by Adam Yoshida
"Ok then," said Hogan, "let's talk about something that is impressive. Your record."
"Alright, tell me about my own record," said the Governor.
"You're a backwoods Sheriff who went to a fourth-tier law school," began Hogan.
"Hey now," said the Governor, "I didn't have to come out of my fucking way to be insulted, least of all by tweed-wearing bastard like yourself."
"No, let me keep going," said Hogan. The Governor responded with a nod.
"What I"m saying here, Governor, is that you can connect with people. And that's a gift. You've gained positions that most people from your background would never dream of. You're one of the most famous men in America."
"You're Goddamned right I am" said Schmidt, "so why the heck would I need Mitchell Randall? What do I need from him?"
"Respectability, Governor. Do you remember Sarah Palin? She wasn't even a quarter as impressive as you were and, with a little bit of help, she damned near became the Vice President of the United States. If she'd had everything that you have, she'd have probably become President - or at least been a serious contender for the job."
"Terrance Rickover will let you campaign for him. He'll joke with you and shake your hand - but he's never going to offer you a golden ticket."
"And that's what you're saying that your guy has to offer?" said Schmidt.
"That's exactly what my guy has to offer, Governor. He wants to make you Vice President of the United States."
"Ha," said Schmidt, "how would that even work? I'd might as well run for President with Al Gore as my running mate, in terms of ideological compatibility."
Hogan grabbed his briefcase and snapped it open. He began to take out carefully stapled-together pieces of paper and handed them to the Governor.
"That's not really true, Governor," he said, "I think that you'll find that you and the Senator are actually pretty ideologically compatible. My research staff found that you agree on 85% of the issues that the American Conservative Union tested on in the last survey that they did before the war."
It had taken a little fudging to come up with those numbers, Hogan knew, but he hoped that the Governor wouldn't scrutinize them too closely.
"But," continued Hogan as he grabbed some more documents, "I think that you'll find these more interesting."
Schmidt grabbed the documents and began to read them.
"Polling numbers," he noted as he flipped the pages.
"Are these reliable?" he asked.
"The Senator and I trust the pollster. This was taken in the most covert possible fashion, I should add," said Hogan, "but the conclusion is impossible to escape: if you and the Senator run together, you can win."
Temporary Seat of the Government of the United States, Colorado Springs, Colorado
"I would agree with you, Mr. President," explained General Monroe, "that the forces that we are positioning to defeat the Democratic Union forces here in North America are overwhelming. But that doesn't assure victory - and certainly not a quick victory. Let us suppose that the CENTCOM plan comes off and the two divisions under the command of General MacKenzie land and begin to roll up the DU positions in the Virginia-Maryland-Pennsylvania theatre of operations and also that General Jackson's command is able to roll across the inner Canadian border and to push all the way to the ocean. That still leaves powerful forces in the centre that can resist. And we need to consider carefully the forces that we have arrayed in the Chicago region: it could be a situation like the Siege of Petersburg, where our forces - though superior in numbers - are forced to dislodge one set of defenses after another, suffering more and more intense casualties with each passing day."
"I am aware of the political realities, General," replied the Acting President, "the question I have is whether or not you have enough forces arrayed across the front to open a general offensive."
"If the Third Army can come ashore and if we really can open up a Canadian front, then I fully believe that we have a force on hand that is capable of undertaking a successful offensive action. But I cannot guarantee the timeline or the casualty levels of such an undertaking," said Monroe.
"I wouldn't ask such of you, General," said Rickover, "but can it be done?"
"It can be," said the General evenly.
"Then my orders stand: when the Third Army touches American soil, the general offensive is to begin on all fronts."
"Very well, Mr. President," said General Monroe.
"I will issue the appropriate orders, sir," said the Secretary of Defense.
"I do wonder," said the Acting President, his voice low, "if we might not make something more of the divisions exposed by the actions of the British forces in the Falklands."
"Such as?" asked the Secretary of State.
"Well, turnabout is fair play," said Rickover, "and as they have divided America, perhaps we should seek to divide them. I will remind you that the policy of this government is not only to reunite the country, but also to punish those who have sought to divide and destroy it."
"I am in full agreement with that as a matter of policy, Mr. President," said Secretary Preston, "but I don't know if we can afford to be dividing our resources right now. Not with the largest offensive of the war due to begin in a week, at the most."
"I know that this is the hardest thing that any of you have ever done," began the Acting President, "but we need to be thinking about the long-term. It won't be enough to drive the European Union forces out of North America. We need to ensure not only that they never interfere here again, but that their capacity to do so is eradicated. Likewise, we need to remember that, for all that they have been helpful in this crisis, the Chinese are not our friends. In the long-run they are our enemies and will need to be confronted as well. Don't single-track."
"Mr. President," said Secretary Preston, "I can put a planning team on it. I can't make any promises, but we'll see what we can have done."
