The Battle for Houston...The Aftermath (52 page)

“How is our hero doing, anyway?” asked General Austin.

“Fine, he had two fingers amputated from his right hand and a couple of toes off his right foot, all done by a fine Colombian Navy doctor aboard one of their frigates. A second bullet messed his foot up pretty badly, but the doctor saved it, apart from the toes. There was a third bullet that went up through his flight chair and made a hole in his upper leg, which didn’t hit anything vital, and he has a bump on his head the size of a goose egg. Apart from looking like a colander he’s fine and I spoke to him a couple of hours ago. The doctor thinks that he might walk with a little limp, but his flying career isn’t over. Unfortunately Major Chong was riddled by several bullets and he died at the aircraft’s controls instantly.”

“What other casualty reports have come in?” asked General Austin.

“Three Seals dead. One, Lieutenant Charlie Myers, seriously wounded. Two of the male civilians aboard the aircraft were killed by gunfire, one an old man who was mayor of the town, and their leader. The other was one of the other CEOs, Weinstein, I believe. Wong got him aboard to bring him back for information, but didn’t bring the other guy, Proker, I think his name was. Two other Cold Bay civilians are in intensive care aboard one of the other frigates steaming towards the West Coast, and I was told both won’t make it. A young girl and her mother, I believe. Unfortunate! Major Wong did a good job getting that aircraft down. He saved everybody who wasn’t hit by gunfire. The Marines faired pretty well; twelve men dead and several more wounded. The Marine wounded are also aboard ship, our own destroyer, and there is a good medical team of three surgeons aboard. The rest of the civilians are back at Elmendorf and the rest of the Seals and Marines are cleaning up. We have a dozer at the airfield and it will take a day or two to collect the dead enemy soldiers, but so far we have 467 male prisoners; several of the wounded are with medics, and still waiting for flights into Elmendorf. Most of the wounded enemy have burns so severe that they can’t be moved and most of them will have died by now.”

“I assume those initial explosions were powerful?” Austin asked.

“I was ten miles away and at 5,000 feet when the hangars went up. It was certainly better than the 4th of July. Major Wong believes that he actually saw Proker asleep when he went through Hangar Two, but he couldn’t tell with night goggles. The young American girls filled us in a little more once they got to Elmendorf a few hours ago. I was told only Westbrook, his daughter, and Bowers left in the Gulfstreams; the two other CEOs were in command of the missiles with a Colonel Wo who actually knew what to do. Westbrook’s daughter told us just an hour ago that if the team back at Cold Bay received a message that the automated systems to launch the missiles didn’t work, they were to go into Hangar Three with this colonel and manually get them into the air.”

“Who were all these girls? Where were they from?” asked Austin.

“University friends of Westbrook’s daughter,” General Patterson replied looking through pages of notes he had collected over the last several hours. “She had just finished her final year at Yale, August last year, and her father had promised her a Christmas celebration with her sorority friends, eight of them, on a trip around the world in one of the Gulfstreams. They were expected to be at Cold Bay and visiting daddy over New Year’s Eve. From then on things got bad for the daughter’s friends, all very good looking and intelligent girls. The Westbrook family suddenly had them carted away; they were used as entertainment, waitresses and sex slaves by the other CEOs and a few of the most senior Chinese officers. Westbrook’s daughter and two others weren’t among the girls rescued. We believe one girl had been raped, beaten and murdered by this General Lee fellow. Some of her remains were found in trash cans several weeks before we got there. The other, no sign. Westbrook flew in with his daughter and she was shot and wounded in the hangar with the rest of them. Lucky for us, she will make it to trial; the other girls reported directly to me from Alaska that she was in on the whole deal, and actually watched as her friends were abused by her father and the others.”

Several hours later, there were arguments galore as a dozen members of the House of Representatives, the four senior military officers and two dozen citizens, including several from the usual group from North Carolina, were trying to figure out who would be the interim President of the United States.

“I can also break protocol and make one of us, a soldier, interim president immediately if I think that person will help get us to a fair election,” fumed General Patterson. He had just been ordered by the interim Speaker of the House, somebody he certainly didn’t know or trust, to swear him in, as interim president. The Speaker of the House is constitutionally the next in line for the office, should the vice-president also be deceased or incapacitated. However, since this was a temporary appointment, this rule of succession may not apply. The row had been going on for ten minutes. With the arrival of Admiral Rogers, General Watson, and several other top brass, there were over two dozen high ranking military soldiers in attendance, out voting even the civilians present if need be.

General Patterson, Preston, Martie, Sally, an injured Captain Mike Mallory and several others could see the desperation in this man wanting to be president. The power attached to the position was certainly a big magnet. Knowing that it was against the system for a military man to become the head of state, the same desperation wasn’t on the faces of the soldiers around him. Much like the situation in Egypt a year or so earlier, General Patterson understood that the military were purely there to make sure a peaceful change of power was enacted.

“You do that, General, and there will be hell to pay once we get Congress up and running again!” stated a senator.

“Only politicians can do a politician’s job!” added the interim Speaker of the House.

“And where were you guys when the president and your country actually needed you, earlier this year?” added Admiral Rogers, unhappy and distrusting when he faced men like this.

“Defending our homes!” retorted one.

“Looking after our wives and children!” stated another.

“What? Did you expect us to leave our homes, our valuables and our families and come to Washington? Not on your life, Admiral. That is what you soldiers are employed to do. You take orders from civilians who are elected to office.”

“Where were your men when we needed protection?” added another.

“In Europe, the Middle East and every other place you—Congress— sent us, even behind the president’s back!” replied General Austin angrily.

“We were just doing our job,” added another congressman.

“So were we!” responded Watson.

