Alea Jacta Est: A Novel of the Fall of America (Future History of America Book 1) (9 page)

“ID,
please,” said the Agent, his partner eyeing them closely.  Both had weapons
loaded and ready. 

The two
handed over their DHS badges and waited.  Suthby tried to act normal but was
afraid the slight sheen of sweat on his forehead, caused by the brisk walk from
DHS HQ would lead the Agents to believe he was nervous. 

I am
nervous, though,
a small voice whispered inside his mind. 
Everything
was going according to plan, until all this happened.  So what?  I adapt, I
overcome.  Things change.  I can handle this.  It'll work.  It has to work. 
We're too deep in it now to turn back.
 
My God that noise is deafening. 
How do these guys stand it?  It's nerve wracking.
  Resolved, he wrapped his
false courage around himself like a suit of armor and tried to stand
straighter.

"Is
there a problem, son?" asked Suthby in his 'I am a Cabinet Level
Appointee' voice.  Respectful, with just a touch of irritation to let the Agent
know who was really in charge.

The Agent
looked up from his approved list and carefully watched Hank's face for a
moment.  His face was impassive, his eyes looked right through the bureaucrat
like he wasn't even there.  Just another civilian.  Then he looked back down
without saying a word.

Jesus, his
eyes!
 
He's
like a machine.  Doesn't give a damn about anyone or anything but the mission,
Suthby cringed on the inside.

The Agent
suddenly turned and put a hand to his ear.  Suthby tried to frown and look
impatient to the other guard who merely stared right at the two bureaucrats. 
The first Agent began to mumble something barely audible into a microphone. 
Overhead, a Blackhawk rumbled in from the east and soared over the White House,
search lights piercing the smoke like lances. 

Suthby took
a moment to gather his thoughts and look around.  Between the roar of the mob a
few blocks away and the prop-wash from the helicopter, he could feel his
ribcage vibrating.  The White House had been turned into a fortress overnight. 
Where he knew there had been bushes and shrubs, delicately pruned for shape all
year long, now there were sandbags and defensive positions bristling with
machine guns.

And the
Agents!  They were everywhere.  The Secretary of the Department of Homeland
Security had no idea the President had so many Secret Service Agents.  Wherever
his eyes rested, there was a black-clad Agent, carrying a load-out that looked
like something from a special operations unit.  Tactical vests filled to the
brim with dangerous looking equipment.  High powered rifles, of a range of
different types.  He swore he could see a grenade on more than one Agent's
vest.  It was unreal.

The first
Agent suddenly nodded to himself and turned back to face the two visitors.  He
smiled, the smile of a cat watching a mouse, and opened the gate.  “Here you
go, gentleman.  Thank you for your patience, and good luck.  Hear he’s in a bad
mood today.”

“Can you
blame him?” asked Suthby as Daniel nodded curtly and the two stalked off.  He
rapidly composed himself as they walked away from the Agents.  Military types
gave him the shakes.  How a man could be so cold-blooded was beyond his mental
capacity. 
 Wonder how many people that guy has killed.  He had the look of
someone who wouldn't mind pulling the trigger on somebody.
  Hank suppressed
an inner shiver and pushed on.  He had a job to do.

I am the
Secretary of the Department of—
he began telling himself again.

“This place
is like Fort Knox all of a sudden--“ muttered Daniel as soon as they were out
of earshot of the guard post.

Suthby
rolled his eyes in irritation at the interruption.  He had to speak louder now
to be heard over all the background noise.  “Daniel, of
course
!  That’s
how it works.  The President obviously decided he wasn't skipping town.  So
they'll hunker down and prepare for the worst."  

“Okay, but
we've got to worry about cleaning up this mess and stopping the rioting.  Not
figuring out who started it!  I still think we need to hand this over to the
FBI and get back to
our
job.  The CIA wouldn’t know all the domestic
stuff.  Or would they?  Look, Hank, the point is, let's let the spooks figure
it out,"
Daniel
almost shouted back.

