by Brandt Legg
“Let us not pretend that war is anything other than monstrous, horrific violence on a massive scale. Violence against humans. Militaries and weapons exist for one reason—to kill humans. This is not what we should be doing; we, the only known intelligent life in the universe, at least looking out eighty trillion miles in any direction. Please stop and think about that for a moment . . . We humans are huddled together on this beautiful blue planet, a fiery rock covered with water, flying through the dark, cold, vastness of space at sixty-seven thousand miles per hour, able to survive only because we are exactly the perfect distance from a spectacular little yellow dwarf star. We are truly clinging to life. Do we want to risk all those miracles for a few dollars? Because that’s what these disagreements boil down to at the end of the day; a few dollars. Perhaps we are worth more than that.”
The media immediately condemned the speech. Most members of congress were highly critical of the president’s “reckless” action. Various pundits speculated that the president’s near-death experience had made him “too soft.” Sources within the White House leaked that Hudson had met several times with the leader of the controversial Inner Movement. Once again, the 25th Amendment was debated across the Internet. “Could the president be removed?”
Many in the media reminded viewers that Vice President Brown, although a longtime anti-war stalwart, had recently signaled she would not back down and would use force if the US were attacked, something the president, apparently, was now unwilling to do.
The White House quickly attempted to clarify the president’s remarks, saying that of course he would order the military to defend the nation if China, or any other nation, violated US borders or airspace. However, the damage had been done. Hudson’s approval ratings plummeted from the mid-seventies, where they’d been since he survived the Air Force One attack, to below fifty percent.
Even Ace, the president’s brother, thought the speech was a bad idea. “You’ve taken away our leverage with the Chinese,” he told Hudson. “Never telegraph our intentions.”
Still, there were those that supported him. Scattered peace demonstrations sprang up as a minority of Americans resisted the call for war. The largest event, in Washington DC, saw tens of thousands march for peace. It ended with a sea of people on the National Mall chanting and listening to a series of anti-war speeches, including one by Thorne. The rally brought a swift show of force from FaST. Two-hundred and sixty-eight demonstrators were arrested. A FaST spokeswoman told reporters that the agency had reason to believe that most of those taken into custody were NorthBridgers who’d been seeking to use “the disturbance” as a recruiting tool.
Hudson, with firing Covington still under strong consideration, and in spite of Vonner’s warnings, told Fitz he wanted a list of potential replacements for the director’s job. Hudson expected Fitz to tell him that Covington worked for Vonner and not the president, but the chief of staff said nothing.
The president’s decision to come out against the war reignited the controversy over the nine minutes, as both sides debated the significance of his near-death experience on the decision. During an interview with a well-known cable news anchor, Hudson further flamed the divisive fires when he said, “It makes a lot more sense to me that instead of war, I should declare peace.”
“Is that what you’re doing?” the anchor asked.
“Yes,” Hudson said thoughtfully. “If I have the power to declare war, I should also be able to do the more noble thing.”
“Congress might object to that premise,” the anchor said. “In fact, leaders from both parties have already said they’ll go around you if necessary.”
Hudson gave his best politician laugh. “Last time I checked, I was still Commander in Chief.”
“What do you say to your critics who wonder if those nine minutes, when you were clinically dead, changed you, and, uh—”
“Let me tell you something that all those veterans watching us today can identify with. Being shot changes you. Being close to death, however it comes, changes you. I’ve been shot at a lot in my life, going back to my days in the army. Then again once I decided to run for president, and NorthBridge seemingly painted a target on my back. But all Americans have experienced death in one form or another; the loss of a loved one, a serious illness, disease, accident. Every moment, each of us is only a single breath away from death.”
Chapter Forty-Eight
Crane issued another report to Hudson and the Wizard detailing more links and proof of REMie Manipulate and Distract Everyone, or “MADE” events, between 1913 and the present day. He was focusing increasingly on the 2008 financial crisis and the Great Recession that followed. At the same time, the Wizard was tracking digiGOLD, and Hudson began to see that the two researchers were on a collision course, not just with each other, but with the REMies.
“You realize it’s still possible that the REMies are either behind NorthBridge, or, at the very least, effectively using the terror attacks to further their own agenda,” Hudson said to the Wizard during a SonicBlock-protected video call.
“That’s where the REMies have proven so brilliant,” the Wizard said from his elaborate storage shed. “We’re living in the new paradigm! As Crane has shown, and the Gypsy program has laid out, REMie-initiated MADE events are only a small part of the equation. Most of the time, stuff just happens naturally, be it a major hurricane, earthquake, some popular movement, or even a war, and the REMies then use it. They’re incredible at reacting.”
“Not hard to do when you control all the money, the media, and almost every politician.” Hudson, sitting on a small sofa in the President’s Study, marveled at all the Wizard’s computer equipment visible through his monitor.
“We’re going to nail them,” the Wizard said, his face lit by the glow of at least seven different monitors. “Did you see the other part of Crane’s report? That it’s a REMie going after all of us who were there that night, thirty years ago?”
