by Mark Spaid
“Good, I don’t think there’s anything else we can do at this point,” Perry said.
“Should you address the nation?” Secretary of State Marty Ingersoll asked.
“No, I should do that,” A voice said from the doorway and they all turned to see Valerie and Henry.
“My prayers are answered,” Perry said and let out a huge sigh.
“How did you get out, Madam Speaker?” Attorney General Meisner asked.
“Subterfuge.”
“I guess we’ll leave it at that,” Perry said.
“It’s complicated,” Henry added, “but Andrew stayed behind and I’m worried.”
“Why did he stay?” Homeland Secretary Sanghvi asked.
“He thought he could help the President,” Henry replied.
“That sounds like Andrew,” Marty said.
“Are there any agents with him?” Louise Chen asked.
“Yes, four,” Henry said.
“Madam Speaker, please take your seat,” Perry said as he stood up.
“None of that, Perry. Neither one of us are the president or even the acting president. The President is away on a trip like she’s done many times.”
“But not like this one,” Marty said and Valerie reluctantly nodded.
“Okay, let’s sit down and go over what we know,” Valerie said.
“We don’t know where she is or who has her for certain,” Rita Fitzgerald said.
“I know a carload of my agents were gunned down,” Louise added.
“A fanatic may have them all and he has a reputation for violence,” Marty said.
“They’ve lost control of one of their missile sites and General Zumwalt has moved to DEFCON Four,” Susan Rojas summed up.
“I think you should consider taking over,” Haakon Meisner posed.
“Whoa, let’s slow down and not get ahead of ourselves,” Valerie said. “The 25th Amendment calls for the President to put the vice-President in charge temporarily and then take back the reins when he or she is ready.”
“But it also covers incapacity by the President,” Haakon added.
“Yes, but she isn’t incapacitated. She’s just held under duress.”
“But she can’t govern and we don’t know how long she’ll be held,” Marcus Washington said.
“The amendment is a suicide pact for anyone who uses it. If I take over no matter the reason or circumstances, I’ll be viewed as a usurper by the American people and they’d be right. No, I’m not going to steal the Presidency while Ellen Lexington is being held at gunpoint in some God forsaken part of the world.”
“But, Madam Speaker…” Haakon started.
“No, we’ll meet continually and take whatever action we feel is necessary but Ellen is still the President.” Valerie said it with finality and there was no more discussion about her taking over.”
“Valerie, you need to speak to the country,” Marty said.
“Tentatively we set up a nine o’clock slot for Perry. The networks are ready and it might look best if it comes from the Oval Office,” Marty suggested.
“No, I’ll do it from the press room.” People looked at one another but nothing was said. “Good, I’m glad you agree.”
“We had the president’s speech writer jot down a few ideas,” Marty said.
“No, I’ll do it myself. Now, ladies and gentlemen I’m going to try and make myself presentable for the briefing.” They all stood as Valerie got up and left the room.
* * *
“Good evening, my fellow Americans, I want to speak to you tonight about the terrible events of today. Rumors are running wild, largely due to the fact that we don’t have much concrete evidence as to what happened. I can tell you what I know from being there. This afternoon after the meeting between President Lexington and President Deniken there was a bus tour of the Crimean Bridge that links The Crimea to Russia. After crossing the bridge into Russia, the bus was attacked. Heavily armed men boarded the bus and shots were fired. Then apparently, and our information is sketchy and anecdotal at best, there was a struggle on the bus. It is possible that Russian and American security agents took back control of the bus then drove away rapidly knocking two cars off the road that had held some of the men who stopped the bus. Later, these men commandeered other cars and chased after the bus. The two vehicles disappeared and we don’t know where they went. Henry York and I made it out of Kerch and got back to Washington. We are putting every law enforcement agency that we have and the armed forces of the United States in action to get the President back safely. That’s all I know and now I’ll take questions.
“Madam Speaker, are you the acting President?”
“No.”
“Why not, the 25th Amendment is there for something like this.”
“There has never been anything like this, Mr. Williams,” Valerie said then pointed to another reporter.
“Was the President hit by any of the shots?”
“Unable to tell but I doubt it.”
“Why?”
“It seems to those who are best able to discern the motives of this group that they would rather have both Presidents as hostages.”
“Hostages for what?”
“That we don’t know but I’m sure we’ll soon find out.”
“What military action has been taken to get the President back?”
“I can’t say, Dawn, surely you know that.”
“What has the Russian government said about this?”
“They’ve sent coded messages claiming they were not involved.”
“Do you believe them?”
“I do, there’s no reason for them to precipitate a crisis when tensions are starting to relax between us.”
“We’ve heard rumors of a carload of our secret service agents being killed.”
“I don’t know the details but I’ve heard the same thing.”
“When will we know more details?”
“When we have them. I’m going to keep the populace informed when we have something.”
“Have we raised our alert status?”
