“We no longer have enough members of Congress alive at this moment to form such a quorum… and so I have decided to invoke Lincoln’s General Order 100, this country is now under martial law.”
“Sir… ”
“I know doctor, when Lincoln issued that order we were in a civil war, but this country is now in another war… and is under attack.”
He looked at the faces on the video screens.
“The first thing I want to do is accelerate order around the refugee camps and in the DC area. Article 7 states that all property and persons are subject to that law, and I want every single sonofabitch vulture hanging around the victims and relatives, policed up out of the camps and hospitals and put to work burying the dead. They aren’t fulfilling a useful function toward the national good so give them one. Pay them minimum wages if they do work, fine them if they don’t, in addition, anyone who refuses to work is not entitled to rations or clothing other than what they are wearing. No shelter, no heat, no medical aid. I also want the media there when they are rounded up; I want their relatives and neighbours to see their faces. Confiscate all claim forms but give them receipts, it won’t do them any good because I’m freezing all damage claims except those processed through government. What I would really, really like to do is enact Henry VI, part 2… ”
"The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers." interrupted Justice with a grin. “Although I did think that was a line from Henry V?”
“If you’re going to steal my lines… you can give the next State of the Union speech, ok?”
“Your lines?… .I think I just heard William Shakespeare turn in his grave Mr President, lucky for you he hated us lawyers or he’d sue your ass for that one!”
The President held up one finger, giving the bird to Justice before continuing.
“I want all available resources that can be of assistance federalised. They aren’t going to get rich on the pay or fat on the rations but I want them put to work on all aspects of disaster relief. Search and rescue remains voluntary of course but I want special payments to be made to all those who take part. We have a hell of a lot of people and equipment out there who are already working for free and more turning up all the time, let’s not freeload. The lawyers here have looked it over and it is legal, so let’s do it.”
Justice was scribbling away as the President spoke, until finally he looked up again and nodded.
“Next item, the enemy cells who carried out the attacks this morning… what can you tell me Ben?”
“Mr President, these would appear to be the work of sleeper cells of Chinese and East European origin. I would like to say that we have early leads, but we don’t. Air Force Captain Leo MacNamarra for instance, the man we believe may be responsible for planting bombs on our specialist anti-satellite squadron’s aircraft, appears to have been born and raised in New York State, and then attended the Air Force Academy. When he flunked pilot training he went into security where he underwent, and passed, an in depth security screening. However, initial DNA tests on samples at his apartment show he is most probably from the Urals, rather than a fifth generation Irish American. We are stretched to the limit and calling on former and retired agents to re-up and assist, as are most government and police agencies at the moment.”
Terry Jones had replaced his deputy on screen and looked bleak.
“Sir, we may have a problem… ”
Henry Shaw interrupted.
“Sir, we sure as shit-fire have a problem, there is no maybe about it!”
“Terry, as you started then please give me your take on whatever else has gone to hell today?” prompted the President.
“We have lost satellite and landline communications with our embassy in Warsaw, the consulate in Krakow and our consular agency in Poznan. I have also been informed that the NATO liaison team working with their High Command has not been in contact, they were working on a counter strike to assist the Belarussians and the last progress report was just before 11am yesterday. A lot of damage was done to the country’s communications net during the coup attempt, so it has been a bit haphazard since then but it was improving. This morning NATO aircraft have been refused entry into Polish airspace… I sent a courier from Berlin to find out what was going on, he was turned back at the border… alleged partisan activity outside the towns and cities attacking road traffic, is what he was told. I have contacted our allies and it is virtually the same story, so I contacted a friend at the new Polish embassy in Chicago, they were just about to contact us at it happens, all the embassies and consulates around the world are cut off from the homeland. At this time we have no intelligence as to what has happened to Poland’s elected President, his government or the high command of the armed forces”
The President closed his eyes for a moment, allowing the consequences of a worst case scenario to formulate in his mind.
When he opened them, General Shaw gave him an apologetic half smile before speaking.
“I had a JSTARS do some snooping sir, there is a lot of armour heading south through Poland by road and rail. There is remarkably little radio communication going on. The police, ambulance and fire service are off the air, so are taxi cabs and all manner of commercial radio traffic. The cellular phone system is down and military radio traffic is minimal… but we have heard Russian call signs and speech, not much and in every case the speaker got a new arsehole torn by a higher authority for breaking radio silence. I’m thinking a second coup here Mr President, successful this time. It means our northern flank in Germany is vulnerable; we no longer have Poland as a buffer and ally. Their forces could even now be repositioning from their jump off point on the Belorussian frontier, to come south with the Russians.” He paused while he tapped away on a keyboard and the large screen in the President’s war room lit up with a map of Europe before zooming in to focus on Poland, Belorussia, northern Germany and the Czech Republic. Icons were displayed that showed unit positions, the enemy units were shown in red.
“You will see that our northern flank is made up of a German Armoured Division, a French Mechanised Division, one Belgian and one Dutch Mechanised Brigade. Two brigades from our own 82nd Airborne in reserve with the British Airborne. Sir, 1st (UK) Armoured Division and their 2nd Mechanised Brigade were slotted for the left flank but are on their way to Leipzig. In twenty-four hours ten enemy divisions, thirteen if they can get the Poles to fight for them, will come crashing into our three division’s worth, north of Berlin.”
“Does SACEUR know this?” asked the President, enquiring if the Canadian General commanding NATO forces in Europe had the same information.
“I sent it all to him before I came online sir” Henry Shaw answered.
“What would you do if you were SACEUR, Henry?”
“You won’t like the answer, but if it is any consolation, the Germans will like it even less. I would stop the units moving up to Leipzig before they could engage, form a defence line south of Leipzig and disengage all units in contact, pull back to the new defence line and make a stand there. It would mean abandoning the north of Germany and the capital but that is as good as gone anyway if the northern flank is overrun… and it will be. Once they have done that the enemy will probably roll up the units facing east and Europe is as good as lost to us. SACEUR, General Allain will probably come to the same conclusion. He is going to need some political clout backing him to convince the German Chancellor to pull his troops back with ours… if that cannot be done, and the Germans refuse to budge, their army will fight alone … and die in place, sir.”