by James Rosone
Wilson pointed to a position on the Caribbean side of Honduras and Guatemala. “We’d like to deploy the 101st Air Assault Division to Honduras. El Salvador is a mountainous country. A helicopter division makes the most sense to leverage. We’d also recommend deploying the 10th Mountain Division into Guatemala, pending they allow us to base out of their territory. If they won’t, then we’d recommend using the Marines II MEF to carry out an amphibious invasion of El Salvador from the Pacific.”
President Delgado lifted her coffee cup to her lips and took a long drink. Wilson figured she was probably trying to buy some time to think about what to do next. These were some big decisions they were throwing at her. And to think, this was only her second day on the job.
“You know, when I ran for office, I largely ran on a campaign to address a number of lingering domestic issues,” she said. “Leading a global war wasn’t something I had campaigned on. But now that I find myself in this unenviable position, I want to end this war as quickly as we can, gentlemen. We are not going to allow this war to linger and persist one administration after another like the last wars. So, start figuring out now what needs to happen to make sure we finish this war before the end of my first term, if at all possible.”
She then looked at Mr. Wilson and Admiral Thiel, who were sitting next to each other. “Do you both agree that this proposal to tackle El Salvador first while we take some time to build up around Venezuela is the best approach to end this war and bring about the victory our nation is going to demand?”
Admiral Thiel lifted his chin up as he replied, “There are always going to be risks to whatever approach we take, Madam President. Given what we encountered in Cuba, we have to assume the Chinese have a similar setup waiting for us in Venezuela. Worse, this super-AI has likely learned a lot from the Cuba campaign and integrated those lessons learned with their forces in Venezuela. Taking a short pause from ground operations to give the Air Force and Navy time to reduce the enemy air defenses is the best approach. It also gives our industry time to produce more of the tools needed to win this conflict.
“Our intelligence indicates the Chinese forces in El Salvador are not nearly as numerous or as robustly built up as they were in Cuba or Venezuela. Going after El Salvador now continues to apply pressure on the Chinese there, while it gives us time to prepare to deal with Venezuela. It is my opinion and that of the entire Joint Chiefs that we move forward with this approach.”
President Delgado bit her lower lip and nodded thoughtfully. She rubbed her chin before asking, “You agree with this as well, Blain?”
“I do, Madam President,” Wilson replied confidently. “Achieving some quick wins and removing the Chinese from our sphere of influence early in your presidency I think is paramount to restoring order both here at home and abroad. We need to show our allies this AI supercomputer can be defeated.”
No one said anything for a moment as they observed the new President, waiting to see what she would say or do next.
“What about Asia?” she asked without rendering a decision on their proposal. “What’s going on over there?”
Admiral Thiel was quick to answer. “Honestly, it’s a bit of a mess right now. We have a substantial force on Guam and a naval force in the vicinity to protect it. We don’t believe it’s in danger of being invaded—at least not anymore. Our forces in Japan are essentially stuck in place, but again, they’re no longer in danger of being invaded. The same is true with our forces in South Korea. From the perspective of our position, I believe we’re in decent shape. The Japanese, however, are a different story.”
The President interjected, “This morning, during my daily intelligence brief from the CIA, they told me about a massive naval battle between the Chinese Northern Fleet and a joint Japanese and South Korean force. They said our allies don’t really have much of a navy left. How is that going to impact our operations?”
“That report should also have said the Chinese Northern Fleet was essentially destroyed as well,” Thiel replied rapidly. He sighed. “Madam President, we have to pick and choose where we want to fight. Our forces are just not big enough to be everywhere, especially after the first day of the war. The attacks by those merchant raiders really hurt the Air Force and the Navy. We lost a lot of ships and aircraft in the first hours. Those ships and aircraft can and will be replaced, but it will take time and an enormous level of industrial effort on our part to replace them in the time we need them to fight and win this war.
“We’re doing what we can to support our allies in Asia, but right now, there isn’t much we can offer in the way of help. When we’ve defeated the enemy here, in the Caribbean, we’ll be able to shift our forces to support our allies in Asia.”
Wilson felt he should add something. “He’s right, Madam President. This AI supercomputer has engineered all sorts of conflicts to take place all over the world. I think it’s hoping we’ll try to deal with them all—that we’ll split our forces. It knows if we do that, then it’ll be able to defeat us piecemeal. It’s why we’re allowing the Germans, Dutch, and Italians to lead the NATO Indian Ocean task force. It’s why NATO has agreed to work with Russia to counter the Chinese threat.
“I know this is your first couple of days on the job—I recommend we organize an emergency meeting with the defense industry groups and hash out a plan for how we can mobilize our entire economy to fight and defeat this AI. If this machine is half as smart as we believe it is, then you can bet it’s already retooled the entire industrial capability of China to a war footing, which means we’re already way behind the eight ball on this one. I firmly believe we can defeat this artificial intelligence, but we need to get moving fast before it completely overwhelms us.”
