by Kurt Winans
Before a plan such as that could be put into place, or even debated over, Texas would need to decide how large of a military force it wished to possess. Beyond that, there would be the question of how to pay for it. The annual budget for the United States military had been a ridiculously staggering number for decades, and Texas could not possibly match it. Although what military forces Texas would ultimately possess was most assuredly destined to be much smaller in scale, it could still represent a significant portion of the republics own budget if not closely monitored. In concert with that realization a decision was made to not open the doors to what could quickly become and overinflated military. As an alternative, it was determined that the full strength of the Texas National Guard be called up to active duty status. Those men and women certainly possessed a level of training and experience which was better than nothing at all, and they could be used to effectively defend a peacetime Texas until a permanent solution was available. Had the elected body voted in the opposite direction, the newly reborn republic would have been instantly saddled with a financial obligation toward unnecessary benefit packages and pensions.
Although the entirety of that deliberation had then brought forth, with good cause, the all-important question of the future banking system of Texas, it was agreed to table those discussions until after every item listed on the current agenda, military or otherwise, had been voted upon. Therefore the Madam Speaker put forth a motion that in order for those issues to be given the proper amount of time which they deserved, all monetary discussions should be listed as the first order of business for the next agenda. Her motion was met favorably, so the discussions once again returned to that of defending Texas.
Before long the focus of their discussion turned to where the Texas military would be located, and in that deliberation, nearly everyone agreed with a direction that could save the upcoming budget a significant amount of capital. The desire of those present was that all United States military bases within Texas, whether active or dormant, be turned over to Texas for her own use in the near future. Additionally, locations for what would become their own military academies would need to be selected so that future generations of Texas bred officers could be properly educated and trained.
With the former of those two decisions being subsequently ratified, the newly appointed Ambassador to the United States understood that the topic of securing those bases from the United States would be his first priority when he met with the State Department in the coming days.
In regard to the methods of supplying those bases with their needs, or for any potential upgrades to the facilities, that was where Samuel Tillman came in. With assistance from those representatives that were allied to either him or the Madam Speaker, contracts were agreed upon that would allow Tillman freight to handle the majority of the required trucking responsibilities. Additionally, Samuel agreed to pay for the building of any rail spurs which might be needed from a nearby mainline to an applicable base. In return for that service, Tillman rail would receive the contracts to transport whatever machinery or supplies were needed. There was a strong vocal and voting presence in opposition to such contracts, but in the most classic example of how the “good old boy” network of politics worked; each motion had passed by a slim margin.
Once those decisions had been reached, the attention of the Legislature could move forward with the second aspect of the military question. A decision needed to be voted upon as to where each of the future military academies would be located, and to that end, the influence of Samuel would once again rise to the occasion. To begin the deliberation the Madam Speaker brought forth a recommendation which, much like the trucking and rail suggestions, had been secretly put forth to her by Samuel during the New Year’s Eve celebration. Then he had reiterated his desire during their early morning meeting in the Madam Speakers office, and although no one within the Legislature was aware that he had nudged her in that direction, the location for one such academy was actually rather obvious to nearly all of them. What made his proposal by way of the Madam Speaker all the better was that those whom she led in deliberation believed it to be her conceptual idea as opposed to that of a non-elected entity such as Samuel. He was actually happy to see that the Madam Speaker received credit from her loyal constituency for having recommended the plan.
While standing before the wall of large flat screens within the White House situation room, President Harwell spoke with the Governors of the four states which bordered Texas. Thanks largely to the efforts of Mrs. Dawson throughout the previous few days; the Chief of Staff to the Governor in each of the state capitol cities had contacted the White House by late Sunday night. In so doing they discussed when the President wished to speak with their respective superior, and the current video conference call of Monday night to which they all participated was scheduled.
The intent of the three men and one woman on the screens was to listen to the suggestive strategy which their President had developed, while also offering input as to how each of their respective forces could move forward. National Guard troops within those states would be called up to active duty within the next few days, and those men and women would then be formed into small groups so as not to attract too much attention from the civilian population. In the weeks that would follow their repositioning to various interstates and other major highway crossings could take place, with the consensus being that the stealthy maneuver would then create a defendable border while the Republic of Texas remained unaware of their presence.
Both the Director of Homeland Security and Christopher Westin stood attentively at the sides of the long oak conference table during the entirety of the video conference, while Agent Bishop also stood silently in the back corner of the room. What Heath heard as the strategic plans were being discussed was most detailed, and he was impressed as President Harwell established a united front with regard to the issue at hand. He had emphatically stated to all four of them that in his assessment no state or its representative Governor was more or less important to the plan than any other. That resolute intent became evident when the President spoke openly with each, in no particular order, about their respective border with Texas while the other three listened in.
