by JC Ryan
“I think they, the Musketeers, would make a great team for running things. Apart from their skills and experience they also have the wisdom of age in their favor. And of course, you all know the old adage, behind every successful man is a woman with a rolling pin.” She chuckled.
“Yea, I’ll go along with that, just as long as they don’t drink themselves into a stupor on the moonshine from that still up in their pub.” JR said with a mock serious face.
The seven Musketeers were on their feet. Nigel was the spokesman. He looked at his fellow Musketeers and said, please repeat after me, “We the Musketeers of the Rabbit Hole hereby solemnly swear to uphold the…”
That was as far as he got before another loud roar of laughter interrupted the rest of their oath of office. Sarah finally got them under control, and they all became serious.
Salome said. “I think that’s an excellent suggestion.” She looked at the rest of the attendees to see if they agreed. They all did.
Rebecca added. “Who better than the Musketeers to lead us!”
“Good! It’s settled then,” Sarah proclaimed. “Now, who is going to be the leader of your team?”
They all looked at Nigel.
“Oh no,” he said, “I’m happy to be on the team to help, but you need someone fully familiar with the Rossler Foundation to be the leader. Besides, Laurie and Daniel are counting on me to advise them. How about Sam? He did a fantastic job with the Phoenix project.”
Sarah exhaled, “I already suggested that, and for the same reason.”
Sam replied, “No, I agree with Nigel; it should be someone completely familiar with all the Rossler Foundation information and processes and culture.”
After a lengthy discussion, it was decided that Sinclair would be the Team Leader and new CEO as he had been part of the Rossler Foundation from the beginning.
Next, they turned their attention to the uprising fueled by General Hayden and his cronies.
“We’ll be lucky if this doesn’t turn into an out-right civil war. We have our work cut out for us,” Salome opened the discussions.
“Well, the first thing I think we should do is to get everyone back here and tell them what is going on,” Sinclair said. “I haven’t spoken to many of the people yet, but I can imagine that some of the people here were thinking of returning to their homes and families.”
“Good point Sinclair,” Sarah commented. “My suggestion is that we ask everyone to remain here in the safety of the Rabbit Hole until things on the outside have settled down.”
“Yes, I agree with that Sarah, Sinclair,” Nigel joined in. “We’ll have to stay here - all of us - and the location must remain a secret.”
Everyone agreed, and the rest of the inhabitants were called back to the town hall for a briefing.
Chapter 19- A location for the executions
General Hayden had gathered his senior officers around him. “We have forces at the correctional facility in Virginia. They are working on plans to break in, get the prisoners, get them into the streets, and have a public execution.
“We’ve arranged for the media to attend the executions so they can be broadcast live to all parts of the country and the world. We want the world to know that as the new government of the United States, we aren’t going to let those lunatics get away with what they did. And we’re not going to support their sorry asses in jail while they await trial or serve life sentences—God forbid. They are going to be executed. Dead; just like their victims,” he ended with a shout.
“Write that down, Dean,” he said to his aide, “that is good speech material.”
“Yes, sir!” Dean said and started writing furiously.
“What we need to do now is plan to take over the White House so we have the control and power to bring stability to this country. After all, whoever controls the White House controls the country.”
“General, how exactly do you plan to stabilize the country, given the chaos it’s in right now?”
“What kind of a moron are you, Alfred?” the General roared. “We’re going to use military power to bring peace and stability quickly and efficiently; then we’re going to return things to the way they were—with a few adjustments of course. We don’t want to repeat the mistakes of the past. Do we?”
“What kind of adjustments?”
“Women are going back in the home where they belong. They should be taking care of their husbands and children, not working. It is this evil thing of working mothers that caught us with our pants around our knees—handing the country, and the world, to a lunatic.
“The freeloaders in society are going to find themselves without welfare checks—they can get out there and earn a living just like everyone else.
“We’re going to start shooting illegal aliens instead of capturing them, holding them in detention centers and feeding them with taxpayers’ money or sending them back so that they can come back over the border again. That is lunacy. A dead body can be a powerful deterrent.
“We’re going to execute criminals too, instead of supporting them in jail for twenty years to life.”
“I’m not sure all the states will go along with those idea’s, General.”
“Of course, they will,” the General laughed. “If they don’t, they will be branded as criminals, and I just told you what happens to criminals.”
“General, I think it’s going to be a little harder than that.”
Hayden roared. “It won’t be harder than that. They’ll toe the line, or I’ll blast their asses off the planet.”
“General?”
“We’re going to have the power of the military behind us, Alfred. That means weapons. We’ll build nukes again, and I’ll drop a nuke on them if I have to. This is going to be a man’s country, a military country and we aren’t going to have any weaklings, parasites, or dissenters.”
Major Alfred Weinberger threw a quick glance around at the other officers. He was the only Major in the midst of Colonels and Generals, yet everyone else seemed enthralled with the General’s plans. Weinberger was visibly worried, but he kept his mouth shut.
