by James Rosone
Joining the Secretary-General and the President-Elect were the newly appointed UN Minister of Defense, Manuel Philippi, General McKenzie, the overall UN military commander, and two notetakers. On the US side was Tate’s chosen candidate to become Secretary of State, Robert Ross, a man who had been an Undersecretary of State during the Obama administration. Then there was retired admiral David Hill, who would become Tate’s Secretary of Defense, Page Larson, who would become the National Security Advisor, and of course, Jerome Powell, who would remain his Chief of Staff. In addition to Tate’s crew, the Speaker of the House, Tim Borq, and Senate Minority Leader Isaac Rosenbaum were present as well. Noticeably absent from the meeting was the US ambassador, who hadn’t been told about this private meeting.
Tate leaned in. “We have a bit of a problem right now, and we’re wanting to know if it might be appropriate and helpful to involve the United Nations,” he began.
Johann smiled and nodded. He could appreciate the delicate nature of the situation the President-Elect had found himself in.
“I agree, Mr. President-Elect. This issue brewing in your country has caused a great deal of concern with many member nations of the UN. I’ve been contacted by numerous members, asking how they should respond to the latest rants from President Sachs. This declaration of martial law has a lot of people concerned about what is going on inside America,” Johann explained.
The American delegation nodded in affirmation.
“Sachs is out of control,” asserted Speaker Borq. “In the last two days, he’s threatened to arrest the governors of more than twenty states. He actually did arrest thirty-two of my own colleagues when they called for a vote of impeachment. Not coincidentally, these arrests have also removed my majority in the House to secure a successful vote of impeachment. Sachs’s party is fully behind him, so I can’t count on any of them splitting with their party to vote with me on this—not to mention, we’d need more than fifteen of his members in the Senate to vote to remove him, and that is also unlikely to happen.”
Leaning in, the newly appointed UN Minister of Defense, Manuel Philippi, asked, “If you can’t impeach him, and your courts can’t remove him, then why don’t you wait out the rest of his term? He will officially leave office on January 20th of this next year, oui?”
Jerome sighed loudly. “Technically, that is true. However, President Sachs has declared martial law. He has voided the results of the last election and is currently moving forward with his original order for a redo of the presidential election on January fourth. Right now, twenty-two of our fifty states are not going to comply with his order.
“That could change, of course, if Sachs follows through on his threat to declare those states in open insurrection against the federal government. If he does that, then he can take direct control of the state governments or appoint someone in the interim to run the state until he lifts his order for martial law.
“In that situation, I suspect those states will hold a redo of the presidential election. But who’ll be able to say with certainty that it’ll be a free and fair election? He’ll have soldiers guarding the polling stations and his own people overseeing the ballots for security purposes. It’ll put a question mark on whether it was truly legitimate.”
Leaning back in his chair, Johann crossed his arms and looked at the ceiling for a moment before settling his gaze back to the people in front of him. “What exactly are you wanting from the UN?” he asked.
Now it was Marshall’s turn to lean in. He fixed Johann with his gaze. “What we’d like is for the UN to issue some sort of statement condemning the Sachs administration’s use of martial law as a blatant power grab and attempt to stay in power. We’d like the UN to communicate that you support and validate the past election results showing that I won and am the President-Elect, that come January 20th, the UN will recognize me as the legitimate president of the United States and not Sachs.”
“And what do you propose we do if and when Sachs ignores that statement?” asked General McKenzie. “He hasn’t exactly been a big believer or follower of the UN during his time in office.”
“If he doesn’t comply with the UN request or our pleas that he peacefully leave office and hand over power, then we’d request a UN peacekeeping force to aid in a peaceful transition of American power from Sachs to myself,” Marshall explained as he smugly sat back in his chair.
For his part, McKenzie ran his fingers through his hair, analyzing what Marshall had just said.
Then he looked at Admiral Hill, a man he had served with in the past during his many deployments to Afghanistan. “You know a UN peacekeeping force in America would not be received well. As a matter of fact, we’d be viewed as invaders and most likely attacked. How do you propose we make this work?” McKenzie asked.
Hill thought for a moment, then pulled out a legal pad, opening it and searching for some piece of information. “Right now, we are preparing to have more than a dozen states mobilize their National Guard units. Those units will be under the control of the state government until January 20th. Your actions would hopefully prevent Sachs from trying to federalize those units.
“Once President-Elect Tate is sworn in, they will fall under his national control. If the Sachs administration has still not yielded power, then I will be making a plea to all active-duty units and commanders to acknowledge President Tate as their Commander-in-Chief and not Sachs. I fully recognize that many units will not come over to our side, but the ones that do will bolster our National Guard forces. Even within the guard, I suspect we’ll have a high percentage of desertions, but the units that do remain will be our nucleus. Those units, plus your UN force, should be more than enough to convince Sachs to stand down and relinquish power. If he still won’t leave office, then we’ll look to move quickly and secure the major cities and the capital region with your help.”
