“We’re not sure, but it was at close range,” Shepanski said.
“Was it an execution? Was it something illegal, where if we found the person and held him up for a war crime, it might help us convince Ballantine to back off?”
Meredith thought she might vomit. “Surely we must presume that the soldier acted properly and was executing his mission as assigned,” Meredith said, a hint of disgust in her voice.
Arends, the only other woman in the meeting, did not enjoy being challenged. The fact that Meredith was a young, attractive woman did not help. The portly woman turned slowly in the direction of the camera, her hawkish nose leading the way, and leveled her stone-cold eyes at the screen.
“Secretary Arends, we must give the benefit of the doubt to our service men and women,” Hellerman said.
“Tell that to the victims of My Lai, Vietnam; No Gun Ri, Korea; Vitina, Kosovo; and now in Iraq,” she shot back. “If our defense was an adequate deterrence, we would not find ourselves in our current position, now would we?”
“Perhaps, Madame Secretary, if our diplomacy were adequate, we might find ourselves in a different position as well,” Shepanski replied.
“General, don’t ever speak to me that way again,” she snapped, feeling somewhat outnumbered. Her Northeastern roots were always near the surface, and Meredith could see she wasn’t about to lose the chip on her shoulder any time soon.
“As my favorite judge used to say,” Hellerman interrupted, “order in the court, or I’ll have all your asses thrown out.”
“Charming,” Arends replied.
“At least I can see you haven’t lost that tremendous sense of humor, Catherine,” Hellerman said dryly.
“Let’s get back to the briefing, General,” the president said impatiently.
“As I was saying, we are faced with the difficult but not impossible task of tracking down Ballantine.”
“Excuse me,” Meredith said, raising her hand and giving the VTC satellite delay a moment to register her words. “It appears to me, sir, that the operation is continuing even though Ballantine may be out of contact. Is it possible that the codes were delivered to the operatives, and they are now on autopilot?”
“It’s possible, Meredith, but we still think it’s very important to find the mastermind to the plot, primarily because we’re not sure where it ends,” Shepanski said.
“Well, a Sherpa has only so much range…”
“Right. We’ve covered every refuel stop within a five-hundred-mile radius of Moncrief Lake. But that doesn’t address the thousands of open fields, lakes, rivers, highways, etcetera in which he could land and transition to ground transportation.”
“We have to assume that Ballantine had several contingency plans for his escape. Why not shut down the airlines? It should make it easier to spot a small, slow-flying airplane,” Meredith said.
“We asked for that to happen right away,” Shepanski said.
“That’s about a $10 billion hit to the economy, and half of those companies are already about to go bankrupt,” the president said. “This war is as much about preserving our economy as it is anything else. That’s our way of life we’re talking about.”
The room was silent. It was clear to Meredith that most believed the industry should be shut down for a few days, at least until they could get a better perspective on the depth and breadth of the attacks.
“Let’s give it another day. So far there have been no attacks against the airlines,” the president said.
“I really think we should do it now,” Palmer said.
“Let’s let this play out for another twenty-four hours, Dave.” Hellerman was quick to support the president. “The airlines have already selectively shut down about 50 percent of their operations.”
“That’s my point. What will it hurt to shut down the other 50 percent?”
“Most are already bankrupt,” Hellerman said. “We don’t want to destroy the industry. It’s mostly smaller airlines that are operating, anyway. We’ve beefed up security with the National Guard at airports.”
“In my speech, I’ll announce that we’ve gone to limited operations but continue to fly some commercial routes, particularly cargo,” the president said.
“I think that’s a good plan,” Hellerman chimed in. “It will show we’re not deterred.” Then he turned to the row behind him. “What is the general reaction of the people? What are the polls saying?” Hellerman asked. “How do the American people feel about this?”
Meredith watched as a youngish male aide stood from the outer ring of seats and cleared his throat.
“Sir, right now polling data shows that 82 percent of Americans feel threatened and insecure. Seventy-eight percent have said that they seriously question the government’s ability to protect them, and 64 percent admit they will avoid public places for the near term.”
“We’ve got to keep the airline industry going, though. We’ve got to push through this,” Arends said.
“Shit, more people than that voted in the last American Idol contest. The real issue is whether the country is pulling together versus being divisive and blameful,” Hellerman interrupted.
“Our polls show that most Americans blame the government, and that is fairly evenly divided between blaming the administration, the military, and the intelligence community.”
“Is there any sense of outrage?” Hellerman asked. “Is there any sense of coming together to defend our nation against this rogue threat?”
“Sir, quite the contrary. The divisions within the country seem accentuated. Blacks blame whites; whites blame liberals in the government; liberals blame the military.” The young man briefly lifted his eyes toward Secretary Arends’ image on the plasma screen. “One thing that is certain is that there is a fair amount of finger-pointing going on.”
“So really, what we need,” Hellerman started, “is a call for unity, a call for rising up as one nation against this rogue threat. What we need now is a clarion call to come together, to fight off this spiritual stagnation, to unify against this external threat to our security. Sir, I recommend strongly that you step forward during your speech, declare war on this threat, and begin to lead from the front.”
“Against what threat, though? All we’ve got is Ballantine that we can put our finger on,” Shepanski said.
Hellerman stood and leaned on the glossy table, hands pressing firmly into the wood, as he peered into the video camera. “There’s more to it than that, for sure. The threat is the coordinated efforts against our freedom-loving people. Our national security strategy lists as its primary vital interest the defense of American lives and our way of life. What could be a more direct threat to our way of life than the brutal murder of thousands of Americans on our own soil by a terrorist network? What else do these people need!”
Meredith watched as Hellerman’s faced turned red, veins popping in his neck.
“What else?” he said, his voice trailing off as he sat back down.
“Shark, I agree. I’ll take the lead on this and try to bring the country together. We need to work Congress, get bipartisan support going forward here,” the president said.
“Mr. President, all you really need to do is step forward, and they will follow. They will have no choice. But if we don’t do it soon, I’m afraid these divisions will harden during this crisis and will prevent us from going forward. And, frankly, I think we might be looking at bringing back the draft,” Hellerman said.
“You’re kidding, right?” Arends fumed.
Hellerman gave Arends a disgusted look, then turned to Shepanski. “Shark, I need you to follow up on these unmanned aerial vehicles. They have me concerned. Eighteen, maybe more, Predators out there somewhere with at least one control station and chemical weapons could do significant damage.”