by Ira Tabankin
“TF 66, ACO, splash three, repeat splash three. Radar tapes prove they were splashed at 44 miles.”
“Well done. Keep your eyes open.”
The Admiral presses button number two on his radio,
“TF 66 calling anti-submarine officer.”
“Anti-submarine officer, aye, TF 66.”
“Keep a sharp eye for subsurface contacts, sink any that break the fifty-mile line. Repeat, your weapons are green for any that breaks fifty-mile security line.”
“Aye, sir.”
He presses button number five,
“TF 66 to intel, please see me on the bridge.”
“Intel to TF 66, aye sir. On the way.”
The fleet intel officer arrives next to Admiral Jefferson within three minutes,
“Intel, I want to know what the Chinese are doing. I want to know where every one of their ships and subs are. Where are their land forces based? Paint us a map of the high priority targets.”
“Aye, sir. I’ll have it on your tablet in five minutes.”
“Great. I want to target our Tomahawks in case we have to teach them a lesson.”
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The Chinese Premier throws the latest report from Hawaii into the trash,
“Incompetents! I want the General in charge of our forces in Hawaii fired, arrest him, find him guilty and execute him within an hour. He just lost three of our latest fighters. His loss cost us over 500 million Yuan. It takes over a year to build these fighters, he’s losing them like a child loses marbles. Maybe the General has lost his marbles. We need to take out the Yankee Battleship. They are able to absorb anything we throw at them and they’re still able to direct attacks against us. We won’t be secure until that ship is sitting on the bottom of the Pacific. I want a plan to sink it within three hours.”
His military aide whispers,
“Sir, we’ve tried attacking it with cruise missiles, torpedoes, and bombs, nothing seems to take her out of the fight.”
“I don’t want her out of the fight, I want her sunk. She’s the pride of the US Navy, sinking her will break their moral, they will leave us alone in Hawaii if we crush their silly Task Force 66. They’ll be left with no capital ships in the Eastern Pacific. They won’t risk their carrier sailing off of Japan since it’s their last functional carrier in the Pacific. I want their Admiral Jefferson to go down with his beloved relic. That ship should have been broken up and sold for scrap after the Second World War.”
“Sir, maybe we should use her success and update our shipbuilding designs. She’s taught us a valuable lesson. She’s almost unsinkable.”
“Which is why I want her sunk ASAP.”
“Yes, sir.”
“While you're making plans to sink that bastard ship, increase our shipment of weapons to the Islamic warriors in their homeland. I’m counting on them making enough trouble for the child in the White House to distract him from our next moves. What’s the timeline of Phase 2?”
“Sir, one million people of the People’s Army will be ready to leave in thirty days.”
“Excellent. Soon we will see the end of the American Dynasty leaving us as the ruling power.”
“Sir, Russia?”
“It’s time to arm their Islamists with heavy weapons, offer them a WMD, that should keep Putin busy and distracted from our moves. After they use the WMD, Putin will most likely ask us for help, we’ll wipe the Islamists out for using a WMD. A perfect circular plan.”
“Yes, sir.”
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Captain Black sits on the observation deck looking at the activity below him.
“Do you know something I should know?”
“Why are you asking?”
“You’re expanding your farm, you’re improving your defenses, I see people carrying supplies to the shelter. Are you expecting a storm?”
Jay smiles, Tony and Major Walker pause their chewing to listen to what Jay is going to say,
“Captain, there’s always a storm coming. I think we’re going to be hit by a really big one. I want to take every precaution I can to be ready. My gut is telling me the next storm is going to make the previous ones pale in comparison. I like to be prepared for anything.”
“Do you have any details I should know?”
“What has D.C. told you?”
Captain Black laughs,
“They don’t tell me anything. The latest they’ve told me is they’re considering court marshaling me for posting images of the deaths in West Memphis.”
“I saw them, horrible sight. I imagine in person it was much worse.”
“It was; the smell was horrible. I can’t describe it. I hope D.C. forgets about me for a while, they’ve got their hands full with the Chinese and the economy. They send teams like mine into the country to attempt to pacify the public. After they sent us, they forgot us. They figured they did something and that solved the problem. Hence, there was no problem to begin with. Perfect political circular thinking.”
Jay laughs,
“That’s why I’d make a horrible politician.”
“I didn’t know you were thinking of running for office. To be honest with you, I’d vote for you.”
“Captain, just out of curiosity, where were you based before being told to build a new base here?”
“Fort Bragg.”
“Good, that’s a very good thing.”
“Jay? What does that mean?”
