THE WARNING A Novel of America in the Last Days (The End of America Series Book 2) (28 page)

Mazah
Highway (Route 7)

Damascus,
Syria

        
The distance from Damascus, the capital of Syria, to Haifa
in northern Israel is only about seventy miles. Syria’s Mazah Highway, route
number seven, covers thirty of those miles. Damascus, considered the world’s
oldest continuously inhabited city, is populated by over two and half million
people in its metropolitan area. The city is mentioned early in the Bible in
Genesis 14.

        
Several metal-clad warehouses cover almost twenty acres near
the intersection of Mazah Highway and Hafez Al Asad, south west of Damascus.
Satellite surveillance over the prior three years confirmed to US and Israeli
forces that substantial quantities of military armament had been moved into the
warehouses. Further evaluation of the satellite images confirmed that the
equipment was of Russian manufacture. Israeli intelligence kept a close watch
on the Syrian installations. U.S. intelligence paid minimal attention to the
Russian weapon cache, concluding that US security was not implicated.

        
The Russian officer in charge of the Russian weapon
installation was Colonel Vladimir Nikolaevich, a veteran of Afghanistan’s war
with Russia. The Colonel’s primary responsibility was to insure that the
several hundred tanks, troop carriers and artillery were in prime operating
order. Ready to be used. Only awaiting word from Moscow. Colonel Nikolaevich
was also entrusted with working with Syrian officials to ensure that the Mazah
Highway was not only passable but without any significant potholes or
impediment to travel for the Russian equipment to be moved along the highway to
Israel. Only awaiting word from Moscow.

American
Hawk Sporting Goods

Seven
Corners Mall - Falls Church, Virginia

“The duty of a patriot is to protect his country

from his government.”

 
Thomas Paine

        
The whirring of the box fan in the secure storage room at
American Hawk was the only sound in the ironclad room. General Douglas
Toussaint had just revealed to Senator Charles M. Quarter that only an assault on
the White House had a reasonable chance of success. The Senator was munching
over what he had heard.

        
“Look, General, I fully understand that the Founders didn’t
trust human nature, so they built in checks and balances in the government they
constructed. But, because they knew that a tyrant could arise at any time, they
made the right to keep and bear arms the second most important right, after the
First Amendment rights of religion, speech, press and assembly. The Second
Amendment was
the ‘fix’
they gave to
the people if Americans found themselves under a dictator. Remove him by force
of arms, if necessary
. I get
all
that, so, I’m willing to listen. Willing to be persuaded, but attacking the
Executive Mansion would be a first….at least since the Brits burnt it in 1812.
Tell me
why
your military strategists
have concluded that assaulting the White House is the
best
strategy and might actually
work
.”

        
“Here’s what we ultimately decided. If the White House
complex were being built today there would be
no
possible way to ever breach it with an armed assault. But, like
most things in DC, changes were made over time, and not all of those changes
have added to the security of the structure. The key to our successful assault
is the South Lawn. Thomas Jefferson added the mounds on both sides of the
expansive thirty five acre lawn. Ulysses S. Grant drained what was then a swamp
at the south end of the open lawn area. FDR hired famous landscape architect
Frederick Olmstead to re-design the South Lawn. He planted large trees on the
close perimeter to the White House for privacy purposes, but he left open the
entire South Lawn, all the way from E Street right up to the building itself,
so as to ‘give generous sight lines’ of the White House’s south façade. In
fact, until after the second world war the South Lawn was open to the public,
believe it or not.”

        
“Are you saying that the assault will come across
the South Lawn?
Explain how that’s
better than a direct frontal assault through one of the two front gates on….what
is it?....Pennsylvania Avenue, of course.”

        
“Good question. But, don’t forget that after the Oklahoma
City bombing in 1995, the Secret Service closed Pennsylvania Avenue in front of
the White House to
all
vehicular
traffic, though pedestrians are still allowed. Cars and trucks have to drive
around Lafayette Park up to H Street. That entire area on the north side of the
White House has been secured.
Double
secured
. They installed hydraulic driven steel vehicle barriers at all
gates which can be instantly raised, stopping any vehicle.
Bad
place for an assault.”

