Texas Strong: Post Apocalyptic EMP Survival Fiction (The Lone Star Series Book 4)

by Bobby Akart

  As was often the case, cooperation between the two superpowers broke down over economics. The Western Allies introduced a new form of currency, the deutsche mark, into West Berlin. In response, Moscow ordered a blockade of all transportation routes into West Berlin. They also built a fence, and then a solid block wall, to prevent East Berliners from fleeing to the more prosperous west sector.

  To overcome the loss of transportation routes, the Berlin Airlift was designed. Air Forces from seven Allied nations brought nine thousand tons of food, supplies, and fuel into West Berlin for further distribution to their citizens. The airlift circumvented the Soviet blockade and allowed West Berlin the opportunity to prosper. The Soviets, infuriated by the maneuver, could not stop the two hundred thousand flights into West Berlin airports for fear of angering the global community. The practice continued, and then, upon the urging of President Ronald Reagan, Mikhail Gorbachev tore down that wall.

  “Please explain,” said the President.

  “We’ll make the deal sweet for Burnett,” started Acton, who refused to use the designation president as it related to the Texas head of state. “She doesn’t have to lift a finger. All she needs to do is allow the United Nations access to her commercial airports, which are sitting dormant anyway. For example, Amarillo could service our Western states. DFW could service the Midwest and Northeastern states. Houston would be the hub for the South.”

  “What if she objects to the UN troops on Texas soil?”

  “We’ll have the secretary general come up with adequate assurances that his forces and aid workers would be restricted to the airports themselves,” replied Acton, knowing full well that would never work in practice, nor did he want it to. “Again, her job becomes easier and her people get a cut of the food. Now, if she wants to become a citizen of the world like the rest of us, she can join the UN, pay dues, and get further aid to her people.”

  The president stood and smiled. “James, it might just work. This will certainly accelerate our recovery effort. Should I make the call to Marion?”

  Oh, no. Leave that to me.

  “No, Madam President, I’ll make the necessary arrangements and keep you posted.”

  Chapter 9

  December 27

  The White House

  Washington, DC

  Acton casually exited the Oval Office and entered the corridor of the first floor of the West Wing. Prior to the collapse, the halls would’ve been filled with senior advisers and their staff, who occupied the offices on both sides of the corridor leading from the Oval Office to the Chief of Staff’s corner office.

  If it had been raining cats and dogs in that hallway, Acton wouldn’t have noticed. This plan was going to work, he was sure of it. By filling a dire need of the Texans, Acton could induce Burnett into an unforced error. Getting UN personnel on the ground in Texas was like the velociraptor sticking its beak through the swinging doors in the Jurassic Park movie. Once that beak was in, you couldn’t hold back the monster attached to it.

  He strutted through his secretary’s office, a temp he was stuck with until his regular aide could be located in Reston, Virginia. He was pounding away on a keyboard and didn’t acknowledge Acton as he entered. Annoyed, Acton rapped his knuckles on the man’s desk.

  “Get me Mohammed on the phone, now!” Acton spun and turned toward his office.

  “Which one?”

  Acton stopped dead in his tracks and shook his head. The only thing that prevented him from blasting this guy out of the West Wing was his euphoria over a plan coming together. “The Deputy Secretary General named Mohammed. You can’t miss him. His name is Mohammed Mohammed. Either way you read it, his name is in the same spot in your Rolodex.”

  “I don’t have a Rolodex,” the young man replied sheepishly.

  “I spoke to him an hour ago! Figure it out and don’t tell anybody about this call. Got it?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Acton poured himself two fingers of whisky and quickly downed it. Unlike the president, who needed her wine as a crutch, Acton enjoyed his whisky as a means of celebration. His self-congratulation session had to be delayed while he set the plan in motion.

  His secretary tapped on the door and stuck his head in. “Sir, I have Deputy Secretary General Mohammed on the line for you.”

  “Close that door,” barked Acton, still annoyed. “And close your door also. Nobody gets in, not even POTUS, got it?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Acton took a deep breath and lifted the receiver. “Deputy Secretary General Mohammed, thank you for taking my call.”

  “You’re welcome, Mr. Acton,” came the reply. “Is there something we failed to cover in our phone call?”

  Acton smiled. “No. Actually, I have good news. The president and I discussed this matter at length, and she has suggested an excellent resolution that can benefit everyone.”

  “Okay, I’m ready to hear President Harman’s proposal.”

  Acton laid out the suggested offer to be made to Texas regarding the logistics and the sharing of supplies. Then he supplemented the basis of the deal with the subterfuge portion of the plan.

  “Now, Mohammed, you and I have seen eye to eye for many years. I don’t believe we need to revisit the many times I have helped you advance your career.”

  “Nor do I need to remind you of the accommodations I have granted you in return,” replied Mohammed.

  “Agreed. I think we also agree that an independent Texas, a nation that refuses to join the United Nations and the new world order, is bad for business. This type of independent, nationalistic activity will encourage others like it. Do I need to remind you of that debacle in Spain with Catalonia? The Spaniards massacred their own people to prevent that secessionist movement.”

