by Kurt Winans
In addition to the intelligence which had been obtained and provided, the Ambassador informed Samuel that the lengthy report of Lieutenant Kristen Royce contained information with regard to a National Guard buildup. Apparently President Harwell had seen the need, in spite of the supposed good will between neighboring nations, to instruct the governors of the respective four bordering states to call up their National Guard troops. Some of the units within each state had been used for a loose monitoring of the border, which had been well known by the Republic of Texas for some time. However other units had also been called up and stationed in reserve just a few miles from the border. The Secretary of Defense had let it be known during the Pentagon meeting that those forces were brought up in the event that Texas would somehow fail to adequately monitor its border with Mexico. If such a breach anywhere along the Rio Grande River were to occur, then the United States would be prepared to defend her own border. If the issue had been subsequently deemed to be out of control, then an option to completely close the border with Texas was possible.
In hearing that news, Samuel said to his old friend, “Well number eleven. It looks as though the actions of the United States could cause us some difficulties. You may be in for some interesting meetings with the State Department in the near future.”
The Ambassador replied, “Yes number two, so it would appear.”
“Don’t fret my friend; I know that you will do well. And please pass along my thanks to Lieutenant Royce. She has done an exceptional job.”
Before ending the call, the Ambassador informed Samuel of one other item. The topic involved all three of the academies, however the most troublesome aspect of the problem was centered more on West Point. Number eleven felt that he should let number two know what had been learned of the upcoming plan, and how that plan could potentially reflect poorly upon not only Texas, but also two of his grandsons. Samuel was aware of the issue to which his old friend spoke, and was relieved to know that at least Jason would be graduating from the Military Academy in a few months. It was doubtful that anything tangible could be put together by then, so he would probably be safe. Beau was a different matter though, as he had an additional year to complete at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.
On the morning of Wednesday February seventeenth, President Harwell sat behind his desk in the oval office with a cup of strong coffee. He hadn’t been sleeping well again, but no one, not even Mrs. Dawson, could tell him to ease up on the caffeine. After having listened to the most recent plan put forth by his Secretary of Defense, he praised the man for having developed such a sound idea. The concept was perfect in that it would offer the proper amount of respect due to at least a portion of those who had been slain in the attacks, while also not being ridiculously over the top. The President had accordingly given his complete blessing to move forward, but felt both ashamed and embarrassed while doing so. For some unknown reason which was certainly, at least in part, due to his own negligence, such a plan to design and construct fitting memorials had never been discussed. Admittedly the topic was something which should have been acted upon soon after the attacks in November, but with plans for retaliation toward Syria and then the Texas issue taking center stage, honoring a long list of people by way of memorials had been unforgivably overlooked.
Within the presentation of his plan, the Secretary of Defense reminded the President that there would be no concern over budget for its completion. It was no secret to either of them, or nearly anybody else in America for that matter, that Congress had provided the military industrial complex with billions and billions of dollars each and every year for decades on end. Additionally the Secretary stated that the allocated funds for a memorial at both Annapolis and West Point wouldn’t even make the slightest dent in that budget or upon the equipment and hardware it was intended for. To further emphasize his point the Secretary claimed that if just one penny were to be withheld from the yearly salary of every member of the armed services stationed in the United States alone, it would generate more than enough finances to cover any and all associated expenses. Although the thought of such fundraising would of course never actually be acted upon, the Secretary wanted to make sure that President Harwell fully understood what they were looking at.
When asked about a similar memorial for the Air Force Academy, the Secretary stated, “Well Mr. President, I don’t feel that would be appropriate.”
“Not appropriate Mr. Secretary? Why do you say that?”
“Well sir. I believe that such a memorial in Colorado Springs could be perceived as a slap in the face by those at Annapolis or West Point.”
“That’s interesting, please explain.”
The Secretary then reminded the President that although there had been active duty military personnel, civilian casualties, and members of the media killed at all three locations, Colorado Springs was different from the other two in one glaring respect. The multi-faceted attack of November fourteenth had not resulted in the deaths of any cadets at the Air Force Academy. The only three which had unfortunately met their demise on that day were cadets who had been mistakenly identified as potential terrorists and killed by members from within their own ranks. Conversely, Annapolis had lost four hundred and three midshipmen while West point had lost three hundred and eighty-one cadets to the actions of the terrorists. Therefore it was the opinion of the Secretary that no such memorial to honor fallen cadets at the Colorado Springs location would be necessary or well received.
