Phoenix Rising: (53 page)

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Authors: William W. Johnstone

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C
HAPTER
T
WENTY-TWO
When the conversation ended, Bob punched the speaker off, then looked at Jake.
“Where are you getting the Predators? Fort Gordon?” he asked.
“Yes, we have fifteen of them there.”
“Good. It sounds like you've got the situation well in hand. So let's get back to business here. How are we going to organize our government?”
“What's wrong with the way we were organized?” Ellen asked. “And by we, I mean the United States.”
Ellen Varney was a retired school teacher who had taught Geography, History, and Civics. She had also been very much a political wonk and saw the danger Ohmshidi represented when he first started running.
“Be more specific,” Bob said.
“I'm talking about the three branches of government. Executive, legislative, and judicial. And the legislative branch should be bicameral.”
“Bi what?” James asked.
“Bicameral,” Ellen explained. “Two bodies of the legislature, a house and a senate.”
“Sounds good,” Tom said. “For the president, are we going to have an electoral college, or direct election?”
“Since we adopted the U.S. Constitution as our constitution, we are locked into an electoral college,” Bob said. “Article Two, Section One. It would take an amendment to change it, and that wasn't one of the amendments we proposed.”
“I think the electoral college would be better, anyway,” Jake said. “In order to run a national election, someone would have to have real name recognition. George Gregoire is about the only person we know with that kind of reputation, and I think he would serve us better as our spokesman, than our president.”
“And I think he would agree with you,” Chris said.
“I think Bob should be our George Washington,” Tom said.
“I can keep my own teeth, can't I?” Bob asked, and the others laughed. “Look, I don't mind serving as president while we are getting everything started, but I would like the position to be temporary. When we are actually ready to hold our first election, I don't intend to run.”
“Maybe we can get you to change your mind,” Jerry said.
“Uh-uh,” Bob replied. “I will pull a General Sherman on you. If nominated I will not run, if elected I will not serve.”
“Damn,” Jerry said with a laugh. “Did Sherman really say that?”
“He did indeed.”
“I'd say that is a pretty definite no, wouldn't you?” Karen said.
“All right, Bob, we won't nominate you.”
“What about a flag?” Sheri asked. “We can't have a country without a flag.”
“We've got one,” Jake said. “It's called the Stars and Stripes.”
“No, we're a new country, we should have a new flag,” Kathy said.
“Why? Most of us here served the Stars and Stripes with honor and pride,” Jake said. “I wouldn't like to see it cast aside.”
“Yeah, and if you all remember, when we buried Sergeant Major Clayton Matthews the Third, he was holding the flag over his heart,” Deon said.
2
“May I tell you what I think about the flag?” Bob asked.
“Sure,” Jake said. “After all, you're our president. And even if you aren't going to run again, who would have more right?” he added with a chuckle.
“Like most of you, I served the Stars and Stripes, and I never stood a retreat ceremony where I faced the flag, saluting as it was being lowered, without feeling so much pride that it choked me up. But, the Stars and Stripes stands for the United States as it was, and as we hope to reestablish. Fifty states, united as one nation.
“That's not what we are right now, and, while I think the Stars and Stripes should be one of our most important icons, we don't yet have the right to fly it. In fact if we were to do so, I believe it would be disrespectful. It is what we will strive for and it shall be our goal to once again unite all our states under that banner. But until we do so, what we need is an interim flag around which we can rally.”
“Yeah,” Jake said. “I hadn't thought of it like that, but you are right. Maybe we should have a new flag. Do you have any ideas?” Jake asked.
“No, I don't.”
“Julie, why don't you come up with an idea?” Deon asked, speaking to the beautiful young black woman who had been a medical clerk in the pre-O army. “You're always drawing pictures, and you're damn good at it.”
“Oh, I don't know,” Julie said. “That's a pretty big order, I mean, to design a flag for a whole country? That's quite a responsibility.”
“Julie, you and I go back a long way together,” Karen said. Karen had been a nurse in the same hospital where Julie had worked. “And in all the time I've known you, you have never been one to shy away from responsibility. And I have seen your art work as well. You can do this, there is no doubt in my mind.”
“All right,” Julie said with a nod. “I'm pretty sure I can come up with a design, but even if I do, I couldn't actually sew the flag.”
“I'll sew the flag,” Ellen said.
“Yes, that's a good idea. You're really good at that,” Bob said. “So, Julie, you and Ellen will be our Betsy Ross,” Bob said. “Or would that be Betsy Rosses?”
“I'll be the Betsy, Ellen can be the Ross,” Julie joked.
“I do have a recommendation for something to add to the flag,” Bob said.
“What?”
“Add the words,
Deo Vindice
,” Bob said. “It means God is our Protector.”
“Good idea,” Jake agreed.
Bob smiled. “Jake, you being a Yankee, probably wouldn't know this, but
Deo Vindice
was the motto of the Confederacy.”
“Will you have a problem with that, Julie?” Jake asked.
Julie smiled. “Not at all. I may be black, but I'm from Georgia. I'm so Southern that when I was born the doctor slapped my hammock with a candied yam.”
The others laughed.
“Anyhow, I've heard that there were blacks who fought for the South,” Deon said.
“That's absolutely true,” Bob said. “It's not all that well known because it isn't politically correct. And that's a shame, because that steals honor from those brave black men who did fight. Nobody knows exactly how many, but there are estimates that from several hundred to several thousand blacks served with the Confederate forces during the war.”
Jake shuddered. “Let us hope that this experiment doesn't end up in another civil war as bloody as the first.”
“That's the hope and prayer of us all,” Bob said. “But I can't see Ohmshidi letting us just walk away. What happened in Arkansas and what just happened in South Carolina is evidence of that.”
“Yeah,” Jake said. “I don't think any of us want to go to war, but if it comes down to fighting a war or give away our freedom, then I, for one, am ready for the fight.”
Jake's solemn pronouncement was met with a long, studied, silence, finally broken by Julie.
“I'll get started on coming up with a design for the flag,” Julie said.
 
