A NATION HEALING - BOOK III The Second Civil War (The Second Civil War - BOOK III 1)

by Marshall Huffman

  “Are you proposing some kind of mutual assistance agreement? If one is attacked the other will come to its aid?”

  “If anyone declares war on either of the Americas, we should unite to defend the entire country,” the General replied.

  “I agree in principal but we would need to hammer out the details.”

  “But you agree in principal?”

  “I do.”

  “Good. Thank you. It was a major concern. Now for Mexico. As of now they are only in the southern part of California. It is attached to the continent so what should we do about them if anything?” Ascot asked.

  “Honestly? I just don’t know. They wanted to go their own way. Same for Washington and Oregon. To some extent this is of their own doing. In some ways America is split into three separate countries. The United States, American Republic and the Independent States.”

  “But if we allow another country to get a foothold on our continent how long will it be before they decided to expand their territory?” Ascot asked.

  “We have the same concern. Mary has had people doing reconnaissance and reporting back. They continue to dig in deeper and bring up more men. If we wait much longer it will end ugly. It isn’t a matter of knocking them back, it’s the amount of civilian lives that will be lost and the destruction of LA and the surrounding area,” the President replied.

  “Are you willing to send a joint taskforce to deal with the situation?”

  “Who would you suggest command the operation?” Jason asked.

  “General MacMillan would be my first choice. I’ve known Mac going on twenty years now. He is the finest tactician I have ever seen. We can put Admiral Swanson as second in command and she can oversee fleet operations if that is acceptable to you,” Ascot replied

  “Let me talk to the General about it and see what all he will need. I do know he is tired of fighting and sending young men and women off to war.”

  “I agree completely. We are hoping to change our foreign policy in dealing with other countries,” Ascot told him.

  “Interesting. We were just talking about that exact same thing. Once we have ours refined maybe we should compare notes,” the President suggested.

  “Excellent.”

  ****

  General Ascot and President Jason talked about various subjects and for the most part things went well. The issue of Fort Knox was one area that caused some tension but they agreed to table that for a later time. The other area that they didn’t reach an agreement on was how to protect the sovereignty of the two nations. Everything from passports to electronic detection chips was discussed but in the end, they could come to no real agreement. It was another subject that they would have to talk about at a later time.

  The one area they both skirted was how the country’s political system would be run. Neither asked or even mentioned it. They agreed to meet again in two months but would have General MacMillan get in touch with Admiral Swanson to start putting a plan together to remove the Mexican Army from California.

  Little did General Ascot know that MacMillan had been in talks with her for some time now.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  GEORGETOWN, DC

  Bruce left the bar and went back to the hotel. He stopped at the doorman and asked for directions.

  “Do you know where the Palace is located?”

  “Are you talking about the Tudor Palace?”

  “I guess so. Are there any other palaces in the area?”

  “That I don’t know but the Tudor Palace is just a few blocks from here.”

  “You’re kidding.”

  “No sir. Go right up Wisconsin a few blocks to Q Street. Take a right on Q and the Tutor Palace House is just a couple of blocks further on your left. You can’t miss the place, but you can’t go in any longer.”

  “Why is that?” Bruce asked the doorman.

  “Something is going on there and people aren’t even allowed to stop and take pictures right now. All kinds of Police and military are hanging around all over the place. From what I’ve heard if you walk too slowly the get on your case.”

  “Wow. It must be something big then.”

  The doorman just shrugged his shoulders.

  Bruce couldn’t believe he had been within a few blocks of the place all along. Unbelievable. He took out his city map and found that sure enough, it was only four blocks up Wisconsin and two blocks over.

  He took his rifle out of the case, broke it down and cleaned and oiled it. He wiped each shell and placed them in the magazine. He spent time going over the entire gun to make sure no fingerprints were to be found. He placed it back in the case and decided to get a good night’s sleep. Tomorrow he would scout out the entire surrounding area.

  ****

  Nashville, TN

  “Welcome back. How did the meeting go?”

  “Productive,” the President said.

  “Meaning you made progress or it was just so-so?” Vice President Folly asked.

  “Overall, I would give it about an eight on a scale of ten.”

  “That high?” the VP said, rather surprised.

  “Well for one thing, they are in the same boat we are in so it makes it a little easier to be open about the issues. One thing that we both see as a high priority is the situation with Mexico. We are going to issue a joint proclamation to the President of Mexico and inform him that we intend to combine forces and will move submarines, aircraft carriers and our DLG’s along with the Air Force and Army if they do not leave the US territories immediately.”

  “Is it a bluff or did you actually come to an agreement?”

  “No, we really did agree. Mac is going to be the overall command officer and Admiral Swanson will be his second in command.”

  “You’re kidding me. Mac and Jean. That’s just too funny. Here they were sneaking around and now Mac has carté blanche to talk to her. If they had waited a week no risk would have been involved,” Folly kidded.

