“Of course,” he told her.
“I’ve been doing double shifts for three straight days now, doc,” she started. “I don’t think I can handle it anymore.”
“For the past few days, I’ve only got only a couple of hours sleep,” she concluded.
“I understand,” he said trying to appease her. “We’ve been working extra hours too, Jessica. You know we are understaffed right now.”
“I am aware of that, Dr. Perry,” Jessica responded. “But I’ve talked to my co-nurse and she was willing to cover the shift for me.”
Benjamin paused. “Are you certain about that?”
“Yes doc,” she affirmed.
“I need to arrange a talk with her first. Remember, Jessica, I’m only doing this to ensure that we have personnel available at all times,” he explained.
“Yes doc, I understand. I will let her know.”
“Okay, now if you could excuse me?” Benjamin said.
“Sure, thanks again.”
They parted ways as Jessica returned to the nurses’ station and Benjamin was headed to Mr. Burchard’s office.
“Tok! Tok!”
Two light knocks on the door caught Mr. Burchard’s notice, who was reading through some documents at his office desk.
As soon as Mr. Burchard saw Benjamin, he invited him in.
“Good to see you, Ben,” said Mr. Burchard. “Please, have a seat.”
“Thank you,” Benjamin politely replied.
“What brought you here?” Mr. Burchard asked.
“I wanted some update about the power source,” Benjamin told him. “You must have been worried about it too.”
“Yes, I am.” he coyly responded.
“May I know the current status of this problem, sir? It is important that…”
“You don’t think I have addressed this, do you, Dr. Perry?” Mr. Burchard cut him off.
He added, “I already met with our utility and engineer folks. They are looking into the situation. We just had auxiliary power running, and everything is back to normal.”
“Sir, forgive me for seeming too nosey about this. I know we must be having people working on it. But I’m just concerned about the patients - that’s all…” Benjamin said.
“We’re on the same page, Dr. Perry,” he insisted, looking irritable.
A pager message from the ER was forwarded to Benjamin. At that moment, Mr. Burchard told him, “Dr. Perry, I’d like to be alone for a few minutes. I have some urgent things to attend to, if you don’t mind.”
Without saying anything, Benjamin stood up and headed for the door. Before exiting the door, he glanced back at Mr. Burchard and nodded, then said, “Thanks for the time.”
“Don’t mention it,” Mr. Burchard replied.
Mr. Burchard dashed to the desk at the reception area. But no one was there. He picked up the phone, and dialed the ER number. Since no one was picking up, he thought to visit in person.
As Benjamin was on his way to the ER, he saw Mr. Burchard standing by the ER door.
“Don’t quit, Perry. We’ve only got a few people here. We need you,” he said.
Benjamin just nodded to acknowledge and off he went to the ER.
***
Chapter 5 – The Coalition
At noontime on Saturday, April 12 in Washington DC, news reports were focused on the President’s condition. Earlier reports claimed that the President’s condition was stable, and he was out of danger. However, he was still receiving treatment. The latest information received at the President’s office in the White House was that he wasn’t recovering as quickly as anticipated.
Vice President Natalie Christie had just got off the phone. She had been receiving regular updates from the doctors monitoring the President’s condition.
“Can you call in the members of the cabinet at the West Wing?” she told her assistant. “I would like to conduct an emergency meeting with them.” She said before heading back to her desk, which was now filled with a pile of papers.
Before her assistant could leave the room, the Vice President called her one last time, “Oh and please, can you get them to be there by noon? I’d like to get this addressed as soon as possible.” The assistant nodded and left.
Vice President Christie picked up the phone to make another round of phone calls.
Just a few minutes after she had asked the assistant to set up a meeting, a red light flickered on the receiver at her desk. She picked up the call, and the voice said, “Everything’s all set at the West Wing, ma’am.”
“Thank you. Be there in a couple of minutes,” she confirmed before releasing her hold on the button.
Senators and cabinet members had now gathered in the West Wing’s conference room. They filled up the long, executive table at the room. There was a lot of chatter amongst the cabinet members. Most were curious about the agenda of the meeting and its urgency.
Vice President Natalie Christie walked in through the door and met the cabinet members with a rather stern look. She wasted no time and directly came to the point.
“Good noon, ladies and gentlemen,” she greeted. Her hands were clasped together as she examined the faces of those who were in attendance.
“I’m sure a lot of you are wondering about this emergency meeting…” she started. “And most especially, what it’s for?” she added, as if as an afterthought.
“I would like to give everyone a quick update on the President’s condition, first and foremost,” she said. Everyone listened intently.