 
Later that same afternoon Jake, Bob, Tom, Deon, and Chris began to organize the military. Jake and Bob already had received commitments from every military base they had visited earlier, but they were well aware that there was much more that could be added to the mix.
“The truth is, we only visited five bases, but we have over forty military installations within our borders, and I would estimate at least one hundred thousand men and women residing here, who were on active duty when the US military collapsed. I think it would be a safe bet to say that over ninety percent of them would be willing to serve. Within two months, we could reconstitute a military that is at least equal to anything AIRE can put together,” Jake said.
“In terms of a conventional military, yes. But AIRE has a head start on us with the SPS and the Janissaries,” Tom said. “And right now, they seem to be carrying the load.”
“We have another asset,” Jake said. “We have at least three hundred Predator Drones that can be deployed. I don't know how many the AIRE has.”
“Probably not nearly as many as we have, but they are built in Southern California, which means they can build what they need,” Bob said. “On the other hand, we have aircraft assembly plants here in Mobile, and in Georgia. With reverse engineering it wouldn't be hard at all for us to build enough drones to stay ahead of them, especially since we have a head start.”
“And, we have nukes,” Jake said.
“Yes, we have nukes,” Bob agreed.
“And AIRE doesn't,” Jake said. “So we don't have that problem to deal with.”
“Just because AIRE doesn't have any nukes, that doesn't mean we don't have anything to worry about,” Chris said.
“Why, do you think they might reconstitute the nukes?” Bob asked.
“No, I don't believe that any of the people who have the skill required to disassemble and reassemble the nukes would be willing to do that,” Chris said. “But if Sorroto was able to buy five of them once, I've no doubt but that he can do it again.”
“If he does buy them, will he give them to Ohmshidi, do you think?”
“No, and the more I think about it, I don't think he was going to give them to him the first time either,” Chris said. “I'm afraid that the truth is even more frightening. Sorroto is a megalomaniac. If he acquires the weapons I believe he will keep them for himself. And he may be more likely to use them than Ohmshidi would.”
“You're right, that is more frightening,” Bob said.
Taney County
Sorroto was on a satellite telephone call to General Dmitry Golovin.
“May I remind you that I paid for a product that was not delivered? And I paid quite well, as I recall,” Sorroto said.
“Oh, but the product was delivered,” Golovin replied. “We followed your instructions to the letter. You said that the product was to be delivered to the
Gomez
. It was delivered to the
Gomez
. That was the extent of our instructions. Once the product reached the
Gomez
it was, for all practical purposes, in your hands.”
“The
Gomez
has disappeared without a trace. Nobody has heard a thing from it.”
“Perhaps the captain of the
Gomez
decided to go into business for himself. That was quite a valuable cargo he was carrying.”
“No, he wouldn't have done anything like that. I paid him enough money to buy his loyalty.”
“Well, I have read of something called the Bermuda Triangle,” Golovin said. “It could be that the ship got caught up in that mysterious area and has gone to join Flight Nineteen.”
Sorroto was quiet for a moment. “I want to reorder,” he finally said.
“I am afraid that product is no longer available.”
“I am willing to forget the previous, uh, difficulty,” Sorroto said. “I am willing to pay the same amount I paid the first time, even though I never took delivery of the product.”
“You don't understand,” Golovin said. “There was a unique set of circumstances which made the product available the first time. I'm afraid those circumstances no longer exist.”
“Do you suppose you could duplicate those circumstances if I doubled the purchase price?”
Sorroto heard a little gasp from the other end of the phone. “Did I understand you to say that you would double the purchase price?”
“Yes. But this time I will find a more secure method of delivery.”
“I think we might be able to do some business together,” Golovin said.
Fort Morgan
Julie and Ellen kept their work on the flag a secret for the two days it took them to design and sew the flag. Then they presented their flag, a red banner with a blue horizontal bar, intersected in the first quarter of its length by a vertical blue bar. There were eight white stars, representing the eight states that had attended the constitutional convention, six stars in the horizontal bar and two additional stars in the vertical bar. The motto
Deo Vindice
was in the lower right quarter of the banner.
The flag was unfurled at a dinner hosted by Jake and Karen and it received instant applause and acclaim.
“You know what I think?” Jake said. “I think we should find a factory that will make a thousand of these flags and we'll pass them out, first come first served. Then, as people see them and want them, they'll buy more until they become ubiquitous.”
Karen laughed. “Ubiquitous? Well, I'm proud of you, Jake, showing off your vocabulary like that.”
“The first thing we need to do is get them out to the military bases,” Jake said. “Nothing instills a sense of pride and duty in a soldier like seeing the flag of their country.”
“And, we need to get a couple out to Virdin and the
John Paul Jones
,” Tom suggested.
Bob nodded. “Yes, it would be a good idea to show our flag at sea. We'll also put it on our container vessels so we can show it in foreign ports.”

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