The President took a deep breath in as she surveyed her generals and advisors. She still didn’t have her full team. Yet here she was, already having to make life-and-death decisions that could have a profound impact on whether her administration would lead the nation to victory or defeat.
She made eye contact with Admiral Thiel, and then Mr. Wilson. “OK. Thank you for bringing me up to speed. Let’s move forward with El Salvador. But, gentlemen, that mission needs to be swift and violent. I want that operation concluded promptly—hopefully before we begin operations in Venezuela.
“Now, Blain, I believe you and I have a meeting to discuss this new Air Force plane, followed by a meeting with the Director of the FBI.”
The President then stood and left the Situation Room before anyone else could say something or pose a question. Mr. Wilson stood as well and hurried after her.
*******
Presidential Study
When Maria had first seen the presidential study, she’d immediately fallen in love with it. It wasn’t a particularly large room, but it was private and intimate. For this first meeting with her FBI Director and her newly appointed Acting Director of Homeland Security, private and intimate was exactly the type of setting she was looking for.
The group had just shared lunch together. It was more of a “get to know you” kind of meal than anything formal.
Maria had never met the FBI Director. She also had a serious dislike and distrust of the FBI in general. Several recent missteps and fumbles on their part hadn’t exactly done anything to repair the FBI’s tattered image. One of the former directors had thought himself the new J. Edgar Hoover, believing he could blackmail presidents into giving him unfettered power and autonomy. It hadn’t ended well—two administrations from opposite parties had repeatedly used these actions as a club against the agency.
Delgado got right down to business, turning to her FBI Director first. “John, what’s the status on finding and rooting out these domestic threats? My understanding is we have a host of small Special Forces and paramilitary organizations causing havoc in the American heartland right now. What’s your agency doing to stop that?”
Director John Reardon nodded at the question. “This has been a challenging problem, but one I believe we’re finally getti
ng our arms around. The previous administration had embedded a small Joint Special Operations Command element to help assist us. Obviously, we can’t be everywhere, so their increased assets and personnel has been a huge help to us—”
Delgado interrupted, “What kind of assets have they provided?”
“President Alton had authorized JSOC to lend whatever military force we needed to augment our operations. To keep things legal—you know, leveraging US forces on US soil and sometimes against US citizens and all—we always had at least one or more members of the FBI’s own hostage rescue team on every raid or activity. The HRT members are all federal agents, and technically, they were the ones in charge of the operation. As to JSOC, they had lent us SEAL Team Two. That gave us eight platoons to disperse around the country. The Air Force provided us with 27th Special Operations Wing for transportation and surveillance support. So far, it’s been working out well. We managed to track down and deal with six Chinese Special Forces units, along with three paramilitary units they had been training.”
“Damn. Did we really have a lot of Americans joining their ranks?” the President asked in shock.
“Madam President, most of the Americans were recent Chinese immigrants. It’s entirely likely they had been placed in the country over the last decade or two for this exact purpose,” Reardon explained as he tried to downplay their significance.
Joy Radcliff, the incoming Director of Homeland Security, then interjected to add, “John, if I may—in light of the war and what all’s been going on, how is this impacting the other operations at the FBI? Your white-collar crimes, federal investigations, counterintelligence operations, and background investigations?”
Reardon squirmed in his chair a bit. He probably remembered the rhetoric spoken during the campaign about the evils of the FBI and how the new President and many of her acolytes had demanded massive reform—some had even demanded the outright dismantling of the agency.
“Thank you for your question, Director Radcliff,” he replied. “With the war going on and foreign agents and Special Forces still running around inside our country, a lot of those other functions you talk about have been put on hold or fallen to the wayside. As the head of the FBI, my executive team and I believe it’s far more important that we focus on finding these foreign actors and stop them from causing further damage to our infrastructure and people.”
“Please, John, just call me Joy. I’m still waiting on my confirmation hearing to make my appointment official. You know, when President Delgado ran for office, she campaigned on bringing dramatic reform to both the FBI and DHS. There’s a lot of redundancy in our two agencies that needs to be corrected. We’re wasting resources having competing programs, something we certainly can’t afford to do now, given the economic outlook of the country—”
“I know about the rhetoric of the campaign,” Reardon retorted. “I don’t think it’s wise to implement any sort of radical change to either of our organizations while our nation finds itself in the middle of a world war.”
President Delgado then brought out a document she wanted them to talk about. “John, you bring up a good point. I, too, fought in a war. When Mr. Wilson and I”—she nodded towards him before resuming—“served in Iraq in 2005, the country was in the process of tearing itself apart through sectarian fighting. We suddenly found ourselves playing monkey in the middle and whack-a-mole.
“During my second tour in Iraq, I was a major. I was still working in public affairs with Special Forces when I was assigned to work on General David Petraeus’s staff as he led the surge. Our military was knee-deep in a bloody and costly war, but General Petraeus saw a change was needed if we were going to win. Our strategy at the time wasn’t working. I feel we’re in the same kind of situation right now…with the FBI, among many other organizations—”
Reardon interjected, breaking protocol as he interrupted. “How so, Madam President?” he pressed. “I’d like to think the organization is doing just fine. In less than three months of war, we’ve already found and prosecuted more than a dozen Chinese soldiers and agents.” He was clearly trying to keep his cool, although it was obvious he wasn’t happy with where this discussion was headed.