Crane had used Gypsy to track all the events surrounding the deaths of each of the people who’d assaulted Rochelle and murdered her brother, plus he’d fed in the attempts on Hudson, Gouge, and Gouge’s father. The conclusion pointed to one of two people ordering the hits, and neither was a surprise.
“Yeah, I saw,” Hudson said. “Bastendorff and Vonner. I didn’t need a fancy computer program to tell me that one of them was behind the killings. They’re the only two men who have held Rochelle captive since her ‘release’ from prison.”
“Would Vonner do it?”
“I asked him, and of course he denies it,” Hudson said.
“As he always does.”
“Yeah. He’s certainly had plenty of opportunities to have me killed.”
“But what about the other guy?” the Wizard asked. “He has a good motive.”
“What? To stop the men from talking who didn’t even know we were there? The people who have as much a reason to keep the truth hidden as I do?”
“Vonner is a cautious man.”
“True, but Bastendorff is the obvious one to have gone after me, if it really wasn’t NorthBridge.”
“But why would he kill all the other guys when their story would hurt you?”
“Because they were never going to talk, and they didn’t know we were there. But if it’s only Rochelle who’s left, he controls the story. Hell, maybe he made a deal with her. I don’t know.” Hudson took off his shoes and stretched out on the sofa, exhausted. An email came in from Crane. Hudson sat back up thinking it might be important. Instead, Hudson laughed to himself as he read it.
Washington, D.C., is twelve square miles bordered by reality.
The quote was attributed to President Andrew Johnson. Crane had taken to sending Hudson smart and pithy political humor every few days. His timing was often good, or better.
“No doubt Bastendorff is evil,” the Wizard said, too busy with his own distractions pouring in from the DarkNet to notice Hudson’s smile. “But I’ve never trusted Vonner. Anyway, th
ere’s no such thing as a good REMie.”
“What about Booker Lipton? You seem to like him,” Hudson said.
“I like his Universal Quantum Physics. I mean, the stars, planets, galaxies, everything we can see up there, makes up less than four percent of the universe. The remaining ninety-six percent is dark energy, or dark matter. No one really knows what it is, what it does, they can’t even truly find it. Don’t you find that awesome? Doesn’t it blow your mind? Don’t you want to know?”
“Not right now,” Hudson said, trying not to look annoyed.
“Oh well. Anyway, lots of REMies fund lots of positive things.”
“And that doesn’t make them good?”
“No,” the Wizard admitted. “Booker could be as bad as the rest of them, or he could be different, just like Vonner might have wanted you to help him stop Bastendorff, or he’s using you so he can get the CapStone.”
“It won’t matter in the end, if we do our job,” Hudson said, slumping back down on the sofa. “It’s another reason I have to stop the war . . . to show they can be beat.”
“Big job, Dawg.”
“Yeah,” Hudson said. “Meantime, you and Gouge need to stay alive.”
“You, too.” The Wizard pointed into the screen as they signed off.
A few minutes later, Hudson was drifting to sleep on the sofa, still worrying about his two oldest friends and wondering if Bastendorff was going to have them killed.
Or would Vonner do it?
Congressional leaders met with Hudson at the White House to demand he reconsider his stance. Afterwards, he met with Fitz in the Oval Office.
“They’re going to pass a resolution,” Fitz said.
“I won’t sign it,” Hudson said, leaning against the Resolute Desk.
“They have the votes to override a veto.”
“Damn it, I’m the Commander in Chief. They can’t make me order military action.”
“They’ll use the courts,” Fitz said, sipping his favorite drink, Coke Rocks, a Coca-Cola over Coke-ice cubes.
“The Supreme Court will never usurp the executive branch authority in matters of national security.”
“They might because of the nine minutes.”
“What does my dying have to do with anything?” Hudson said, pacing over to the window. But he knew the answer even before Fitz replied.
“There’s a lot of buzz about the Twenty-Fifth Amendment.”
“You know it’ll go nowhere. And Brown will never sign on.”
“I agree, the vice president won’t be a party to your removal,” Fitz said. “However, there are other ways. It is still unlikely your opponents will succeed, it’s just that we don’t need any of this right now. NorthBridge is ripping the country apart from the inside. We’re on the brink of the biggest war since World War II, and every aspect of it is a hell of a lot more frightening.”
“Not to mention the country is still bitterly divided between liberals and conservatives, half a dozen international terrorist organizations are dangerous enough to threaten us, the prospect of war with China has begun to fracture the global economy . . . ”
“It’s ugly,” Fitz said. “Remind me why you wanted this job?”
Hudson thought of Rochelle and the REMies. Nearly sixteen months in office, and he hadn’t accomplished anything. NorthBridge, other than Covington’s false arrests, seemed as invincible as ever, the REMies were still running the world, and Rochelle wasn’t quite free enough to return to her family. He hadn’t even been able to introduce his simple education reforms.
“We are the change,” Hudson said softly.