        
“I’m beginning to understand your point, General. When FDR
and Olmstead left fully open the South Lawn, they also left open an
unhindered
line of assault to the White
House. Am I getting your point?”

        
“Chuck, that’s correct. But it’s even better than you might
expect. When Teddy and William Howard Taft built and remodeled the West Wing
they had the President’s office located centrally inside the West Wing. FDR
added a second floor to the West Wing, and most importantly, he re-located the
Oval Office to the South-East corner on the back of the West Wing. It’s been
said that FDR made the change that so he could slip back and forth to the main
house, without being seen by the West Wing staff. Whatever his reason, he
located the President’s office in a vulnerable spot. It adjoins the Rose Garden
which looks directly down the South Lawn to E Street.

        
The Secret Service installed three layers of bulletproof
glass in the Oval Office to avoid a sniper taking out the President. But,
here’s my
primary point
as to our
line of assault. By breaching the metal fence on the south west end of the
South Lawn, close to where West Executive Avenue adjoins the fence, we can be
at
, not
near
, but
at
the Oval
Office in a matter of just a few seconds. Adjoining the Oval Office on the east
side are the large window-doors of the Roosevelt Room. Our troops can be fully
in the West Wing, through the Oval Office and the Roosevelt Room window doors,
in less than a half minute. We found an interview with a spokesman for the
Secret Service who said, ‘
Unless you want to turn the President's house into a
walled-off fortress, there just isn't much you can do about ‘jumpers’ – except
try to stop them on the lawn.’ We’re going to bring in armed men, not wall
jumpers.
”

        
“Doug, I get over to the White House, infrequently of course
since I am
not
the President’s
favorite Senator. As I recall, the South Lawn is a fair poke up the sloping grass
to the building. How can you breach the wrought iron fence and get to the
building that
fast
? I’m just asking.”

        
“Sure. I understand. You need to hear the core of the
assault plan. We will recruit three hundred veterans. Patriots. All single. All
in top physical shape. They’re available. We’ll covertly load the men in three
trucks, one hundred in each. Each will load at a location where it won’t look
unusual to see several individual men walking into a building, like a gym, a
friendly police department or here at this store. The trucks will be those
soft-sided vehicles used to transport BMWs, Mercedes, you know what I mean.
We’ll outfit each truck with a cattle flinger type v-shaped prow, to bust down
the fence, which is almost sixty years old. Once the fence is breached, the run
up to the White House should take about twenty seconds. The trucks can
accelerate and reach the West Wing
quite
quickly
. Frederick Olmstead designed us a nice clear highway. Once there,
the troops pile out of the trucks and enter the West Wing through the Oval
Office and the Roosevelt Room.”

        
“But, Doug, by then, the President will be
whisked out
of the Oval Office, if he
was
even there
when the assault
starts.”

        
“Yes, Senator, you’re quite correct. We’ve concluded that
there’s no
easy
way to grab the
President once an assault starts on the White House complex. He’ll be moved to
the basement secured room at the first sign of trouble. Some people have
assumed that the President goes to the Situation Room if any hint of danger arises,
but that’s not the case. The Situation Room, which is the area of the ground
floor of the West Wing where Harry Truman used to bowl, was re-built by W in
2006. It includes massive electronics, ability to communicate with the
Pentagon, the NSC and Air Force One, but it’s not an assault-hardened facility.
There are even windows in some of the offices attached to the Situation room.
No, the President will be found in his
basement
security room.”

        
“I see, so you’re going to secure him there. General, how will
these men be uniformed and armed?”

        
“We’ve debated that at some length. They are acting
for
America so they each will be in full
U.S. Army battle uniform and gear. Full arms and ammo. In addition, each will
carry enough plastic explosive to take out any security door. The men will
enter prepared to
secure
their
target.”

        
“Let’s discuss that. How do you see this all playing out
once the….I think you called him….
the
target
….is reached?”

