by Ira Tabankin
Task Force 66 accelerates to 25 knots towards Norfolk.
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Todd sits in the shelter’s security room watching truck after truck bringing sections of the TBMs to the new shelter to begin the new tunneling project. He looks at the list shaking his head. It’s a good thing we no longer need the field to feed us, the trucks are tearing the fields up. I wonder how long it’s going to take before they begin. I like their idea of the camouflage mesh nets and tarps hiding the trucks from the North’s eyes in the sky. They’ll know we have lines of trucks arriving, but not what’s on them or what we’re doing with them. While one team begins tunneling to the caves, the other teams are finishing General Abram’s shelter and the office space under the street which will be a train station, support offices, stores and a handful of restaurants. We’re building down versus up, this is different. I wonder how this is going to work out.
I remember Jay telling me it’s how a lot of cities in Asia are built. He told me a lot of Hong Kong and Japan built their shopping centers underground as did Canada. I never saw an underground shopping center; I can’t wait until they finish one so I can experience it.
Tony smiles looking at the pile of contracts on his desk. Every hour Fred brings additional ones to him for review. He laughs to himself, there was a time I would have made a fortune from these, I would have skimmed off the top and bottom. I’m actually happy I gave Jay my word and I changed. None of my old friends would believe it if they saw me today. I gave Jay my word and no matter how attractive it is, I’m, going to keep my word. Jay and I are going to change the country. We’re going to improve the people’s and our lives. It’s funny, but I’m enjoying this new phase of my life. I enjoy not having to look over my shoulder every minute. He’s day dreaming when a loud noise snaps him back to reality. He jumps up, what the F is that, Tony runs to the security room yelling,
“Todd, what’s going on? Are we under attack?”
“Calm down, that’s one of the small tunneling machines, it’s digging the tunnel between this shelter and the new one. They just cut through the wall to build the tunnel between our two shelters. The tunnel will connect with the tunnel to the General’s shelter and the one under the street.”
“How much more of the shaking do we have to live with?”
“A lot more.”
“I’m moving to the castle’s conference room. Are you going to be okay here?”
“I don’t have a choice; we only have one security room. We never built one in the castle.”
“Good luck with that. Call me when the tunnels are finished and we can use the shelter again.”
“We can still use it. In fact, if we’re attacked we can slip out through the new tunnels.”
“I’m out of here. I’ll see you soon. By the way where’s John?”
“He’s at the General’s shelter helping them with their security room and communications connections to us, the rest of our military, the various militias and wherever Jay happens to be. By the way, what do you think of Jay’s report?”
“I’m worried about the part of his report about the demonstrators, I’m worried about his next meetings, they know what he’s going to say, they’ll use it against him. The next meetings could get nasty.”
“His next one is in Huntsville, which should be a very friendly group. It’s the one in Birmingham that concerns me.” Say’s Todd.
“I agree, what are your ideas?”
“Can we send additional protective people to cover him?”
“If we do, it’ll look like he’s surrounded by the Army, it might backfire on us.”
“We should have hired a bunch of people from the Secret Service.”
“We overlooked it. I’m worried about what else we forgot or overlooked. Shit, how do we protect him without it looking like he’s surrounded with green uniforms holding assault rifles?”
“Tony, I really don’t know. Do you know any private security firms we can quickly hire?”
“Great idea, I’ll look right into it.”
“Tony, real security companies, not bikers or hitmen, it can’t look like we’re protecting him with the mafia, which would look worse than surrounding him with the army.”
“I know. I know. I won’t screw this up.”
“I’m trusting you, remember, if you screw this up, you may screw up the entire Confederacy.”
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“Mr. President, we lost most of our submarines, they ran into a surprise mine field we didn’t know they laid ahead of our boats.”
“How many survived? How many managed to launch at the damn battleship?”
“Mr. President, only one boat survived, none got into range to fire on the battleship.”
“Only one survived? One boat? Did they develop something new? Damn it. How close are we to mounting that big bomb to the planes?”
“We have two planes which can be loaded with the bombs, they can be in the air within two hours.”
“Do it, hit them, sink them. Do whatever you have to do to sink them.”
“Yes, sir. I’ll issue the order.”
“I want to see lifeboats and an oil slick on the ocean where their ships used to me. Am I clear?”
“Yes, sir.”
“I hear Tolson is getting creamed by minorities at his town hall meetings.”
“We’ve had reports that he’s upsetting many of them, we expect him to have a lot of riots in the coming weeks.”