Pausing for a moment, Admiral Hill added, “I firmly believe when Sachs or the units that feel like they are caught in the middle are faced with the choice of actually firing on their fellow Americans, they will see reason and yield. If they don’t, then we need to be prepared to unleash holy hell on them and get them to submit quickly before we allow Sachs or his military cronies to mobilize their forces.”
The military men talked for a little while longer, explaining the nuts and bolts of how this would all work out, discussing what UN forces were currently available and how they could be integrated with the US forces on Tate’s side. Everyone hoped it wouldn’t come down to an actual military conflict, but if it did, it was Hill’s hope that they could end it quickly and restore order to the country and its duly elected president, Marshall Tate.
Chapter 26
Global Interference
Arlington, Virginia
Pentagon
Secretary of Defense Chuck McElroy read over the most recent intelligence summary of the newly created UN force carrying out its first training exercise. The more he read, the more he didn’t like it.
What in the world are they up to? he wondered.
When he read the NRO report on the group of Chinese freighters in Manzanillo, he nearly blew a gasket. There was no logical reason for the Chinese sending an army group to Mexico.
Why would the Mexican government allow the Chinese to offload such a large force in their territory?
McElroy stood up and immediately headed down to find the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. He needed another opinion on this. Something wasn’t adding up.
The SecDef burst into General Austin Peterson’s office unannounced and walked over to the general, who was just finishing a phone call with someone. As Peterson placed the receiver down, McElroy shoved the latest summary from the national reconnaissance office in front of him.
Peterson nodded. “I was just on the phone with the defense attaché office in Mexico City. He told me that yesterday he was informed by his counterparts in the Mexican military that they had opted at the last minute to participate in this UN training exercise. He said the
Chinese were going to practice deploying a large force to a ‘mock UN mission’ and would then go back home in a few months.”
It was clear to McElroy that these guys were up to something nefarious, but he wasn’t sure exactly what. “Something isn’t right with this UN force up there in Canada. I understand the Canadians are big participants in the UN and all, but this is an awful lot of foreign troops all showing up in Canada for a ninety-day training exercise—and now this sudden participation by Mexico and the appearance of Chinese soldiers on our southern border? The DIA just sent over a report last night that said two additional German airwings arrived at CFB Bagotville while three Russian airwings arrived at CFB Cold Lake. What is going on up there in Canada, General? Since when did NATO members allow Russian and Chinese air force units to take up residence at their military installations?” demanded McElroy.
“I wonder if it has something to do with this,” said General Peterson. He plopped a four-day-old newspaper down on the desk. It had been folded over to a story a few pages back and was accompanied by a picture of Senator Marshall Tate shaking hands with the UN Secretary-General Johann Behr during the Senator’s visit to New York earlier in the week.
Suddenly it all made sense. McElroy had the most sickening feeling start to set in. He picked up the paper and quickly read through the article. “You don’t think all of this is because of the Senator, do you?”
“I don’t have enough information to make that assessment yet, but it does seem ironic that a massive UN training exercise just happened to be taking place in Canada right around the time of our presidential election. It’s even more coincidental that all three of the nations being implicated in this foreign interference of our election also have substantial numbers of forces participating in this training exercise.”
“How big is that UN force right now?” asked McElroy.
Furrowing his forehead, General Peterson looked for a report somewhere on his desk. After finding what he was looking for, he quickly scanned through it until he spotted the information he was seeking on the second page.
“From what we’ve been told, there were forty-two nations participating in the exercise. In all, the participating members sent roughly 68,000 soldiers to the exercise. However, if we factor in this new Chinese force, it probably brings their numbers closer to 100,000. Plus, they have a lot of their combat equipment and dozens of fighter wings present, so it’s not just ground soldiers,” Austin said as he read from the INTSUM before him.
The wheels began to spin inside McElroy’s head, and he sat there for a moment, not saying anything. Then he looked up at Austin. “How did we manage to allow such a substantial multinational force to assemble so close to our border without us even participating in it to keep tabs on what they’re doing?”
Peterson snickered. “How many UN operations has the President let us participate in since he took office?”
The SecDef shook his head. “Good point.”
“Still, what are we going to do about it?” McElroy asked. “I mean, what if Senator Tate and company met with the UN leader to ask for his help? They have a freaking army of nearly 100,000 soldiers carrying out a training exercise in Canada for crying out loud.”
“I don’t know, sir,” General Peterson replied. “As long as they stay in Canada and Mexico and don’t look to be moving toward our border, I wouldn’t be too concerned. That said, I think it might be wise for us to go ahead and put a few contingency plans in place in case we suddenly have to shift some forces around. I think our show of force with our fighters on election day put a real damper on whatever they were trying to do because they haven’t flown a single fighter within fifty miles of our border since then. They’ve mostly stayed way up north at their fighter training base at CFB Cold Lake, way out in the middle of nowhere.”
