G Hopf - The End

“Any new word from the Topeka ?” Barone asked.

“Sir, the Topeka has proceeded ahead of us to provide overwatch.”

“Well, I am damn glad we had them on our side. In my entire career, I have never seen a submarine in action and now I have a newfound respect for them,” Barone said, sounding upbeat.

Barone had not wished for this incident, but was happy with its outcome.

“You’re goddamn right, sir. I couldn’t believe my eyes when the first torpedo struck the New Orleans , just incredible,” Sgt. Major Simpson said.

“Sir, we also lost one Harrier today,” Ashley said with apprehension as he interrupted the joyful mood in the room.

“I saw, who was it?”

All the men looked around at one another and no one said a word.

“Gentlemen, what’s going on?”

“Sir, the pilot on board was 1 stLt. William Barone.”

“That’s impossible; his jet was not called up. I know this.”

“Sir, he was called up after Lt. Holland was injured on his way to the flight deck. Lt. Barone took his place and jumped in Holland’s aircraft,” said Lt. Colonel Pelton.

Barone sat stunned; he could not believe what he was hearing. You could hear a pin drop it was so quiet in the room. Barone started to shake his head in disbelief.

“Are you sure of this?” Barone asked, his voice now subdued.

“Sir, we were just as shocked as you are now. I personally went down to confirm,” Pelton said.

“Gentlemen, if you’ll excuse me,” Barone stood up quickly. A feeling of sickness overcame him. He needed to leave the room immediately. Without saying another word, he left and walked as fast as his legs would take him back to his stateroom.

The entire walk back was torture; he kept picturing his son’s young handsome face. His mind wanted to deny what he just heard.

Finally making it to his room, he stumbled inside and headed for the toilet. He fell to his knees and threw up. He had been in the Marines Corps a long time. He had witnessed death many times and had even taken life, but now this was too personal for him, this was too close to home. His son was now dead. How would he explain this to his wife?

After minutes of dry heaving and exhaustion, he sat down on the floor. Seeing the bottle of whiskey, he stood up and grabbed it and poured the entire contents down his throat. He looked at the empty bottle, then smashed it against the bulkhead. Looking at the thousands of tiny fragments of glass thoughts came of Billy. That was all he was now, he had been blown into a thousand unrecognizable fragments like this bottle.

“Goddamn you Newsom, goddamn you!”

Barone wanted to blame Capt. Newsom, but deep down he blamed himself. The emotional pain was now too much; he could not resist and finally gave in and started to sob.

Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado

President Conner sat alone and motionless in the cold briefing room. The solitude felt appropriate in the current circumstances. Christmas morning had started out perfect. He and Julia had spent the early hours feeling like teenagers, laying in bed and making love. This bliss was shattered with the news from New York.

The fears he had about another attack had come true. At 9:23 a.m. Eastern Standard Time a low-grade nuclear bomb was detonated in Manhattan along the east side, destroying most of the city. Feelings of inadequacy and failure competed with the strong feelings of anger and revenge.

Griswald, senior staff, Dylan and Cruz came into the room and immediately took seats around the long table. Conner looked around and noticed that General Houston was absent. He was tempted to ask about his whereabouts but didn’t want to waste any more time and began the meeting.

“By now you all have heard what’s happened in New York,”

Everyone looked somber and acknowledged Conner by nodding.

“First let me begin by saying that because we have failed to act our country has been attacked again. This new attack wasn’t coincidental; this was a planned attack on a national holiday—,” Conner said then paused. “General, it has been three weeks since we were initially attacked and still you have nothing but excuses. If we had done something we might have prevented this. We have sat in this mountain for weeks and all we do is talk and talk. I know you oppose my plan. I listened and gave your counsel great respect and deep consideration. Retaliating against our known enemies with the use of our nuclear arsenal is something that should not be taken lightly, I understand that. However, it’s not as if we haven’t been attacked with the same type of weapon. There are those out there that want to exterminate us. We know who they are; we have been dealing with them for over a generation. Many of my predecessors have had to deal with them. We have taken action before by putting troops on the ground and slogging it out slowly over years and years. Have we had some success? Yes; but we can never win this unless we do to them what they want to do to us. We must wipe them off the map! We must completely and utterly destroy them. Like Lincoln over 150 years ago realized that he could not win the war against the Confederacy unless he decimated them; that is what we must do now to our enemies. We can no longer waste time talking; we can no longer waste time attempting to find out who did this. We know who did it,” Conner stood up and started to slowly walk around the room. “General, you have been a trusted counsel during these trying times but I have given you enough time. I do not wish to hear your objections,” Conner was looking at Griswald the entire time he spoke. He then began to address the rest in the room, “I brought you all in here today not to talk but to inform you of what we will do today. Today we strike back! Today we once and for all destroy our enemies! We eradicate them from this planet. I am not concerned about what the world thinks. Today, we take real action and begin the reconstruction of our country,” Conner made his way back to his seat but did not sit. He again turned his attention to Griswald. “General Griswald, I hereby order our nuclear forces to strike the following cities, Tehran, Baghdad, Islamabad, Kabul, Mogadishu, Pyongyang, Damascus, Tripoli, Aden; I also want all military installations in the countries of Iran, Iraq, Syria, Libya, North Korea, Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia and Pakistan destroyed with nuclear weapons. If that means dropping a hundred bombs on each country, I don’t care. I don’t want them to have the means to come back; I want whoever survives to be sent straight to the Stone Age. You have my orders and I expect them to be carried out immediately,”

The room was quiet, no one said a word; they all stared at Conner. They knew the gravity of the situation and what was about to happen.

“Sir, I cannot do what you ask,” Griswald said, breaking the silence.

“Excuse me, general?” Conner asked.

“I cannot follow an order that allows for the murdering of millions of innocent people.”

“General, enough of the innocent people talk. The days of innocent people are over. The people in these countries hate us. Look at what we have wasted over the past decade attempting to win their hearts and minds. They want us dead. They only use us for their benefit then discard us. If you will not carry this out, then I will find someone who will.”

“Actually, sir, you will not be doing anything like that,” Griswald said defiantly. He stood up; he was at the opposite side of the table from the president.

“What was that, general?”

“Sir, we will not let you.”

Looking around the room, Conner asked, “And exactly who will not let me?”

“Sir, I have been working behind the scenes to prevent this type of holocaust from happening. I am sorry to say that there is a consensus amongst those here,” Griswald looked at a few around the table. No one would look at him. They all turned away.