“Excellent, send them whatever resources they need to disrupt his meetings. Give them anything that will help them stop Tolson. Maybe they’ll be able to stop his plans. Maybe they’ll be able to make the Southerners see the errors of their way, if the minorities create enough pressure on their communities, they’ll come running back to us.”
“Sir, I’m not so sure…”
“I know these people, I know these groups, they can push Tolson to the left, they can push the people into wanting the protection we provided for them. Arm them to create a bloody civil disruption.”
“Yes, sir.”
Chapter 21
Ricky wakes in a damp, moldy smelling cell in the dark, the only light comes from a small night light mounted high on the wall, almost no light reaches the cold floor where Ricky is trying to recover from his torture. His body hurts all over, his groin is swollen and black and blue. He had never imagined that the level of pain his body experienced existed. He wants to die, rather than spend any more time in their torture chamber. He’s woken by a voice above his head,
“Ricky, Ricky, are you awake? Are you in pain? Do you wish you could die? Don’t worry, we decided we’re going to let you spend some more time in our little torture chair. We have some new toys we want to play with, we think you’re the perfect person to practice on, would you like to book a morning or afternoon session?”
“No more, please, no more. Why don’t you just kill me?”
“We can’t kill you. The President wants you to suffer, since he can’t reach your father-in-law, he’s taking out his frustrations on you. Please select morning or afternoon.”
“No more, I can’t take any more. I’m begging you.”
“Do you want us to stop torturing you? All you have to do is call your father-in-law and get him to agree to meet with the President. It’s that easy.”
“He won’t do it; he hates the President.”
“That’s very bad for you, we have a new toy we’re sure you’re not going to enjoy. Trust us, you will hate our new toy. We learned about it reading an old history book. By the way, you don’t want any more kids do you? When we’re done, your groin will be useless, in fact, any time you use it for anything will cause you so much pain, you’ll pass out.”
“Please, I haven’t done anything, I’ve told you everything I know.”
“You don’t know anything we need to know. All we want is for you to convince your father-in-law to come to a meeting. Isn’t that simple? We’ll even let you talk to your wife, maybe she can convince him. We tho
ught if we called her while torturing you, she would do what you don’t seem willing to do. We aren’t asking for a lot, just a simple face to face meeting.”
“If he says yes, will you let me go?”
“Of course we will, don’t you trust us?”
“No!”
“That’s such a shame. You’ll have to pay for your lack of trust.”
The two DHS agents flip a switch which closes a circuit sending electricity across the floor Ricky is lying on. He screams trying to get off the floor.
“There’s no place to go, that’s unless you can climb the walls.”
The agents turn the current on and off.
“Had enough?”
“Please, please no more. I’ll call him, give me my phone, and I’ll call him.”
“See, it’s not difficult to be agreeable, isn’t yes easier than no? Yes results in rewards, no results in pain. One of us will come in with your phone, it’s been set on speaker so we can hear everything.”
“He’s not going to agree.”
“Yes he will. By now, his beloved naval fleet is sitting on the bottom of the ocean. He’s lost his trump card.”
“Please no more torture. I’ll call him.”
“Ricky, you’re a good boy.”
One of the agents hands Ricky his cell phone,
“Dial his number, get him on the line.”
Speed dialing number two, the phone auto dials Jay’s number.
The call goes directly to voicemail,
“NO! He always answers.”
“Sorry, you have to pay. We’ll try to reach your wife after you’re strapped in our chair.”
“No, please let me call her now.”
Ricky tried to touch the number one key, the agent pulls the phone out of his hand.
“Please let me talk to her, she always knows how to reach her father, she must have a secret number.”
Dragging Ricky back to the torture chamber, he’s screaming while trying to grab anything he can reach to slow down his session in the chair.
“This asshole has a lot of life left in him! I wonder how much life he’ll have when we’re done with today’s session.”
“I agree; I think the books on Indian tortures was worth the dollar fifty.”
“I told you, one never knows what you’ll find in a used bookstore.”
“I like the title, ‘The History of Torture.’ Of all of the stories, I think the American Indians were some of the best, they really seemed to enjoy torturing their captives.”
“Let’s try some of their methods out on our special guest.”
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Jay flops on the couch in their suite pulling his tie off, he’s covered in sweat, Lacy smiles at him saying,
“I’m proud of you. A couple of times, I was worried you were going to lose it and take someone’s head off. You’re learning to control your tempter. I didn’t think old dogs could be taught new tricks. You did a great job. I think you’ve got this political shit down pat. I never thought I’d see the day; you became one of the people you hate.”
