The secretary was back on the phone within ten seconds. “No, it has to be now.”
You should take it, Congressman,” Christine recommended.
He reluctantly agreed. “Put him through.” Patrick pressed the speaker button.
“Mr. President, nice to hear from you.”
“Are we on a squawk box, Duke?”
“Yes, but I’m alone. What can I do for you?”
“Pick up please.”
Patrick mouthed asshole to Slocum, but obliged the president. He held the phone out so his speechwriter could also hear. “Okay. Better?”
“Yes. I’m calling you and other party leaders with advance word that I will be addressing the nation at 8 p.m. eastern on a most serious subject. I’m afraid that under the circumstances I can’t say anything more at this time…”
Patrick shot Christine a quizzical look. With her pen and paper already handy, she scribbled “specifics” and underlined it twice.
“…because of the severity of the crisis and the danger it poses to the nation…”
“Excuse me, Mr. President, if I may, can you provide specifics if this is so serious? I don’t understand what…”
“You will before the evening is through, Duke. This call is purely to alert you on the time of the speech, not the subject. However, because of the importance, I have asked the Senate leadership for the ratification of General Johnson as vice president.”
“What?” Patrick exclaimed.
Punctuating the question was the ring of Christine Slocum’s phone. She pulled it out of her pocket. Scott Roarke’s number came up. She let the call go to voicemail.
“Ultimately this may involve the declaration of a national emergency.”
“Mr. President!” Patrick yelled.
“I’m sorry, Congressman, I am not prepared to say anything further on the open line. I recommend you have your TV turned on at five. We’ll talk after that. Believe me, I’ll have a lot more to share with you then.”
“Take your pick of the channels, Duke. I’m asking for the widest coverage possible.”
The Speaker hung up frustrated and angry. He said a few choice words to Christine Slocum whose mind was elsewhere. The president was probably blowing dinner plans with the Secret Service agent she was cozying up to.
The White House
Situation Room
1345 hrs
“Here’s how I see it. Correct me if I’m wrong.”
The president addressed his principal advisors and cabinet members. If there were corrections, these people would make them without hesitating.
Roarke stood, as ordered, against the left side wall.
“One,” the president continued, “the United States is under attack. The story is out in bits and pieces. It will be our story to own and I will be in control rather than reacting. So at 2000 hours I’ll speak to the nation from the East Room. At a podium presenting a national security issue of the highest order. No questions. Five minutes on and off.
“Two. I state the country is now on alert. We will need to be prepared for panic, looting, and violence.
“Three. Because of one and two, I may—that is may not necessarily will—sign an Executive Order establishing a State of Emergency. The attorney general, White House Counsel, and the Supreme Court will put it under review. If I do so, FBI Chief Mulligan will coordinate with state and local law enforcement and the National Guard on proper, coordinated, and measured response.
“Four. I postpone my State of the Union Address. Reagan did it after the Challenger Space Shuttle disaster. And this is not the time to assemble all the members of Congress, the Supreme Court, and the Executive Branch in one building.
“Five. General Johnson moves into the vice president’s residence at Number One Observatory Circle, under full Secret Service protection, once confirmed. I have called for immediate Senate ratification of his nomination, which will provide for the normal line of succession should it be necessary.
“Six. We proceed with arrests around the country based on the information the bureau is assembling. I want live leads not body bags. You make that clear up and down the system. Find the bastards in our backyards who are poisoning our water and we can nail the power behind them.”
“I trust I have your support.” It wasn’t a question and there was no disagreement. Morgan Taylor was right on every point.
“Then, if you’ll excuse me. I have a speech to write.”
The major broadcast networks, along with the principal cable news channels, were alerted by the White House press secretary. Only a few calls needed to be made. Texts, e-mails, and tweets worked fine. Considering most of the networks were owned by just a few media conglomerates, it was just as easy to reach forty channels as it was three in the old days.
The major network news departments called back. John Bernstein took the calls, which surprised the executives. They said that management at local stations were reluctant give up the airtime. They’d be happy to pick up highlights from CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC for later airing.
The president’s chief of staff used Taylor’s words. “National security.” The speech would take five minutes and cover a most serious development.
That got news directors’ attention; local and national. The phrase had not been dropped in more than a decade. Still, one mid-level executive over a group of network stations told Bernsie in no uncertain terms that since American Idol winners often got more votes than a president in an election, Morgan Taylor could go to cable. That message was communicated verbatim to the chairman of the FCC, a presidential appointee, who called an even higher-level executive at the network; one with a brain and a memory of when broadcast networks used to show more responsibility. Minutes later, Bernstein had what the president demanded: network and independent stations, CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, Fox News, Fox Business, HLN, Telemundo, and Current TV, along with the hundreds, if not thousands of Internet channels, what was left of radio news, and international news outlets.