  “James, your Texas has already seceded, and President Harman has publicly acquiesced.”

  “She was encouraged to do so under false pretenses and coercion for the sake of the American people. This arrangement with Texas will help the American people, but it will also help overturn a terrible injustice to the United States.”

  “I don’t understand how the United Nations can help you with that,” said Mohammed.

  “Here’s how you can help. First, please assign Ruby Carlton, the special envoy to the African Union. She is a Texan and took the position to advance her family’s oil interests in the region. She also can be trusted by Burnett.

  “Second, I am going to provide you a list of international journalists to embed with the relief workers. There is no greater way to right a wrong than to shed the light of day upon the wrongdoing. It’s time for Texas to enjoy the media attention and a little transparency.

  “Finally, Burnett will insist upon UN personnel being confined to the airports where they are assigned. Toward that end, UN peacekeeping forces will be assigned to keep your people confined and, ostensibly, to keep the locals from interfering in your operations. This will reduce the manpower required of the Texas military.”

  Deputy Secretary General Mohammed paused without responding. Acton stopped talking as well, assuming the Saudi was making notes.

  Finally, Mohammed spoke. “May I assume that the peacekeeping forces will have further duties should the situation arise?”

  “Absolutely,” replied Acton. “I want you to send in UNPROFOR, the UN Protection Force. You know, the one that doesn’t exist. It’s time for them to exist again.”

  Chapter 10

  December 28

  The Mansion

  Austin, Texas

  President Burnett gathered her top military and homeland security advisors together to discuss the proposal she received from the United Nations. On the surface, she was pleased that the international body she despised had appointed an envoy with whom she was familiar—Ruby Carlton. The Carlton family had been generous contributors to the Bush campaigns in the past, which resulted in Carlton’s rise to become the ambassador to South Africa and her subsequent position with the UN.

  Despite her
modest level of trust in the proposal based upon Carlton’s representations, the president had serious misgivings about implementing the proposal. This morning, she’d be looking to her chief strategists to decide if accepting the offer was viable.

  The president started by polling the jury. “Before we get into the details of the proposal and the pros and cons, let’s go around the table and give me an up or down vote based on the concept. Monty, you’re first.”

  “I don’t like it,” said Vice President Gregg. “I have zero trust in the UN or Harris. This also has that globalist Acton’s fingerprints all over it. He’s an open-borders guy and very pro-UN.”

  “That’s a resounding no,” said President Burnett with a smile. “Kregg?”

  Adjutant General Kregg Deur had always been an apolitical voice within the president’s inner circle. He was a get-down-to-business kinda guy who tried not to let personalities get in the way of progress.

  “Madam President, speaking strictly from a Homeland Security perspective, we would be inviting a foreign military to conduct business on Texas soil. We’re not a member of the UN, and therefore the protective forces they offer must be considered potentially hostile. However, we could put in containment measures of our own to prevent UN personnel from leaving their boundaries. You know, the airport property.”

  “Is that a yes vote?” asked the president.

  “Yes, with qualifications. If we are in a position to say no to the proposal as structured and not be in violation of your prior agreements with Washington, then I say negotiate further.”

  “Kregg, can you devise a security plan that contains the UN personnel to their temporary bases?”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  President Burnett went around the table and got the opinions of her other cabinet members. The executive branch of the Texas government, when it was still a state, included a variety of commissioners who ran for office. As the transition was made from state to nation-state, each of these cabinet members were elevated to similar positions within the new government.

  The consensus was in favor of making the deal in order to access the food shipments, although several members suggested a temporary arrangement until the container ships could arrive to supply Texans with their basic necessities.

  After an hour-long discussion, President Burnett agreed to a sixty-day airlift from the United Nations to help Texas get through the harshest parts of winter. Further, by March 1, she was assured the dredging project would be complete, which would reopen the Port of Houston to normal shipping activity.

  In the meantime, the midstream operation suggested by Gregg, coupled with their share of the UN supplies, would help feed their citizens and hopefully quell the increasing unrest within Texas. President Burnett was a politician, and reelection was already on her mind.

  “Okay, thanks, everybody, for your input,” said the president. “Kregg, I’ll need you to work up a proposed security and monitoring plan. Ruby Carlton refers to this as the North American Airlift. My loyal voters will be infuriated that I’m allowing those baby-blue helmets into Texas. I have to convince them the benefits of food and supplies offset their temporary, limited presence here. Most importantly, I have to convince folks that we’re gonna keep them caged in. I’m counting on you to make it happen!”

  “Yes, Madam President,” said Deur as he stood and then nodded to Gregg. “Mr. Vice President.”

  Gregg nodded a reply and then turned to President Burnett. “Marion, I don’t like it. We’re makin’ a deal with the devil.”

  “Monty, we’re in a pickle here. Our borders are being pushed to their limits. I’m convinced that a quarter of the remaining living Americans have descended upon Texas. I can visualize their faces pressed against our fences, a bunch of sad puppy-dog eyes, begging to enter the promised land. We ain’t the promised land. If Texans knew how dire our food situation was, we’d lose control.”

