from its agony or become the third player in the new order being forced on the West by Raqqa and Miguel. Bill gripped Scott's shoulder with one hand and reached for Kate with the other. Pete Lowell locked arms with Kate and Scott, forming a circle of complicity. When Kate returned from the Executive Office Building with George Morrison in tow, she found her father outside the Oval Office talking to three men in dark business suits. She guessed they were part of his elite Ranger unit, undercover as they looked for the source of the White House leak. Once inside the Office, she understood that Stu did not know what was happening. Stu motioned for the Attorney General to sit near him. "George," he began, "I've asked you to join us because we are discussing a series of military actions in Europe and along the Rio Grande and I have serious doubts about their constitutionality. We are planning to attack Italy and Mexico, with significant civilian casualties and no warning given to their governments." George Morrison began to speak, walking over the President's last words in his enthusiasm to express his opinion about the tactics of American Agenda. "Governing by Supreme Court fiat is unconstitutional. You all know that," he said, looking around the room to include everyone in his lecture. "Stu, you were a Supreme Court Justice before you took up saving the world. Congress has stopped taking official action but it hasn't agreed to dissolve itself and it hasn't gone home. We have 535 elected members of Congress on the other end of the mall watching everything we do. The Supreme Court is sitting in daily session but it is not hearing cases or acting on the petitions of those who oppose American Agenda and your presidency. We all know what the Court would be forced to say about our actions if we told it to proceed to rulings. What else do you want me to tell you? If the Constitution is the standard, we're guilty as hell." Kate watched Stu run his hands over his face as if he were wiping away cobwebs. He looked up at Billl Stevens. "What do you need, Bill?" he finally asked. "I guess I'm committed whether I like it or not." "Just give us the authority to start moving ahead, Stu. I'll work with Jim and Scott to do the rest." "All right," Stu said. Looking around the room, he added, "Gentlemen, you are officers of the United States of America. I hope you remember that in the next few days. Don't destroy America along with the terrorists. We will need a country when this is all over." Stu Wellford's thought flowed back to that day in General Gordon's library when he and Kate had agreed to American Agenda. Why had it all seemed so simple then...how had it all got so screwed up. The generals got up and started for the Oval Office door. Scott called after them to say there would be a meeting in the White House communication center in ten minutes. He took Kate by the arm and followed the Joint Chiefs, thanking Stu for his favorable decision as he exited. Bill Stevens was left to talk to Stu and George. The three men Kate had seen talking with her father entered the office as she and Scott left. Pete Lowell was behind them. He's joined us, she thought. He's on our side. General Gordon was waiting for Scott and his daughter at the far end of the corridor. "The White House is secure," he said, "but no one will know unless they try to see the President. The men you just saw will stay with Stu and George to monitor their actions and communications with the outside world. The phone lines into the Oval Office have been diverted. Pete is in charge of the White House communications system until further notice." "Thanks, Jim," Scott said, "I know you oppose this." "We all do," General Gordon snapped, "but no one wants Raqqa in the White House. Bill Stevens is with us and Pete can handle Stu for a day or two. You and I need to decide what plan we follow." "I've asked Admiral Taylor to come to the White House to meet with us." "Paul Taylor," Jim Gordon asked. "Why?" "I'd feel better if Kate and Bill had an aide, someone we can trust with anything." "Not a bad idea. Paul Taylor would sell his soul to save the fleet." So, Rear Admiral Paul Taylor, US Navy, Annapolis Class of 1980, was attached to the State Department. He was tough and conservative and understood that Kate Gordon and Bill Stevens were never to be beyond his reach or his agreement with their actions. His other orders were to muscle NATO and assure that the European military elite complied with their requests. • • • CHAPTER 37 • • Admiral Taylor arrived at the White House in time to help with the final decisions for the Mexican offensive, which had been removed from the President's desk and placed in the Joint Chiefs' portfolio under their emergency orders. General Bennett and General Gordon went by helicopter to get a firsthand look at the situation in Pittsburgh. The terrorists and their hill district ghetto recruits were systematically shelling and burning city blocks in a chain rolling out toward the east suburbs. National Guard units continually lobbed light artillery and mortars against the rebel advance and as the generals circled high above the Parkway East, they could see shells exploding into residential neighborhood streets. In a briefing with the commander on the ground at County Airport, General Gordon was told that civilian casualties were in the ten thousand range. Most of America couldn't watch developments in Pittsburgh or Atlanta because Pete Lowell had exercised his Media Relations Office authority to censor both live TV coverage and tapes of the battle areas. TV reports showed only that National Guard units had halted rebel advances east of Pittsburgh and were turning them back toward the inner city. Atlanta's situation was just as