“We have been informed by our sources at the Energy Department that a series of protests have escalated to an attack on the nation's electrical supply,” said the anchor. “The attacks are widespread, creating a drain on power coast-to-coast. Our broadcast may end suddenly if this continues. While we can, we will continue to bring you the news. Various reports are telling us that US soldiers have appeared and are engaged…” The television flickered and then went black.
“Ash got the portal to work,” Fritz said. “This is going to be interesting.”
Jane said, “I hope he's being careful. This looks like the coup the president talked about.”
“And the portal's involved again. Isn't Koppler in jail?”
“He's slipped out of every corner we've put him in.” Jane's long distance stare replaced her focus on the TV.
“It's in Ash's hands now.”
* * *
“MR. PRESIDENT, WE'VE lost Denver, Nashville and Miami,” Tom Andrews informed him. “California is supplying most of the west right now. They won't be able to hold out.”
“If we're going, now is the time,” said Sam Clemmons, fidgeting near the door. “Isn't the portal ready yet?”
The president skimmed the faces surrounding him. Were any of them working with Koppler? What was happening at the polls?
“Mr. President.” Clemmons' desperate shouts roused him from his thoughts. The president told Colonel Mitchell to come get them. As the portal appeared, and he could see Ashley at the door, an explosion sent glass flying and his Cabinet members sprawling. Two sets of arms lifted him and dragged him to New Jersey as another series of explosions ripped into the Oval Office.
“Those were RPGs,” said the colonel.
* * *
ASHLEY CALLED TO Rachel and Nicole and told them to take the president outside, and he ran into the portal. After the explosion, Al Kennedy ran down the hall and followed Ashley.
“Get the walkers out, Al. We can't stay here.” Colonel Mitchell pulled Tom Jaffrey to the portal and told him to hold the door, as Al led the defense secretary out. Ashley supported another man whose face squirted blood. Al and Ashley returned to the Oval Office, while Colonel Mitchell called for a medical team to hurry from the airport. Ashley lifted General Beech away from the wall, and lifted him over his shoulder. With his free hand, he picked up a picture frame and walked out. “Shut the door, Tom. Our guys can't get back until it shuts.”
Tony said, “I'll need more generators or we'll lose power.”
Ash called over the noise to Mitchell. “Colonel, tell the medics to bring every generator they can.” The colonel repeated the instruction. Ashley looked out toward the parking lot. Those men and women who could be rescued stood or sat on the sidewalk. Rachel and Nicole had taken over as the care-givers, going from person to person to see what condition they were in. Rachel stuck her head inside and asked if someone could bring them tissues, or towels and tape.
* * *
“COLONEL, HAVE you heard from any of the teams?” Ashley asked. The colonel shook his head, a dazed look staring back.
“Who did this?” the colonel asked. “Why?”
“I don't care. We need to turn this around fast. Or they can't get back here. Your guys need some help! WHO DO YOU KNOW?” Ashley grabbed the colonel's shoulders and shook him. “Colonel, I need help.”
The blank eyes began to fade. “Who?” The colonel's rapid eye movement and lip licking led to a question. “Where are the maps?”
“The copies are on Tom's desk. Come on.” Ashley's clenched fists pointed to Tom Jaffrey's classroom.
The two men hunched over the papers, the colonel's phone on the desk. At the colonel's request, Ashley rifled the desk until he found a yellow pad. The colonel began to make quick notes.
“Do you have phone numbers?”
“I have to look them up.”
Ashley said he would be right back. He ran to the parking lot and called Rachel and Nicole. “Girls, do you have your phones?”
“Of course, Mr. Gilbert,” said Rachel. “What's the world without a phone?”
“Right. I need you to help Colonel Mitchell. Use Mr. Jaffrey's room.” He told the colonel to let the girls do the research. “You make the calls.” Down the hallway, the gate blocked access. In the other direction, the president stood with eight members of his Cabinet, lost in thoughts he could only guess and about which he couldn't have cared less. He banged on the door to get their attention. When the president looked up, Ashley waved him in.
“What is it, Ash?”
“You could be a little more helpful. I'm doing this alone. I don't even have George. We need help in the field. You guys need to call a few generals.” He could sense a smart-alecky remark on the way. “This isn't the time to be a wise-ass,” he told the president. “Go inside and help the colonel. Right now, he's getting more help from two high school seniors than the government's top people.” The president patted Ashley's arm, called in his cabinet from the parking lot, and joined the colonel. Ashley ran his hand through his hair, and leaned against the lockers, thinking of what might yet be coming. He checked his watch. “Really, that's all,” he said aloud.
“What, Ashley?” asked Tony.