  Gregg sat back in his chair and reached for a Werther’s wrapped candy out of his pocket. “Want one?”

  “No, thanks.”

  “I promised my wife I’d cut back on the cigars, so I placate myself with these things. It was a stupid promise.”

  “Monty, other than your natural inclination to disagree with anything that might have Washington’s stamp of approval on it, can we make this work?”

  “I think so, assuming Deur can contain them. We’ll have to monitor their inbound and outbound flights to make sure nothing unauthorized comes in.”

  “Like what?”

  “Marion, we have no way of knowing what the real intentions of the UN airlift are until we see their personnel. The most important agencies of the UN include monitoring and evaluation units. They’re gonna be like a bunch of spies milling about. Now, that said, if Deur can contain them, then he can control the flow of information sent back to Brussels and Washington.”

  The president was puzzled and then seemed to grasp the situation. “Are you talking about media? Do you think they might use this as an opportunity to allow news reporters into Texas?”

  “Absolutely. The worst kind. The kind who have an agenda wholly contrary to ours.”

  Chapter 11

  December 28

  The Mansion

  Austin, Texas

  Major and Duncan left early that morning for the three-hundred-mile drive to Austin. Normally, the trip would take just over four hours, but with speed limits being a thing of the past, Major buzzed down the mainly four-lane highway at eighty to ninety miles per hour. Without the ability to communicate with President Burnett’s office, the guys hoped she would make time to see them. If not, they’d opt for the adjutant general instead.

  The ride was uneventful except for signs of the apocalypse. Cars were abandoned on the sides of the highway due to lack of fuel. The small towns along the route, from Wingate to Winters and Bangs to Bozar, were largely abandoned. Signs of looting were evident at homes outside the town limits, but there was no evidence of the types of atrocities Major had witnessed in Gail.

  Entering Travis County, which apparently had been declared to be a state within the Republic of Texas based upon the temporary signs erected at the old county line, things began to change. There was very little vehicular traffic except for military and law enforcement.

  What struck Major and Duncan the most were the large numbers of people just milling about. The jobless. The American economy had been built on consumer spending. Likewise, most Texans held service-oriented jobs that fed off each other’s consumption.

  Consumerism rested on the assumption that the economy would grow and grow forever. Once the appetite for and the ability to consume faltered, the house of cards collapsed. After 9/11, President George W. Bush implored repeatedly—in response to every crisis, it was a citizen’s patriotic duty to go shopping. Spend your money. Keep the house of cards afloat.

  As the two rode through the streets of Austin, what they observed was reminiscent of the Great Depression. People standing around or walking aimlessly from point to point. Long lines at temporary government food-distribution centers. Tent cities outside hospitals as people waited to get treated for illnesses associated with dehydration, malnutrition, and dysentery.

  The house of cards was collapsing, but hey, the power was on.

  *****

  “Major Armstrong, what a very pleasant surprise!” President Burnett jovially greeted her longtime friend and consistent donor. It wasn’t often that an uninvited guest could meet with the president of any nation without having to go through the pomp and circumstance afforded a person in power. She appeared genuinely glad to see him.

  “Madam President,” began Major as he shook his head and smiled. The reality of Texas being its own country and his friend Marion as its president just hit him. “Well, what can I say? Congratulations!”

  She gave him an impromptu hug, which lingered for nearly half a minute, the sincerity of which did not go unnoticed by Major. Despite the politician’s façade, he suspected the president was
under intense pressure.

  “Duncan, is that you? You’re the spittin’ image of your daddy when he was your age.”

  “It’s nice to see you again, Madam President,” said Duncan as he shook her hand. He too received a hug, which caused him to lock eyes with Major. Major gave a slight shrug and furrowed his brow. He wondered if they’d come at a bad time.

  The president broke their embrace and led them both into her office. She left her door open for a minute while her aide brought them three glasses of sweet tea. After they were alone again, the door was closed and the president relaxed.

  “Major, don’t get me wrong, I think what we’ve accomplished here is extraordinary. Seriously, it will be written about in history books and analyzed for years to come. But I’ve gotta be honest, there are times I really miss riding horses out at the Four Sixes Ranch.”

  “I totally understand, Madam Pres—” started Major before he was cut off.

  “Stop that, both of you. I’m surrounded by butt-kissers who madam this or madam that. I admit, it was flattering at first, but if I can’t let my friends call me Marion, I might forget who I am.”

  The guys agreed, and the mood in the room immediately lifted. Major relayed to the president how ranch life had changed. He tried to avoid the negatives of what had happened in Gail and with the intruders at the ranch. The president of Texas had enough to deal with.

  She opened up to them about the country’s food shortages. President Burnett disclosed the proposal made by the UN, and Major was honest with her as to his opinion. Politically, the additional food supplies would be very popular with the majority of Texans. Ideologically, her core constituency would freak out. But, he added, without normal media operations and conservative talk radio to rake her over the coals, it was unlikely most Texans would know the logistical arrangements she’d agreed to.

  The conversation turned to Duncan and the reason for their unannounced arrival. As he began to provide her the backstory on how he had returned to the U.S., the president’s aide tapped on her door and entered.