  “Things work out in strange ways sometimes. What we could not agree on was how to enforce the borders. It is very complicated with Illinois and Michigan being part of the United States but essentially isolated by the placement of Indiana. General Ascot wanted to implant chips in all citizens with a code that would track them. I couldn’t agree to that. That was part of the problem with Quasim. He wanted to control every aspect of people’s lives. I can’t go along with that,” Jason told him.

  “So how did you leave it then?”

  “We decided to table it for now and talk about it again in two months when we have our next meeting.”

  “Man. I didn’t think that would happen so soon,” Folly said.

  “I’m telling you, we made some good progress. I am hopeful that we can find a way to solve a few of the problems still lingering.”

  “Fort Knox being one of them.”

  “Yeah. That was probably the most tense part of the conversation. They feel it belongs to the United States Treasury. He wanted to know if we had any objection to having the gold moved to Washington. Obviously we didn’t see eye to eye on that issue.”

  “He wasn’t joking? He actually thought we would let him just take the gold to Washington?” Folly replied.

  “No he wasn’t joking. He was quite serious. Without gold they are going to be hard pressed to get their economy back on track.”

  “Then they shouldn’t have started the damn war.”

  “There is that,” Jason conceded.

  ****

  NASHVILLE CAPITAL BUILDING

  Jason had just finished briefing his team on the meeting with General Ascot. He gave MacMillan a draft of the letter that would be sent to the Mexican President.

  “Can you make that time frame?” Jason asked him.

  “Only if we open the Panama Canal. We can’t get the ships in position soon enough if they have to go all the way around South America.”

  “Mary. I need you to get the canal open. Think you can do that?”

  “I can,” was all she sai
d.

  “Good. I’ll hold off sending the letter until you have firmed up the plans with Admiral Swanson.”

  “I’ll call her as soon as we finish here,” Mac told the President.

  “Okay. This is what I would like to talk about today unless others have something on their minds. Anyone? Good. I want to talk about how we are going to elect Presidents and representatives of the people. Let me start by saying that I feel, and have always felt that too often the person who gets elected turns out to be very different from whom you thought you were voting for. Let me throw this out on the table and then we can talk about it. First the requirements. Anyone that is the American Republic Presidential race must be born in one of the states that make up the Republic. Second, we will require proof in the form of a certified birth certificate to be presented before being allowed to seek the office. Third, the President will be elected by popular vote. I want to do away with the electoral system entirely. Forth, and you will have to give this one some thought, the person can only run for one six year term. Now why did I pick six years? Well it seems to me that if you can’t deliver what you promised in six years you need to be put out to pasture. To add to that, I want a three year performance evaluation of the President. At the end of the first three years, a representative sample from the Republic will be taken and if they cannot score a satisfaction rating of fifty-one percent or more, they will be replaced by the Vice President. Any benefits due the President will be cut in half to go with his performance. There are some other things but let’s start with those,” Jason said sitting back in his chair.

  There was nothing but dead silence in the room. Even the dust bunnies had stopped moving. Jason waited. MacMillan was writing on his pad of paper, Mary was holding her head in her palms. Beau Zimmerman, Ben Folly, and Bill Alan were looking down at the table. The Honorable Jackson Miller made a quick note on his pad of paper. Richard Newhouse and Gary Davis had the ‘deer in the headlights look’. Susan Churchman was obviously in deep thought. He could almost hear the wheels turning as she weighed out what she had just heard. It confirmed Jason’s belief that she was the right person to fill the Education Chief position.

  “I have one comment, or question, or both,” Beau said.

  “Spit it out boy. You’re among friends,” Jason said smiling.

  “Let’s suppose that the President only gets a 45 percent approval rating. I assume you are talking about an overall rating, not one specific area.”

  “Correct.”

  “So, he gets a 45 percent approval. He is then essentially fired. The Vice President steps in to finish the term. Then what happens at the end of his three year term as President?”

  “The same thing. He gets an approval rating. If he is doing a good job, 51 percent or better, he can run for President.”

  “Giving him nine years as a possible total term,” Susan spoke up.

  “That would be correct.”

  “We still have the problem of the last three years of any President. As lame duck Presidents they can do pretty much as they please,” Susan said.

  “Except for one detail, the pension and perks. To get the full amount, they must leave office with a 51 percent approval,” Jason told her.

  “I like it,” she replied.

  “The rest of you?”

  “I have to admit, I think the electoral system is ridicules in the first place. The only thing that should count is what the people want,” MacMillan added.

  “I agree with Susan. I like it better than what we are doing now. This holds the President’s feet to the fire to keep the promises that were made. It means it will be harder to talk out of both sides of their mouth,” Beau said.

  “What about the rest of you. I want to hear what you think,” Jason urged.

  Over the next forty-five minutes they discussed the topic. One question concerned who would be polled for the approval rating? They decided that it would be one item that would take separate consideration to make sure it was representative of the Republic as a whole and that the system was monitored by a totally independent panel.