And then the pregame speculation began.
An MSNBC host: “For a president to invoke National Security it is either a powerfully political move or the nation is facing a crisis on the order of the Cuban Missile Crisis; the defining moment in President John Kennedy’s term.”
A Fox News analyst: “Morgan Taylor is a war hero, a president cut from the mold of Teddy Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan, and a leader who’s willing to give ‘em more hell than Harry. We better pay attention this afternoon. I know I will.”
A CNN talking head admitted, “He’s more of a Rockefeller Republican than a neocon and a party loyalist. And as much as it pains me to say it, he’s the kind of president we need.”
A Current TV anchor: “Let’s hope this is not the Oval Office’s version of a trumped up crisis. We don’t need Morgan Taylor to be the star of his own reality show. But giving the man his due, let’s see what he has to say.”
Katie’s office
Katie found it hard to concentrate. This was all so new to her. A true, deep relationship, a job advising and counseling the world’s most important leader, and things going very wrong.
As she reviewed her recent past, she’d given up stability in Boston. No, that’s not true. Stability was snatched from me the moment I met Scott. But with it came powerful love and excitement on a global stage.
Now she faced issues of trust, national security, and her own insecurity.
“Damnit, Kessler! Get to work,” she said aloud in her office. She blew out a long breath and hit the computer. The first key words she typed:
precedent, U.S. president, declaring federal state of emergency
Forty-six
The White House
East Room
2000 hrs
The president of the United States walked to the podium. This is where presidents tended to give serious addresses. Here and from behind the desk in the Oval Office. Morgan Taylor preferred to stand today. He wanted to show strength and resolve. Sitting would not deliver th
e required body language.
Morgan Taylor turned and squared the camera. The broadcast, cable, and radio commentators back-timed their introductions, basically to the effect of, “And now, we’ll find out from President Morgan Taylor.”
The president wrote the speech himself. The only argument he had with this chief of staff over the content was the opening line. Bernsie argued that the president remove Good evening. Taylor agreed. Instead he started by raising his eyes to the teleprompter and slowly starting with the tried and true, “My Fellow Americans.”
He struck the right tone. People quieted across the country.
“Tonight I come before you with the most serious news. Through coordinated efforts of our intelligence services and the Centers for Disease Control, we have determined that foreign nationals have targeted vital water supplies within the United States, systematically poisoning sources we have always taken for granted.
“Poisoning water has long been the tool of scoundrels, mad dictators, and advancing and retreating armies. Today it is also the weapon of terrorists bent on our destruction. I view this as an uncivilized act of war, and having now occurred in this country, at this time, under my watch, I will treat it as such.
“We are monitoring reports of tainted water in twenty-two states, from rural communities to major cities, from schools to hospitals, wells and water towers to office coolers. Within days our medical facilities will be strained and we will need to rely on one another to deal with the hometown as the home front.
“Without a doubt, this is an attack on the United States. Cruel; inhumane and deadly. At this hour, law enforcement agencies are working with the FBI, the CIA, and health care officials to analyze toxins as a means to locate these enemies of the state and the people behind them.
“We will find you and we will survive this unprecedented attack.”
The president brought his delivery down. “Now I ask every American to help. You can start by only consuming water that we can confirm as safe. That should include bottled water already in your refrigerator, purchased more than ten days ago.”
Should was the operative word. Reporters circled it in their notes and the president saw the scribbling. He clarified his own point.
“…Bottled water with a seal that has not been broken or has no leaks. Rain water you collect yourself. Old ice in your refrigerators. Regional and national offices of the Centers for Disease Control are on their way to critical areas across the country. They are charged with the supervising and distribution of safe bottled water. But until we catch and stop each of the terrorists, we must be vigilant. That does not mean taking to the streets, fighting neighbor to neighbor. It does not mean looting. It does not mean taking aim at strangers. These acts, unprincipled in every measure of the rules of war, have been perpetrated by people who blend in rather than stand out. That means you probably will not recognize them. It does not mean, however, they will escape our net.
“The United States of America is the greatest nation in the world. Our intelligence resources are immense; beyond comprehension. We will survive. We will endure. We will bring these war criminals to justice or to death.
“While we pursue this enemy, the Centers for Disease Control, under Presidential Decision Directive PDD 39, will coordinate their efforts with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The CDC is already on site at hot locations around the country to ensure the availability, procurement, and delivery of adequate medical management and disease control. Further, the CDC, in conjunction with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, has activated its laboratory response network for bioterrorism. This links clinical labs to public health agencies in all the states, districts, territories, and selected cities. In other words, help is on the way.