“Maybe,”
pondered Secretary Suthby as he stepped through the door to the White House and
passed the ceremonial Marine Guard.  The Marine had company this day, what
looked like an entire Platoon of battle hardened men stood at the ready.  They
appeared even more menacing than the Secret Service Agents, who at least tried
to put on an air of discrete strength.  The Marines had the look that they were
itching to kill someone or destroy something.

“This is
out of our jurisdiction,” Daniel whispered nervously.

“The
President needs to know about this, Daniel…” Suthby said as they both signed in
at the security desk and were issued badges to access further into the locked
down White House.  A more normal dressed Agent led them to where they would
meet the President.

“We’ve
suspected something like this may have been in the pipes for a while, but never
thought they’d get this far.  They must have been collecting intelligence for
years, Danny,
years
.  Just biding their time.  Hell, we don’t even know
if the jokers who took out the power grid are even affiliated with Al Qaeda. 
All these damn terrorist organizations have two or three of their own splinter
groups anymore.”   Suthby marveled at how quiet it was inside the White House. 
The sound proofing was incredible.  Their shoes echoed off the polished marble
floors like gunshots.

Daniel
followed his boss into a special elevator operated by yet another a Agent,
heading deep underground to the War Room level.  He whispered, “Hank, if they
press the attack…
n
ow…”

Both men
waited until the elevator opened before they continued talking.  Suthby figured
his silence would give Daniel the answer he was looking for—besides, being
confined in the elevator with that silent Agent was just too creepy to continue
a conversation.  The deeper they penetrated the White House, the more anxious
he became.

“Then why
don’t we just get the word out right now?  Why wait?  Just call the boys over
at the Bureau and let them—“ persisted Daniel.

Suthby spun
around on his lieutenant in the hallway.  More than one Agent noticed the
sudden movement and had hands on weapons as a result.  No one pulled their
firearms free of holsters but there were several sets of dangerous eyes on the
two lone bureaucrats. 

“Because we
can’t trust
anyone
right now, Danny.  If we tip our hand too fast, who
knows what could happen.  They might strike anyway, they might just disappear. 
If
they're even there.  Either way it’s bad.  We’ll be unprepared and
they’re
still
going to be waiting and we’ll have solved nothing. 
No…we’ve got to get the word out quietly and set a trap.”

“Hank,
playing cat and mouse...I seriously disagree with you on this, but..."  He
sighed, then looked over his shoulder at the Agent in the elevator.  The man
touched his hear and mumbled into his cufflink.   "Why do Secret Service
agents always make me feel like the bad guy?"  Suthby ignored his deputy
and continued down the wide, marbled corridor. 

Daniel
squared his shoulders and said, "You know, something has been eating away
at me since we discovered the extent of the power outages."   The two men
came to the massive door to the War Room and another two Secret Service
Agents. 

“Hank…with
the whole power grid down…we’re wide open.”

The
Secretary grimaced, but agreed.  He suddenly looked tired.  Before answering he
handed over his badge to yet another Agent who checked a list in his hand.  Turning
to Daniel, he whispered, “I know.  The Joint Chiefs are probably inside this
room shitting bricks right about now, trying to figure out which of our enemies
is  going to be the first to take advantage of the situation.”

"It'll
be just a moment, sir.  If you like, there's a sofa right there for you to
wait," the Agent said with a tone that let Suthby know it wasn't a
suggestion.  He turned to face the plush sofa and took a step.

Daniel
suddenly pulled his boss to the side.  “Maybe no one will hit us…I mean, think
about it," he whispered with intensity.  "With the power out, it
means all those people, bottled up in the cities, with nowhere to go, no water,
no food, no power, no air conditioning and no TV….each city is a powder
keg."  His words started running together, as if he was worried if he
didn't speak them as fast as possible, he'd lose the thought forever. 