“I got a call from his doctors earlier. They told me that he is being closely monitored, still… but his recovery could take a while -maybe several weeks, or longer. They cannot determine for now as they will have to see how he responds to the treatment,” she quipped.
Vice President Christie paused for a while. She was trying to assess the reaction from the cabinet members and senators. When no one volunteered to speak up, she went over to her right where she filed some papers on the table.
“Now that is out of the way, let’s get started on the more pressing agenda for today’s meeting. This concerns the development in the investigation for the attack on the White House. The intelligence report gave us some light as to who might be responsible for this,” Vice President Christie addressed everyone in the room. The room was silent, and everyone was curious as to the details of the report.
“The evidence points to an Islamic Nationalist group as potentially responsible for organizing the attacks,” she said. The room was suddenly filled with murmurs and mild chatters. There was a mixture of shock and disdain in the facial expressions of the cabinet members in the room.
“The speculative report is based only on the evidence gathered by the investigating team. We cannot know for sure if the Islamic Nationalist Group are truly responsible. Of course, more investigation is being done. But we want to point out that the police are following this particular lead in their investigation.”
One of the Vice President’s security advisers raised his hand. Vice President Christie acknowledged his presence and asked him to stand up.
“The fact that Islamic Nationalists had taken action to threaten the security of the President; it signals a strong message of an imminent terrorist threat. Who knows what they will do next? For all we know, this is only the first in a series of terrorist attacks meant to sabotage the investigation and inflict fear among our citizens” he noted. Several people in the room nodded. Several other cabinet members also voiced their agreement.
He added, “Ms. Christie, it might be time to abandon the White House while we still can. If these nationalists are eager to get their message across using violent means, the White House would be their number one target right now.” The murmurs were getting much louder now. Some people were in agreement with the security adviser, while others opposed the suggestion. Several points were being addressed at once, and thus, it was difficult to hear anything clearly.
“Hang on,” Vice President Natalie Christie fi
nally spoke. The murmurs and loud exchanges temporarily ceased. “I appreciate your concern for our safety. I do,” she said, nodding.
“You raised an important point regarding the White House being the number one target right now,” she noted. “But what kind of message would it deliver if we choose to abandon the White House? To the nationalists and to the people of the United States? Do you think that will stop them from spreading violence? And do you think it will help protect our citizens?” said Christie.
“Does it mean that the federal government has weakened? That we are unable to defend its people? We cannot make the people more vulnerable than they already are,” she firmly stated.
“This ends any conversation about abandoning the White House. For now, I am staying… and that decision is final,” she concluded.
There were mixed reactions from the cabinet members. Her security advisers shook their heads, as if in disbelief.
“Can I get reports from all members of the cabinet?” Vice President Christie demanded.
Every member of the cabinet was given a minute or two to report to the Vice President. This went on for about another half hour. One cabinet member, during his privilege speech, suggested implementing martial law. This ignited chaos and opposition from some members of the cabinet.
Senator Peters, who was opposed to the martial law proposition, stood up and expressed his dismay. When the argument started to heat up some more, and with profanities being yelled at each other, Vice President Christie intervened.
“Gentlemen, stop it!” Vice President Christie exclaimed.
“Gentlemen,” she repeated, more calmly now. “We have more pressing issues at hand. Issues that concern the national security. Now is not the time to swing profanities at each other. We have to think of logical steps,” she stated.
Silence followed.
“I guess it’s time to conclude this meeting for now,” Vice President Christie addressed the cabinet members. “We’ll have to meet again tomorrow. I’ll have my assistant get in touch with you about the schedule of the meeting.”
The cabinet members and senators slowly dispersed from the meeting. Vice President Christie took her files with her from the table. On her way out, she also spotted Senator Peters heading for the door. Before he could step out of the door, she managed to pull him aside.
“Senator Peters, can you spare a few minutes?” she asked. He nodded, and asked her to continue.
“I’d like for you to find a way to communicate with the leaders of this revolt,” she told him.
“I see…” said Senator Peters, rubbing his chin with his fingers.
“Your aim is to get to the bottom of this. What are their demands? How do we keep them from spreading more violence? Get as much information as you can,” she briefed him. “Also, you have to make sure that we get on their good side. Make them feel like we are willing to listen. We can’t ruffle any more feathers here,” she reiterated.
“Copy that,” responded Senator Peters.
“I’ll let you go now. I will wait for your update,” she said.
Later that evening, at around 10PM, a large group of people were gathered in front of the Grand Hotel Lobby in Washington, DC. These were all members of The Coalition. The people had gathered outside of the military-controlled zone. Senator Peters stayed inside his car for a few minutes. From inside his car, he surveyed the area. He closely examined the behavior of the group outside the hotel. They were armed, but disciplined. Surprisingly, no one initiated chaos. Military guards were visible from outside the gate, but just stood there watching over the protesters.
