Agent Clay said, “General the Secretary of Defense is at the hallway to the right.” Agent Clay smiled and said, “I am going to get my shit squared away and get back on mission. Thanks for helping me snap out of my complacency.”
Matthew shook Agent Clay’s strong hand, “If you can, keep an eye on my unit’s aircraft. My mission is more key to helping save humanity than I can put into words.”
Agent Clay said, “Will do general,” and walked down the hallway to the left looking for someone specific.
Matthew walked down the hallway to an open door at the end that said Secretary of Defense Operations. The room had cherry wood paneling, bright florescent lighting, and several beautiful cherry wood desks. There were six white plastic folding tables set up in the spaces between the desks with laptops, phones, and water bottles. The room had a faint smell of bleach.
Matthew saw a dozen low-ranking officers in the room of Captain or lower. In the left corner of the room, he saw a group of four soldiers gathered around a printed map of downtown Washington, D.C. One officer had an Army combat uniform with a 101st Airborne patch on their shoulder, another officer had an Army grey universal camouflage pattern uniform with a Tenth Mountain Division patch on it, another had a green flight suit with a VFA-101 Grim Reapers Attack Aviation Squadron patch, and the last had an Airforce tiger stripe Airman battle uniform from 24th Special Operations Wing.
As Matthew walked closer he could see the six foot tall black haired 101st Airborne officer was a Captain with the name tag Jackson on it. Matthew walked up to him and asked, “Captain Jackson I am here to see the Secretary of Defense.”
Captain Jackson was tired and had to think a second before responding. He said, “We’re not with the Secretary of Defense staff, he has only got one aid left surviving and we haven’t seen him for hours. I am director of the Joint Chief’s of staff and the J-2 of intelligence.”
Matthew realized this Captain was acting as the Director of the Joint Staff officer normally filled by a three star general commander six ranks above a Captain. This meant the officer rank of the United States whole military must have been gutted by the infection or killed by the undead. Matthew started to wonder if the surviving military command structure was hanging by a thread.
Captain Jackson continued to sort through a stack of aerial reconnaissance pictures of the area. He looked up again and said, “That corner of desks over there is the staff for the U.S. Central Command. The surviving staff from U.S. Africa and U.S. European Command have now been folding into one command because the units of those Corps are dead. Not many made it back from overseas.”
Matthew asked, “Where is the general for U.S. Special Operations Command sitting?”
Captain Jackson, “There are no surviving Special Forces commandos left, only a few ad hoc Special Forces teams that are now under U.S. Central Command.”
Matthew looking at the aerial reconnaissance photos Captain Jackson was holding asked, “What is the strategic plan to deal with the hundred and fifty thousand undead coming in from the west?”
Captain Jackson looked surprised wondering how this man wanting to see the Secretary of Defense knew the up to date air intelligence which was on a secure channel. He said, “We still have a few B-52 bombers left. The problem is finding pilots. Three of the bombers have civilian commercial airline pilots flying them.”
Matthew smelled the faint scent of bleach again and asked, “Why am I smelling bleach?”
Captain Jackson answered, “We have had a few personnel that were infected. They collapsed and some went into a coma, but a few died in minutes and they became undead. The stench of undead blood is sickening in the bunker hence the bleach smell to clean it up.”
Captain Jackson looked at Matthew’s equipment and his backpack and asked, “Do you have any 9mm ammunition you can spare. I only have twelve rounds for my handgun. Ammo is so short staff only gets the scraps.”
Matthew was surprised by ammunition situation in Washington, D.C. Then he realized Captain Jackson was from the 101st airborne with a combat patch which meant he was probably used to walking into combat with three hundred and sixty rounds of rifle ammo because resupply is rare. Matthew looked at the Captain’s eyes and could see a man worried about his own safety. Those type of distractions were taking away the Captain’s capacity to plan for the United States last defensive perimeter in downtown Washington, D.C. If the undead overwhelmed the city defenses, then Matthew would need every round he had on him to get back to the aircraft but he realized these officers in the room were thinking the same way and had the same emotional needs for safety. To lead by example in unit cohesion Matthew took off his backpack and brought out three spare extended magazines of 9mm ammo.
Matthew said, “Distribute these as you see the need. There are eighty one 9mm high velocity +P+ hollow point rounds in those magazines.”
Captain Jackson took the magazines in his hands looking like Matthew had just given him a million dollars. Captain Jackson thought, if he had that type of spare ammunition in his backpack, he would have lied and said he had none. This man in front of him does not look naive and has a true command presence about him. I am so tired, I forgot to ask the man’s name.
Captain Jackson asked, “Sir what is your name? I can see if Secretary of Defense is available to meet, he is in with the Joint Chiefs of staff right now but they haven’t had a break for eight hours and I will be bringing them food.”
Matthew said, “I am Brigadier General Knight. I appreciate whatever you can do.”
Captain Jackson instantly stood up straight and snapped to attention. He brought up his right hand and saluted as he yelled out, “Room attennnnn-tion! Good afternoon General Knight.”