After the President briefly digested those facts and subsequently agreed with the logical assessment, he turned to inquiries of the memorials which would be constructed upon the grounds of Annapolis and West Point. The Secretary addressed those questions by stating that he believed both the overall design and ornamentation of the two memorials should be appropriately left to those administrators at the respective academies. However there should be specifications for a mandatory inclusion upon each, and those would need to be made perfectly clear before work could begin. His suggestion to the President was that aside from simply listing the names of every cadet or midshipmen who had been killed, the list should be broken down into an alphabetical rundown of those from each individual state. By employing such a method, the intent of the Secretary was that larger letters could be used to easily identify the home state of the fallen. From there, a shorter alphabetical list of names would be presented below. To assist with speedy identification, the Secretary recommended that the individual names be large enough to easily read from a distance of perhaps twenty feet. Finally the Secretary also believed that the positioning of the list for viewing, however it may be designed, should face southward. To do so would allow the names to be visible more often during the colder months, as they would not be hidden in shadow from the melting power of the low winter sun.
In conclusion to the topic of the memorials, the Secretary asked Jordan Harwell if he would put forth a Presidential mandate. Such a mandate would require whichever individual person or company to be contracted for the work to adhere to the strictest of timelines. The completion and delivery of each memorial to their respective places of honor must be accomplished, without fail or excuse, by no later than Friday May twenty-eighth. The Secretary felt strongly that a ceremonious public unveiling should occur the following Monday morning, as the Memorial Day holiday for 2027 would be recognized on the thirty-first of May.
Feeling at least partially responsible for the oversight of having never looked into a memorial, and realizing that in spite of his other duties the Secretary had put some serious thought into the matter, the President nodded in agreement. Then he stated, “That is an excellent suggestion Mr. Secretary. Consider the mandate to be so ordered. Now please proceed with your plan, and inform the appropriate search committees that I fully endorse and expect such an unveiling on Monday the thirty-first of May.”
“Thank you Mr. President. When we are finished here sir, I shall contact my staff and instruct them to begin a search for suitable individua
ls or companies to do the work. I’m confident that when informed of the project, several will be anxious to work with the respective academies so that the task can be completed on time.”
“That’s excellent Mr. Secretary, and thank you.”
Then feeling that at the time he had captured the sympathetic ear of President Harwell, the Secretary turned to other thoughts. He had some ideas as to how the commencement exercises earlier in May could be conducted, and it appeared to be a good time to discuss them with the President. As fitting tributes for those young men and women who would have graduated just a few weeks prior to the memorial unveiling, the Secretary expressed a desire to have empty chairs with name placards upon them located within the seating area of their brethren. Then during the commencement exercises, the names of the fallen would be read aloud along with their classmates in the alphabetical order to which they would have received their diploma and commission. In addition, those same tributes should also occur during the commencement proceedings for the following three years. It was believed by the Secretary of Defense that even those who had been within the course of their plebe year when they were killed by the terrorist attacks should be equally honored.
Toward the conclusion of his conversation with the Secretary, President Harwell asked if the problems at the academies which had surfaced in early January had been brought under control. He learned that the recent concerns of harassment toward cadets or midshipmen from Texas at each of the three military academies had thankfully been minimized. However there were still a few scattered instances of physical violence. Those reports had come to the Secretary directly from the commandants at each academy, and they had included assurances that those responsible for the violence were severely and properly disciplined for such acts. Sadly for a few individuals the ramifications of their actions would potentially have consequences which could follow them for their entire life, as there had been the need to expel three cadets from West Point.
In similar fashion to the actions of February second at Laughlin Air Force Base, an initial occupation wave of Texas military personnel set foot upon the Corpus Christi Navy Base in Flour Bluff on Friday February nineteenth. The advancement could have been made several days sooner, but doing so would not have been the most prudent of moves. Corpus Christi, in conjunction with the Texas A&M satellite campus of Ward Island and the surrounding suburbs, boasted of a much larger population base than that of Del Rio near Laughlin. As a result no involved party, especially those within the United States military brain trust, foolishly believed that the navy base could be vacated without detection. However with all of that known, there was still a game of cat and mouse to play.
Understanding of that fact, neither the American forces nor their commanders in Washington D.C. had attempted any level of deception with regard to the Flour Bluff withdrawal. They decided instead to proceed with an altered agenda which had been seldom seen in the modern era. In a move which went against the established patterns of earlier weekly progress reports, the information provided to Ambassador Pearson via the Secretary of State on Monday the fifteenth of February was completely accurate as far as this specific base was concerned.
