Jefferson thought for a few moments, then nodded and opened his phone. “I’ll request the clearances and get the rest of the team loaded up and moving south,” he said. “But we don’t do anything until we get permission from the White House. We were authorized to fly to São Paulo, period. We stay here, or we head back to the States.”
Over Kingman City, Texas
A short time later
“My God,” the President breathed. “I can’t believe it…I simply can’t believe it.” He sat back in his seat in a Marine Corps UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter, one of three orbiting over the blast site in a sort of aerial “shell game” to confuse any attackers that might want to shoot the President’s helicopter down. None of the helicopters had any presidential markings—they resembled the military helicopters that had been orbiting the area since shortly after the blast occurred. He shook his head numbly. “A nuclear terrorist attack on American soil. It’s simply incredible.”
“I think we’ve seen enough,” the President’s chief of staff, Victoria Collins, said, taking an apprehensive glance outside. “Perhaps we should head back, Mr. President,” she said nervously.
“Suck it up, Vicki,” they heard, just barely audible above the roar of the helicopter’s rotors.
Collins turned angrily to the third passenger in the President’s compartment. “What did you say, Chamberlain?”
“I said, ‘Suck it up, Vicki,’ ” National Security Adviser Robert Chamberlain said in an exasperated voice. “It means, we’re here to gather information and get a firsthand sense of the destruction here, not to soothe your sensibilities. It means as bad as you feel now, there are thousands of Americans down there who are suffering. So suck it up, Vicki!”
“How dare you talk to me like that?”
“I dare, Miss Collins, because you want to cut this important inspection short because your delicate little tummy can’t stand the sight of a nuclear blast just a few thousand meters away. I dare, Miss Collins, because somebody needs to tell you to put aside your fear and queasiness and do your fucking job.”
“All right, that’s enough,” the President interjected. “This is no time to be sniping at each other.” The President picked up the intercom and spoke to the pilot, and in fifteen minutes they were on the ground at Houston-Hobby Field. After a few more meetings with military, state, and federal investigation, security, and disaster relief officials aboard Air Force One, the President and his staff were airborne once again, heading back to Washington.
Aboard Air Force One, the President and his advisers were assembled in the large conference room. Only Chamberlain and Collins were with the President—the rest of the Cabinet and military advisers were present via secure video teleconference, dispersed to various safe Continuity of Government locations around the northeast and mid-Atlantic region for their security. The President first turned to General Charles Lanier, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “Update on our defense response, General?”
“Fully implemented, sir,” Lanier replied. “Complete shutdown of all major civil and commercial air, sea, and land gateways. Full mobilization underway of all National Guard and Reserve units to help secure the borders, ports, petro-gas facilities, chemical plants, and major utilities. All current air and coast defense units are on full alert, and we’re adding three new air, coastal, or border defense units per day. In less than two weeks we’ll be on full wartime continental defense configuration. We’ve gotten an average of one thousand new enlistments per hour since Kingman City in active, Reserve, and Guard branches, and there’s no letup. The American people are responding like nothing we’ve seen since World War Two.”
“Everyone is going through normal background screening and training though, correct, General?” Chamberlain asked.
“Yes, of course,” Lanier responded. “Our backlogs are long but we’re ramping up and increasing our capability every day. We’re not cutting corners, just increasing capacity, slowly but surely.”
“Good. What about inspection routines?”
“Ramping up slowly but surely as well, sir,” Lanier said. “Reserve Forces units are working with Homeland Security agencies to set up one hundred percent cargo inspections.”
“Donna?”
“We’re already up to eighty percent of all air cargo and twenty percent of all sea cargo being inspected before entry,” Secretary of Homeland Security Donna Calhoun responded via video. “There’s a tremendous backlog of containers, but many shipments were stopped after Kingman City, so the disruption was already mitigated. I’m thankful for the quick Reserve Forces mobilization.”
“George?”
“Same with the prosecutors and the FBI,” Attorney General George Wentworth said. “We’re getting thousands of applicants for positions and lots of retired and former employees returning every day. The offices are bursting at the seams and it looks like total chaos out there, but the people are hunkering down and getting the job done. Everyone knows we’re under attack now, and they’re doing everything they can to help. I want to congratulate Mr. Chamberlain for proposing that call for volunteers, sir—we were ready when we needed to be. I’d hate to think of the mess we’d be in now if we didn’t have that big influx of volunteers after you made your speech.”
“I add my thanks as well,” the President said. “Now, I need some clearheaded opinions on what to do next. Let’s hear it.”
“Whoever did this has to pay, Mr. President, and pay dearly,” Chamberlain said bitterly. He turned to Collins and asked, “What about the President’s proposal of asking Congress for a declaration of war on terrorism, Vicki?”
“The status is still the same, Bob,” Collins shot back acidly. She turned to the President: “It’s still being staffed, Mr. President. The White House, Justice, State, Defense, and congressional counsels have been meeting for weeks with no consensus.”
“What’s the holdup?” Chamberlain asked.
“Simple: we don’t have anyone to declare war on,” Collins said. “You can’t legally declare war on an activity or a concept. Even Israel has never declared war on organizations such as the Palestine Liberation Organization or Hezbollah, no matter how deadly they are. You can only declare war on another nation.”
“You of course have read that in the statutes, Miss Collins?”
“It’s not in the law, Mr. Chamberlain, but it’s common sense and logical,” Collins said.
“State agrees,” Secretary of State Christopher Parker chimed in, speaking via secure videoconference from a Continuity of Government location in Virginia. “Organizations that operate within a particular country take on the legal status of that country. Countries like Libya and Syria sanctioned and even supported groups we considered ‘terrorists’ for many years. The U.S. can declare war on that country in retaliation for something an extremist organization does while operating there, but it is incorrect to declare war on the organization itself.”
“Justice does not agree,” Attorney General George Wentworth interjected. “The invasion of Afghanistan to eliminate the Taliban and al Qaeda was a combat operation against a terrorist organization…”
“But the Taliban was never considered the legitimate government in Afghanistan,” Collins argued, “and we certainly did not ‘declare war’ on either the Taliban or al Qaeda…”