“And we were thousands of miles away from our own families, of which thousands of military families, women and children, perished, or have never been seen again! Thanks to you guys doing your jobs!” shouted General Austin, his face red with anger.

They were not going to get far, and the day was called to an end by the general to allow everyone present to cool down.

The next morning, and with a slightly quieter House Chamber, the meeting continued with General Patterson giving a short speech. It didn’t take long for the fighting to start again.

“We have lost millions and millions of citizens, including thousands of military personnel and their families. The military has beaten three attempts to take over the government of this country,” he began to a quiet audience of just over fifty people. “And all you politicians are worried about is which party, or which one of you is going to lead this country next!

“You know, I do not like politicians, most soldiers don’t. The political agenda does not always reflect the needs of the people you represent, nor what is best for the welfare of this country and its citizens. Thank God I’m new and fresh to Washington. I got to know the president pretty well. He was a good, down to earth man, and I’m sure each of you is the same, once your political coat of self-preservation is removed. I’ve also seen the greed of Westbrook and Bowers, and I‘m sure there are many others who used to be powerful, behind the scenes players who controlled Washington before all this happened.

“I don’t know any of you personally, and I’m sure you can, or will all run for office again, once a proper and legal system is in place. But as Chief of Staff, and chief of all these soldiers around me, who have offered their lives for their country, I am not going to submit to anybody who comes out of the woodwork once the fighting is over and demands to my face that he should run this country. As Chief of Staff, this is my decision to make.”

Several minor threats, mumblings and foul words were expressed at this statement by General Patterson, and he looked towards the Military Police Captain at the door and several armed soldiers marched in.

“You are taking over the government, General Patterson?” asked one senator, an older man who hadn’t said a word since the meeting had begun.

“No, Senator, just trying to get this new country of ours on the right track.”

“Then who do you propose?” the senator asked.

“A civilian, who has no political experience, with advisors from all walks of life, a good mix of good people; several of you politicians, several civilians and several high ranking soldiers from all our different forces, until we can have free and fair elections.”

“We don’t need amateur politicians in Washington. I’m totally against what you are planning, General!” interrupted the interim Speaker of the House, standing and pointing his finger at the general.

“Captain of the Guard, please escort this man to the outskirts of Washington, or the District of Colombia, wherever you feel it necessary to dump him. He is no longer needed in this Chamber and banned from Washington until he is fairly elected by his constituents, whoever they may be, to return to office!” ordered General Patterson angrily. And, under the Captain’s orders, two soldiers physically escorted the angry and threatening man out of the room.

“Well, who do you propose should be the next president of the new United States of America, General?” asked the older senator calmly.

“I ask everybody in this room to take a piece of paper and write down a name of a person, one person, for consideration, whom you believe could be a good, fair and just interim president. No military personnel please.”

Thirty minutes later, over four dozen pieces of paper sat in a pile in front of General Patterson, and had been sorted. A dozen of them, mostly from the soldiers and civilians had the same name written down, Mike Mallory. Most of the others had all different names, three had Preston’s name on them and three had the oldest senator, Senator Shaw’s name. Only three people in the room had more than one vote.

“Captain Mike Mallory, the Southwest Airlines Captain who has done more for our civilian population in the last eight months, than anybody else I know, was my choice and the choice of 11 other men here in this room. Senator Shaw from Montana and Mr. Preston Strong from North Carolina have three votes each and all others have one vote. Since we are a free and democratic society, I believe all three of these men should be given an equal chance to be interim president, a second person will become interim vice president, both positions for a minimum of one year, maximum of four years, or until a free and fair election can take place. Does anybody disagree? There was silence in the room.

Three days after the interim Speaker was thrown out and forty-eight hours before the funeral, everybody was present and seated in the House Chamber. First, two soldiers were helped in, both men bandaged and needing assistance. Those who knew the men stood and applauded Major Wong and Lieutenant Meyers as they were assisted to their seats.

It took time, but slowly Mike Mallory agreed to be interim president. Immediately upon being asked, Preston declined the positions of president and vice president. He believed he was not the right person.

With a vote of forty-three for and two against, Mike Mallory, dressed in his best suit and still wearing bandages around his head, was sworn in the next day as interim President of the United States of America.

Since there was no Chief Justice to swear in the interim president, the second most senior senator, after Senator Shaw, and who had been present for the last four presidential inaugurations, was authorized by the people in attendance to administer the oath of office; he replied that he would be happy to oblige.

Slowly a new group of leaders were formed. Jennifer Watkins, Maggie and ex-Detective Will Smart accepted the offers of joining the government and so did Joe, and Pam Wallace. Martie and Sally Powers refused the offer. Martie had work to do with her father and Sally, now married to Carlos, the son of Colombia’s president and, who had returned to Colombia for a few weeks, decided that it wasn’t a correct thing to do.

After several more hours of discussion, Preston also refused his third offered position, Speaker of the House, but made a suggestion that he would accept a new position discussed a few hours earlier, U.S Overseas Ambassador. Martie was sure his suggestion for the post was due to her wanting to see Germany and there could be flying involved. Both of them had shown interest in seeing how the rest of the world was shaping up.

Standing next to General Patterson at the president’s funeral was interim President of the United States Michael Mallory and interim Vice President Joe Shaw. Both had been sworn in on Capitol Hill a day earlier to head the Executive branch of government; the Legislative branch consisted of the forty previously elected members of the House of Representatives and the Senate.

General Patterson and all the people present at the meeting wanted a new president elected before the last one was buried.

The funeral was a solemn affair without the pomp and ceremony, a funeral of this importance would usually have. The president’s family was dressed in black; both General Patterson and Admiral Rogers gave eulogies for the man, a politician they had respected, and after a short and low-key military parade to the cemetery, a twenty-one gun salute was given with rifles over the grave, as well as by 21 artillery pieces positioned along the Mall.