Everyone in the room stopped what they were doing and snapped to attention, saluting with their right hands.
Matthew as a General was used to in his career a whole room coming to attention but it had been a long time since that last happened when he joined the Arc Light program where the formality of rank was not as important as results. As he turned and looked into the eyes of all the men in the room, he could see a hope that there was another General still alive. Matthew did not realize how rare Generals must be to the survivors of the United States military. This room should have been full of Generals but he didn’t even see the low rank of Major in the room which was a rank above Captain. These men standing at attention were doing this not as a wasteful ceremony but as a tradition of respect and trust that the presence of a General with his knowledge and experience would help do his part in bringing them out of this apocalypse alive.
Matthew said to the room, “Gentlemen, you are the most valuable chance the survivors of the United States have of living. Honor those that have died to give you this chance to live by pushing yourself beyond your limits and focus on excelling at one task at a time instead of wasting capacity fearing what you cannot control.”
Matthew brought his hand up in a returning salute as he turned and looked each man in the eyes sharing a silent oath of commitment to keeping what was left of humanity alive. Captain Jackson who Matthew thought had lost hope now had a determination in his eyes that a captain of the elite 101st Airborne Division should have.
Matthew dropped his returning salute to the men and said, “At ease, carry on.”
Officers throughout the room dropped their salute and went back to their planning over maps and laptops but a few lingered their gaze a few seconds longer on Matthew trying to soak in the hope he represented.
Captain Jackson handed the magazines to the officer next to him and said, “Distribute these evenly to the staff.”
Captain Jackson then disappeared into the Secretary of Defense's room for a minute and came back out and stated, “General Knight the Secretary of Defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff will see you.”
Matthew walked through the door into the Secretary of Defense's empty office and scanned the room. There was a large cherry wood desk twenty feet long. It had intelligence repo
rts and maps of the country all over the desk. Food and water boxes were stacked in every spare inch of space left in the office. Captain Jackson led Matthew across the room to a secure door. He placed his eye in the retinal scanner and the door with a red light sign “Classified Conference in Session” opened. Matthew walked into a room with chairs all around the perimeter of the room for secondary staff. The main table was twenty five feet long. At the far end of the room was a huge TV screen the size of the wall displaying a map of the United States with red dots with dates and amounts of undead currently in the surrounding states next to Washington, D.C.
At the head of the table was Jack Welsh, the Secretary of Defense, a man in his sixties dressed in a black suit that surprisingly was pressed. He had white hair, a tan face with a square jaw and looked like he came from the southern states. Sitting next to him were four officers, one from each branch of the military. Two Colonels and two Lieutenant Colonels. The white Marine Lieutenant Colonel in his early forties with a high and tight haircut of his blond hair was in his woodland combat fatigues with a pistol belt. The rest of the Joint Chiefs of Staff were in their dress uniforms. This caught Matthew by surprise that there were no Generals on the President's military advisory staff. This meant there were no years of experience and hard won wisdom to advise the new President. For an officer to reach the rank of General meant they were able to outperform the large resource pool and did not over twenty years make any major command failures. These lower ranking officers did not have the experience of commanding major military forces which were a totally different beast than hands on combat leadership experience.
Jack Welsh stood up and walked over to Matthew shaking his hand. He turned and said to the four Joints Chief of staff in a composed southern drawl, “This is Brigadier General Matthew Knight who will now be helping us with the defense of Washington, D.C.”
The Secretary of Defense sat back down and said, “Matthew I will get you a briefing folder on your new command and where your surviving assets will be reassigned to in the defense plan of Washington, D.C.”
Matthew was mentally prepared for what he just heard. In past Special Forces tasks forces, he led during a crisis he had experienced those making a play for power and reassignment of forces. The Secretary of Defense and the new Joint Chiefs of Staff were without a complete security briefing to understand the depth and importance of the Arc Light program. Matthew was experienced enough to not argue because there was nothing to argue about with someone that had no control over him, only the President of the United States could give orders to Arc Light command.
Matthew said, “Mr. Secretary how much was the new President, the Joint Chiefs and you briefed on the classified Arc Light program?”
The Secretary of Defense said, “We all know you are pursuing all unconventional means to find a cure to ensure the survival of the United States. The new succeeding President is calling in all conventional and Special Operations forces including the Arc Light program assets for a final stand. Your program had so many layers of backups, you are one of the only remaining tasks force with any surviving experienced military leaders. We had the remains of combat divisions being run by Majors which is four steps down from the two star Generals that should have been running those divisions. You can only imagine the mistakes that were made.”
Matthew asked, “Did your briefing convey that Arc Light is the country's highest priority mission.”
The Secretary of Defense said, “Matthew, cut to the chase son the new President thinks the Arc Light program is too dangerous. He has looked at the classified briefings especially the eyes only intelligence ones we were not allowed to see. He believes the sources of unique radiation designated Arc Light energy is not a cure but a threat that must be destroyed at all costs. The President is shutting down Arc Light.”