Fitz heard him, but didn’t comment.
“I don’t understand why congress won’t give sanctions time to work,” Hudson said, walking back to his desk and sitting down.
“When have sanctions ever worked, in the history of sanctions?” Fitz said. “Sanctions are only used so it can look like politicians are doing something. In fact, you want to avoid war. There are many experts who believe it was President Clinton who set the stage for Bush’s invasion of Iraq. People forget that in 1998, Clinton began the most sustained bombing campaign since Vietnam, with daily attacks on Iraq in the no-fly zones. And it was Clinton’s administration that made regime change in Iraq an official US policy.”
“We were talking about sanctions.”
“Exactly. Clinton implemented the most devastating economic sanctions in history. Your friends at the United Nations have estimated those sanctions cost a million Iraqi deaths, most of them children.”
Hudson nodded, taking the point. “I recall a 60 Minutes interview with Madeleine Albright, Clinton’s UN Ambassador. Leslie Stahl said to Albright, ‘We have heard that a half-million children have died. I mean, that’s more children than died in Hiroshima. And—and, you know, is the price worth it?’ Albright replied, ‘I think this is a very hard choice, but the price—we think the price is worth it.’”
“I remember, too. Shocking,” Fitz said. “There have been a lot of studies that dispute the UNICEF numbers.”
“I’ll bet there have been, but we know for a fact that there was not enough food or medicine getting in, that a large percentage of the population was malnourished, and the Iraqi healthcare system all but collapsed during sanctions. The REMies were trying to starve the country and bring what had been a thriving wealthy country into economic ruin so they could regain control of the oil and financial system. The per capita income in Iraq dropped from $3,510 in 1989 to $450 in 1996.”
Hudson agreed that in the majority of situations, sanctions just hurt companies or industries instead of the government they were targeting.
“Diplomacy then,” the president said as he put his feet up on the Resolute Desk.
Fitz raised his glass of Coke. “To diplomacy.” Then he rolled his eyes.
“I’ll see the bastards in court, then.”
Chapter Forty-Nine
Melissa tried to reason with Hudson as he arrived in the family quarters. “You’re going to be the first president in history to be bypassed by Congress,” she said, handing him a glass of wine.
“So?”
They’re calling you a coward.”
“So?” Hudson repeated. “Do you think I’m a coward?”
“Of course not.”
“Do you think I should start World War III?”
“You don’t have to start it, I think you just need to keep the option on the table.”
“Damn it, Melissa, I am an honorable man. I cannot in good conscious say that I am willing to risk the extinction of our species.”
Melissa admired his conviction, his calm determination, his knowing for certain that what he believed was right. Yet it frustrated her. “How is everyone so sure they’re right?” she asked. “Not just you. Half the country believes with all passion that they’re right about what they believe, but the other half is just as sure that they’re right. Two polar opposites. Both can’t be right. I have no idea if I’m right most of the time.”
“Nor do I, but of one thing I am sure. War is not right.”
In the wake of a series of ninety-two coordinated attacks on 3D surveillance hubs and 3D monitoring stations, Covington ordered an aggressive increase in FaST raids and arrests. AKA John Hancock issued a statement claiming responsibility for the sabotage and noted that no humans were injured.
Only the artificial intelligence bots that invade the privacy and daily lives of every citizen were harmed. These Orwellian creatures and the MONSTERS who run them must be shut down. Those who believe they have nothing to hide because they have done nothing wrong should be especially careful since the rules can be changed at any time without notice. Something that is allowed and innocuous today could be classified a grievous offence tomorrow. A citizen is only a single decree away from becoming a criminal.
Hudson read the statement several times and noted that the word “monsters” was all in capital letters. He didn’t think that was an accident. He had only recently learn
ed that most federal agencies contained a select individual known as a MONSTER, “Mission of National Security Transfer Every Resource.” This key person, appointed to this secret post by some covert committee with unknown origins, even within the realm of top-secret clearances, had enormous power. The MONSTER could access all the resources of an agency, a department, or any military branch instantly, and often invisibly, for a special Veiled Ops unit, known to the MONSTERs simply as “the Unit.”
The MONSTER structure was put into place as part of the Patriot Act following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. MONSTER, like so many other provisions, was hidden from public knowledge and withheld from Congress. Even those few inside the government who knew about the program believed it to be a resource-sharing plan which could be used to cut through red tape in times of national emergencies and threats to national security. But MONSTER was so much more than that.
The MONSTERs were pulled from the upper ranks of the NSA without input or oversight. None of the presidents in powers since the MONSTERs’ inceptions had been briefed on the program. Fonda had told Hudson about them during their last meeting, and he’d been trying to dig up more about the MONSTERs and the Veiled Ops Unit they facilitated. Fonda had said, “MONSTER really only exists for a single reason: to make the Unit the most powerful force in the world. I believe Covington is using MONSTERs to expand the Unit, may have, in fact, folded the Unit into FaST. If my sources are right, and this is true, imagine what he can do with that kind of power.”