Heroes Proved

by Oliver North

  MONDAY, 20 SEPTEMBER 2032

  When the Iranian nuclear weapon exploded at sixty thousand feet over Lake Ontario, the electromagnetic pulse produced by the 450-kiloton weapon burned out every commercial electrical and electronic device within the visible horizon of the detonation. All two hundred and eleven commercial aircraft aloft within a six-hundred-mile radius of the airburst experienced the same phenomena—and the same consequences—as Air Force One. Though few of their pilots or passengers ever knew why, engines, radios, instruments, and flight controls immediately stopped working and the planes plummeted from the sky.

  On the ground, all exposed electrical generators, transformers, relays, and transmission stations in a radius of 470 miles instantly stopped working. From the western suburbs of Lansing, Michigan, east to Bangor, Maine, and south to Williamsburg, Virginia, nearly 120 million Americans were instantly without lights, running water, sewage, air-conditioning, refrigeration, computers, PIDs, motor vehicles, or any means of communication.

  In New York, Boston, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Washington, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, and scores of smaller North American cities, emergency lighting, backup battery systems, and generators designed to get people safely out of high-rise buildings, off trains, and ashore from ferries in the event of a power failure all failed. Every multistory hospital, clinic, and nursing home and more than 351,000 elevators within the EMP radius—all totally dependent on electricity—became dark death traps. More than twelve million children were stranded in schools, miles from home and unable to communicate with their parents.

  First responders on duty—police, fire, and rescue personnel—had no means of reacting to the crisis except on foot, and in most cases had no means of being notified of fires, criminal activity, or medical emergencies. U.S. government agencies—including the White House and our military—were little better off. Though some systems were “hardened” against EMP, most of the government’s electrical, communications, and mobility infrastructure was never designed to withstand the EMP effect of a low-yield, low-altitude nuclear explosion.

  White House Chief of Staff Muneer Murad became aware of the attack when the lights went out and all vid-screens in his office went dark. He tried his PID, digi-cube, and the ancient “red phone” on the credenza behind his desk. When none of these worked and the emergency backup generators failed, he walked down the darkened stairwell to the Situation Room, where a Secret Service agent had to muscle open the door labeled WHSR for the chief of staff.

  * * * *

  The WHSR Log is a chronological, minute-by-minute, record of every call, message, meeting, and event requiring the attention of the president, vice president, or National Security Advisor. Similar to a ship’s log, it is a dispassionate, straightforward, apolitical chronicle of happenings that affect America’s “ship of state.” The senior watch officer on duty each shift decides what will and what won’t appear as entries in the Log. And because its existence has never been officially acknowledged, it has never been subpoenaed by a court or a committee of Congress.

  The WHSR Log for Monday, 20 September, is unique. For the first thirteen hours and fifty minutes, the entries were made, as usual, on the SWO’s computer. Entries after the nuclear detonation over Lake Ontario were handwritten on a yellow, lined legal tablet:

  1351: ALL POWER & COMMS @ WHITE HOUSE INOP. SECURE INTER-AGENCY VID-LINK DOWN.

  1353: WH COS ARRIVES WHSR.

  1354: NMCC FOC NOW UP. BGEN JOHN BRANSON, USMC, NMCC SWO, REPORTS ON FOC “ELECTRONIC ANOMALY” VIC NORTHEAST U.S.-CANADA BORDER.

  1355: NMCC SWO ON FOC INFORMS: “DISA SITES IN CO, PA, GA & VA CONFIRM LOCALIZED COMMS DISRUPTIONS & CASCADE OF POWER OUTAGES FM CHICAGO, EAST TO COAST OF MAINE, SOUTH TO RICHMOND, VA. CAUSE OF OUTAGES UNK.”

  1402: 89TH SPECIAL AIR WING @ JOINT BASE ANDREWS CALLED ON FOC THRU NMCC TO REPORT “LOST COMMS W/AIR FORCE ONE.”

  1404: SEC DEF ORDERS LAUNCH OF NEACP FM OFFUTT AFB, NE.