“I’ve got to take a shower; I feel like I jumped into a salty pool. I hope I never learn how to become a politician, I hate them. They’re everything I don’t trust, they sell their souls and tell everyone what they want to hear without meaning any of it. Once elected they do whatever they want, they cease to represent the people who elected them as soon as they’re elected. If I ever turn into one of those people, just shoot me.”
“I won’t shoot you, that would be too good for you. You’re getting close to the edge; you’re becoming a silver tongued devil. If you go all the way over to the dark side, I’ll get even with you in a much better way.”
“You’re a cold hearted bitch.”
“Thank you, I love you too.”
“Go shower and we’ll catch dinner, we’ve received around a hundred requests from the media for interviews and follow ups. We’ve been invited to five television news programs and three Sunday morning programs.”
“Crap, let me relax first and put something in my stomach before we discuss television. I don’t want to get caught up in their BS gotcha questions. If they try to play their normal games with me, I’ll most likely walk out of the studio which could make us look bad.”
“Honey, you have invitations from Hannity, Megan, and Bill all would like you to appear on their programs ASAP.”
They’re interrupted by a knock on their door,
Lacy looks at Jay who’s getting up to shower.
“I’ll get it.”
Opening the door, one of the security detail guards says,
“Mrs. First Lady, the Press Secretary would like to see the President.”
“Sure, let Stu in. Jay, it’s Stu.”
“Okay, he’ll have to wait until I’m done showering.”
“Take your time, it’s only Stu.”
“Thanks, I’m only Stu, is that good or bad?”
Lacy hugs Stu with her right arm,
“If it was bad, you wouldn’t be coming in, he’s wiped out.”
“I figured. I want to go over the preliminary comments while they're still fresh and before anyone in the media grabs the two of you.”
“I thought that’s why we hired you.”
“You did.”
Jay yells,
“Stu, I’ll be right out. What’s up? How did we do?”
“You knocked it out of the park. The people in the Confederacy loved it, the people in the North think you’re a crazy right wing nut who’s insane.”
“Okay, that’s the good news, what’s the bad?”
“Certain groups are very upset with you; I think you’re going to face even more demonstrations in the next cities.”
“Let me guess, some of the minorities don’t like my taking about self-responsibility. Some didn’t like my comments about the change of the welfare program.”
“That would be an understatement. They hate your comments and you! Some have already started to burn you in effigy. I’m expecting riots and uprisings to start tonight.”
“Have the local police been notified?”
“Of course, as has the military, we’re ready for whatever happens.”
“When the rioting begins, get images and video, I want to use them at our next stop. If they torch their own homes and stores, tell the fire departments to let them go.”
“Huh? You’re ordering the first responders to allow them to torch the inner cities?”
“Yup! If they want to burn their own homes, let them, we’re not going to rebuild them. Maybe this will be a good learning experience in taking responsibly for their own actions. None of them seem to understand self responsibility, they've gotten away with rioting and destroying their neighborhoods for too many years.”
“Jay, this is a dangerous move, you’re going to get creamed by the media. They’re going to make you out to be the devil.”
“I know, but issue the order. I want them to learn, we’ll make an example of the first city to be torched.”
“Jay, you’re heartless.”
“No, I'm not. I understand your words, but they’re not going to get the message until it smacks them in the face. The inner city moochers have been burning their homes and stores for years when they are upset. The government always brings in people to rebuild, thus giving the citizens who live there no sense of accomplishment or pride. We are absolutely done allowing this type of animalistic behavior. They want to burn down their neighborhoods, they can live in the ruins, or step up to rebuild. It's up to them.”
“I hope you’re right, if not, it’s going to hurt your election changes.”
“I know, trust me.”
“I’m supposed to manage the media for you, you’re creating a situation where you’re setting yourself up to fail, you’re going to really hurt yourself if this fails.”
“I know, Stu, all I’m asking is you trust me for a little time.”
“I’ll trust you for a week, I suggest we m
eet three times a day to review the media situation. We can’t afford for the media to ruin the election.”
“Agreed, are there other reviews?”
“The majority of the people who voted to secede agree with you. Your favorably ratings are an unbelievable 85%.”
“See, I’m right, just wait and see. People are fed up paying to rebuild the areas rioters destroyed. When I tell them they’re going to have to work to get their homes rebuilt, I think my ratings will hit 90%.”
