The ground shook with a deep basso rumble as the structure hit the ground and bounced thirty feet into the air before landing a second time with a softer thud between the National Holocaust Memorial and the National Museum of American History.
A rising dust cloud and the boom froze everyone on the podium. The man standing behind Catherine Quaid shoved Sarah Goldberg, seated next to the First Lady, and stepped between Catherine Quaid and Goldberg. His gun was in his right hand.
The other man, Joe Bergantina, leaped in front of Mrs. Quaid, placed his hands on her shoulders and pushed her facedown to the floor of the platform. He knelt over her while he scanned from side to side, looking for threats.
The Mall erupted with shouts and screams from the crowd. Some people dropped to the grass, thinking a bomb had detonated. Others ran.
Rabbi Garfinkle stood in the middle of the platform. Motionless. Shocked. He walked to the microphone and appealed for calm. His voice could not be heard over the hysteria below.
The White House shook as a rumbling sound rose through the floor. The doors to the Oval Office flew open. Secret Service agents rushed in, surrounded the president and ushered him rapidly out the door, lifted off his feet by the nearest men in the ring formed around him.
The people remaining in the Oval Office ran to the window and watched the toppled Washington Monument settle under a cloud of dust. Gen. Paterson walked quickly to the telephone on the president’s desk.
“This is General Paterson,” he said. “I am speaking with the full authority of President Quaid. Send in the troops. Take everybody they find on the Mall into custody. Hold everyone.”
Attorney General Harrison stood at the window, staring into the chaos.
“This changes everything,” he said. “Everything.”
Within minutes, Virginia guardsmen entered the fray of confused and frightened Jews.
The two Secret Service agents rushed Catherine Quaid off the platform to a limousine parked on the grass.
A group of soldiers formed a ring around the speakers’platform, not allowing anybody to exit. A dozen SUVs stopped near the platform. Men in dark suits ran up the steps to the platform and approached Rabbi Garfinkle.
“Mr. Harrison,” the rabbi said. “You realize, of course, that we had absolutely nothing to do with that.”
“I realize nothing at this point,” the attorney general said, “except that ten minutes ago I was standing in the Oval Office with the president and I was an eyewitness to the desecration of one of this country’s most sacred symbols. Five seconds after your speaker, a fellow rabbi, orders half a million Jews to go out and commit terrorist acts, five seconds, boom, down goes the Washington Monument. Everybody who is on this platform is coming along with my FBI agents here. Everybody else out there, well, they could have gone home last night, after the president’s talk. Those folks out there are the hard core of your movement.”
Harrison looked at the microphone and turned to Rabbi Garfinkle.
“I want you to get on that microphone and tell people to cooperate with the soldiers, to go along with them. Peacefully. No resistance. Order your people not to resist. We’ve got trucks and buses coming to take everybody away. It will be a while, so ask people to be patient. The trucks and buses will be here soon. Do you understand me, Rabbi?”
“Mr. Attorney General,” the rabbi said, his voice shaking with rage. “Trucks? Buses? Don’t you have freight cars to take us Jews away? You want me to address these people? I am proud to do so.”
He walked to the microphone and tapped it three times to make sure it was active. The tapping sound made people throughout the crowd turn their heads toward the platform.
“The attorney general here wants me to order you all to go along peacefully with these soldiers,” Rabbi Garfinkle said, speaking slowly, loudly and clearly. He appreciated that this could be his most important, and possibly his final, sermon. “Trucks and buses will take you away, away to someplace where you will be detained. To a camp, perhaps.”
His head swiveled to take in the entire crowd of hundreds of thousands of people. His words set off frenzied shouting.
After several minutes, he raised his hands and asked for quiet.
“I refuse to do that. History taught us what happens when Jews allow themselves to be herded by soldiers like sheep, driven off to camps in buses, or in trucks, or…” He turned to face Harrison, fuming. “Or in cattle cars. Don’t be sheep. Don’t make it easy for them to round up Jews. Resist. Fight back. Struggle. Never again, never again, say it now, join me, never again, never again.”
The chant roared from the crowd.
NEVER AGAIN, NEVER AGAIN, NEVER AGAIN.
The soldiers walked into the crowd, plastic shields held before them, placing plastic handcuffs on everybody within reach. Some people struggled and were beaten to the grass by batons.
While this pandemonium was happening, Judy Katz grabbed Shapiro by the hand and shouted to Sarah Goldberg to stand next to her. Katz ran up to the nearest FBI agent, reaching into her jacket pocket as she approached him. She found her wallet and flipped it open to hold in front of the agent’s face.
“Justice Department, Assistant US Attorney,” she shouted. “I’m with him.” She pointed at Attorney General Harrison.
The agent nodded and looked at Shapiro and Goldberg.
“They’re with me,” Katz said quickly. “Please help me. Get us out of here.”
“Follow me,” he said, pushing people aside to make an opening for the three people following inches behind him.
CHAPTER 57
Two hours after the explosion, President Quaid spoke to the nation from the Oval Office. His message was unscripted.
“I will be brief,” he said, looking straight at the camera. “I gave a warning last night. My warning was disregarded. A terrible act of cowardice has taken place not far from where I am sitting.”
He gestured to his left and the camera swiveled to reveal a window and the park beyond it. A thirty-foot-tall stub was all that remained of the monument.
“I was standing at that window and watched the Washington Monument, a symbol of our nation’s pride in its first president, tumble to the ground. I felt the blast on my own body.”
The camera returned to President Quaid.
“I am unharmed. The nation is safe. At my orders, federal agents and the military are arresting and detaining all persons suspected of being complicit in this act of terrorism.
“It is no coincidence that nearly a half million Jewish protesters were near the monument and the National Mall when this brutal act of aggression occurred. They were being incited to act as terrorists by a rabbi minutes before the explosions occurred. These protestors are the hard-core element of what has become a Jewish uprising against our nation.
“The bombing of the Washington Monument was an act of terrorism, an act of war. It is obvious to each of us who witnessed this event that it was carefully coordinated with the demonstration. So, by the authority vested in me by Congress, I have ordered these enemy combatants held by the military authorities. I repeat that. They will be held by military, not by civilian, authorities. They will be detained as other enemy combatants are detained. They will not be charged with civilian crimes. They will not be subject to the civilian criminal justice system.