G Hopf - The End

“You thought what, colonel? You are now an enemy of the American people; you have committed mutiny and treason!” Conner yelled.

Barone paused for a moment before he attempted to respond. His assumptions about the accusations he’d hear were correct.

“What am I to do with you, colonel?”

Barone did not answer; he wanted to make sure he could answer without being interrupted.

There was an uncomfortable silence.

“Well, colonel?”

“Can I answer without being interrupted?”

“Go ahead, colonel.”

“I looked at the entire situation and felt that—” Barone paused and then completed his thought. “No; I knew that going back to the East Coast to assist in a recovery effort was futile. What about our families back in California, who is taking care of them? I feel it is more important to keep as many people alive instead of digging up dead bodies. I did voice my concerns but the plan was in place and so I did what I knew was the right thing.”

After Barone had said his piece, there was silence.

After thinking about what Barone said Conner continued, “Colonel Barone, I have heard your excuse, I am giving you one chance to correct your errors and turn your ships around and go back to your original mission. As your Commander in Chief, I order you to do this. We will deal with you later. I need good men in the field and I need you to follow what is in the best interests of our country. Do you understand?”

Barone sat and thought about what the new president had ordered. He then felt in his heart that he was doing the right thing and told Conner, “Mr. President; I cannot. I have committed myself to my men and their families. I am sorry but your orders to go back east are foolish. I cannot in good conscience follow those orders. I accept full responsibility for this and my men are doing this because of me.”

“Colonel Barone, I am sorry to hear that. Here is what will happen. We cannot allow you to openly defy the government; we will be compelled to use force to stop you,” Conner said coolly.

“Mr. President, I would ask that you let us go peacefully, engaging in open conflict is not advisable.”

“Colonel you have done this, not us, we cannot allow this mutiny to go unchecked. We will stop you before you ever reach California.”

“Mr. President, I’m pleading, don’t take it to that level. We only mean to go home and take care of our families. We did not mean to get into a fight on Diego Garcia. We came under attack so we defended ourselves and will do so if we are attacked again. Sir, there does not need to be bloodshed. Please let us go freely.”

“Colonel, you have 24 hours to accept my offer. If after 24 hours you have not turned the ships around; we will consider you a hostile to the United States and an enemy of the people. We will use whatever means necessary to ensure you do not land in California.”

“Sir, I will not change my mind and again ask you for leniency. However; if attacked we will defend to the death.”

“You have 24 hours. We will await your reply. Goodbye Colonel Barone,” Conner finished then the line went silent.

Barone put the receiver down and sighed loudly. He needed to meet with his staff and work out a plan to avoid contact with any US military ships. He stood up, opened the door and before he left he looked back at the receiver. He had finally talked to a sitting president but not under the circumstances he would have wanted over the 18 years of his career. He chuckled to himself and closed the door.

Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado

Conner slammed the phone down, “God damn it!”

He looked around at the staff that surrounded him. No one said a word, they all just stared. They knew by hearing just his side of the conversation that Barone was not backing down.

“As you heard, I am giving him 24 hours to change his mind and change course. If not we must stop him. General Griswald, if he continues what are our options?”

“Sir, we have a carrier group located in Hawaii that we can use and we have three attack submarines in the Western Pacific.”

“General, contact our command in Hawaii and move some ships out of port and have them prepared to engage Barone and his ARG, also contact those subs and get them in position as well.”

“Yes sir,” Griswald said.

Conner looked at each person in the room. He then said, “We cannot allow this to stand, we must stop him. If we do not, this will encourage others to defy us. God damn him. We have enough to worry about, now we have to dedicate resources to stopping him.”

“Mr. President, this is a wise decision,” Griswald said.

“General, do we have any more information about the attacks? Our time frame to do something is running short.”

“Sorry, sir, we are no closer than we were a day after the attacks. This will take time.”

Everyone was getting accustomed to seeing Conner act out in anger. So seeing him again display his anger by slamming his fist on the table was not shocking.

Conner scolded Griswald, “We don’t have much more time. Every minute that goes by without a response emboldens our enemies and makes them think we don’t have the means or the guts to do something about this. I am only being patient for you general; I need some answers and I need them soon.”

“We will continue to keep working on it sir,” Griswald responded.

Griswald was not being completely honest with the president. He did not want to give him what he had found out from his counterpart in Australia. From his conversations over the past week, the Australians had managed to secure information from one of the prisoners. The prisoner told them that he had been trained in Iran. He did not know where the bomb had come from as it was already there when they arrived. While this information was valuable he did not want to give Conner the excuse to nuke Iran just yet. He felt Conner had an itchy trigger finger. Griswald wanted to see if he could build a coalition amongst the new presidential staff to his mostly diplomatic and limited military option versus the president’s nuclear only option. Griswald realized what he was doing could be considered a violation of his duty to the president but he felt that going along with the president’s option would leave half the world a nuclear wasteland. He knew he didn’t have much time, so he needed to act soon.

San Diego, CA

Gordon sat on the edge of the bed, distraught. The thought of going to Mason’s funeral was dreadful. He could not help but think that he could have acted quicker. Regret filled his mind as he doubted his actions. He doubted his actions and thought he had been too cautious while he searched the hospital. If he had acted more quickly, Mason might still alive. His thoughts were also plagued by the feelings of guilt. He cursed that he had not secured enough supplies beforehand.

He had not seen Jimmy since that night. The entire event had caused heartache and controversy in the community. All were saddened at the news of Mason’s death and some had also used the incident for political gain by using it to strike out at Gordon. Dan had confronted Gordon later that night about the shooting of the unarmed man. As soon as Dan had finished arguing with Gordon that night he promptly went to Mindy’s house to inform her of the confrontation, the killing and Mason’s death. Mindy, shocked by Mason’s death, also saw it as a chance to publically condemn Gordon. She had called a special session of the board to meet after the funeral.

Life in Rancho Valentino had been insulated from the realities of what was happening to those outside the gate. Not realizing the harshness of the new world, Mindy was successful in seeding discontent against Gordon. He felt had they only been able to see the world outside they would see cause for his decisive action. Many in Rancho Valentino were spoiled and protected.