  Everyone agreed the concept was long overdue and with some minor tweaking it would be a viable system.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  ADMIRAL’S ROW NORFOLK, VA.NAVAL BASE

  Norfolk, Virginia Naval Base in not large. It’s gigantic. The entire community of Norfolk lives and dies by the Navy’s presence in the area. That doesn’t mean they love the sailors even though they make their living off of them. Billions of dollars are pumped into the community but it has always been the plight of the sailors to have the ‘No dogs or Sailors Allowed’ attitude displayed by the local community.

  General MacMillan was deep in conversation with Admiral Swanson. Present as well were the Commanding Officer of the aircraft carrier, USS George H.W. Bush, CVN 77 and the Commanding Officer for the carrier, USS Abraham Lincoln. CVN 72.

  “This briefing is about our combined action to remove the Mexican Army, Air Force, and Navy from California. General Ascot and President Jason have signed a nonaggression pact between the American Republic and the United States. We have also agreed that even though technically California is neutral, we cannot have foreign interests invading North America. To that end, Admiral Swanson and I have been given the responsibility to remove them by force if necessary,” Mac told them.

  “So we just forget about the sinking of the USS Truman?” the Commanding Officer of the Lincoln said.

  “Yes Commander. That is correct, is that a problem for you?”

  “Damn right it is. We lost a lot of good men and one of the finest Captains in the fleet,” he said, his face starting to get red.

  “Stand down,” Swanson said.

  “Sir, are we really expected to have a joint operation with General MacMillan?”

  “What you are expected to do is to obey orders. General Ascot initiated the contact asking for them to put together a plan. The General is in charge and I will be acting as his second in command.”

  “Second in command? You mean we are to follow his orders?”

  “That’s the way it is done Commander. Let me be a little more blunt. You are relieved of command of the USS Abraham Lincoln as of this moment. You will remain on base until after this operation is completed. I know your wife lives on base so that should cause no undue hardship. You may leave now,” Swanson snapped at him.

  He sat there looking stunned. Just like that he was being relieved of command? He would go to the General about this. No way was Admiral Swanson getting away with this.

  “This is not over Admiral,” he said, picking up his hat and walking out of the room.

  “Sorry about that General MacMillan.”

  “I understand. The wounds run deep on both sides. Commander Loffler, if you have the same feelings, this would be the time to put them on the table,” Mac said.

  “No sir. The Navy has a job to do. It will be a lot easier with both the United States and the American Republic working together. I’m sorry for Commander Parks. He is a good skipper but his mouth has gotten him in hot water before. He tends to shoot first and then tries to repair the damage.”

  “I’ll let him cool down then talk to him but he embarrassed me in front of the General and that fish won’t fry,” the Admiral said.

  “Don’t worry about it Admiral Swanson, I understand the difficulty of sitting in the same room with what was once your enemy.”

  “The bad part is that we need to postpone this until I have a talk with Commander Peterson on the Eisenhower. I want to make damn sure he understands the parameters of this mission before I bring him in.”

  “When can you do that?”

  “He is due back later this afternoon. I can corral him then and have a chat with him,” she told the General.

  “Then I suggest we reconvene at 0900 hundred hours tomorrow morning,” the General suggested.

  “No problem for me sir,” Commander Loffler said.

  Jane just nodded.

  ****r />
  GEORGETOWN, DC

  It took Bruce Hubbard three days to find a spot where he could get a good look at the Tudor Palace grounds and surrounding area. Like any good hunter he knew the trick was to blend in to the environment and act like you belonged.

  He bought a pair of blue coveralls, a Georgetown Bulldogs baseball cap and gloves. He went to a quick sign place and had two cling on Dish TV Repair signs made. The truck rental went smoothly and he placed the signs on the sides of it when he got back to the hotel. His last stop was to purchase a thirty foot extension ladder to put on top of the truck's rack.

  Blend in, he reminded himself as he drove the van up 31st Street alongside the Tudor Palace. He pulled over and looked at a map. He knew the guards would not let him sit there very long. Sure enough one walked over to the van and Bruce rolled the window down.

  “You need to move along.”

  “I will but I’ll be darn if I can find the place where I’m supposed to fix the dish. Someplace on Avon Lane. You have any idea where that is?”

  “You missed it. You need to go back the way you came. About halfway down you’ll see it on the left. It doesn’t have a street sign but that’s Avon.”

  “No street sign huh? No wonder I missed it. Thanks for the help.”

  “No problem,” he said.

  The guard even stopped the traffic so Bruce could turn around without having to circle the block.

  Bruce parked the tuck and walked around to the back of the second building carrying the ladder. He took his time, he was just an hourly employee after all. Once he had the ladder extended and in place, he went back to the truck and retrieved his backpack leaving the gun in the truck.

  Once on the roof, he used the scope as a monocular. Lying on his stomach he could just see over the edge of the building to the Tudor garden grounds. His location was excellent. He could see the front entrance to the Palace and the grounds in front of it for a good fifteen yards before trees obscured his vision.