“It's only just after ten-thirty.”
Within minutes, the medical team arrived and set up in Fritz's classroom. Extra generators were lined up in the hallway. George stepped through the gate and joined them.
“What's happening?” he asked. When he saw the bullet hole in the wall, he said, “Not again.”
“George, we're losing the power grid to terrorists.”
“How did you open the portal? When did you learn how? Did Fritz teach you?”
“It's a long story and we were just guessing.” He reminded George what had happened in the barn, and what had started his day. “I hope it will last, but it worked.”
“Who are these men?”
“Sorry, George, you missed it. Another attack on the White House. The president is in Tom Jaffrey's room. These guys are some of the president's cabinet. I don't know what happened to the rest yet.”
* * *
“WAITING IS THE hard part,” said Fritz.
“It always is,” Jane agreed. “But we'll have an outcome pretty soon. Whatever this is about, people underestimate how committed Americans are to America. We fight like families do, but don't try to take our country away from us. If these are foreigners, heaven help them. But if they're Americans, God himself won't be enough.”
* * *
THE BANG ON the wall by Ashley's door echoed down the hall. Rachel held it as one group of soldiers tromped out of the portal, with four men. With their own pants covering their heads as blindfolds, their belts were cinched around their necks.
“Who are they, Captain?” asked Colonel Mitchell.
“Civilians, sir. We left ten more behind, dead. They were armed and shooting at us.”
“Where were you?”
“Sorry, sir.” He shook his head. “Inside a tall chain-link enclosure with a lot of transformers and no police or security nearby. They may not even be around. What should we do with them?”
Before the colonel could answer, Nicole said, “Colonel, just around the corner is a long blank wall. It would be good for the firing squads.”
The colonel winked at her. “Good idea. Captain, take them out one at a time. Use your silencer. We don't want to disturb the neighbors. But before you start, let me check with the boss.” The president stood a few feet away, grinning at Nicole.
Rachel said, “He'll agree with us, Colonel. You can leave the bodies. No one ever goes there.”
They led the first man outside and around a corner. The door to the parking lot remained open so that the unmistakable PHUT would resonate with the three men who would follow.
“Which one of you is next?” asked the colonel. “Hold on. Young lady, you choose.” Both Rachel and Nicole walked around each man, loudly debating which one to choose, while signaling back
and forth what to do. Holding three fingers up, Nicole counted down, and said, “This one.” She grabbed one, Rachel, another.
“No, please,” said the man in Nicole's grasp. “I'll tell you. Anything you want.” Nicole kicked him.
“Let's get them out of the way,” said the colonel. “Maybe we won't have to shoot anyone else.” In spite of the crisis, Nicole and Rachel were treated to suppressed laughs and a thumbs-up from the president.
They frogmarched the fourth man, gagged and blindfolded, inside and down the corridor, and into the classroom with the others. Before he went in, Rachel kicked him. “Now we're even, Nicole.”
In the classroom, the president stood in the back, observing as the pants were removed from the prisoner's heads. The three men, none over twenty-five, the president estimated, looked around the obvious location.
“Where are we?” one asked.
“I'll ask the questions,” the captain said. “Who are you and what were you doing?”
“We were recruited to cut the power. My name is Chuck Armand. We were told to run, but no one said anything about soldiers.”
“Did your recruiter tell you why?”
“Yeah,” Armand said, still in fighting mode. “He said no woman should be president and if we cut the power, voting machines wouldn't work.”
“And you embraced that as a good idea?”
“Yeah, I did. I still do.” The captain slapped him hard on his left cheek.
“That's the gentlest you'll be getting from now on. Who recruited you?” The silence ended with another slap. “None of you leave here standing if you don't talk now.”
“No idea. You killed the guy who told us what to do.” The captain withdrew his sidearm, and as he raised it, Armand said, “No, I mean it. We've been training for when the government would come after us. And you did.”
From the back of the room, the president said, “What you've done is treason. No one came after you. You attacked your own country.”
Swiveling in the chair, he said, “Not until you set it up to kill the election and stay in office.”
“Now we're getting somewhere,” said the president.
Chapter 3
OVER THE COURSE of a couple of hours, troops arrived at major transmission stations, joined by local power company employees. The massive display of force drove off most of the intruders. Those captured told a story of acting to preserve the country from a takeover by an illegitimate government. The uniform message, like political talking points, contained a fingerprint, but no specific identity.
The grid slowly failed. Yet, in New York, the stock market remained active. Local outages had spread during a workday, so most of the country remained unaware. Even the expanded residential solar panels, which slowed a complete collapse, were not enough to prevent it. Crowds at the polling stations began to swell due to slowing response times, but the problem continued, generally unknown.
