WAR (21 page)

              “Mr. President, won’t turning the Russian army into the Americans cause us problems with their other army in Vegas? Won’t we risk them turning against us? Won’t we risk them attacking us? My staff won’t be able to hold off an armored Russian army group. They’ll crush us.”

              “Director, you worry about convincing the five families to take out the USA’s leadership, I’ll worry about handling the Russians. On one hand, if Moscow was taken out, the Russian army may be recalled home, we may be left to fend for ourselves. If the army groups are recalled, we’ll be quickly crushed if we don’t make backup plans. Remember what I always say, ‘have a backup plan to the backup plan.’ You’re going to set up our plan C.”

              “Mr. President, if I’m going to set up plan C, what’s plan B?”

              “All in good time.”

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              A red news flash banner rolls across televisions, computers and smartphones in the USA, ‘News Flash! Massive earthquake in Moscow. Unknown numbers dead and injured.’ Leon reads it and stops mid-stride thinking,
earthquakes don’t usually happen in Moscow, I bet we bombed them back to the Stone Age for invading us. I better get home as quick as I can; this can’t be good.
Leon turns around from going to his friend’s house. He runs home as quickly as he can. Pushing into his front door, Leon calls out. “Is anyone home?”

              Beth answers, “I’m home, what’s up?”

              “Beth, come help me, we have a lot to do very quickly.”

              “Leon, what’s going on, why?”

              “Beth, I think we’re going to have a big war with Russia, we have to help Mom and Dad before they get home. Please clean your bathtub and fill it with water, I’ll do the same with mine and Mom’s. We have to hurry.”

              “Are you sure we’re not going to get into trouble doing this?”

              “Beth, I promise you we won’t get into trouble. If we do, I’ll give you my desserts for two weeks.”

              “Even your ice cream?”

              “Yes.”

              “OK, I’ll go and clean up my tub, do you want me to fill it with hot or cold water?”

              “Cold, and fill it all the way to the top.”

              Beth runs upstairs to clean and fill her tub as Leon does the same to his. Thirty minutes later brother and sister meet in the kitchen. Beth asks, “Now what? I’m tired.”

              “How much money do you have in your room?”

              “I’m not telling you, I saved it.”

              “I’ll pay you back with interest.”

              “What’s interest?”

              “It means if you give me one dollar, I’ll give you $1.05.”

              “Really?”

              “Yes, I promise.”

              “I have $12.55.”

              “Cool, I have $15.25.”

              “What are we going to do?”

              “We’re going to the store to buy some more water. The equipment trailer, the TV crew used, is still in the garage, we’ll pull it to the store where we’ll buy large bottles of water, maybe some canned chicken too.”

              “Leon, I don’t understand why we’re doing this, why not call Mom or Dad?”

              “I will.”

              Dialing his cell, Leon calls his father, “Dad, I heard about Moscow, Beth and I cleaned and filled our tubs with water, we’re going to take the TV equipment cart to Giant to get more water.”

              “Leon, what’s wrong? I’ve been in a meeting all day without my phone until right now, what’s going on?”

              “Dad, reports of a big earthquake in Moscow, I don’t think it was an earthquake, I think it was an attack by us on Russia.”

              “Why do you think that?”

              “Because we studied earthquakes, there haven’t been any large earthquakes in history in the city of Moscow. Since they attacked us, I guess we attacked them. I’m worried about a new World War breaking out. I want to help us prepare.”

              “Son, you’ve done real good. Stay home. I’ll leave the office right now, I’ll call Mom, I’ll be home in ten minutes. Wait in the house for me. Lock the doors and stay inside. If what you think is real, the stores could be a real mess. It might not be safe for you to be out. I’m very proud of you.”

“Hey Scott, I’ve got an emergency at home, I’ve got to run. I’ll finish the report from home. It’ll be in your inbox before you wake in the morning.

“Leon, I’m in the parking lot. I’ll be home very soon.”

              Bob pulls out of his office; he hits the main road driving ten MPH over the limit, he passes a supermarket that is jammed with people running in and out of the store. He’s thinking,
Looks like Leon may be right, it also looks like a hell of a lot of people had the same idea. I’m happy he called me before he and Beth tried to go shopping. I’ve got to reach Carol.
“Honey, I’m on the way home, I think it’s a good idea if you leave early too.”

              “Honey, what’s going on?”

              “Have you seen the news today?”

              “No, I’ve spent the day in the lab, why?”

              “Moscow was hit by a massive earthquake. Leon thought it was really us. He started to collect water; he was going to the store with Beth to buy more water. I passed a Giant; it’s a real zoo. I told Leon to stay home. I should be there by the time we finish our call.”

              “I’m leaving now too.”

              Bob pulls into the driveway; he runs into the hours hugging his children. “Are you two OK?”

              Beth answers, “Daddy, Leon told me to clean my tub and fill it with water, am I going to be punished?”

              Tears well up in Bob’s eyes, “No honey, the two of you did very good. I’m going to reward both of you for your help.”

              The three of them hugged tightly as the front door banged open, Carol rushes in falling to her knees to hug her husband and children. “Are you all OK?”

              Leon looks into her mother’s eyes, “Mom, we’re fine. I was just trying to help.”

              “Leon, you did a really good job. I’m so proud of both of you.”

              Bob says, “Leon and I are going to go to the store; Mom, you and Beth stay home and take inventory of what we have. Call or text me with a list of what you think we need. Remember, we may lose electricity and water. When I get home, I’ll start grilling the food, we can salt the meat to make it last.” 

