“I don’t know what you want exactly.”
“Well, we have heard about the last meeting he held but other than that, did he exhibit any behavior that indicated he was unstable?”
“Senator, it’s hard to define exactly what you are looking for here. He has been ‘different’ ever since the Ebola thing hit. His stalling to see the Director of the CDC and refusal to act on his recommendation caused a loss of four valuable days in stopping the spread of the virus. If he had acted on the CDC recommendation we could have possible contained the virus in Kentucky. Now look at where we are.”
“Yes, but that is all hindsight. As I understand it the Director made a recommendation meaning that it should or should not be acted on as determined by the President. He had no real way of knowing how fast the virus would spread.”
She sat and looked at him for several seconds before speaking again.
“If I’m hearing you right Senator, you are saying in the exact same position, knowing the exact same facts presented to you by the very agency that has the responsibility for the nation's disease control, you would have acted the same. Is that what I am hearing from you Senator?”
“You are paraphrasing the statement Madam. I may or may not have come to the same conclusion. Timing is the relevant thing here. He felt he needed more facts before making a decision to ground all transportation. The economy is not something you can just shut down on a whim.”
“Do you think Ebola and several cases and some deaths are a whim? How many dead does it take before it is no longer considered a whim?” she asked glaring at the Senator who seemed not to notice.
“Madam, let me be blunt if I may. This is seen by some of my colleagues as an attempt to usurp the power of the President. Some even view this as an attempted coup to become the first African-American woman President,” he said.
Her face was burning and she wondered if smoke was actually coming out of her ears. What an arrogant ass. She wasn’t sure what angered her more. That she was an African-American or that she was a woman. It had to be the woman part she decided. The old boys didn’t like having a woman as leader of the nation.
“Then let me be just as blunt Senator. I have seen prejudiced people like you and your colleagues all my life. You want to safe face and put your buddy back in the President’s seat. You can do that, I doubt that I can stop you. Just keep in mind you cannot stop me from speaking out and telling the world about what really took place. The man is incapable of leading the nation at this point in time. You want to put him back in power, you go right ahead and do it. You want to play hardball. Senator you should know I didn’t get here not knowing how to play dirty just as well as you. You go on back to your colleagues and tell them if they want a bloody fight on their hands to bring it on,” she said, slapping her hand down for emphasis.
The Senator sat wide eyed. He simply wasn’t prepared for that much fight from her. He had grossly underrated her resolve.
“Madam President,” he finally said, clearing his throat, “I can see that you have a great deal of conviction about Thornburg’s inability to handle this terrible situation that is raging through our country. Your strong conviction is certainly enough for me. I am convinced that you have indeed made the right choice. I will report back that we need to stand firmly behind you as Acting President. We can assess President Thornburg’s ability to reacquire the position at a later time.”
“I thank you for your vote of confidence Senator and welcome the support of your colleagues,” she said with a forced smile.
It almost matched the Senator’s in sincerity.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
CTV NEWS — A rare event took place today when the US Senate met in a closed door session. All media reporters along with the public were locked out as Senators from all fifty states met. The session lasted over four hours with even aides and couriers being kept from the meeting.
The Senate majority leader, Senator Long of Kansas, was asked to comment on the unusual procedure.
“The session concerned the nation’s highest level of security and therefore was held in the strictest of confidence.”
When asked about the legality of such a meeting being held, the Senator replied, “no comment.”
Senate minority leader, Peter Neilson, echoed the exact same comments. As soon as the meeting was over, Senators immediately left for the day and were unavailable for comment. All phone calls to Senators were unreturned.
RiotousOne’s eyes were sunken with dark circles under them. He had slept little and cried almost non-stop. What had once seemed like such a glorious prank had turned into the world’s biggest catastrophe.
The latest news had reported that deaths had reached the ten million mark with over seventy million potential new cases reported. His actions had managed to kill more people than all the wars combined.
His actions had caused the deaths of his hacker friends and others that he had admired. His Father, Mother, and two siblings were now dead because of him. He had considered turning himself in to the police but he was too much of a coward. He could never take being in jail.
He sat dully looking at the six computer screens that he had arranged in a semicircle around his cluttered workspace. Once his pride, it now seemed to be mocking him. The monitors appeared to be watching his every move. He had not sent a text or even touched the keyboard for the past nine hours. He just sat blankly, only leaving to go to the bathroom.
He had played all the options he had over and over in his mind. Going to the police was out of the question. He thought about cutting his wrists but there was no way he could do such a thing. He shivered at the thought of pain.
He could simply blow his brains out but he didn’t own a gun and had never even shot one. No way could he just pick up a knife and stab himself. He shuddered just thinking about doing such a thing. Overdose? Of what? The strongest thing he had was Extra Strength Tylenol PM. That certainly wasn’t going to do much harm. At best it would let him get some sleep.
Watching the streaming video of the mass burial of five thousand bodies in New York, he decided on a course of action. He had been the one who caused this. Millions were suffering, just waiting to die. He had his answer.
Getting up, he turned off all the computer equipment, looked around one last time and went to the front room. He opened the door, removed his face mask, and started walking down the street.
Bodies had become a huge problem for every state affected. Thousands upon thousands were waiting to be buried. It was finally decided that the only answer was mass burial sites.
Areas were chosen and it was decided that each grave would hold five thousand bodies. A large headstone would be inscribed with each of the names of the people entombed. No one was happy with the decision but there was nothing else that could be done.
While cremations were still being done, the crematoriums were soon overwhelmed and could no longer honor the wishes of those that had decided against burial. Most were simply shipped off to the mass graves.
“Hey Buck. How is it going?” Randal asked when he stepped inside the trailer.
“As good as can be expected. You guys wanted to talk to me?” Buck replied.
“Yes we did. Buck, you know in all the talking we have done, I don’t think we ever really discussed what we are trying to accomplish down in that vertical tunnel. I think it was one of those ‘assume’ moments. You remember when Mike asked about the cable and you told him it was that big long thing or something along those lines?”
“Yeah, I didn’t mean any offence,” he said turning to Mark apologetically.