The General seemed almost murderous at the moment; perhaps he would be more open to reason later.
“If there aren’t any more ridiculous questions, let’s get started with planning the takeover of the White House. Bud, what do you have?”
Colonel Bud Jarmin sat a box on the table. “I brought all the maps and intelligence I could find.”
“Excellent! Let’s get busy.”
Jarmin handed out folders filled with papers. “Here’s one on rumored tunnels under the White House that—”
He got no further. “I don’t care about rumors,” the General snorted. “I know more about the White House than anyone, and I know about the tunnel Ronald Regan had installed and the tunnel to the Treasury Building. There aren’t any others, so forget the rumors. Believe me, when it comes to the White House, if it isn’t verified, it isn’t there.”
“But General, shouldn’t we at least—”
“No! Forget about rumors and stick to hard facts! Understood?”
“Yes, General.”
With architectural drawings of the White House, including the East and West wings, on the table, they began to discuss the most likely places for the President to be. Debating the best paths of attack, assembly, fallback, and regrouping points, prime target areas, et cetera.
Many hours later a Captain entered the room with a report for the General.
“Sir! Our troops in Virginia are set to penetrate the correctional facility, the news media is on standby, and a location for the executions has been prepared.”
“Very good! Thank you, Captain. I will let them know when they can move.”
“Yes General,” the Captain said, with the best attempt at a proper salute he could manage.
General Hayden’s troops were mostly angry civilians with no military experience; the rest were mostly low-ranking, impressionable recruits with less than a year of activ
e duty under their belts.
“Alright gentlemen,” the General said as he wrapped up the meeting, “We have everything in place. I will let you know when we will execute our plan. In the meantime, make sure you and your men are ready to move into action within thirty minutes from receiving my order.”
Chapter 20- Business as usual
The town hall meeting with the entire Rabbit Hole community went better than Sarah had hoped. She expected some dissenters, but there were none. Given the climate in the world outside the Rabbit Hole, everyone agreed that remaining in the cave was the safest and wisest thing to do.
Having concluded the town hall meeting, the Musketeer’s turned their focus back to the situation in Washington and Daniel’s request for escape routes out of the White House. Sam and Salome headed for Luke’s office, locating and taking JR, with them. Luke went to speak with Nigel, who was talking with a small group on the other side of the hall.
“Nigel,” Luke said when he joined the group. “Wonder if I could borrow you for a while? We could use your help with some things.”
Nodding in agreement, Nigel excused himself from the group and joined Luke on the walk to his office. “What’s up, Luke?”
“Sam, Salome, and I thought it prudent to have an escape plan in place should Hayden and his crowd make a move on the White House that can’t be repelled. We are going to work on planning escape routes out of the White House and back to the safety of the Rabbit Hole. We’d like your help as you have intimate knowledge of the White House. We’ve also asked JR to join us for his military expertise – his experience as a Marine should be helpful.”
“Sure, I’ll be glad to help!” Nigel agreed as they joined the others in the war room.
“Salome, let’s bring everyone up to speed with where we are,” Luke said taking his seat at the table.
Salome nodded. “Raj and his Tectus friends have successfully deployed their hacking programs against General Hayden and his leadership group, and have set up alarms to notify us if the sniffers they deployed find information of value to the President. We are gathering information from their internet usage, mobile phones, and landlines.
“We’ve contacted Eric Winchester and Dennis McMahon.” Eric was a former Marine Colonel, who is in command of Tectus; his second in command, Dennis McMahon, is a former Navy SEAL.
“They have both activated their members in the DC area and infiltrated Hayden’s group.” She grinned and added, “Two of their members are part of Hayden’s leadership group.”
Luke grinned as well, “Oh, that’s excellent!”
“What we need is several scenarios for escape from different locations in the White House; the most likely being the Oval Office, The Cabinet Room, The Situation Room, and the Presidential Emergency Operations Center,” Salome said.
“I think it would be better to plan on directional escape from general areas rather than specific rooms. That way we have a better chance of success if they are in a room we haven’t accounted for, or moving between areas.” Sam added.
“You’re right, Sam; that would be the better way to plan,” Salome agreed
“We can designate which exit they’re going to use with a code name so they can tell us which plan they are going to use. North will be Operation Eagle, South will be Operation Hawk, East can be Falcon, and West can be Condor.” JR contributed.
“Excellent suggestion, JR!” Salome smiled.
“We’re also going to have to consider escape by foot, car, and air,” Sam added.
JR crossed his arms over his chest. “I’d hate to have to get them out of there on foot or by car. There is a reason the President’s helicopter, is used to move the President from the White House. I think we should try our utmost to make use of it.”
“Agreed,” Luke said. “But we have to be prepared for any possibility and flexible to change between them as needed. We’re also going to need Roy’s help once they’re in the air. Let’s get him in here.”
JR was back with Roy in two minutes. “What’s up?”
“We need you to hide an airborne 747 for us.”