  1408: SEC DEF & CJCS CALL ON FOC FM NMCC TO REPORT FOC COMMS REESTABLISHED W/ANMCC @ SITE “R” AND FEMA @ MOUNT WEATHER.

  1409: SEC DEF & CJCS CALL ON FOC: “RECOMMEND PLACING ALL U.S. MIL FORCES ON DEFCON ONE.”

  1410: NMCC SWO REPORTS ON FOC: “ALL U.S. GPS & ISR OVERHEAD ASSETS OVER NORTHERN HEMISPHERE EAST OF KANSAS, WEST OF GREENLAND & NORTH OF MISSOURI OUT OF SERVICE.”

  1411: WH COUNSEL LAWRENCE WALSH & MG WILLIAM DUNCAN, U.S. ARMY, DIR WHMO ARR WHSR. GEN DUNCAN REPORTS “LOST NCA COMMS W/POTUS & VPOTUS MIL AIDES & NO ABILITY TO EXECUTE EAM OR EWO TO NUCLEAR FORCES.”

  1412: SEC DEF ORDERS WASHINGTON-MOSCOW HOTLINE ACTIVATED. MOSCOW REPORTS: “NUCLEAR DETONATION OVER LAKE ONTARIO. NOT OURS.”

  1413: ACTING USSS DIR GEORGE SANDERS ARR WHSR, INFORMS “LOST COMMS W/POTUS & VPOTUS PSDs.”

  1414: SEC DEF ORDERS ALL U.S. MIL. UNITS WORLDWIDE PLACED ON DEFCON ONE STATUS.

  1415: ACTING USSS DIR SANDERS REPORTS: “ALL SECRET SERVICE CONVENTIONAL & ELECTRIC VEHICLES OUT OF COMMISSION EXCEPT FOR DIESEL-POWERED TRUCKS RUNNING ‘WHEN LIGHTS WENT OUT.’”

  1416: ACTING USSS DIR SANDERS RECOMMENDS DISPATCHING TWO DIESEL-POWERED VEHICLES TO CAPITOL HILL TO BRING SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES & A FEDERAL JUDGE TO THE WHITE HOUSE “JUST IN CASE WE NEED A NEW PRESIDENT.”

  1417: SEC DEF & ACTING DIR USSS CONFER ON NMCC FOC. SEC DEF CONCURS ON BRINGING SPEAKER OF HOUSE & FED JUDGE TO WHSR.

  1418: NMCC SWO REPORTS ON FOC: “TWO USAF F-35s LAUNCHED FM JOINT BASE LANGLEY, VA, TO OVERFLY BUFFALO, NY, & LAKE ERIE @ LAST KNOWN POSITION AIR FORCE ONE.”

  1424: ACTING FBI DIR JON KEKER ARRIVES WHSR ON FOOT FM HOOVER BLDG. REPORTS NO POWER OR COMMS @ FBI HQ, NO COMMS W/FBI FIELD OFFICES; LOOTERS EVIDENT ON 14TH STREET, 2 BLOCKS FROM WHITE HOUSE.

  1433: ANMCC REPORTS ON FOC: “FIBER OPTIC COMMS REESTABLISHED WITH 10TH MOUNTAIN DIVISION HQ EOC @ FORT DRUM, NY. EOC SWO REPORTS: BASE IS SECURE; TOTAL POWER OUTAGE IN SURROUNDING AREA; NO COMMERCIAL VEHICLES OPERATIONAL; NEARLY ALL MIL VEHICLES IMMOBILIZED; APPEARS TO BE RESULT OF EMP BURST; NO SIGNIFICANT INCREASE IN RADIATION LEVELS OBSERVED SINCE INITIAL EVENT.”

  1445: NMCC SWO REPORTS ON FOC: “EYEWITNESS SAYS ONE COMMERCIAL AIRCRAFT DOWN IN POTOMAC NORTH OF PENTAGON. PLANE APPARENTLY CRASHED INTO ROOSEVELT BRIDGE ON APPROACH TO REAGAN NATIONAL AIRPORT. NO EMERGENCY RESPONSE OR SURVIVORS EVIDENT.”

