THE WARNING A Novel of America in the Last Days (The End of America Series Book 2) (31 page)

Fox
News – Central News Room

New
York, NY

        
Neither of Fox News’ central news prep employees had ever
read anything like it. Their job at Fox was to review incoming wire service news
feeds and evaluate their content for use on the air. Jocko, as his Dad had
affectionately named him the day he was born, said to Kevin, “
What
in the world? Do you think the AP
is sending out
a joke
? Just testing
us to see if we’re
awake
?”

        
Kevin, the more conservative of the news room employees,
replied, “AP? You mean the
Administration
Press
? They stopped being impartial about the time I was born, I hear. What
White House talking point is the AP pushing now?”

        
“No,
nothing
like
that,” Jock responded, “This is
serious
,
if it’s true. But I don’t get how they ever cobbled together these stories from
around the country. Somebody at the AP is actually on top of things.”

        
“How long do you want me to wait before you either tell me
what the news feed says, or, maybe just send it to me?”

        
“Sorry, Kevin, here it is….you read it….see if you agree
with me?”

        
The AP feed flashed up on Kevin’s screen and read:

        
KANSAS CITY, MO (AP) ----
Federal
agents today acknowledged that an investigation has been initiated into what
appear to be near simultaneous office and condo building fires ignited in
cities widely scattered across the nation. The ten fires all started at about
the same time of day, between 8:40 and 9 AM, as reported by local law
enforcement officials. The fires occurred in downtown buildings, in all
instances,
in New York City (on
Manhattan Island), Washington, DC (near the US Capitol), Chicago (in the Loop
area), Atlanta, Los Angeles, Houston, Hollywood, San Francisco, Philadelphia
(near the Liberty Bell Museum) and Las Vegas. There were no reported deaths or
injuries. Property damage was reported to be limited as the delivery boxes
which were placed in lobbies of the downtown office and condo buildings in each
instance were quickly extinguished.

        
FBI spokesperson Ora Slabaugh, in
announcing the initiation of the investigation, said, “We are looking into not
only the timing of these fires, but also into the fact that each fire was
initiated by an unknown incendiary device. If somebody, or several persons
behind these fires, think these vehicle fires are a joke, they should know that
the FBI is not laughing. We will not rest until we locate, identify and file
criminal charges against the perpetrators of these crimes.”

        
Early indications from law enforcement
officials are that no messages from persons claiming responsibility had been
received by either the FBI or police agencies in the affected cities. One FBI
source, on background and not for attribution, told the Associated Press that
the Bureau is concerned about two aspects of the fires - the advanced device
used to start the fires and the method used to coordinate the fires within the
narrow time frame involved. The Bureau source said that the level of
coordination and technical sophistication pointed to a foreign military or
intelligence agency. No ignition devices have yet been located.

        
Finishing the AP news feed
Kevin said, “Jocko, we got ourselves
a
story
here. Think about it. When did the first plane hit the North Tower?”

        
“Uh. It was before 9 AM. I know that. I was still on my
first cup of Joe.”

        
“Correct.
8:46 to be
exact
. The South Tower was hit at
9:03
.
These ten building fires were all started, according to this feed,
between
those very early morning times, give
or take a minute. That degree of coordination across five time zones is fairly
impressive. Somebody is trying to send us a
message.
”

        
“Maybe,” Jocko said, “But what’s the
message
? That a bunch of terrorists, domestic or otherwise, can
start fires in building lobbies in ten cities, all at the same time.
Big
deal.”

        
“You’re
still
not
getting’ it. Whoever did this could have rigged up
bombs
, instead of just incendiary devices and killed
lots
of people. The point of this
impressive nation-wide effort must have been to either demonstrate, or more
likely,
to practice
the coordination
of several ignited devices
at the same
time
. If these fires were pulled off by radical religious groups or gun
supporters, then why
no
injuries or
deaths? Why no massive property damage? The federal building bombings all
involved large numbers of deaths and massive damage, so
why not now
? The only thing that makes sense to me is that
America’s foreign enemies are doing
a
run-up practice
before the
real thing
.
Jocko, something
evil
this way
comes.”

Private
Quarters and Situation Room - White House

Washington,
DC

        
“Mister President. Colonel Taylor here. I apologize for
waking you.”

        
“Umph. Wha…what’s the time? Oh, man….okay….what is it?”

        
“Sorry sir, but we have
a
situation
.”

        
“What?
Where
?”

        
“Our satellites, and the Israelis, are detecting
mass movements
of armed military
equipment southwest of Damascus on route seven.”

        
“So? They announced a joint training exercise….a few days
ago….like last Friday. What….the….is everybody
asleep
at the Pentagon. Don’t they read their own briefing docs?
I’m going to….”

        
The Colonel had been well trained to handle middle of the
night conversations with the nation’s chief executive. Situation Room staff
were more than well aware that the President hated to be awakened, disliked
having to leave his bed for the Situation Room and held in low repute those in
the military whose job was to ask him to do so. The colonel plunged ahead,
saying, “Sorry, sir,
General Houston
,
CJCS, asked I wake you. He wants you to know that Israel picked up a
conversation between the Kremlin and Tehran last week that could be interpreted
as discussing an armed attack on Israel from Damascus. The movements being seen
appear to corroborate that conversation.”

        
“The Israelis heard this last week….and I’m
just now
hearing about it? What the….”

        
“Mr. President, sir, it was part of the security briefing on
Monday that you missed, sir.”