President Harwell was quick to point out that the pending mobilization of National Guard troops was simply a precautionary non-offensive measure, and was in no way intended to offend or harass those from Texas who had legitimate business within the United States. He also made sure to emphasize to each Governor that throughout the few days since the time of separation, the Republic of Texas had shown no evidence of aggressive behavior toward the United States. Additionally, there had been no verbal communication between the neighboring countries during the slightly more than two weeks since their declaration of independence which would have led anyone to believe otherwise. Therefore his plan called for the personnel who would monitor each crossing to handle matters with kid gloves.
By way of recent conversations with his Director of Homeland Security, and the report which had been received from the Secretary of Transportation, the President understood the obvious. Attempting to check every vehicle or truck at this time wouldn’t be possible. Such an all-encompassing venture would be a fool’s errand which could potentially back up traffic at major crossings for hours. In response to that fear he wanted those stationed at border crossings to make note of the model and license plate numbers, along with checking and cataloging the identification of each driver and passenger within, of only those vehicles which they felt to be suspicious in nature. The President realized that such labeling of supposed suspicion or actual guilt could be as ambiguous as that of a holding call during a football game, but it was a place to start. He also realized that some would interpret the action as a system of racial profiling which could create an international incident, but it was impossible to make all of the people happy all of the time. Perhaps in a few months a system much like that along border crossings with Canada and Mexico could be fully established to p
roperly catalog all vehicles entering the country from Texas, but adequate funding and manpower for such an endeavor would need to be procured before that could happen.
Once that point had been made clear and agreed upon, the President stressed, in the event that any of the four to whom he spoke was unaware, that defining the terms of future legal border crossings from Texas would be a job for the State Department to iron out. He conceded that although it was true that those deliberations with the Republic of Texas needed to be carried out with expediency, it was also imperative that the terms of such would be extremely well-defined. Those face to face interactions with whomever Texas chose to represent their interests would hopefully commence in the coming few days, but unfortunately for the State Department and the President, it was still unknown at the present time as to whom those deliberations would be with. When that information would be obtained was also a mystery, but once that had been unraveled, the deliberations over border concerns and other future treaties could then move forward.
Ambassador Nathan Pearson had flown into Reagan National Airport in Washington D.C. late Monday night from Austin, mere hours after his appointment to the position. His flight had been unknown to everyone within the beltway, except for those who had been assigned to retrieve him. It was hoped that such a precaution, combined with the late arrival hour, would prevent a random member of the press or any civilian in a crowd from recognizing the former Senator. His contact and that man’s aide were currently off duty from the Pentagon, and per the pre-arranged plan were waiting inside the terminal with the proper identifying insignia upon their persons to quietly retrieve the Ambassador.
Once in the car, clear of the airport, and headed toward a secure location, the man seated next to him in the backseat looked over and said, “I have been in communication with number twenty-three. She has informed me that number two sends his congratulations to you, and that you and I are to work together whenever possible.”
With a return gaze of caution toward the man, and a glance in the direction of the young female driver, the Ambassador replied, “Well I suppose that would be nice of number two, if I knew who that was.”
Now smiling with enjoyment, he replied, “You don’t have to be coy with me number eleven. You and I, along with my aide in the front, know exactly who number two is. And we all know why each of us has been placed in Washington.”
While attempting to suppress his surprise at the man’s boldness and knowledge of the numbered ranks, the Ambassador asked, “Alright then, so who might the two of you be?”
“Yes number eleven, introductions are in order. Number two has instructed that I provide you with full disclosure, and that would include information about my aide. Let’s start with her before I tell you who I am.”
Looking toward the front seat number eleven replied, “Alright. That sounds fair enough.”
With a glance into the rearview mirror for a visual nod of confirmation from her boss, the driver then removed her Washington Nationals baseball cap which allowed her long brown hair to unfurl. Then she playfully stated, “Well I might be anybody that is desired Mr. Ambassador, and I have played several roles at various times when there was a call for it. However my real identity for work in the Pentagon is Lieutenant Kristen Royce. It’s a pleasure to meet you sir.”
After nodding with acknowledgement, he replied “Your real identity Lieutenant?”
“Yes sir. Kristen Royce is my given name. Attempting to gain clearance for work within the Pentagon under an alias would prove to be most difficult sir.”
“Alright. That sounds believable enough I suppose, and it’s nice to meet you as well.”
With a smile into the mirror, she said, “Thank you sir.”
Turning to face the man seated next to him, the Ambassador asked, “Well that takes care of your aide, now who are you?”
With outstretched hand, he replied, “My name is Commander Calvin Foster, but in the organization I’m known as number twenty-nine.”