  1450: SEC TREASURY ARRIVES IN WHSR VIA TUNNEL FM TREASURY DEPT. REPORTS TWO COMMERCIAL AIRCRAFT DOWN IN POTOMAC SOUTH OF REAGAN NATIONAL AIRPORT.

  1452: SEC STATE ARRIVES IN WHSR ON FOOT FROM STATE DEPT. ESCORTED BY STATE DEPT. SECURITY OFFICERS. SEC STATE REPORTS BEING ACCOSTED BY HOSTILE CROWD AT 17TH STREET ENTRY PORTAL TO EEOB & WH COMPLEX.

  1453: ATTORNEY GEN ARR WHSR ON FOOT FM MAIN JUSTICE ESCORTED BY FBI AGENTS. REPORTS ANGRY CROWDS AND LOOTERS ON 15TH STREET AND VIC OF ELLIPSE. SEVERAL CARS ON ELLIPSE ARE ON FIRE AND A DOWNED AIRCRAFT AFIRE ON NATIONAL MALL.

  1458: SEC STATE CONVENES MTG IN WHSR EOC CONFERENCE ROOM W/SEC TREAS, ATTY. GEN., WH CHIEF OF STAFF & WH COUNSEL, ACTING DIR USSS & DIR WHMO. SECURE FOC VID-LINK W/NMCC ESTABLISHED FOR SEC DEF & CJCS PARTICIPATION.

  1525: SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE REP. JOHN TRUMAN CASSIDY & U.S. SUPREME COURT JUSTICE BRENDAN SULLIVAN ARRIVE WHSR ACCOMPANIED BY SECRET SERVICE AGENTS. BOTH MEN ESCORTED TO WHSR EOC CONFERENCE ROOM TO JOIN MEETING IN PROGRESS.

  * * * *

  It took twenty-seven Secret Service agents—most of them on foot—nearly an hour to find John Truman Cassidy, the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, and Supreme Court Justice Sullivan. They were delivered to the White House in two diesel-powered, armored SUVs through streets crowded with disabled vehicles and thousands of angry American citizens.

  At 1526 the two USAF F-35s launched from Joint Base Langley, Virginia, arrived over Buffalo, New York. They overflew the city and the area over Lake Erie where Air Force One was last reported. Unable to establish communications with anyone on the ground, the aircraft proceeded northeast over Lake Ontario to Wheeler-Sack Army Airfield at Fort Drum, New York, where
they landed “without comms.”

  The pilots taxied to a hangar, shut down, and found a soldier who guided them, on foot, to the 10th Mountain Division’s command post. Once inside, the flight leader was allowed to use the hardened fiber-optic circuit to call the NMCC: “We observed wreckage and a fuel slick in the water, south of Peace Bridge on the Canadian side of Lake Erie. It appears to be the remnants of a USAF Bravo Seven Four Seven. We cannot confirm any survivors.

  “En route to Fort Drum, we overflew Oswego, New York, at high speed and observed significant structural damage, fires, and mass casualties on our FLIRs. Based on elevated radiation readings, it appears to be the consequence of a low-yield, low-altitude nuclear detonation.

  “There does not appear to be any hostile activity in the area. We detected no other aircraft aloft en route but evidence of thirteen crashes. We are attempting to decontaminate the aircraft and refuel and will stand by here for further orders.”

  At 1635, the Secretary of Defense read the F-35 flight leader’s report verbatim over the FOC secure video-link to the participants meeting in the WHSR EOC Conference Room. By then the nation had been without a commander-in-chief for nearly three hours.

  When he heard the report, Justice Sullivan said, “Gentlemen, at a time like this, our country needs a leader. I believe it’s time. Without objection, I will administer the Oath of Office to Speaker Cassidy, in accord with Article Two and the Twentieth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution as prescribed by Congress in Title Three, Section Nineteen of the United States code.”