        
“We’ll
secure
the
target. I’ll read him his rights and explain that he is being arrested by
citizens for various crimes and misdemeanors. Then, we’ll hold him in captivity
for a trial of his peers….a trial under oath with
all
of the facts. The faked documents, the shootings of Americans,
the false flags the President authorized to justify shooting his political
enemies, anything else that’s uncovered in the interim….and….I hope it doesn’t
come to this….but should the target commit suicide….like in that bunker in
Berlin in 1945….we can’t control that….obviously.”

        
“I take it that you will carefully
document
everything? Full video and audio?”

        
“Complete. Everything digitally recorded for posterity.”

        
“How do you plan to insure that the target is in the White
House complex when the assault starts?”

        
“Few people’s physical location is more openly known that
the President’s. Not only does his office publish his daily schedule, the media
all have staff whose primary duty is to track his location at any given time.
We’ll plan ahead about fifteen days from a day that he’s scheduled to be in the
complex for the entire day, no trips out anywhere, and then work backwards from
that date.”

        
“Doug, it certainly
sounds
like you’ve covered everything that needs to be considered, but did….”

        
“Not quite, Chuck. The White House has full time federal
agents assigned to patrol the roof of the White House, monitoring the two
lawns, the fences and adjoining streets, so any ‘jumpers’ can be spotted and
dealt with by on the ground agents. We need to
distract
them. When we breach the fence on the South Lawn we’ll
need the full White House security team occupied on
the North Lawn
, at the gates, focusing on a perceived threat
completely on the other side of the complex. That alone will help us move from
the breached fence, up the South Lawn and into the West Wing, all without any
significant hindrance.”

        
“
How
do you plan
to distract them? Will you use other troops north of the White House?”

        
“Nope. They would likely be taken out. We plan to
use….Senator
you
should like
this….since you’re on record against the use of drones to kill Americans. We’ll
put up small
drones
, five or six of
them, just minutes before we breach the fence, using them to blast the two main
gates and the gate between the White House and the Eisenhower Executive Office
Building west of the White House. As soon as the drones with bombs hit and
explode, the White House security forces will rapidly focus in those areas,
opposite the complex from the area of our assault. That will start our
count-down for the South Lawn fence breach.
Bingeddy-bing.”

        
“Hopefully, bingeddy-bang. How do you handle control of the
drones?”

        
“The same way the military does. We’ll launch the drones
from a couple miles away, probably from one of the poor areas of DC that the
government likes to ignore, and then guide them from a trailer unit. That’ll be
the
easiest
part.”

        
“What if they try to bring in Marine One and
chopper out
the President before you
can….I can answer that myself, I think. As I understand your plan, there won’t
be
enough
time to bring in a
helicopter once the drones hit and the fence is breached.”

        
“That’s right. The White House is a few minutes from both
Quantico and Andrews, where they base the choppers. In addition to which White
House security is quite unlikely to call in a helicopter into a situation
involving aerial launched explosive devices. Too dangerous for the chopper, and
certainly too
risky
to try and lift
POTUS off from the White House in Marine One with drones flying around. That
won’t happen.”

        
“
Great job
,
General. It sounds like we have a
much
better than even chance of succeeding. Before we leave, though, I just want to
confirm that you’re at peace with what will be labeled as
treasonous
acts, that is,
if
we fail
. We’ve talked all around the “T” word, but we’ve never actually
discussed what we are doing in that legal context.”

        
Senator, after we met the first time I couldn’t decide
whether to turn you in or nominate you for Man of the Year. I’ve wrestled and
prayed, and prayed and wrestled. I finally went back to basics. You may not know
that I used to teach a course called Basic Principles of Communism at the War
College. What I learned from the Communists’ own materials and from their
bloody history showed me
a basic truth
about Communists. That knowledge of the truth is driving my decision to try to
remove the President from office.”

        
“Yes. And that basic truth is?”

        
“Communists never,
ever
,
willingly give up power. They will do
anything
to
stay
in power, including the
killing of millions of people who oppose them. I finally decided that this
President will never walk out of the White House and retire from office.
Whether they amend the Constitution’s two term restriction, or do something
else, he will never voluntarily leave power. So, Senator, here’s the choice:
either
accept
what the President is
doing as a Communist, to ruin America, or alternatively,
remove
the Communist from the Oval Office
before
the country is
unrecognizable.