“I have asked the leaders of Congress to join me in a joint resolution of support; not a declaration of war, but support that allows this administration to employ every available tool in intelligence and information gathering. Attorney General Eve Goldman will address those issues tomorrow at a nine a.m. Eastern Time press conference. I have also asked Congress to swiftly ratify my nomination of General Jonas Jackson Johnson as vice president of the United States to insure proper succession, as provided for in the Twenty-fifth Amendment.
“I have also spoken with President Tyler of Canada and President Hernandez of Mexico regarding our ability to pursue any leads in their countries.” Canada was a courtesy call. Jack Evans was already focusing on MS-13 conclaves in Mexico that the government or police had never dealt with. A follow-up conversation with Hernandez was on Taylor’s list.
Now the president focused sharply on the camera lens, bringing his speech to a close.
“We will not wake up tomorrow with a cure or a solution or the sense that everything is all right. It’s not. We will wake up to a new normal. Accordingly, I ask every one of you tonight to demonstrate your resolve not to panic. Show your community your unity. Show the world your courage. Show these heartless fiends who seek to hurt us that they cannot bring us down; that we are stronger than they are. And give me your support to do what I have to do; what I must do to track our enemies to the ends of the earth and punish them for the harm they have brought upon our sovereign shores.
“Thank you and God bless America.”
Just as Morgan Taylor did not begin with Good evening, he did not end with Good night. It surely wasn’t.
Forty-seven
Ten minutes later
The president’s secretary buzzed the intercom.
“Yes, Louise.”
“Mr. President, President Hernandez is on and he said he must talk to you immediately.”
“Put him through, Louise.”
“Well, J3, let’s see what our friend to the south has to say.”
Louise Swingle sent the call in. On the third ring Taylor pressed the flashing button.
“Yes, Oscar,” the president intentionally employed Hernandez’s first name. “I’m here with General Johnson. I’m sure you have a witness to the conversation as well.”
“Ah, yes. Elder is with me.”
There was a long pause as if the Mexican president was expecting chit chat from the associates. Without any, he proceeded.
“Morgan, I want to assure you that this office, my administration, and the Republic of Mexico will stand by you. We watched your speech and the peoples of Mexico extend their sympathy to the families stricken by this horrifying attack.”
Taylor looked up at Johnson. The president of Mexico had just given him the authority to deploy America’s forces against targets in his country.
“I want this in writing, Oscar. For the record.”
“You will have it within the hour, Morgan. But I cannot allow or condone attacks on civilians. You must understand that.”
“I do. We will be strategic and judicious.”
Hernandez read that more as boots on the ground rather than drones from above.
Taylor continued, “I will alert you before any action is taken. Your public compliance and acceptance, noting it as a joint effort, will be required.
“Understood and agreed.”
“Thank, you Oscar. These are difficult times. I wish the nature of this call and the possible defensive actions to follow were not necessary. However, America is under attack, and our intelligence shows that operatives have been working and training in Mexico, using a supply line and money from the Mara Salvatruchas. It is in our mutual interests that they be dealt with immediately.”
Taylor was certain that the Mexican leader would have to tighten his own security. MS-13 and its offshoots were liable to come after him.
“Again, I understand.”
“We will be better for this, Oscar.”
“What is the old saying, ‘What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger.’”
“Friedrich Nietzsche,” Morgan Taylor replied. “And mark my words, we will become stronger.”
The White House
2300 hrs.
The Senate sped up the vote. I
nstead of making it the next day, they affirmed General Johnson an hour after the president’s speech.
The White House hastily called for a small, but necessary, formal gathering. The president and his wife stood with General Johnson and his wife. Present in the West Wing were the Speaker of the House, Senate Pro Tem, Majority and Minority Leaders of the House and Senate, the Secretary of State, Supreme Court Chief Justice Leopold Browning, and members of the press. Six Secret Service agents were at the doors.
The first order of business, difficult and emotional for General Johnson, was for him to resign his commission. He did so by handing a letter to the president.
“Thank you, General,” the president said.
Johnson, one of the toughest individuals Taylor had ever met, fought back his tears.
“It has been my honor to serve you as a member of the United States Army,” he proclaimed.
“Thirty-seven proud years in the military. One of the country’s most esteemed and decorated African American officers,” Taylor remarked. “A brilliant military strategist. A true leader. I have no doubt about how your experience will transfer into your new job. Thank you for accepting, Jonas.”
“You’re welcome, Mr. President.” Johnson’s wife squeezed his hand.
“So let’s keep you off the unemployment line. Mr. Chief Justice, you have the honor.”
It was Leopold Browning’s duty to administer the oath of office. The Supreme Court justice began without flourish. “Place your hand on the Bible and repeat after me.”
The actual text for the vice presidential oath of office is not in the Constitution like the presidential oath. The wording, approved by Congress in 1884, is the same that’s used to swear in all members of Congress and other government officers required to take an oath. It is, with every word, declarative and precise.
“I, state your name, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States…”
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