"That’s
not even considering the race riots.  But no matter what, after a while, you’re
going to have total breakdown, though. 
Anarchy
.  The cops won’t be able
to handle it.  Hell, we could throw our whole military at the problem, but what
good are a few million soldiers and reservists going to do against 290 million
panicked civilians?  It’ll be Katrina and Joyce on a massive scale,
on crack,
man.”

“Jesus…take
a breath, will you?” muttered Suthby, straightening his jacket. 
Everyone
at DHS knew how the aftermath and subsequent bungling of Katrina, and years
later, Hurricane Joyce had cleaned out offices at Headquarters.  No one had
been safe, from the top down.

Daniel
looked at him like he was shocked the Secretary of the Department of Homeland
Security wasn't more agitated over his sudden outburst.  Suthby's mind raced. 
He's
had way too much coffee this morning and not enough sleep.  Gotta calm him
down.

Suthby
willed his face to take on a dark look.  He was in reality, furious.  Unlike
his strung out and exhausted lieutenant, however, the Secretary was fully in
control of his faculties.  Hank Suthby was not a man ruled by impulsive decisions. 
He was calm, cold, and calculating at all times, and prided himself on that
fact.  Today was no different.  But to avoid suspicion from his junior officer,
he had to play the part that came naturally to everyone else.  He set his mouth
in a firm, angry line and muttered, “Those cocksuckers did this to us.  And
what can we do now against them?”

Daniel
nodded and glanced at the massive oak door, where the two Agents were still
watching.  "Where did the other Agent go?  I swear there were two a second
ago?" he asked.

"These
guys are like ghosts, Daniel.  This is their turf and they know every secret
passage in here.  They're good guys, remember?"  Hank started to worry
he'd have to find a new Deputy Undersecretary.  Daniel was losing it.

"Well...We’ll
have to recall all the overseas troops…
everyone
, Iraq, Afghanistan, even
the peacekeepers we got all over the place.  They’re
all
gonna have to
come back to protect the borders or control the cities soon,” Daniel said
quietly. “Something’ll have to change, of course.  We're talking major policy
shift. 
Posse Commitatus
for one thing.  The military cannot aide law
enforcement on U.S. soil.  That’s the law.  But without the military, I don't
see how the National Guard will have the manpower to handle this—even with our
full support and all local LEOs.  Now if the law is suspended somehow…”

The
Director grunted and nodded his head stiffly, staring at the large oak door,
waiting for the return of Agent 1.  He was honestly curious how the man had
slipped inside so quietly and was determined to watch him emerge from the
enclave.  Almost absently, he commented, “And what do you think every piss-ant
third world shithole of a country will think when word gets out about the
conditions here in the States?  The Great Satan is on her knees, waiting to be
raped.   Hell, China’s going to
love
this.”

He's
falling for it,
thought Suthby with an inner smile. 
This is perfect.

“Everyone
from Libya to Syria is gonna want to take a bite of our ass…they won’t get a
better shot.  Even the North Koreans have nukes now...” Daniel muttered in a
tone that suggested hope was all but lost, just 24 hours after the emergency.

Let's hope
that's the President's attitude as well,
Suthby told himself. 
The
more worried he is, the easier it will be to put my plan in motion and the
quicker we get things put back together.  If he's still all high and mighty
about rights and liberties then this will be an uphill battle.

Daniel
looked up as the two doors to the War Room opened with a barely audible
click
and Agent 1 stepped back out into the corridor again. 

“Sorry
about the delay, Secretary Suthby.  The President was occupied." 

Suthby
smirked.  No reason given.  The arrogance of the Secret Service. 
That will
have to change
. 

The Agent
was still talking, "He’s squared away now though.  A little tired this
morning, but ready to go.  If you’ll just follow me,” said the agent, holding
the door open and gesturing for the two men to move forward.

"Showtime,"
said Suthby out of the side of his mouth.  Daniel grunted and the two men got
up and walked towards the door.