That particular report stated that Flour Bluff had become completely abandoned and was ready for Texas to occupy four days prior to the report, and so it was. Conversely those responsible for the deployment of various units within the Texas military structure had been aware of the double-cross, and that Flour Bluff was indeed ready to occupy. However in believing that there could still be eyes upon the area via covert American operatives, the republic had not come onto the base at that time in full force. That course of action was taken for two reasons. First the republic didn’t want Washington D.C. to believe that forces were readily available to occupy the base in mass, as the intent of Texas was to maintain the elaborate ruse of possessing a fledgling military which possessed only limited resources. In conjunction with that hopeful deception, the republic wanted to make it appear as if those resources could only be trickled onto this or any other base when feasible. As to the second reason for the delay, the republic didn’t want to risk exposing their hand by moving quickly and decisively. Doing so could create suspicion among those in Washington D.C. that Texas had somehow become wise to any misinformation within the report, accurate or not, before it had been given to Ambassador Pearson. If that were to happen, then they could discover the mole which lay within their Pentagon ranks. Ultimately it had been decided that the best interests of the republic would be served, at least in the present time, by showing the United States that Texas had nothing more than a passing interest in the Corpus Christi Navy Base.
Of course such a passing interest wasn’t true at all, as the installation and facilities at Flour Bluff, coupled with the adjacent campus of Ward Island, would provide an ideal location for the republic to establish their own version of the United States Naval Academy. Although Texas had no desire in attempting to match the outlandish number of vessels or mite to which the American navy displayed on a global basis, she still intended to someday possess a modest naval flotilla of her own. However as the vessels which would eventually become the Texas navy and occupy Flour Bluff had not yet been built or purchased from another nation; there was still work to be done in order to accomplish that goal.
After maintaining the established cover by waiting to advance for more than a week, the order finally came from the commanding general to proceed. Upon receipt of those orders, the major who had led his men onto Laughlin and occupied the base for a few days until being relieved watched as the same two enlisted soldiers moved forward with bolt cutters to breach the main gate. Soon afterward he ordered the same systematic search of the base as had been done at Laughlin, and then strode confidently into the administrative building. The second former United States military base of true desire for the goals of Texas was now occupied, so the major ordered that the flag of the republic be appropriately raised upon the courtyard pole.
Moments after the call with Ambassador Pearson on the seventeenth, Samuel reached out to number twenty-three. He requested that she make immediate contact with the three men who had run the training facility operations so splendidly during the previous year, and that they in turn contact all of the men and women who had taken part in the November attacks. Although each member of those teams had been dormant since November and had only reunited once for the New Year’s Eve bash at the mansion, Samuel felt that everyone should gather again at the remote training facility sometime during the upcoming week. Then much to the credit of all involved, the gathering was quickly organized for Sunday February twenty-first. Samuel arrived via the Tillman Gulfstream G280, and when it touched down on the runway south of Alpine Texas he looked out the window toward the facilities and smiled. The entire force of summoned operatives who had forged the landing strip out of desert rock and brush the previous year were assembled and waiting just inside the open hangar doors for him.
Domonique opened the door and lowered the stairs, and then Samuel strode roughly fifty yards toward the hangar after instructing her and the flight crew to remain aboard. Stepping inside he first shook the hands of the three men whom he had recruited long ago, and number forty-seven who had organized and facilitated the Harrisburg Pennsylvania aspect of the operation. They were the four key players who helped to train, prepare, and properly disperse many or all of those assembled, so the attacks of November upon the United States would not have become a reality without them. Then glancing over toward their group of operatives, Samuel searched for one man in particular. The man had given a piece of himself during the course of the attack and subsequent return to Texas soil which could never be fully replaced, but the prosthetic lower arm which he had recently been fitted with was a welcome substitute. When Samuel subsequently spoke to the man, he inquired as to how his rehabilitation regiment and the adjustment to the new arm had been progressing. Then he gave a reminder that both he and Victoria would be willing to assist him should the man need an
ything. Before breaking off the conversation and moving along, Samuel whispered to the man, “I have a new assignment for you. It is far less dangerous than what you and the others did in November, but I feel that you will be an excellent choice for the task.”
“Thank you, and please don’t allow my arm to be a deterrent. I believe that I can still take on a dangerous mission if needed.”
With a smile Samuel shook the man’s hand and then turned toward the mass of operatives. He asked them all to get comfortable before proceeding with the explanation of what he had in mind for their upcoming mission, so many of them sat on the floor. Samuel informed the men and women that both Laughlin and Flour Bluff had been occupied and secured by forces from the republic, which was yet another example of Texas rising to power. However the United States was being lethargic with their efforts to withdrawal from other bases of importance. Additionally, they could not be trusted with forwarding accurate information from the State Department in Washington D.C. with regard to those retreats. As evidence to that fact, Samuel further informed the group as to the known extent of falsehoods within the progress reports of withdrawal which had been given to Ambassador Pearson. Then he praised the work of operatives like the Ambassador and others within Washington, as it was only via their efforts that the current conversation could be taking place.
Now what needed to be ascertained throughout the upcoming days and weeks was the overall depth of the deception, so the republic needed to become aware of any tangible information about the bases which could be verified. To do so would require a firsthand accounting, which was the reason why Samuel was tasking all those present with a new duty on behalf of the organization and Texas. What he wanted them to do, was take note from close proximity of everything that they would witness.