Richard Stephenson - Collapse

“Well, I can’t very well talk to him down here, you won’t let me. It’ll have to wait until I get back upstairs. In fact, tell him I will speak with him sometime tomorrow. I’m trying to save our country from a nuclear holocaust.”

“Yes, Mr. President.”

Stacy rolled her eyes. “He probably wants to see if you know anything about Patrick Stewart returning to Star Trek .”

“Patrick Stewart is returning to Star Trek ?”

“Focus, Malcolm. There are more important things going on.”

“Really? Like what?” Malcolm smiled.

“Should we try to reach out to the Iranian Ambassador? Try a diplomatic solution?” Stacy asked.

“We could go through the motions, I suppose. We both know it won’t accomplish a damn thing.”

“Doesn’t hurt to try. We can at least confront them out in the open for the press to see. Let them know that we’re aware of what they’re doing. Get some pressure on them from the rest of the world.”

“Good point. Where is the Secretary of State?”

“Secretary Whitlock is in Paris meeting with delegates from the European Army.”

“Computer, send a message to Secretary Whitlock and dispatch him to Cairo. Inform him that I will be contacting him when he lands.”

“Yes, Mr. President.”

“Anything else, Stacy?”

“Yes, can you pull a few strings and get us out of here? You’re the president of the United States, after all. Don’t you have some sway around here?”

“Funny.”

“I’m not sure if now is the right time, but I’ve had some concerns about…”

Stacy was interrupted by a knock on the door.

“Come in.” The president looked up from his desk to see his lead Secret Service agent in the doorway.

“Mr. President, it’s time to move you.”

“Finally! I’m ready to get back in my office.”

“We’re not moving you back into the White House, Mr. President.”

“Excuse me?”

“Sir, we have secured the grounds of the White House, but things in D.C. are spiraling out of control. Riots are breaking out all over the city. Large portions of the capital are on fire. The roads are in complete gridlock, due in large part to the attack on the White House. The National Guard has informed us that they will lose control of the city in a matter of hours. You’re no longer safe here; we have to move you out of the city.”

“Mike, I will not leave the White House! I’m not going to abandon our nation’s capital and run away like a coward! Out of the question! I’ll stay down here if I have to, but I’m not leaving!”

Stacy decided to play referee. “Mr. President, if things are as bad as Mike is saying, we have little choice but to leave. If the National Guard loses control of the city, we’ll be trapped down here for a very long time. If the rioters think you’re in the White House, they might try to burn it down to smoke you out. Then you will be down here sitting under the ashes of the White House. If we move you to a secure location, you’ll be able to do much more than you can in this safe room. I can work with the press secretary to come up with a statement putting all of this into a positive light.”

Stacy was right, as usual. He needed to leave. The last force to capture and occupy Washington, D.C., was the British in 1814. General Robert Ross was under orders to occupy the capital and burn down public buildings. The White House was burned to the ground. British troops even added fuel to the fire to ensure that the presidential residence burned throughout the night and into the following morning. The capitol building was largely destroyed as well. Never in his wildest dreams did Malcolm think his own citizens would take the city by force. If he remained in the White House, the building would certainly be a target. Even if he did leave, he was sure that the White House would be lost.

“Mike, where do you intend on taking me? Do I have a say?”

“Sir, your residence in upstate New York is a secure location. My team will travel ahead of us and join the agents already there. The rest of us travel with you on Air Force One.”

“Good, Mike, thank you. The First Lady is already there, correct? She hasn’t left, has she?”

“Yes, Mr. President, your wife and daughter are already there. Your son is being moved from Harvard to join you.”

“When do we leave?”

“Air Force One is standing by. We need to leave within the hour.”

“Thank you, Mike.”

President Malcolm Powers stood up and straightened his tie. He took a deep breath and exited the room. Once he was in the conference room, the president addressed the group.

“Thank you, please, sit down.”

Everyone took their seats and looked at the president. They could tell that the weight of the world was on his shoulders. The poor man had endured more in a day than some presidents faced during their entire administration.

“For those of you who don’t know, riots have broken out all over the capital. We’re not talking about a few protests that got out of control. Things are very, very bad. Much of our beloved city is on fire. The National Guard has indicated that they will lose the city within a few hours. My staff and I will be moving to my residence in upstate New York immediately. All of you are welcome to join me on Air Force One. The choice is yours, of course, but I doubt that any of you have a safer way to leave Washington.”

Everyone in the room tried to hide their panic and fear. They were all stunned for a moment, then swallowed their dread and focused on what needed to be done.

The president stood tall and resolute. He paused for moment, trying to comprehend the full weight of what he was about to say. “Computer, coordinate with the Secret Service and begin preparations to evacuate the White House.”

Captain Jackson Butler was standing in the grand library of the world’s richest man. His orders had been to take over Beck Estates and set up a fortified army base that would serve as the command center for the Rocky Mountain and Pacific states. The country was falling apart fast, and the Unified National Guard had to regroup and consolidate its forces if they had any hopes of stopping an all-out civil war. Jackson had given his reports to his commanding officer, Colonel Rutherford. In them, Jackson had detailed his retreat from Denver and the grave injuries to his XO. When Colonel Rutherford read that Captain Butler ended up at the front gate of Howard Beck’s estate, he actually vid-conned the captain, certain that it was a joke. In later reports, Captain Butler gave the details of the guesthouse, which was a mansion in itself by any practical standards. Colonel Rutherford dispatched troops to Captain Butler’s command. The original plans were to first gather enough forces to retake Denver, and then the Joint Chiefs had other plans for Beck Estates. Once Las Vegas, Phoenix, and Portland fell to angry mobs, it was clear that drastic measures had to be taken to prevent the country from descending into chaos. Beck Estates was the perfect staging area. The Joint Chiefs were already having plans drawn for an airstrip to be built on Howard’s thousand-acre estate. In a year’s time, the home of the world’s richest man would be well on its way to becoming a full blown army base.

Jackson was certain he had built a solid friendship with Howard and that he could convince him to go along with the plan. Jackson planned on telling Howard a little bit at a time. Once he got comfortable with the first tidbit of information, Butler would slowly break more and more bad news to the man until eventually he would be helpless to do anything at all. His bright idea was stopped cold. Howard was standing in front of him having a tantrum like a toddler. Howard kicked over a table and sent papers and books flying across the room. Jackson was standing in probably the largest library he had seen in his life. He remembered the large public libraries from his youth. There were still a few left in some of the larger cities. Since most people could fit the Library of Congress on their smartphone, paper books were becoming quite rare. The last paperback book had been printed in 2022, to be replaced with digital copies only. The books that Howard had sent flying across the room looked to be very old, and given the man’s vast wealth, were probably very valuable.