"That's all that I've ever wanted," said the Acting President, smiling and spreading his hands across the table in front of him. After a moment, Rickover sighed deeply.
"Gentlemen," he said, thinking of something he had once seen an actor playing Franklin Roosevelt say in a movie, "let us take a brief break. Recess was always my favorite time at school. It is getting to be that way in war as well."
As the Acting President stepped out of the room, his Secretary walked up to him.
"Governor Schmidt called again," she said.
"Tell him I'll call back as soon as I can. I am running a war, after all," replied Rickover.
Grand Central Station, Manhattan, Federation of North American States
Roman Moore checked his watch as he walked into the lower concourse of Grand Central Station. Nearly one month after the end of the Uprising, life in New York City had returned to something that almost resembled normality. The day-to-day business of the city went on, albeit disconnected from the affairs of much of the rest of the country. For Moore and the other survivors of the abortive attempt to snatch the city out the hands of the the Loyalists and now the Federation (or the Democratic Union, depending on how you wished to describe it) those days had been incredibly trying.
After the last stand of the 1st Battalion, Ninth Marine Regiment at the site of the 9-11 Memorial, the survivors of the rebel attempt to take the city had quickly attempted to disperse, but had found themselves hunted through the streets of the city by the French 2e Régiment étranger de parachutistes and the elements of the NYPD that had aligned themselves with the new government. Of the Marines and insurgents who had fought the Cuban and French troops occupying New York City, barely three hundred had ended the day of the uprising both alive and not in captivity with both Roman Moore and Mack Dallas among those who remained free.
Moore slipped into one of the free tables in the lower-level food court, deliberately taking a seat next to a urine-stained homeless man in order to ensure that other people kept as far away from him as possible. Moore had served in both Iraq and Afghanistan and
had helped to dig up months-old mass graves so he had smelled worse. Barely.
He sat at the table for a few minutes sipping his cup of coffee and checking the news on his tablet. It amazed him that the cellular networks were still mostly up-and-running. In war and peace the people still wanted their Facebook and Instagram. Although during the early days of the war some people had contemplated setting up massive systems of internet censorship, that had proven to be largely-unnecessary as people continue to generally travel in their own small ideological circles, whether online or in person. This tendency had, in fact, been enhanced by the war.
Russia continued to play a cagey game with their friends in Western Europe, according to the New York Times . The Russians were cooperating militarily with the Democratic Union in the Atlantic while, at the same time, they continued to press inwards on the frontiers of the former EU itself. Today the Times was reporting on the efforts of Russian-backed "rebels" in Estonia, who were, by all accounts, actually soldiers of the regular Russian Army.
I never did trust those fuckers , thought Moore as he flipped the page and began to read a story about the untrustworthy fuckers his side was dealing with.
The People's Liberation Army, the Times reported, had seized a number of coastal islands along the Vietnamese coast, which it asserted were historic Chinese territory. The Vietnamese had protested and even sent gunboats into the region, but - with America entirely focused inwards - there was no one who was going to do a damned thing about that. Japan, another story was reporting, was using the occasion of the alignment of the United States with the People's Republic of China as sign for it to begin a furious process of rearmament. The keel had just been laid for the first Japanese Aircraft Carrier to be built since the Second World War.
A lot of people wanted a world without America , thought Moore. He paused and looked up and saw both Mack Dallas and Juan Mancini walking on down towards him. Each of them came and took a seat.
Mancini took a look over at the man sitting at the table next to them.
"There are plenty of other seats available," he said.
"Nah," replied Moore, "this one is fine."
"Jesus," said Mancini, waving his hand in front of his face.
"It seems like we've made some real progress," said Dallas as he tossed a bag with a pair of donuts in it onto the table. Moore grabbed one of the donuts and tore into it.
"Oh?" he asked, his mouth full.
"No one is happy with the new state of affairs," explained Detective Mancini, "I mean, the old bearded Marxist was bad enough, but this new woman..."
The Detective shuddered.
"And," he added, "of course, most of the the guys aren't happy with the notion that we're suddenly in a new country and all of the rest of that bullshit. That's not unanimous - some of the more political people see an opportunity for themselves, but it's pretty widespread."
"Well then," said Dallas, "what are we going to do about it?"
"Well," said Mancini, "people are pissed, but they also saw what happened in the last uprising. And that was even before the Federation Army showed up on the streets of the city. People are angry, not suicidal."
"Angry enough to fight?" asked Moore.
"If they can win," said Mancini, helping himself to one of the donuts.
"Look," said Dallas, "the entire uprising thing wasn't our idea. That apparently came from POTUS directly on down and we all knew from the word go that it was a roll of the dice. Obviously it didn't work."
"Though it might have helped to distract them from the California invasion," noted Moore.
"Yes, there is that," agreed Dallas, before continuing, "anyways, that's not what we're talking about this time. Not unsupported. No sudden landings or paratroopers. Instead, what we're think about is more in line with a regime change. The support of local authorities as the grand offensive is launched is going to be vital."