              Carol says, “Honey do you think that’s going to be required? We went to Costco last Saturday; we filled the freezer with meat. I don’t want to waste the meat if we don’t have to.”

              “Let me go to the store, why don’t you turn on Wolf News and see what the reports say.”

              Leon and his father drive to the local Giant supermarket, they are amazed to find a line of cars waiting to enter the parking lot. While waiting for their turn to enter the lot, a local police officer walks by, Bob recognizes him as a neighbor who lives six house away, he waves the officer over, “Hey John, what’s going on?”

              “Hi Bob, Leon, how are you two today?”

              “We’re OK, what’s going on?”

              “People are panicking; the chief assigned a few of us to patrol the supermarkets, Walmart, and Target stores. There have already been a number of people arrested for looting.”

              Leon asks, “Why are you walking?”

              “I couldn’t get my car close to the store, if I forced my way into the lot; I would be taking a spot away from one of you, so I parked on a side street. I hope everyone is peaceful.”

              Before John can say anything else his radio calls him, “Break, break, all officers near Market, looting at the Giant.”

              Bob and Leon look at each other realizing the looting is taking place at the store they’re waiting to enter. John frowns saying, “Sorry, got to run, be safe.” John jogs towards the store calling dispatch to inform them he’s on the scene. Bob gets out of his car to see what he can see ahead, he jumps back into the car, locking the doors, he pulls out of line and starts to pull away from the store. Leon asks, “Dad, what’s going on?”

              “I saw black smoke from the store and a bunch of people running this way; I don’t think it’s safe to be here, let’s try another store. The two drive by every other supermarket within five miles of their home, all are either closed or have armed security and police standing outside of them, they pass a 7-11 without any cars in parked in front of the store. Bob enters the store, a moment later he sticks his head out of the front door, yelling, “Leon, come on in.”

              Entering the store, they see the owner standing behind the cash register holding a shotgun, he says. “I take only cash, prices as marked, try anything and I’ll shoot.”

              Bob replies, “Stay cool, we’re going to get some water. I’ll pay cash.”

              Leon starts stacking water bottles on the counter, the owner says, “each bottle is $2.00.”

              Bob says, “OK.”

              “CASH.”

              “I told you we’ll pay cash.”

              The two carry out fifty bottles of water and all of the canned food in the store. Bob says, “Since I’m now out of cash I think we’ll go home. I’ve tried to call Mom, the cell system is overloaded, I keep getting a fast busy signal.”

              “Me too. I tried to call her when you went into the store.”

              “Let’s go home and see how Mom and Beth are doing.”

              As the two back out of the driveway, the radio announces, “President Rand will make an important announcement at 9PM EST tonight concerning the current situation. His speech will be carried by all of the stations.”

              Leon says, “Maybe he’ll tell us what’s really happening.”

              “I hope so, based on what we’ve just seen, people are starting to panic.”

              “Dad look!” Pointing to the corner, Bob sees two men walking their dogs with AR 15s across their chests. “Dad, they’re walking their dogs armed. What are they thinking?”

              “I think they’re concerned with potential rioting.”

              The USA media report that African-Americans are being stopped from purchasing supplies by the white majority. The media suggest the country is on the verge of a real race war. Bloomberg laughs when he hears the report about the pending race war. He thinks to himself;
Perfect.
That ought to tie them up and distract them from being able to defend against my next attacks.

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              STAVKA, the Russian military high command, meet in their new headquarters located on Moscow’s “ring road”. They were outside of central Moscow when the KEW destroyed the central command bunker. STAVKA’s headquarters was built below the 135 foot underground Frunzenskaya Embankment rail station. General Marshal Avdotya stares at the television monitors shaking with anger. “What the hell was that? The radiation counters show it wasn’t a nuke. There’s a mushroom cloud. However, the blast wasn’t a nuke. What the hell hit us?” 

              Colonel Akim, the general’s chief of staff replies, “General, could a meteor have hit us? Whatever it was, came from space, it wasn’t a rocket, our sensors didn’t show any air turbulence caused by an engine. We didn’t see any airplanes, we would have seen their stealth bomber when it opened its bomb bay doors, it would reflect radar only for a moment, however, looking at the radar signals, there wasn’t anything in the area. Whatever hit us wasn’t explosive, the sensors in Moscow would have notified us of the chemical signal from any explosive.”

              “Colonel, we know what it wasn’t, what was it?”

              “General, my best guess and that of our experts is a KEW that was dropped on us from orbit.”

              A major in the bunker asks, “Is that really possible?  I thought it was science fiction.”

              “Major, it’s more than possible. We’ve proven KEW weapons are possible, we never deployed them due to the cost. The Americans did, they used them to take out our strategic assets.”

              “Why didn’t we know they deployed them?”

              “They most likely hid them in the existing space junk. If the satellites don’t broadcast anything and are coated in RAM (Radar Absorbent Material) we wouldn’t see them.”

              “Colonel, what’s your gut tell you?”

              “Sir, my gut says Grameniko did something the American’s didn’t like, so they decapitated us. They most likely felt without a leader the war would end.”

              The Marshal says, “Damn them, they’re most likely right. Who’s going to assume the office of President, who’s next on the succession list?”

              “Sir, you are. All of the cabinet ministers were taken out with the strike on the command bunker.”