“Well, the attorney general has prepared a supplemental statement for your signature which is also inclusive of atheists and Muslims. He feels this might head off the lawsuit. He says you may wish to sign it just to avoid dividing the nation with a lawsuit at this crucial time.” Mack raised his eyebrow at Arnie, who finished his thoughts. “To bring the entire nation together, Mr. President.” Arnie slid the prepared statement onto Mack’s desk.
The president picked it up, glanced at it briefly, then shook his head. “Tell the attorney general that I’m surprised at him, and that hell will freeze over before I sign politically correct legal gobbledygook.”
“But…”
“And tell the ACLU and the DNC to go pound sand. Our country has just been hit with a nuclear weapon. If we’re not united now, we never will be. Get that stuff out of here. I don’t have time for this garbage.”
“Yes, sir.”
The intercom buzzer rang. Gayle Staff’s frantic-sounding voice was on it. “Mr. President, the secretary of state, the national security advisor, the secretary of defense, and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs are all here in the Situation Room. It’s urgent.”
“Send ’em in, Gayle.” Mack’s stomach dropped through the floor. He locked eyes with Arnie Brubaker. “Not another attack.”
A Secret Service agent opened the door from the Oval Office, and the secretary of state led the frantic quartet into the room. “Possible major breakthrough, Mr. President!” Secretary of State Mauney announced, panting as if he had just sprinted a hundred yards.
“What’s going on?”
“We got an electronic file from our embassy in Singapore. Reliable intelligence from Indonesia shows that Perkasa is responsible for the attack on Philly and that he’s planning to hit San Francisco and Washington.”
“Is that right?” He looked at his national security advisor.
“Yes, Mr. President,” Cyndi Hewitt said.
“When? How?”
“Mr. President,” Hewitt said, “here’s what we know. The computer file that we now have is detailed, laying out targets and means of attack. They call it ‘Operation Decapitate.’ We’ve been able to determine that the nuclear materials were brought into a warehouse in Brownsville, Texas. We’ve gotten the warehouse records and seen photographs of three U-Haul trucks that carted the materials off. We’ve even gotten license plate numbers for the trucks. We think the trucks are headed to Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Washington.”
“Where next?”
“They’ve laid that out, sir,” Hewitt continued. “Philly was first. Then San Francisco. Then Washington.”
“When?”
“If their demands for derecognizing Israel aren’t met, they detonate.”
Mack raised a fist. “We’ve gotta find those trucks.”
“Yes, sir, Mr. President. We’re looking for two trucks now. We’ve already alerted police departments in San Francisco and DC, along with the California Highway Patrol, and the Virginia and Maryland State police.”
“Any idea where they’re planning to strike in the cities?”
“Yes, sir. In Philly, it was Penn Square. And that’s exactly what happened. In San Francisco, the Golden Gate Bridge. In Washington, it’s the Mall area. Out here in front of the White House on Constitution Avenue.” The national security advisor pointed out the window toward the Washington Monument. “The plan is to drive the trucks to those locations and detonate.”
Mack rotated his leather chair away from his advisors and gazed out the bulletproof palladium window, across the South Lawn, across the green grass leading to the Ellipse. From here, he could see cars passing from right to left along Constitution Avenue, just in front of the Washington Monument, heading in the direction of the US Capitol building. He stood from his chair and crossed his arms.
“I need every one of you.” He pivoted around, eyeing them all. “But I don’t need you here. We can communicate by secure radio. I’m not moving. But all of you…I suggest you head out to Andrews and get on a plane. That’s why God created computers and high-tech communications equipment.”
They looked at one another, and the silence was punctuated only by the tick tock of the grandfather clock located in the corner of the Oval Office.
“I’m staying, Mr. President,” Cyndi Hewitt said.
“You’re my commander in chief, sir,” Admiral Jones said. “I will not abandon my post here.”
“We’re with you, sir,” they all said.
“I’m eternally grateful,” he said. He felt his voice starting to crack. “Your nation is grateful.” Pull yourself together, Mack. You’re the commander in chief of the US military! “Admiral Jones.” He looked at the four-star seadog who was the nation’s top military officer. “Does the military have a recommendation?”
“Yes, we do, Mr. President. But there’s one other thing you need to know before we present you a recommendation, sir.”
“Let’s hear it. Time’s running out.”
“Our source says that Indonesian Vice President Magadia is being held captive at one of the presidential palaces in Indonesia, located near the city of Bogor.”
“Is this intelligence accurate?”
“Dunno, sir. It’s the best we’ve got.”
“Recommendation?”
“Our first priority is protection of these American cities.”
“Agreed, Admiral.”
“That means we’ve gotta find these trucks. So first thing we do is shut down all air traffic in the area over San Francisco, as we’ve done with Washington.”
“Okay, done,” Mack said.
“And in addition to alerting all law enforcement authorities in both these metro areas, the military provides increased air cover in the way of camera-equipped drones to keep an eye on the roads. We also need to get our F-16s crisscrossing these cities at high altitudes, and we need three Apache helicopters armed with air-to-surface missiles hovering on station in each city.”
Mack felt himself raise an eyebrow. “Air-to-ground missiles? Armed over an American city?”
“Part of the problem, Mr. President, is this: we’ve got two U-Hauls driving around somewhere with nuclear bombs inside. What happens if a police officer tries pulling the truck over? Or suppose we stop ’em in a roadblock?”
Mack nervously ran his hand through his hair. “You’re saying he might blow the bomb prematurely.”
“Yes, sir,” the admiral said. “The danger is that the driver panics and hits the detonate button on the spot.”
“So you’re advocating taking him out by air.”
“Yes, sir, unless we can get a sniper on them and shoot them through the windshield.”
“I see.” Mack did not like it. An air-to-surface missile could kill innocent Americans who might be around it. But even that wasn’t the president’s greatest concern. “Doesn’t the explosion risk detonating the nuclear device?”
Smith was quick with his response. “Most small nukes are detonated by the fission process and not the fusion process. The fission process involves firing a fission bullet down a gun barrel into a nuclear core, which sets off the nuclear device. We believe the explosion would take out this gun-barrel assembly device, and wreck the bomb before it would detonate.”
A pause.
“Can you guarantee the ASM won’t set off the nukes?”
Another pause. “No sir, Mr. President. We cannot guarantee it. But we can pretty much guarantee that two cities are going to get hit by nukes anyway.”
That thought sank in. “Get the birds in the air.”
“Aye, sir. And one other recommendation.”
“Go.”
“This is your call, sir. But we can send a SEAL team in to try and pull Vice President Magadia out of Istana Bogor.”
Mack thought about that. He looked at his secretary of state. “Restore power in Indonesia to its status quo?”
“Yes, sir,” Secretary Mauney said. “Or at least prop up a credible opposition leader to this Perkasa nut until we can take Perkasa out.”