“I can’t comment on that either.”
“Is this all we can expect from you, just brief snippets with no explanation?”
“Until we know something yes, I can’t tell you what I don’t know, Stan.”
“Where are the First Gentleman and his children?”
“That is not for me to disseminate.”
“When will we have another briefing?”
“Let’s see,” Valerie said glancing at the clock. “How about midnight? You do stay up that late don’t you Stan.” There was a smattering of faint laughter.
“I will today, Madam Speaker.”
“Good, I look forward to seeing you again,” Valerie said and abruptly left the stage and disappeared.
“You did fine, Madam Speaker,” Perry said and the two walked down the hall, went into a room and closed the door.
* * *
“Dad, what’s going to happen to Mom,” Shelly asked.
“I don’t know.”
“Can’t the army go in there and get her out?” Brian asked.
“It’s more complicated than that,” Don said. They were upstairs in the living quarters of the first family. Brian and Shelly were on a couch facing Don who sat in a chair staring blankly at the television news station that was broadcasting non-stop about the kidnapping.
“Why is any answer to any question about anything is, it’s complicated?” Brian asked.
“Because it is. Your mother and her party are in a foreign land and not one that is very warm to us right now. The Russian government doesn’t want anything to happen to your mother or President Deniken or any of the people being held but they also aren’t receptive to outside interference from the U.S.”
“I’m scared, Dad,” Shelly said as she sat on the arm of his chair. She put her head on his shoulder and he hugged her. Brian sat watching then his eyes went red and he began to tremble.
“I miss
Mom,” Brian said and sat on the other arm. Don hugged him too as they all three hoped for the best but feared the worst.
* * *
“What do we do, Perry?” Valerie asked as they both sat at a table. They weren’t ducking the cabinet but they needed a few minutes to plan their strategy.
“We’re in uncharted waters to be sure. Nothing like this has ever happened. Whatever happens and what we do about it will be called into scrutiny.”
“Should I invoke the 25th Amendment and take over?”
“You can’t win, you’re in quicksand the moment you start. If she shows up safely in two days, you’ll be the scourge of the Earth.”
“I know but what if that lunatic at Kapustin Yar launches twenty missiles? These are hydrogen warheads aimed at New York, Washington, Chicago, Los Angles, and wherever else they have targeted. Just twenty hydrogen bombs and this country is paralyzed. We each have about seven thousand but twenty could do the trick.”
“Oh, you’re right. No electricity, phones, emergency services would be non-existent. Things would grind to a halt.”
“And what do we do? Do we launch twenty missiles of our own at St. Petersburg, Moscow, their naval bases etc.?”
“Then they launch a full-scale retaliation and we do the same. The Earth as we know it would disappear,” Perry said.
“That’s why I think I should take over. We have to be in contact with NORAD, Alaskan Air Command, Pearl Harbor, Wiesbaden, the whole damn works.” Perry nodded understanding. “I know I resisted it at first but the more I think about it, we need someone in charge.”
“We need to discuss this with the cabinet.”
“Why?”
“Because they’ll have to approve any transfer of power.”
“They do?”
“Of course, tell me you knew that,” Perry said.
“I guess I didn’t until now.”
“Let’s pretend that you knew all along.”
“Agreed, I guess we should go back now.”
“You did a nice job in the press room, Madam Speaker,” Louise Chen remarked.
“Now, what do we do?” Haakon asked.
“We talk with General Zumwalt at NORAD and see what he has on Kapustin Yar,” Valerie replied.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
“Comrade, we’re through the door,” A man said to Kulagin who stood with an assault rifle in his hand.
“Okay, go get them, Kolchevsky,” Kulagin said. He remained behind expecting to see his men in a few minutes with the two presidents in their custody with everyone else dead.
“Good, let’s go.” He was followed by twenty other “comrades”, all well-armed. They charged upstairs and searched each floor as they went.
“What do we do when we see them?” Manatov asked.
“Kill them, all but the Presidents.” There were fourteen men headed up the main stairs and six who moved up the back stairs.
* * *
“They’re coming up,” Retzlaf said as he returned from a scouting mission. Zhadanov had sent him to the lower floors to see when Kulagin’s men had broken through the doors.
“Where are they?” Zhadanov asked.
“The sixth floor but they’re moving fast.”
“So, we go into action, Trent said. They had all six met one last time before Kulagin’s men started upward.
“Should we move downward?” Tatiana asked. Normally, Tatiana would be telling people what to do but this was different.
“We have to, if we wait for them to meet us up here, they’ll win. They’ll have us out gunned 100 to 1,” Trent said.
“Agreed,” Vladimir said and after a brief discussion the three pairs moved in different directions.
* * *
“General, sir, we have a problem,” Deke Winters said to his superior at NORAD.
“What?”
“Two Russian subs are thirty miles off the east coast.”
“Where?”
“Near Maine.”
“Not D.C. or New York?”