"You want to launch a coup d'teat in New York City?" asked Mancini.
Dallas took a moment before replying.
"Basically. What we want to do is to establish a shadow government of New York City in the hours before our forces strike in this region. We'll need to be more organized and we'll need lots of friends."
"These are uncertain times," said Mancini, "people are unhappy, but they're not sure what's going to happen and they don't want to choose wrong."
"We can pay," said Moore, his mouth full, "we can pay a whole fucking lot."
"That will help," conceded Mancini.
Vancouver, British Columbia, United Western Republic
Prime Minister James Beauregard contemplated his McGill class ring as he waited to rise in the House of Commons. The first week of his new Progressive government's reign had been a little shaky, as both the Conservative and Liberty Party raged at the perfidy of the handful of defecting members who had provided the new Prime Minister with his majority. However, the acrimony of the sudden break-up of the Conservative-Liberty Party coalition was such that they were at least as angry at one another as they were at Beauregard and the Progressives. This was enough, when combined with the handful of votes that had been handed to the new Prime Minister without any real explanation (and which he didn't intend to look too closely into, given the meeting that he had had the night before he took office himself), to allow him to survive two no confidence votes in rapid succession.
Now, however, the Prime Minister was about to set off an entire new firestorm.
"Mr. Speaker," he began as he rose to his feet, "I apologize to the very short notice that was given in calling the House together this evening, but the news that I have is such that it ought to be delivered the to the House in person and without any delay."
"What I am about to tell the House, Mr. Speaker, is very shocking - and it demands an immediate and comprehensive response. I have, just this evening, received confirmation of intelligence that we received some days ago via a source that we trust. This source, which I cannot name, provided us with vital information during the War of Independence. I regret that I cannot tell you much more than that, except to say that both my predecessor and myself have absolute faith in this source and this information."
"We have received information from within the corridors of the Democratic Union itself, along with communications between officials of the DU and the Federation of North American States. Specifically, we are in possession of confidential communications which show that the former Provinces of Eastern Canada demanded that, as a condition to their membership in the Federation and the DU, that the Western Provinces would be reunited with the East and that this would be accomplished by force, if necessary."
The entire House dissolved into an uproar.
"Not only that, Mr. Speaker," said the Prime Minister, bringing the House to a hush as he resumed speaking, "but we also know that these assurances were given. Indeed, these assurances promised that the Western Republic would be incorporated into the new Federation regardless of the ultimate division of America. We have been told that, in fact, there are more than a few far-sighted individuals within the hierarchy of the Federation who view the conquest of the West as indispensable to the long-term strategic position of the Federation should they ultimately conclude some sort of peace with the United States. They believe that, if peace is concluded in the near future, they will be able to turn their weapons upon us because the United States will, in view of our neutrality in this conflict and the political situation that exists there at the present time, refuse to go to war in our defense."
"Mr. Speaker, there is no one in this fundraiser who has worked longer or in greater earnest for the establishment of peace. There is no one here who wishes anymore than I do that we might never again know war in our country and, indeed, in the world itself. However, to resist conflict when it is thrust upon you - when it threatens the fundamental security of your country and your people - is every bit as wrong as it is to go to war without cause."
"Therefore, Mr. Speaker, I move that this House declare
that a state of war exists between the United Western Republic and the Federation of North American States."
XII Corps Headquarters, Grand Forks, North Dakota
Lieutenant General William Thomas Jackson watched the live coverage of the vote in the Western Parliament with a wide smile on this face. Almost every member of the House had voted for war and only a handful of malcontents and extremists had even questioned the existence or the source of the secret evidence that had been the casus belli. After all, no one expected a Prime Minister of the left to engage or be complicit in the fabrication of such things.
"Here's to you, you careless whoremonger!" said Jackson as he raised a glass of scotch to toast the Western Prime Minister.
"General?" asked Colonel Benson as she stepped into his tent.
"Oh, come in Colonel," said Jackson as he took his feet down off the table that was serving as the temporary desk.
"Sir," said Benson, "the DOD has reported that the border is now open and that there are units of the Western Republic Army on station to guide us to our final destination."
"Then by all means," ordered the General, "you may begin the advance."
CHAPTER FOUR
The Clash
HMS Queen Elizabeth (R08) , Mid-Atlantic Ocean
Vice-Admiral Travis Childers watched from the bridge of the Royal Navy's flagship, the aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth , as the Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov pulled up alongside the rest of the group.
The Admiral, who had begun his career in the Royal Navy in the days when their primary mission had been to fight the Soviet Navy for control of the North Atlantic sea lanes in a projected Third World War had never expected that he would see a day like this. Nor did he ever expect that he would be asked to undertake the politically sensitive duty that had now been thrust upon him.
"I'll be in my quarters," the Admiral called out as he began to step below.
The Admiral has barely managed to amble through the door and sit down when there was a knock on the door.
