Chapter 73 -- FTRKKKDCQCMQQYQMM
Scott was in the command post with Tommy and James, watching the news and
monitoring the talk on the internet channels. Jessica had gone into town to
purchase supplies for Scott and Carter had gone with her, while Donald had
gone to the office and would probably be gone for several hours.
The escalation of sabotage against the infrastructure continued,
to the point that resources to respond to them were nearly exhausted, and
attempts at repairing the damage had largely been abandoned.
"What are you guys seeing in the chatter?" Carter asked.
"Congestion," Tommy replied. "The system is overloaded, even watching it
is total confusion. Outside the reports of new incidents, the only
common thread, starting late yesterday, is a lot of activity around Carver's
Point, the Western White House, as they call it. Some are thinking the
president is going there, and it may become his base as they try to deal with
the crisis."
"I wonder when it will hit the news," Carter said. "Probably not until it's
official. Or maybe not at all."
"It'll be hard to hide it," said Tommy. "But if they're moving they must be
seriously worried."
"They should be," Carter said. "Donald said the League activities are nowhere
near up to what we expected to have to do - the independents have been doing so much of the
damage. We're just taking up the slack now, keeping the pressure on."
He watched as another screen proclaimed 'breaking news'. A scene of collapsed
highway overpass somewhere, with long lines of traffic, then going to an
overhead shot showing the miles of vehicles. The subtitle appeared,
apparently I-65 was affected. I-70 had been hit between St. Louis
and Louisville a few days ago.
On one of the monitors he saw Donald's car arriving. Minutes later he entered,
carrying his briefcase. He sat down and looked up at the screens.
"Another overpass," he said. "I-70, that was us. Last night some warning
charges were set off to get them to shut it down, and as soon as the traffic
was stopped the main charges went off, collapsed a section close to a
hundred yards long."
"At this rate the country is going to be shut down worse than the virus hoax
back in '20," Carter said.
"If it isn't already," said Donald. "As soon as Jessica gets back I've got
some interesting information. It came in while I was at the office, just as I
was about to leave."
"Looks like she's here," Carter said, as the monitor showed her car entering
the drive. A few minutes later she entered.
"Done shopping for fugitives?" Carter asked.
Jessica smiled. "I'm getting pretty good at it. I left some things for you
out in the den, Scott."
"We got James out of town in time to keep him out of prison," Carter said. "I
wasn't so lucky - I had to do the while seven years."
"I remember now," Scott said. "For some reason I thought you were familiar.
You were all over television. That was a bad deal."
"Yeah, it was. Not as bad as some, there were some guys that
are still in prison. It seems cops finally got smart and stopped taking
chances. And now there's no law in those places."
"So where do we stand?" Jessica asked.
"As of a couple of hours ago," Donald replied, "the League was contacted by an
insider on the presidential staff. The chairman of the joint chiefs, to be
exact. It was unofficial, in fact it seems there may be a coup in the making.
Apparently he, at least, recognizes the danger of not having a quick resolution.
Our people believe he may be planning something.
"And it seems they're about to move the president and staff out to his place
on the west coast, Carver's Point. That could indicate they're preparing to
impose martial law, whatever they think that means. The army, even with the
national guard, can't control every square mile of the country. Which is what
they would have to do. But of course they don't know that, and trying will
only drive it deeper into chaos, paralyzing the country.
"But they wouldn't change even if they knew it. Apparently the one man who
does is willing to do something. We hope."
"That's a pretty gutsy move," Carter said. "If he's alone in there,
surrounded by Secret Service - I wonder if he has something up his sleeve."
"Perhaps. We're preparing to land a force there to seize the compound and
whomever is inside. It may be the general has resources inside the army. I
know it's been mostly purged of those who won't be willing minions of the
administration, but there may still be a few old school leaders, or perhaps
just some who have the sense to see where this is going. We'll have wait and
see."
"That could mean the end, whatever it may be, is near," Jessica said.
"Yes," said Donald "it might. Now we wait. And follow the events as they unfold.
The League will keep the pressure on - we don't want them to have any signs of
it easing, until they capitulate."
"Since we're all back," Jessica said, "and it's about time for lunch. Anyone?"
Most of them went into the dining room, taking turns helping Carter and Jessica,
who had become the de facto cooks. There was little conversation over the meal,
as they were focused on events and there was little motivation for talking or
even thinking about anything else. Carter thought of the nearby town of
Chillicothe, nine thousand of so people living their small-town lives, working
in the stores and restaurants, with their world being shaken in ways most
probably wouldn't understand.
Which was the root of the problem. Probably ninety percent of the population
had little understanding of the people who controlled their lives, and as long
as the conditions were not unbearable they endured, perhaps complaining but
never taking action, until it was too late.
And those who sought to control everything were impossible to understand, he
thought, not without being mad himself. What could possibly go on in their
minds, to have the obsessive urge to control the world, when they could
comfortably live whatever life they pleased, buy whatever they wanted, but
still must take what they did not already have. Madness, indeed.
He felt Jessica's hand on his knee, looked over at her.
"You all right?" she asked.
"Yeah, went off thinking and got lost."
They went back to the command post and continued monitoring the news. Late in
the day the news broke. The coverage of Marine One landing on the peninsula,
obscured by the compound in the foreground once it had landed, confirmed it.
"Seems our sources are right so far," Donald said. "If they continue to be, we
may see some action in the next day or two. Who knows, the military might
come through and take the problem off our hands."
"Can we trust them, if they succeed, to put back the constitutional government?
Jessica asked.
"Good question. I would like to think they would. If they've
seen the future with the current regime, and where we've been going for forty
or fifty years, maybe they would want go roll it back. What we have working
in our favor is that we'll be involved. We'll have control of the compound
and all in it, including the general.
"He probably hasn't thought much beyond stopping it, it caught him off guard.
We've been planning for years. At whatever point the negotiations begin, we
can pressure him to take the right path. And while the inner circle might
prefer anything to giving in, if they know that they won't walk out of there
alive otherwise, it will probably change their minds."
"I hope you're right," said Jessica. "As if I need to say it. We're at that
point now, where we can't go back."
"We've burned the bridge," Carter said. "There's only one way home."