“No sir.”
“Do they know we know?”
“Yes, sir, a destroyer sent up a flare and the sub returned a radio signal indicating they were aware of being spotted.”
“Did they move off?”
“No, sir, they stayed and made a circle pattern.”
“They’re taunting us,” Zumwalt said as he sat back in his chair and thought.
“Yes, sir, I think they are.”
“Sir, I have a communique from General Ledger at Alaskan Air Command,” Barbara Alton said as she stood in front of the general holding a paper.
“What is it?”
“Two Russian SU 35 fighter jets passed over Alaskan territory.”
“You mean over land?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Well, how did they get there? Didn’t radar pick them up?”
“No, sir.”
“They’ve been working on radar invisibility,” General Zumwalt said as he looked at Deke.
“They probably flew in hopping the waves. It’s too low for our radar at some points with the mountains, sir, even if they aren’t radar visible”
“Yeah, I hope that’s it because I’d hate to fight an enemy we can’t see.”
“Sir, it’s General Ledger at Alaskan Air Command,” a lieutenant said as he handed Zumwalt the phone.
“Hello, Tommy, what’ve you got?”
“Two more bogies, we chased them off.”
“What were they doing?”
“I don’t know, they break our airspace on occasion but they’ve never gone over land before.”
“Any bombers?”
“No.”
“What do you see now?”
“There’s an entire squadron just off our airspace flying back and forth,” Ledger said.
“Okay, we’re raising the security level.”
“I’ll keep you informed, General.” Zumwalt handed the phone to the lieutenant.
“Okay, so now we go to DEFCON THREE and we keep vigilant all over the globe. Check with every overseas command.”
“Yes, sir,” Deke said and went immediately to his console and began calling.
“Jerry,” General Zumwalt said and Sergeant Fillmore presented himself front and center.
“Yes, sir.”
“Jerry, I want you to look carefully at those satellite photos of Kapustin Yar. I want to know if someone spits on the ground over there.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Deke.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Who’s in charge over there with Deniken out of the picture?”
“The Prime Minster, sir, Vladimir Berelenov.” Walter sat back in his chair and sighed.
“That’s great, I wonder how much vodka he’s had today.”
* * *
“Does anyone know what Berelenov is doing and if he’s sober?” Valerie asked as she and Perry walked into the situation room. The Prime Minister had a long history with demon vodka and it was no secret to anyone. His sobriety was certainly a question since he could very well be in charge if anything happened to Deniken. The cabinet members had been scattered around the room discussing what had happened and what to do next. Perry and Valerie were gone twenty minutes but that was expected since the present number one and two needed to talk about strategy.
“Anyone’s guess,” Madam Speaker,” Marty said as they all found seats and came to order after Valerie sat down.
* * *
It bears explanation as regards the line of succession to the Presidency in the United States. In the original Constitution, after the President it was the vice-President, Senate majority Leader and the Speaker of the House in that order. In 1886 legislation was passed that changed the order. At this point after the President it was the vice-President, Secretary of State, Secretary of the Treasury, Secretary of Defense etc. However, as time passed in the Twentieth Century concern was raised that with that line of succession it would be possible for someone who was not elected to
become President. So, in 1947 Congress passed The Presidential Succession Act that established the line as President, vice-President, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Presidential Pro Tem of the Senate then the Secretary of State and the other cabinet officers.
“Well, can we find out who is running the show and can we get in touch with them?” Valerie posed.
“We’re trying, Madam Speaker but without much success,” Marty answered.
“We’ve been trying to get in touch with Berelenov but communications are not very good in Russia as far as us making contact even on a good day, Rita Fitzgerald said.
“Keep trying,” Perry said and Rita nodded.
“Okay, let me have your attention please,” Valerie said and they all looked her way.
“You have our undivided attention, Madam Speaker,” Marty Ingersoll said.
“I have talked with Perry about this, I have considered what was said when I first arrived and given the unsettled nature of the situation coupled with Russian submarine activities, aircraft incursions over Alaska and the situation at Kapustin Yar, I think I should take charge as acting president.” There was silence as they all exchanged glances. Valerie read the room as best she could; there were head nods of agreement, a few raised eyebrows and a couple of heads shaking no. “I know I’ve not kept my ambitions a secret…I wear them on my sleeve. Yes, you’re right, I don’t even try to conceal my desire to be president. But…not this way. Whether you believe it or not I wish I was back in Kerch waiting for the president to return and hash out the treaty. There is no vice-president so I’m second in line. We don’t know where President Lexington is and we don’t know when she’ll be able to resume her duties. Until then this country needs a president front and center. The law is clear…this cabinet must pass a resolution making me acting and I emphasize “acting” president. The moment the President is safe and in contact with this cabinet I step down. If you decide not to act then we’ll continue as we are. I won’t fight you on this and I won’t bring it up again.” There were many strained looks of trepidation and uneasiness.