The SecDef nodded. “You’re probably right, General. I don’t want to spook the President any more than he already is. Do you believe we should move the country back to DEFCON five or stay on four?”
They had already moved the country down a level two days after the election, once it was clear there were no further terrorist attacks. The increased defense setting had placed a lot of military units on alert and grounded civilian air travel for forty-eight hours.
“Until we know for certain what’s going on up there in Canada, I say we leave it at four,” Peterson directed. “We can come down to peacetime levels once everything with the election is finally sorted and that force begins to head back to their member states. Speaking of elections—what are we going to do about the East and West Coasts? I’ve heard grumblings that the governors in Washington State, Oregon, New York and a few other states are considering activating their National Guards to prevent Homeland Security from moving forward with the January fourth election.”
McElroy sighed. The rumor mill had really started to run amok. “I’ve heard the same reports. I talked with Patty over at Homeland and Malcolm over at DOJ. They said some of the local FBI and Homeland offices in those states have been getting a lot of harassing calls from the public and some of the state government workers. Patty was telling me that she heard from some FBI agents that the California State Police might be ordered to remove them from the state. I have no idea how they believe they can do that, but I wouldn’t put anything past Governor Lawson. The man believes California is the model for the rest of the country, so Lord only knows how far he’d be willing to push things.”
“I’d like to see him force the issue at our bases,” Peterson said, crossing his arms. “What’s he going to do, have the state police show up at Pendleton and tell the Marines to go somewhere else?” He shook his head. “I just don’t see the point. Unless these guys are willing to start a shooting war, we’re going to have a new election on January fourth. They need to be focused on turning out their voters and not trying to foster an insurrection.”
While the two of them were talking, an aide walked in. “Excuse me, sirs,” he said, clearly a little out of breath. “I’m sorry to interrupt, but there’s apparently a big announcement being made in New York right now by Senator Tate and Congressman Borq that you should both hear.”
The aide walked over, grabbed the TV remote and changed the screen over to the press conference that was clearly well underway.
“President Sachs lost the election,” Congressman Borq said. “Instead of accepting that loss, he has ginned up an elaborate excuse. Five of the US circuit courts have ruled that he lost and that he does not have the constitutional authority to change the date and time of the election—only Congress has that authority. Furthermore, when the President was given a lawful court order that he disagreed with, he declared martial law and suspended the court ruling through executive fiat.
“Just the other day, when I was meeting with President Sachs at the White House, he told me that if Congress and the state governments didn’t get on board with his new election in January, he would declare those states in open insurrection against the federal government. He would issue arrest orders for sedition and treason to any governor who failed to adhere to his orders. Just yesterday, more than thirty congressional members of the Democratic caucus were arrested on charges of sedition and are even now being held in federal custody by the FBI because they moved to file a resolution to impeach the President.”
General Peterson shot McElroy a nervous glance.
“President Sachs, through martial law, has essentially made himself a dictator,” Congressman Borq continued, “an American emperor answerable to no one. That is not how our government is supposed to function. As the Speaker of the House, I will not stand for this. However, I am powerless to do anything about it because, under martial law, Congress only has the authority to advise, not consent to whatever it is the President does.
“It is with a heavy heart that I stand here today with our true President-Elect, Senator Marshall Tate, and ask that the United Nations consider a motion to censure President Sachs and to demand that he relinquish power to Preside
nt-Elect Tate come January 20th. No one wants a conflict, but President Sachs is steering our country on that dangerous course. I call on all Americans to voice your concerns to your elected officials and demand President Sachs accept the results of the November election and recognize Senator Marshall Tate as our next president.”
“Holy crap—he’s going to start a civil war,” McElroy muttered, more to himself than anyone else in the room.
“I have a bad feeling about this UN force, Chuck,” announced Peterson. “I think we’d better start chopping some orders to get some forces moved around. We may need to deal with some of these governors. We’d also better work on getting these state National Guard units federalized ASAP. We need them reporting to us, not the governors.”
“I have to call the President,” said McElroy. “We need to get over to the White House and figure out what we’re going to do.”
The two of them gathered up some of their notes and other items they thought they might need and headed over to the helipad. There wasn’t time to wade through Washington traffic; they needed to get to the White House as fast as humanly possible.
*******
Washington, D.C.
White House
Situation Room
“What the heck are they doing, Chuck?” demanded the President.
“I think they’re trying to box us into a corner, Mr. President,” explained the SecDef. “We either yield to their demands or they’re going to push for a conflict.”
The FBI Director quickly added, “I’ve been receiving calls from all the field offices in roughly twenty states. They are being told that they have forty-eight hours to vacate the state—all the agents and their families. If they don’t, they’re being told that they will be forcibly removed by the state police or local law enforcement.”