Richard Stephenson - Collapse

Chairman Moody continued. “Luckily, we still have lines of communication with our commanders in the field, and we have doubled our efforts to reestablish the power grid. We have no illusions about restoring the power grid on a national scale; it will be years, if not decades, before we can focus on that. Our goal will be to restore communication and power to our military installations in the affected areas so they can restore law and order.”

President Sterling spoke up. “And the kid gloves are coming off. Anyone violating our new laws will be considered enemy combatants and dealt with accordingly. Anyone who doesn’t fall in line will regret it.”

Stacy remained expressionless, nodding her head in agreement. This insane tyrant is going to execute his own citizens! Stacy wondered if he would drop the title of “President’ and adopt something more appropriate, like “Emperor.” She wondered what name he would give to Howard Beck’s Rocky Mountain home. She didn’t care what he called it; she was going to call it “Eagle’s Nest” after Adolf Hitler’s mountain fortress.

You see, Malcolm, I do know my history. She had to dismiss the thought of Malcolm before she started crying.

Chairman Moody continued. “We are going to re-task our forces on the other side of the Rockies to begin recovery efforts in strategic locations within the EMP zones. Every generator we can get our hands on will be flown onto military bases all over the eastern United States. We should be able to occupy key cities and consolidate our forces with the week.”

Stacy almost cringed at the word “occupy” but was able to keep it together by asking, “When will we take back Washington?”

“Let the rat’s nest burn! I couldn’t care less about Washington,” President Sterling said with disgust.

Everyone in the room was surprised to hear this. They all assumed Simon Sterling had plans to become the forty-seventh man to sit in the Oval Office.

Everyone looked at each other, hoping someone would break the awkward silence. Roberto Jimenez was not intimidated, so he was the first to speak. “Mr. President, what are your plans, if I may ask?”

“As many of you are already aware, our plans have been in motion for over a year now. The day I decided that I wasn’t going to waste my time with a presidential election was a banner day in the history of this nation. I still believe in the virtues of democracy, but our government has twisted and perverted the idea of government into a worthless institution. The people in this room, and others like us, will pick up the pieces of the broken country that Malcolm Powers left us. We will no longer be burdened by layer upon layer of meaningless committees and bickering politicians lying to get a leg up. The journey ahead will be a hard one. It will take time, but I’m confident that our nation will rise to its former glory.”

Stacy had to fight the urge to scream at his nonsense. She looked around the room to see how everyone else was reacting, hoping to see the slightest hint of disagreement, of caution, or of fear. Everyone in the room was enamored with Simon Sterling. Even Roberto Jimenez looked upon the man with adoration. Stacy was more frightened by this fact than anything else. If Simon Sterling could persuade a man like Roberto Jimenez to join his cause, then the extent of this plot was much worse than she thought.

General Weygandt addressed everyone in the room. “Do we know what happened at Serenity Hills?”

Someone finally asked the question to which Stacy desperately needed an answer.

President Sterling spoke up. “I’m still in shock over the entire thing. After all that’s happened, we have to deal with the shocking truth that our enemy would be so bold as to kill our nation’s leader. I may have disagreed with Malcolm on a great many things, but I would never do him harm. My contention wasn’t aimed primarily at him, but rather with the entire federal government in its current, broken state. I knew that he would never willingly step down and let bygones be bygones, but I’d planned to let him live out the rest of his days in peace and hopefully some day come to an understanding. It looks like we’ll never have that chance.”

“Damn good thing we got out of there when we did,” growled Roberto.

“Yes, indeed,” President Sterling nodded. “I was looking forward to hearing about how Miss Reid joined our cause.”

Roberto didn’t give Stacy a chance to tell the story. “Malcolm called us into his office for a meeting. He was actually crying like a baby. The whole thing was pathetic. He was able to calm down long enough to tell us that he wanted to negotiate a treaty with the Empire and let them have Gibraltar. He kept blubbering about how he just wanted to give up and bring our troops home so he could rescue the poor hurricane victims. He said he saw footage from Texas and saw a dog that reminded him of his childhood pet, and he couldn’t take it anymore.”

Stacy interjected, “I told him I was going to bring in the doctor to help calm him down, and he completely lost it. Kept saying how sorry he was that he let me down.”

“Let you down?” asked President Sterling.

“Florida.”

President Sterling paused for a second before it dawned on him. “Ah! The cover story? You mean he didn’t tell you? He fed you the same lies that he fed to the country?”

Stacy nodded her head. “Yes, Mr. President, that’s exactly right. I finally got him to stop crying and asked him if he wanted time to think about the war. I figured that in the state he was in, he wasn’t thinking straight. Then he got even angrier with me for questioning him and started talking about launching every nuke we have at the Empire and just get it over with. I tried so hard to get him to calm down. He needed to rest for a few days and let you take over. Told him we could make up any story we wanted — pneumonia or heart problems — anything to let him get his head on straight. That’s when he lost it. I was terrified that he was going to have a heart attack. It got so bad, I’ve… I’ve never seen him like that.” Stacy lowered her head and looked at Roberto to finish the story.

“I wasn’t happy with how he was speaking to the lady, so I tried to intervene. This poor woman was in tears, and that bastard kept screaming at her like she was a child. Then he fired her right there on the spot and told her to get out of his office. Admiral Mack was speechless. All he could do was try to escort her from the room and reassure her. Then Malcolm raised the alarm and the Secret Service came storming in, whisking her away like a criminal. I was able to convince the president to allow me to take Stacy back to Langley because I was sure he was going to try to have her arrested.”

Stacy was crying at this point, which was a good thing. If she hadn’t been sobbing with her face buried in her hands, she might have cracked a smile. Malcolm had pulled the whole thing off without a hitch. He was so convincing that it wasn’t difficult for Stacy to break down and play the part of a helpless damsel in distress. As an added bonus, the CIA Director was kind enough to offer an escort from the ranch. Once they were aboard his private jet, Stacy was able to vent all of her “frustrations” to Roberto. She told him that after she found out the truth about Florida, she had tried to resign her position as Chief of Staff but Malcolm wouldn’t let her. Stacy convinced Roberto that Malcolm had made horrible threats about ending her political career if she quit. Roberto believed every bit of her story. He was well aware of what was going on in Florida and was also aware that Stacy Reid was completely in the dark.

Roberto reigned in a coughing fit and after sipping some water, continued. “When my private jet arrived, we left the ranch and made it to Langley. After I gathered my things, we departed for Fort Collins. Not long after we landed, the EMP struck.”