“I’ll tell you later. Let me ask you this, could you classify most of the military as tilting to the right or left?”
Captain Black smiles,
“My guess is most of the military leans to the right, or they wouldn’t have joined. Some may have joined because they needed a job. The people who are the core of the corps are right leaning, they’d have to be.”
“And the senior officers in D.C.?”
“I can’t say. Many of them were appointed by the President, too many of them are politically correct and make their decisions based on how it will affect their career.”
“That’s what I thought. I’m glad my gut was right.”
“Jay, what aren’t you telling me?”
“Captain, can you trust me for a while? I have to sort some things out before I discuss them with anyone.”
“Jay, if I can help you in any way, I’m here. As you know, I’ll be here for a while.”
“Captain, that brings up the main reason I invited you to lunch. I’d like to discuss the location of your new headquarters. When you addressed our people, you said you wanted to make your headquarters on our farm.”
“Yes, that’s what I said. Has something happened to change what your people agreed to?”
“We’d like you to investigate the land across the street. It’s been cleaned up, it has room for you to expand, plus farmland. It has two nice homes to use as your headquarters. If you haven’t seen it, I have a file folder of pictures to show you. We took these from a small RC controlled drone.”
Jay lays out ten 8X10 inch photos in front of the Captain.
“Nice images, high res cameras?”
“Yeah, we have a video of the land for you too. Thought you might like the video and stills.”
“What happened to the owners?”
“Killed by a large gang we fought with. They didn’t have any other family members. In time, I would have absorbed their farms into mine. Since you want to be in the area, why not there?”
“Jay, what changed your mind from me using your farm as a base of operations?”
“We’re trying to expand the farm to squeeze every bushel of food we can from it. Giving up a couple of acres will cut into our food production. Also, I’m concerned about mixing farmers, civilians and military and militia under one roof.”
“I think I understand. When can I see the farms across the street?”
“Right after lunch.”
“I think it will work, how about defenses?”
“You can use our heavy construction equipment to build wal
ls, trenches, anything you want. Franco will help in the design and if needed construction.”
“Thanks, we have combat engineers to design our defenses, I’ll need some manpower building them since most of my people are in West Memphis.”
“Franco will lead our construction people to assist you with anything you need. I’ll tell them to take your orders as if they were mine. He’s looked at the land and has drawn up plans for a shelter of your own if you think you’d like one.”
“Jay, how big of a storm do you think is coming.”
“Captain, the largest storm we’ve ever faced. It’s why we’re restocking our shelter and also improving its defenses. I hope to make it impregnable. I feel we’re going to need it sooner rather than later.”
“I’d like to look over Franco’s plans for a shelter. One aspect of the shelter I’m thinking of is to see if we can tunnel under the street that intersects the two farms.”
“You want to connect our two shelters?”
“I realize it will be a hell of a construction project. Think about the possibilities.”
“Captain, it will take a lot of manpower to tunnel more than half a mile. I can see the advantages of connecting the two shelters, but the resource required to do it is another issue. I’ll talk to Franco about it. Let’s see what he says. I have a lot of construction equipment. However, a tunneling machine isn’t one I purchased. Do you know where to locate one?”
“I’ll ask my 4, my logistics officer, to see what she can locate. If we have to dig the tunnel by hand, it could take a year and use most of our manpower.”
“A dangerous job for inexperienced workers. I’m not sure we should attempt it without a tunnel machine. It's also going to require a lot more concrete than we projected. There’s a concrete factory not too far away. When everything started to turn to crap, I bought it so I’d have enough concrete to build the shelter. In order to start the plant back up, we’ll need raw materials and manpower to run the plant. Once running it can supply us with all we’ll need for your shelter and a tunnel.”
“Why don’t we stop at the plant before we look at the land across the street. I’ll ask my staff to see if any of our people have experience working in a concrete plant. You can ride in my command LAV.”
“I accept the offer. If you don’t mind, I’d like Franco to join us.”
“Agreed, now let’s return to the excellent lunch Lacy laid out for us.”
Jay smiles while nodding his head. He thinks, interesting thought, build the Army a shelter and tunnel it to ours, maybe we should build an entire complex of shelters all connected together. Everyone will have more than enough room and the tunnels will provide us with enough storage space for at least a year’s worth of supplies. I don’t know if we can spare the manpower to build the tunnels, we could use more bodies to work the fields. I’ll have to sleep on it.