Roy laughed, “oh, is that all? No problem! You just have to know what buttons to push.” He was serious.
The others were a little surprised that he thought it would be so easy.
“We can pull the same trick we used for getting Nigel and Ester off their ranch,” Roy said.
“But that was a small aircraft,” Sam objected. “Here we’re talking about a plane that is over two-hundred feet long with a huge wingspan.”
“Two hundred thirty-one feet long, 195-foot wingspan, and 63 feet tall,” Nigel supplied.
“It won’t be a problem,” Roy replied. “My owl drones can be adjusted to account for the size, and the Presidential plane already has electronic countermeasures to jam radar signals.
“We’ll bring the drone in, using stealth mode, shut down the plane’s identifying transponder, and then engage the electronic countermeasures on the plane at the same time I deactivate the drone’s stealth mode.”
“Brilliant!” Sam said. “Just don’t explain the technical details. It will be a waste of time and breath.”
Luke grinned, “Let’s take a look at the DC information we have and see what we can do to get them safely to the plane.” They pulled out maps and photos and got to work.
***
With Jack Symonds and the rest of his team in DC on the mirror phone, Sam and the escape planning team at the Rabbit Hole went over the plans.
“We’ve decided to go with a basic directional escape plan by area rather than try to plan a scenario for every possible location,” Sam said.
“Excellent thinking!” Jack agreed, “That will make things a little easier.”
“We’ve selected four directions and code-named them as follows: Escape to the North will be referred to as Operation Eagle, to the South will be Hawk, East will be Falcon, and West will be Condor.
“Jack, we’re going to depend on you to be our onsite team leader. It will be up to you to make the assignments, fine tune plans as needed, and adapt to any changes that arise.”
Jack laughed. “No problem Sam, there’s only about a million and one things that can change or need to be adapted in a situation as volatile and high profile as this.”
“Let’s hope it will never come to that. Nevertheless, we have confidence in you Jack; you’ll be fine. Let’s talk about the details of these plans.”
The two groups spent the next several hours reviewing the planning team’s recommendations, poring over the maps, planning exact routes and possible deviations, making adjustments and discussing possible scenarios. In the end, they were all in agreement.
“This looks good guys, really good,” Jack commented.
“I’m glad to hear you say that, Jack. You guys are the ones who will be dealing with the action if it comes to that. You’re the ones who need to feel comfortable with this,” Luke said.
“Just get that meeting with Eric Winchester and Dennis McMahon arranged as soon as possible so that we can fill them in and have everything in place quickly. I have this gut wrenching feeling about that Hayden clown.”
“We’re working on that right now.” There was a brief pause, then, “In fact, the meeting is set for 8 pm your time at one of the Safe Houses, I’ll have the address for you in a minute. All required members are being notified now and will meet you there for briefing and assignment.”
“Great! So, it’s back to BAU then.” Jack said.
“BAU?” Sam asked.
“Business as usual.” Jack laughed.
Sam provided the safe house location address before they hung up and Jack was surprised to see that it was fairly close to the White House.
Chapter 21- The decoys
It was 4 pm when Jack’s mirror phone rang—it was Sam. “Jack, the holiday is over. I just got off the phone with Eric Winchester, their insider on Hayden’s leadership group has important news which he says we must act on immediately. He doe
sn’t have a secure phone, so he needs to meet in person. Eric is going to pick him up now and will meet you at the safe house in an hour.”
“Okay let me just get out of the swimming pool, put my clothes on and pull our former Wall-Street-guru-turned-secret-agent, Peter, out of the bar,” Jack quipped. “We’ll head over there right now.”
“Okay Jack, keep us posted,” Sam smiled as he disconnected. That’s Jack Symonds—when there was a crisis he was as cool as a cucumber, and a humorous side of him emerged that never existed in normal situations.
Jack and Peter were in the rental car on their way to the safe house in less than five minutes.
“I wonder what that crazy general is up to now?” Peter remarked as he put on his seatbelt. Jack was driving.
“We’ll find out soon enough.”
Eric Winchester, Dennis McMahon, and Major Alfred Weinberger — one of the two Tectus members who had infiltrated Hayden’s leadership group — were already at the safe house when Jack and Peter arrived.
Eric, Dennis, Peter, and Jack already knew one another. Alfred was introduced to Jack and Peter, and they all moved to a secured room. The room was scanned for bugs and cameras before Alfred started his report.
Over the course of the next twenty minutes, Alfred gave them a detailed report of Hayden’s planning meeting earlier in the day.
“He’s got everything in place to launch an offensive against the correctional facility at Chesapeake to get hold of the prisoners and execute them in public. As soon as that’s done, he will launch an attack on the White House. He believes that the one who is in control of the White House is in control of the country.”
“When’s he going to make his move?” Jack asked.
“No specific time has been set. He is keeping that to himself, but all his troops, if you can call them that, are on standby to go into action with 30-minutes notice.”