“Yes, and meanwhile, the rest of what your job is supposed to focus on is falling by the wayside,” Joy shot back angrily. “Like, why haven’t we figured out how the Chinese were able to crash our cellular network the day the war started, or how they managed to infiltrate some sort of malware that spoofed our early-warning radars? These are massive security breaches, and the FBI is supposed to be the lead counterintelligence agency in the country. We’re ten weeks into this war, and we don’t even have a lead on how this happened, let alone have anyone in custody. For all we know, there are many more Easter eggs waiting to be discovered.”
“So, what are you proposing?” Reardon fired back.
Maria placed a hand on Joy’s arm to signal she’d take the lead now. “First off, John, we’re doing a massive reorganization of Homeland Security. It has way too many organizations trying to work under it, and it’s become too cumbersome. I won’t bore you with the details of how that reorg is going to work, but I will tell you what we’re going to do with the FBI.” She then laid the paper on the table between them with the new organizational chart of the FBI—at least, it was the version of the FBI she’d like to see materialize during her administration.
Reardon scanned it briefly. “You have to be kidding me, Madam President. This has nearly half of our functions being taken away from us.”
“Don’t look at it like that, John,” Maria said soothingly. “Look at it as an opportunity to get back to focusing on what the FBI does best—what has always been a traditional FBI mission.”
She didn’t want to go to war with her FBI Director the first week of her administration, but if this guy thought he could run over her like he had the previous two administrations, he was in for a surprise.
“I don’t know if this one is even legal,” Reardon responded, pointing to one of the bullet points. “The CIA isn’t allowed to spy or collect intelligence on US soil.”
“Moving the counterintelligence mission to the CIA only makes sense since they monitor and track foreign agents abroad,” Delgado explained.
“You’re taking like fifty percent of the FBI’s current mission and moving it to the CIA and Homeland. I don’t think this is a wise idea,” Reardon countered, clearly a bit exasperated by the proposed changes.
The President swiveled in her chair and leaned forward. “Look, John, these changes are going to happen. What I’d like to know from you is, do you want to take over as a Deputy Director at Homeland to be in charge of the FBI functions being transitioned there, or do you want to still lead the refocused and retasked FBI?”
Reardon had a deer in the headlights look for all of two seconds as he thought about what had just been offered to him. She hadn’t fired him, but she’d made it clear he only had a couple of choices: accept the changes and lead a new agency or retire.
The FBI Director took a deep breath in as he replied, “Madam President, I’ve spent a large part of my FBI career in counterintelligence and counterterrorism. I suppose this is why I was most taken aback by your moving these functions out of the FBI. That said, I would like to transition, then, to DHS to work with Director Radcliff and help ensure these mission-critical tasks have enough time and roots to really get established within DHS. To that end, I’d like a guarantee from you both that I’ll have tenure, at least until the end of your first term, to make this a smooth transition and establish a new recruitment and training pipeline for this department. Could that work?”
Delgado looked up at the ceiling. My first win, she thought. She’d expected more resistance.
“From my perspective, John, I don’t have an issue with that, and I think you bring up a great point about getting the training and recruitment pipeline established within DHS. I suspect a number of FBI agents will transfer over with you, but we’ll need help i
n building a training program to keep that newly created department staffed well into the future.”
The President then turned to Joy, her longtime friend and political ally. “What say you, Joy? Can you work with John as one of your deputies?”
Joy didn’t hesitate in the least as a broad smile crept across her face. “John, I’d be happy to have you on the team. As a matter of fact, I would like to have you on my leadership team within the department as well. I’m going to need someone with your experience to help as we reorganize this behemoth of an organization.”
As the meeting concluded, Delgado pulled Wilson aside. “Blain, stay put, if you will. It’s time for you to bring me up to speed on a few things.”
John and Joy exited the room, leaving just the President and her Chief of Staff, who’d been like a fly on the wall, just silently observing everything. The lone scribe in the room had also left, so it was just the three of them.
“Do you think I was too tough on John?” asked Delgado.
Blain shook his head. “No, Madam President. The FBI has grown too powerful as of late, and I agree with you. They’ve abused the public trust and their power for far too long with no consequences. A change needed to happen. I think this a brilliant move you just made.”
Noah Medici, the President’s Chief of Staff, asserted, “I agree with Blain, Madam President. We can’t restore trust in the FBI unless the public sees a dramatic change in how they function and operate. What I recommend we do now is find an incredibly well-known and well-respected person to lead the FBI’s newly focused criminal justice aspect of the agency—but this isn’t why we’re here to talk with Mr. Wilson.”
“You’re right, of course,” said Delgado.
Blain Wilson was clearly confused.