bad. Peachtree Street was on fire along much of its length and the area of the city north toward the airport was being shelled. Casualties were put at six thousand. But TV coverage only showed Ranger units driving rebel groups back toward the downtown. When one major network tried to telecast live reports from the trouble areas without MRO approval, their satellite signals were scrambled by military surveillance systems. Several reporters managed to get in and out of the battle area with filmed reports but their efforts to telecast them were limited to local channels and brief before being shut down, so they didn't offer anything that wasn't already known by the residents caught in the offensive. When national networks tried to pick up and rebroadcast the videos, the images were scrambled. Scott Bennett was outraged that a bunch of ghetto recruits, untrained and without visible leadership or sophisticated weapons, could inflict such damage and hold out so long against highly trained troops. "It's won't be different just because it's happening in Atlanta and Pittsburgh instead of Saigon or Kabul," General Gordon reminded him. "Guard units in place near Stone Mountain are moving toward positions south of Peachtree Street. Paratroopers will be dropped close to downtown before daylight to support your ground troop movement. In Pittsburgh, we've secured the Fort Pitt Tunnel to control access to the airport. Troops are sweeping from the Golden Triangle toward the hill district, forcing rebels toward our converging troops moving in from the County Airport area east of the city." Jim Gordon's reports reassured the others in the first hours of military action. "Remember, we could take more extreme action, but we want to hold civilian casualties to an absolute minimum," he always added. As daylight failed, they monitored the military action and fine tuned preparations for the next day's offensives along the Mexican border and in Europe. Just after 9 p.m., Admiral Harralt phoned with the startling news that large numbers of people were collapsing in center city streets in Atlanta. Terrorists had contaminated the water supply and were releasing chemical agents into the atmosphere. They had apparently decided to risk sacrificing the entire civilian population, along with many of their own recruits, to drive home their determination to hold onto the Atlanta Airport, the largest in America, where a rebel unit in chemical warfare gear already occupied the control tower. Planes from Florida were quickly dispatched to destroy the tower and runways to deprive the rebels the use of their prize. Scott Bennett gave the order to carry out the air attack, then he took possession of the cabinet room where he could listen to field reports. Bill Stevens and Kate Gordon briefed European leaders, quickly moving from phone to phone as aides contacted the key allied ministers. General Gordon was on the phone to Phil Carlson to receive an update on the Mexican border offensive. All of them were scrambling to get as much information as possible in the short time they had before having to decide what to do about the rebels' use of chemicals. Everyone stopped and looked up as Admiral Taylor forcefully tapped an ashtray at the far end of the cabinet room table. "The rebels are using social media and TV inserts to inform Pittsburgh about the poisoned water and chemicals in Atlanta. They've also sent a message to our local military commander to tell the White House that if we don't turn Pittsburgh over intact, including the airport, by midnight, Pittsburgh will join Atlanta." Scott jumped to his feet and mobilized the response without even considering the need for consensus. "Bill, push Europe about preparing for chemical attack. Get their security beefed up, especially around water and electricity installations and airports. Ask Prime Minister Moore to move his staff to the air base north of London. He needs to get the King out of London, too." "Kate, ask Chancellor Gerhardt to go to Ramstein. I suppose President LeNoir won't leave Paris without a fight, but ask him to go to England. If he refuses, detail a NATO air fighter squadron to stand by for his possible evacuation." "Jim, get on the line to NATO Command. Tell them to send a fighter squadron to Rome to wait for orders from Admiral Taylor." Kate knew that her father could have stopped Scott, but he didn't. She realized that he agreed. General Bennett then turned to Paul Taylor. "Take Kate and go to Andrews. I'll have military planes waiting for you. Go to Rome and bring the Italian president and the Pope out to Germany. Use all necessary force to evacuate them. You've got until noon tomorrow. We're advancing the timetable for Italy. Kate will handle the diplomatic job but don't let anything happen to her. Understood?" Paul nodded as he took Kate by the arm and headed for the door. "I need a few minutes with Pete," she said as they rushed along the corridor. "Wait for me at the South Entrance." She ran to the Oval Office to tell Pete Lowell she had a message from Scott for George Morrison. "Give me a minute with him," she said as Pete turned to go back into the President's office. Less than a minute later, having delivered her message to the Attorney General, she was on her way to meet Paul. Three hours out over the Atlantic, in separate military jets, Admiral Taylor and Kate Gordon got the word that Pittsburgh had been ravaged by the same chemical and biological attack that had decimated Atlanta. There would have been no way to prevent it, except to surrender troops and precious airport runways to Raqqa. From the White House, Scott spoke to Kate through her flight helmet headset. "I'm sorry about Atlanta and Pittsburgh, but we're not going to surrender anything or anyone."