The following afternoon, armed with hopeful recommendations from the White House as to what goals they should attempt to achieve, the Secretary of State and those of the department support staff knew that they faced a difficult task. Beyond the typical challenge of establishing a dialog with a representative from another nation, the upcoming Wednesday morning introduction to the newly appointed Ambassador from Texas would contain an unusual element. With the initial meeting less than twenty-four hours away, they still had no idea as to the identity of the man or woman who would fill that role. Although the State Department had been contacted directly by the newly sworn in Texas President Marcus Stoddard on Monday evening in order to arrange the upcoming meeting, he had not provided any information such as a name or description of the Ambassador. To that end the State Department had no way to access a personnel file which could provide a hint as to whether they should advance boldly, or with measured caution.
What the Secretary of State and his staff subsequently learned when they met with the foreign diplomat at ten o’clock on Wednesday morning was that his appointment had been like no other that the State Department had ever faced. Ambassador Nathan Pearson was not a man from a foreign land that they would be meeting for the very first time. In this instance, the player seated on the opposite side of the table was a former United States Senator with decades of political experience and savvy to fall back upon. Now that his identity was known, the familiarity with his body of work, personality, style, and resolve could be viewed as either a positive or negative depending on how one looked at the situation. On the positive side, the former Senator was well versed in how the political machinery within the beltway operated in a delicate dance of moves and counter moves. In that regard, he would not need to be brought along slowly or spoon fed as to the ways of Washington D.C. in order to avoid the potential of culture shock. On the negative side of the argument was that his same knowledge of those customary practices could work against the efforts of the State Department during the upcoming deliberations.
In lieu of any customary introductions which would typically center on developing a pleasant atmosphere for a first time meeting, the representatives from each government instead focused on asking how their wives and families were doing. Although certainly not close friends, the two men were familiar with each other. They had met several times at various functions over the years, and during some of the more highly visible of such gala events, their spouses had been present as well.
Moving on to the business at hand, each realized that friendly relations and trust upon multiple fronts would need to be established and maintained between the United States and the Republic of Texas. Such action could potentially take several days or even weeks to iron out the most basic of agreements between the two nations, but the potential for mutual betterment was a distinct possibility. How to handle the border situation would most certainly become one topic of tremendous importance, so the Secretary of State began by nudging the conversation in that direction. His point was that either for business matters, or simply for tourism, how and under what circumstances citizens of Texas could enter the United States and vice versa would become vital to their lasting friendship. He then stressed that perhaps no aspect of that upcoming process would be more important to each nation than that of maintaining the right to fair commerce for both nations, as the absence of such could become detrimental.
Realizing that he could use such a belief to the advantage of Texas, the Ambassador stated, “Sir, the Republic of Texas shares the view of the United States in that we should maintain friendly relations with regard to each other’s borders, and that commerce should remain open. That is a point that we can obviously both agree on, so I suggest we formalize a pact to that end as soon as possible.”
“That sounds like a good idea Mr. Ambassador.”
“Thank you Mr. Secretary, and understand that Texas also believes that she and the United States should work together to protect both of our nations from foreign incursion.”
“Absolutely, and I agree that should also be a point of emphasis for this initial meeting.”
Seeing a small opening that could not be ignored, the Ambassador replied, “I’m glad to hear you say that Mr. Secretary, and if you do indeed feel that way, then perhaps you could begin by explaining something to me.”
“Certainly, what can I help you with?”
“Well it has to do with an action taken by the United States less than a week ago on New Year’s Eve.”
“And what action was that?”
“You had the Customs and Border Patrol agents along the entire length of the Texas border with Mexico abandon their posts at the stroke of midnight.”
Realizing that the statement was factual, and that any attempt at overtly lying about it could be detrimental, the Secretary chose his words carefully. After a brief pause he said, “Yes Mr. Ambassador, that’s true.”
“Well Mr. Secretary that was not a very friendly or well thought out thing to do as an act of welcoming our republic to the neighborhood. With no advance warning given as to the withdrawal, it could have left our border wide open to incursion.”
Feeling a need to offer at least some form of explanation, truthful or otherwise, the Secretary claimed, “I understand that Mr. Ambassador, but the United States felt that monitoring a border which we were no longer responsible for could be viewed as an act of incursion by our nation upon the Republic of Texas. I assure you that we had no malicious intent in the action, and we are sorry if there had been a lack of communication as to our motives. We merely wanted to get out of your way by vacating an area which at that moment had become the sovereign territory of your republic.”
The slight opening of a moment before had just become a chasm and Ambassador Pearson knew from his days in the United States Senate that such an opportunity rarely came along. With a slight smile on his face, he looked his opponent directly in the eye and said, “Well, mistakes do happen sometimes Mr. Secretary. However they can be corrected if the party involved truly wishes to express good will towards a neighbor.”