  Cassidy, looking stunned, asked for a Holy Bible. It took fifteen minutes but one was eventually found on a bookshelf in the Lincoln Bedroom. When it was delivered, the Speaker of the House placed his left palm on the book and raised his right hand as a solemn Judge O’Leary said, “Repeat after me: ‘I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.’”

  The new president repeated the words exactly as written in Article II, Section 1, then added, “So help me, God.”

  The handwritten WHSR log entry for 1700, 20 September, reads simply:

  1700: SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES JOHN T. CASSIDY ADMINISTERED OATH OF OFFICE AS PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES BY U.S. SUPREME COURT JUSTICE BRENDAN SULLIVAN IN WHSR EOC CONFERENCE ROOM. ON SITE WITNESSES: SEC STATE, SEC TREAS., A/G, W/H COS, ACTING DIR FBI, ACTING DIR USSS, WHSR SWO. SEC DEF OBS PROCEEDINGS OVER SECURE FOC VIDEO-LINK.

  Fifteen minutes after John Truman Cassidy became the forty-eighth president of the United States, White House Chief of Staff Muneer Azzam Murad went to his office, closed his door, and shot himself in the head. Subsequent forensic analysis determined the projectile was fired from the same weapon as the bullet that killed General John Smith in Lafayette Park on September 18, 2032.

  ABOARD “VUELO MEXICO” FLIGHT #X-191

  MONDAY, 20 SEPTEMBER 2032

  Vuelo Mexico Flight X-ray One Niner One was 135 miles east of El Paso, Texas, at 1253 CDT on Monday, 20 September, when the Air Traffic Control Center in San Antonio called the aircraft: “We have a Homeland Security alert. Proceed direct to Echo Lima Papa and land immediately. Contact El Paso tower on frequency one-one-niner-point-one.”

  In the left-hand seat, Bill Stearman, the pilot who flew the Gulfstream VII over the Yucatan the previous night, keyed the radio button on his yoke and replied, “X-Ray One Niner One, Roger, proceeding direct to Echo Lima Papa. Descending from thirty-seven. Switching to one-one-niner-point-one.” He then keyed the cabin address system and said, “ATC has ordered us to land at El Paso International because of a Homeland Security alert.”

  As the aircraft began a slow descent from thirty-seven thousand feet, James Newman jumped up and stood in the cockpit doorway in hopes of learning more. All the pilots could tell him was what they knew from listening to the radio: There had been some kind of attack on the U.S. East Coast and every inbound international flight and aircraft over the continental United States was being diverted to the nearest operational airfield or airport. Stearman added, “This is just like 9-11-01 all over again.”

  In the cabin, Sergeant Major Dan Doan arose and checked the three detainees, now shackled to their seats. Ahmad and Ebi, the two Iranians, said nothing. But the drug lord, Manuel Gustavo Lenin Felix, asked, “Does this mean we’re not going to Las Vegas?”

  “Can’t say,” Doan responded, trying not to let his concern show.

  When the 737 landed at El Paso International they were directed to a holding area, where they were joined by more than twenty other commercial and corporate aircraft that received the same orders. The pilots kicked on the jet’s APU and shut down the engines awaiting instructions. In the cockpit doorway, James pulled out an unregistered PID and turned it on. The screen lit up with the message: “NO PID OR MESH SERVICE.”

  After fifteen futile minutes, A. J. Jones came forward and said to Newman, “If we can get a ground crew to bring stairs or a ladder alongside, Special Agent Quintero may be able to help us out. EPIC—the DEA El Paso Intelligence Center—is on the other side of the field at Fort Bliss. She has a lot of friends here who may be able to give us a hand.”

  * * * *

  Jones and Quintero were gone nearly three tedious hours while the passengers and crew aboard the 737 strained to listen on various radio channels for news of the catastrophe on the East Coast. Then, at 1710 CDT, six black SUVs with smoked glass windows and flashing blue lights came racing down the taxiway toward their aircraft. They were accompanied by two white SUVs with TSA on their sides.

  From the cockpit doorway, Newman shouted into the cabin, “Looks like we have company! Everyone keep your weapons down and hope these guys are on our side . . .”