Matthew’s Arc Light leadership training had a heavy section on dealing with the political opposition to the mission but he couldn’t believe it was actually happening. The Arc Light program had literally every level of support possible by the President and key congressional members until they all died. The surviving President and whatever acting cabinet were going to destroy the sources of the Arc Light energy designed ‘Artifacts’ which was irreplaceable to unlocking a cure. Humanity was at risk of throwing away any chance at a cure.
The Secretary of Defense said, “I want you to activate your destruction protocol on all sources of Arc Light energy currently in the program's possession. You are then ordered to bring in all of your personnel, equipment, and supplies to Washington, D.C.”
Matthew could see that the Secretary of Defense was testing if he would follow orders without resistance. Matthew also knew the Secretary of Defense would have already destroyed the sources of Arc Light energy and recalled all Arc Light personnel if he had the codes and authority but he had neither.
Matthew wanted to see if the Secretary of Defense was trying to keep the new President out of the loop.
Matthew asked, “When is the President scheduled to be briefed by me on the closing report for the Arc Light program?”
The Secretary of Defense said, “The President is busy holding together what is left of the country, he delegated the closing of Arc Light to me.”
Matthew had what he needed now to carry out his plan for what was best for Arc Light, the Secretary of Defense denying an Arc Light commander access to the President was illegal and broke a critical chain of command protocol which made the orders to shut down Arc Light illegal. He just wanted now to find out why they were defending Washington, D.C., as the United States’ final stand versus choosing from a dozen better military facilities to defend the surviving military and civilians. The best way to find out was to make the Secretary of Defense believe he would shut down the Arc Light program.
Matthew said, “I will coordinate with your task force officer in charge of personnel and the supply officer to reassign my personnel and assets. To save time can you brief me on the commander’s intent on why we chose Washington, D.C., for our stronghold operation?”
The Secretary of Defense’s face tried to hide his relief that Matthew was following his orders but his eyes gave his relief away.
The Secretary of Defense said, “Before our original President died and was succeeded he implemented a top secret protocol called Echo Victory. That set into motion a defense operation of Washinton D.C. When the missing President was succeeded by the Speaker of the House we couldn’t change the movement of the surviving military units because of a lack of command and control combined with the whole military running short on fuel. The meteorite impacts have taken out pipelines and we lost the classified fuel depot in Baltimore Maryland.”
Matthew realized the Secretary of Defense nor the new President knew what the top secret “need to know” Echo Victory protocol was. Matthew had received Arc Light commander’s training on what his need to know part was if he received the Echo Victory protocol activation. He knew to use all available means to protect the classified NSA space-based command near Washington, D.C., which was a control bunker center over NSA satellites and all other classified space-based assets controlled by them. The defense of Washington, D.C., was a cover for the real mission objective of keeping the NSA space-based command center safe at all costs. The plan was never to use Washington, D.C., as a final stand for the last survivors of the United States. If the Secretary of Defense would have followed orders and protocol to inform Arc Light command of the original President’s activation of Echo Victory then the survivors would not be at so much risk.
Now that Matthew was the overall surviving commander of Arc Light the classified database would allow him ‘need to know’ access to the protocol classified details. Matthew especially wanted to know about the location of Arc Light’s most classified base that would be revealed to him once the Arc Light central computer had the Echo Victory protocol activated. He had to get back to the aircraft to get a secure terminal link into the Arc Light classified computer network.
Matthew asked, “Did you inform the Arc Light commander that was alive at that time of the President’s order? I was not informed of the President’s order to activate the emergency protocol Echo Victory when I was made the new command of Arc Light. Was this because the order was never passed on?”
The Secretary of Defense said, “The liaison officer of the Arc Light program that is always as close to the President as the nuclear command and control officer was missing. I thought there were more important ..”
Matthew cut him off asking, “How did you confirm the President of the United States was dead or missing in action?”
The Secretary of Defense looked at Matthew with raw anger on his face. He was not used to being questioned like this.
Matthew now knew the Secretary of Defense had broken the law and committed treason against the United States if not on purpose, through incompetence. The United States best hope for survival was Arc Light but now the Secretary of Defense was trying to shut it down and had withheld Presidential orders from the Arc Light command. Matthew was now unsure if the President of the United States was really dead or if he had gone into radio silence as part of the emergency Echo Victory protocol. If the classified Presidential protocol for succession was not followed then the currently new President of the United States held the position illegally.
Matthew asked, “Did you follow protocol to confirm the President’s proof of death or missing in action? Did you contact Arc Light command which could have searched for our Presidential liaison by using the encrypted location beacon that Arc Light member always carried?”
The Secretary of Defense with anger in his voice said, “I would relieve you of your command and have you arrested if we weren’t on the brink of losing Washington, D.C., along with our military. I will give you one last chance to follow my direct orders. I want your experienced leaders to command the remaining units in the Northern …”
Forces of Destiny Page 4