Finally, Senator Peters decided to step off his car. He approached some of The Coalition members in the group to ask about their leader. He had to ask a few people before he got any positive response – most just looked straight at him as if he were invisible to them. One of them promised to take him to meet with the Islamic leader.
About a block from where the group had gathered, there was a vehicle parked along the road. As he walked down the dark alley, Senator Peters felt worried and nervous. His heart was thumping quite hard. He could feel it beating out of his chest.
As they reached near a black sedan parked along the road, the man told him to stay put. Senator Peters tried his best to stay calm and vigilant. He stood still in this empty part of the alley for about two minutes. Senator Peters wanted to grab hold of a cigarette to calm his nerves. But it was too late. He saw the man headed back towards him. The man asked Senator Peters to come closer.
“He agreed to talk to you,” said the man. “But he needs to make sure that you have no weapons with you.”
“Sure,” said Senator Peters. He raised both his arms as the man searched him for weapons.
When the man cleared him, he said, “Go over to the back of the sedan. You can speak to him inside the vehicle. But he can only give you 5 minutes – no more than that.”
“I think that’s more than enough…” said Senator Peters. The man walked away and Senator Peters, his foot heavy and feeling a bit dragged, made his way toward the parked sedan.
The following day, it was a Sunday, Vice President Christie scheduled another noontime meeting with the members of the cabinet, and senators. The West Wing’s conference room was already full. But Vice President Christie was searching for a face in the meeting. Senator Peters had not made the meeting yet.
She decided to start off the meeting anyway. She provided some updates on the investigation with new information coming from the police and intelligence unit. But ten minutes into the meeting, they were interrupted by the noisy creak from the wooden door. It was Senator Peters. Everybody on the table looked at him as he entered.
Vice President Christie signaled for him to take any seat on the table.
“Welcome, Senator Peters. Glad you could join us,” Vice President Christie greeted him.
Senator Peters found a seat at the end of the table. But before he could even organize his things, Vice President Christie called his attention. “Mr. Peters, are you ready to share the report with us?”
“Sure!” he responded, slightly caught off guard.
As he was standing up, Vice President Christie made an introduction on his behalf. “For everyone’s knowledge, I had asked Senator Peters to meet the leader of The Coalition. His goal was to gather crucial information from the revolution. We intend to use the information to get an insight into their demands and what motivates them to launch the attacks,” she said.
“Senator Peters?” she turned the attention towards him.
“Before I get started, I want to give each of you a copy of the report,” he said while distributing sheets of paper to everyone on the table.
“The Islamic leader spoke with me last night as they held a rally in front of the Grand Hotel Lobby in DC,” he started. “They made it very clear to me that their demands be met if we want to restore peace and order.”
Vice President Christie, who was reading the report for the first time, looked distraught as she read through the report. “According to their leader, they want equal distribution of land and wealth in the country, for the poor and the rich alike. They also wish to conduct a general election for a new President to take the seat. The same thing with the Congress,” he detailed.
“Basically, what they’re asking for is complete transformation of governance,” he further said.
“This is too much!”
“How preposterous!”
“Just plain ridiculous…”
Murmurs clouded the air in the conference room. The negative response from everyone in attendance at the meeting was overwhelming. Vice President Christie observed for a few minutes. Senator Peters was bombarded with endless questions. He just stood there frozen, at a loss for words.
Vice President Christie came to his rescue, “I guess we should put this off for now,” she said. “All of us understand the gravity of their demands. Right now, it appears that granting their demands is impossible.”
A
resounding “yes” followed in unison. All eyes were fixed on the Vice President.
“I suggest we spend the rest of the day to think this over. It is important that we think this through, especially with the gravity of the threats they imposed, in conjunction with their demands,” said Vice President Christie.
“How about we meet again tomorrow? Same time and venue?” she asked everyone in the room.
Vice President Christie could see nodding heads from where she stood. “Okay, I’ll see all of you then…” she said as parting words.
At 4PM on Sunday, Senator Peters was driving back toward the same alley that he went to that previous night. Earlier that day, he had presented the demands of The Coalition leader to the cabinet members and the Vice President. They were not pleased with the demands. As he was making a right turn toward the street where The Grand Hotel Lobby was located, several thoughts ran through his mind. He was stuck in the middle of two feuding parties – the messenger of news that no one wanted to hear or know about.
The Second Amendment: A Novel On Surviving The Coming Collapse Page 4