  They were. Quintero and Jones were the first ones out of the black vehicles. Accompanied by a half-dozen men carrying automatic weapons and wearing SWAT helmets and ballistic vests with DEA emblazoned on chests and backs, they pounded up the stairs, punched the handle release on the cabin door, and swarmed into the aircraft.

  Quintero introduced the only one of the team wearing a suit and tie as Special Agent in Charge Roberto Nieves. Without preamble, Nieves walked down the airplane aisle where Marty Cohen was seated and announced, “Admiral, welcome home.”

  Cohen replied, “Thank you. It’s good to be here, but I’m not quite home.”

  “Yes, sir, I know that. But before we can get you there, we have a few formalities,” Nieves continued. “We are here to take the two Iranians and Señor Lenin Felix into custody. Based on information provided by Special Agent Quintero and Mr. Jones, we have obtained warrants to arrest all three of them for crimes against the United States. It is my understanding they were all apprehended in the commission of said crimes. Is that correct?”

  Doan nodded and said, “You can say that again.”

  “Good,” Nieves said. “I’ll need sworn eyewitness statements to that effect before we can get you out of here. Unfortunately, all commercial, corporate, and private aircraft in the U.S. have been grounded for the time being because of the nuclear attack on the East Coast—and this aircraft must be impounded for evidence. But we have made alternative arrangements to get everyone here where you need to go aboard U.S. government aircraft. Agent Quintero and Mr. Jones will remain here to process the evidence against the Iranians and Felix. If the Vuelo Mexico aircrew is clean, they will be repatriated to Mexico. The USAF is standing by to transport the CSG aircrew to DFW to link up with another of the company’s aircraft on DEA contract—a Gulfstream V, I believe. They will bring it here to pick up Admiral Cohen and his seven-man security detail. It’s my understanding you want to get to Malmstrom AFB in Montana, is that right?”

  “Yes,” Newman and Cohen replied at the same time.

  “Very well,” said Nieves. “By the time we have all the paperwork completed, the G-five should be here from DFW. I will arrange with our SAIC in Grea
t Falls to meet you on arrival at Malmstrom and take you where you want to go. Any questions?”

  There were none. But there should have been.

  No one mentioned the two white TSA vehicles waiting below on the tarmac with armed Homeland Security agents in them.

  Admiral Cohen, Jones, Quintero, the two aircrews, and the CSG HRU were offloaded first. It took longer than expected because the senior Homeland Security agent had a vid-recorder and insisted on capturing each of their images and stating their names at the bottom of the stairs before they could proceed to the vehicles. Newman’s image showed him wearing sunglasses, a baseball hat pulled down over his forehead—and a beard.

  As the DEA agents escorted the three detainees with their hands shackled in front of them down the steps, there was a further delay. The portly Homeland Security officer in charge demanded each detainee be “imaged” between his agents before they could be placed in the DEA vehicles. He told Nieves, “Until they are off this airport they are in our jurisdiction. I want DHS agents beside them on the aircraft steps for the record.”

  Nieves, Newman, and the others waited in utter frustration as the DEA agents handed over each shackled detainee so a pair of Homeland Security agents could pose beside each prisoner. Ebi was first, then Felix, the Mexican drug lord.

  Ahmad, feigning fatigue, watched all this from the aircraft doorway. When it was his turn, he hobbled down the stairs, the chains around his ankles clanking on each step. On the bottom step he slumped and waited while the DEA agents handed him over to two DHS agents, now smiling at the camera. The Quds Force commander suddenly bent down, reached across his front with both hands, grabbed the pistol out of the holster on the right hip of the Homeland Security agent to his left, and opened fire.

  His first head shot hit the DHS agent on his right; the second took down the one on his left. The third shot was to the head of the agent holding the camera. Then, in a crouch, he pointed the weapon at Admiral Cohen, standing beside James Newman, and screamed, “Die, Jew!”

  Newman and Doan both leaped toward the Iranian as the pistol fired. Doan, closest to the shooter, took two 9mm bullets in the chest, but his momentum carried him forward, crushing Ahmad against the stairs.