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The bankers and city council in Atlanta spend three days debating the proposal to accept Huntsville’s currency plan. At the end of the long and sometimes violent debate, the mayor announces they will accept the coinage. The cities of Macon and Savanna also accept the plan, forcing the all of the small towns between the cities to go along with the plan in order to be able to trade with the cities. The farmers are most appreciative of the new plan. They know their crops can be sold for something of real value. Upper and Central Florida also agree to the plan, only Southern Florida, Miami rejects the plan. Miami has become the gateway to Central and South America, they’ve developed their own currency plan, they use gold, silver, cocaine and female slaves. The rest of the South wants Miami to abandon the slave trade. The Miami city council turns a blind eye to hundreds of slavers who roam Southern Florida capturing young women which they sell in Central and South America to the cartels. The prettiest blondes are sold in Asia as sex slaves.
The rumor of a new Confederacy continues to spread through the South. Rebel flags sprout up on homes and buildings like magic. The red flag with the blue X filled with the stars representing the states of the Confederacy flies in more places than the American flag. State legislators begin openly debating the question of secession.
The President of the United States looks around the conference table in the White House Situation room.
“What is the story behind the rumor spreading through the South? A new currency, a reborn call to secede? Who’s behind this movement? What are we doing about it?”
The Secretary of Defense says,
“Mr. President, we have platoons through the South, we can ask them to determine the truth behind the rumor and if true, arrest the ring leaders.”
“Issue the orders as quickly as possible. I want the leaders killed. This has to be stopped before it spreads too quickly. If the states begin using their own currency, we won’t have any way to tax them. We’ll end up with mass confusion. I have trouble believing anyone with an ounce of intelligence would consider seceding again. Surely they know, I’ll never allow it. The Congress, the people of America, won’t allow it. Even if it comes to force, we’ll stop them from breaking up the union.”
The Secretary of the Interior asks,
“Mr. President, what about Hawaii? Didn’t we allow them to secede? They voted to break their bond with the rest of us, you allowed them to leave, why not the South?”
“Are you a racist? Why are you questioning my orders?”
“Mr. President, I’m asking the same question that millions of Americans will ask. In fact, you did allow Hawaii to become part of China, the people will want to know why that’s different from the South or any state seceding.”
“Hawaii was a completely different situation. The fact is, Hawaii should never have been a state, she was an independent nation, one that should have stayed independent. The racists in Congress at the time stole the Hawaiian independence.”
“Mr. President, can’t you say the same about what happened in the Civil War?”
“Will someone please remove the Secretary from the room, he’s acting in a very confused manner. I think he should be taken to John Hopkins for observation. We all wish the poor man quickly recovers.”
Two secret service agents remove the Secretary from the room.
“Who can give us an update from Hawaii?”
“Sir, Admiral Jefferson is following his orders, he’s only fired when his ships are being threatened.”
“Good, I don’t want to start World War Three due to one man playing battleship.”
The Secretaries laugh at the President’s joke.
Chapter 21
Richmond, Virginia, the capital of the old Confederacy spends five weeks debating the resolution of secession. The Commonwealth’s Democratic Governor actively tries to quash the resolution; he promises the people secession means placing the people of Virginia in a state of war with the rest of the country. He tours the Commonwealth telling all who will listen their only logical path is to stay the course. He also asks the people to amend the Constitution so he can run for a second term. Virginia being one of a handful of states that limits its Governor to a single term. He tells the people of Virginia they are facing a state of emergency; such times require special people to lead them through the dark times. He’s not met with the love and respect he expects. Many Virginians remember he didn’t play fair in the general election. He won his office by secretly funding a third party candidate to run, drawing votes from his Republican challenger. Without the third party in the race, he would have lost the election, just as he lost his previous attempts in the other states he ran for office.
The Governor plans a series of town hall meetings to convince the people of Virginia not to secede. His first is in the Leesburg, Virginia two-hundred-fifty-year-old courthouse. He arrives early to perform sound checks and for PR photos. His motorcade is greeted by thousands of protestors holding signs reading, “The South will Rise Again” and “DIXIE.” People are signing Dixie along the narrow street leading to the courthouse. The great number of people attend
ing force the Governor to move the meeting to an abandoned Pet’s Mart. He orders the State Police to push the shelves out of the way and hang electrical wires for his sound system. The town’s people, some who’ve been waiting hours for the Governor to arrive, are angry he moved the venue after they waited so long at the courthouse. They lock arms marching down the street to the new location, encouraging everyone they see to join them, by the time the crowd reaches the Pet’s Mart, they number over seven thousand. The press asks to interview the Governor before his speech, he tells them,