        
“Fine.
Fine
. Has
the PM tried to call me yet, Colonel?”

        
“Sir, you’ve had
several
calls
in the last hour from the Israeli PM, but we didn’t wake you for
those.”

        
“Okay, so, what does the esteemed General Houston suggest
I do
, Colonel? I didn’t turn into until
after midnight. I could really use some sleep, so….”

        
“General Houston has asked that you meet the Joint Chiefs in
the Situation Room.”

        
“
When?
Can we put
it off until….”

        
“Sir, General Houston and the Joint Chiefs are
here
in the Situation Room, now, sir.
They are asking if you could please join them
as soon
as you are able. What shall I tell them, sir?”

        
“I
for sure
don’t
want to hear on Fox about my refusal to meet with the military. Give me a few
minutes to hose off and caffeine up. Tell General Houston that he
better
have more than just some
training exercise
in Syria…Tell him I
said that, Colonel,
got it
?”

        
“Yes, Mr. President, sir. I’ll inform the Chiefs that you’re
on your way.”

        
“I
didn’t
say I
was on….forget it….I’ll be right down.”

Situation
Room – White House West Wing

Washington,
DC

        
At 3 AM the Situation Room was as brightly lit as the skies
outside the West Wing were starkly dark. The large table in the main conference
room of the 5,000 square foot intelligence center seats up to fifteen
comfortably, but on occasion has held more, as some in attendance stand around
the room. On this early morning the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General Scott
Houston, was seated at the end of the table opposite the President’s
traditional chair. The other military chiefs were seated randomly around the
table, intermixed with representatives of the National Security Agency, the CIA
and DHS. None appeared to be particularly pleased with what they were seeing,
in real time, on the six large flat screen televisions mounted on the walls of
the room. Drone aircraft feeds from three US drones were displayed, along with
two feeds from Israeli drones and one from an Israeli fighter aircraft.

        
All six showed large convoys of military equipment moving in
the mid-morning light southwest of Damascus. NSA and CIA intelligence analysts
had easily identified the mechanized weapons and troop carriers as of Russian
and Iranian origin. The military and intelligence officers were discussing the
markings on the equipment when the President walked in the room dressed in a
Georgetown sweatshirt and jeans. Everyone stood. The joint chiefs and other
military personnel snapped a salute. The President glanced at the television
screens and then around the room as he made his way to the far end of the
table, Starbucks coffee cup in hand. He refused to drink the Navy Mess coffee
served in the White House, much to the irritation of the cooks and the Secret
Service who fetched his coffee for him.

        
Dropping down into his chair the President audibly grunted,
saying “OK….Why isn’t what I see on these screens
exactly
what they told us it would be, a Russian-Iranian
training exercise
? And what was so
important that I’m rousted out of bed
at
3 AM
in the morning? General Houston? I understand
you
made the decision to haul me down here?”

        
General Houston had never gotten along well with this
President. He didn’t think that the President had a basic respect for the
leadership of the nation’s military, even though he frequently praised the
enlisted men and women in public speeches. As a consequence, though he
respected his position as his Commander in Chief, he had the same basic lack of
respect for the man that the President evidenced towards the General and his
flag staff peers. The General took his time and took two deep breaths while
appearing to study the document in his hand. He then looked up at the President
and said, “Mr. President. This is
not
a training exercise. We have intercepted all radio communication with the
commanders on the ground. Each has been instructed to proceed with all
deliberate haste to the Israeli border, and….”

        
“
So?
What’s so
earth-shattering about that? They race to the border. They
stop.
They scare Israel and apparently
you
, Houston, then they retreat and share a few bottles of vodka.
No big deal
. Like they said, a training
exercise.”

        
The General took an even deeper breath and responded, “Sir.
The intercepted commands
all
instruct
these forces to
breach
the Israeli
border, and thereupon to proceed south across the Golan Heights and into Israel.
A Russian communique from Moscow to the theater commander discusses entering
Tel Aviv and later Jerusalem. Mr. President, this is an invasion of the
sovereign territory of an allied nation. We have
no choice
, but to….”

        
“General, I’m not going to
even think
about discussing
choices
until and
unless
….’

        
“I apologize for interrupting, Mr. President,” Colonel
Taylor said, interrupting, “but we have an incoming emergency call, on the
secure red line, from the Prime Minister of Israel. Will you take his call,
sir?”

        
The President almost appeared to sneer, took a sip of his
Starbucks and blurted out, “Colonel, first….
I
was talking
. Last time I checked, I was
still
your Commander in Chief. I noticed you didn’t interrupt
the General
while he was speaking. But once he had finished
speaking and I was trying to speak,
then
you felt it was appropriate to interrupt me. Should that happen again, Colonel,
I’ll look for a nice duty station for you. Maybe in Alas….Never mind, you get
my meaning, I assume. Tell the PM that I’m tied up right now with my Generals
watching Israeli television. Tell him we’ll get back to him.
OK?
”

        
“Gentlemen and lady. I’m done here. Obviously you’ve been
spooked
by our friends in Moscow and
Tehran. They accomplished their goal. They ran a few troops down the road
towards Israel and managed to get me up in the middle of the night.
Great
. I’m going back to bed.
If and when
these fellows should
actually cross into Israel, by more than a few feet, I mean, then let me know
and I’ll call Vladimir and sort it out.
Next
time
, spend a little more time analyzing before you deprive your Commander
in Chief of
his needed rest
.”