Colonel Mitchell and Ashley stood by the portal, awaiting the return of the teams.
By noon, only two teams had returned, both team leaders reporting reinforcements had arrived. The earlier chaos had been resolved, and the two men discussed how vital the portal had become.
“We've always questioned if the portal changes the future,” said Ashley. “Today we have our answer. Whether we succeed or not, the world changes on a broad scale.”
“It's certain that the secrecy will be lost. I wouldn't be surprised if the school is closed long term. And with you and Fritz able to open the portal, who can guess what other demands you'll have.”
“Fritz said he's out when the new president is sworn in. And with his desk lock destroyed, he might not have a choice.”
“If we can't stop this attack, it might not matter,” said Tony, who listened from only a step behind.
“What do you mean?” asked the colonel.
“If we lose the grid here, all electricity to the school goes away. That might eliminate whatever the pathways are that's kept the portal active.”
“You know that for sure?” asked Ashley.
“Of course not,” Tony said. “Like everything we've done, I'm speculating. But it makes sense. We don't have a reboot if it goes away except another lightning strike. We might not even be able to get our guys back, or get the president home. But I'm guessing.”
* * *
BY TWO O'CLOCK, the stock market shut down, but the earlier crash had slowed and some stocks had even begun to climb. Shortly after, New York lost power and even with the best efforts to keep power generating, too much had been sucked out early. Every available man and woman had been called in to begin the steps to reboot the grid. Even the generators at cell phone towers had not lasted long enough to keep communication lines open. The country had been deprived of eyes and ears.
In a bunker-like office in Manhattan, the market close couldn't have come at a better time. Tallying the combined short sales and subsequent repurchases, foreign exchanges, currency markets and new acquisitions, Richemartel Ltd. accumulated a total profit for the day of just more than two hundred billion dollars. With previous assets and controlling interest in other companies just purchased, Richemartel now had over one trillion dollars in net worth. And Thomas Koppler had only one person with whom he would need to share.
* * *
TOM ANDREWS had been monitoring the situation from the Riverboro High parking lot, and keeping the president updated. Finally, he came inside, his computer closed. “Mr. President, the grid is gone. I have only a few minutes left on my battery. Do you want me to do anything, or is there someone you want to contact?”
“Will anything get through, Tom?”
“Probably not, sir, but you can try.”
“I need my address book.”
Moments later, an email was sent to global leaders advising them of what most already surmised—America was in trouble and needed assistance. The note ended, “Thanks for watching my back.”
Riverboro High still had working generators. Not all the electricity had left the school. Ashley had regularly tapped his doorknob, and continued to receive a buzz. The president joined them at Ashley's door.
“How much time do we have left, Tony?” he asked.
“Not much. The portal is pulling more energy to keep the school hot. I have one more generator left. If we can get some stations back online, we might make it through.”
“Colonel, have you had any word about the nuclear plants?”
“Only initially, sir. We have a number of teams in the most vulnerable. One sent a message early that the plant was already off-line. The secretary of energy appears to have sent messages to shut down and to set up to lose power, but not before they prepared to go back online.”
“That's a good thing. No Chernobyl, no Japan.”
Tony said, “Mr. President, if we can get power back to them, they can go online and help boost everything back up.”
“But how do I get a message to them?”
For the past couple of hours, Rachel and Nicole had been gofers. Out of the way, they waited to be told to fetch this or go get that. Reacting to the president's question, Nicole whispered to Rachel, and together they said, “We have laptops.”
“So do I,” said Tom Jaffrey.
“Go get them,” said the president.
“It probably won't matter, sir,” Tony said. “We don't have the antenna to send to the satellites now.”
“I just sent an email, Tony.”
“How?”
“Same as I always do.”
Only a moment passed as Tony analyzed the news. “The school is acting like a beacon, a communication tower. As long as it stays up, you can get messages out. And maybe in, too.” Tony had morphed from glum negativity to the upbeat scientist who had attracted the president's attention more than a year ago.
“When the girls get back, we need to see what we can do.” The president's frown had vanished.
Chapter 4
GEORGE SAT AT HIS desk, having walked around the sc
hool half a dozen times. Voting had been brisk early on, but had slowed just after lunch. Ms. Sweeney had placed signs on all the doors for voters to use the gym entrance, no longer requiring his presence at the main door. Ms. Sweeney knocked on the open door, distracting him from staring at the wall. She told him that Rachel Downey wanted to speak to him.
“You're still here, I see. What can I do for you?”
“Mr. McAllister, laptops can still send messages if their batteries are charged. The president needs them. Would you walk me around to the classrooms? Maybe some teachers left theirs here. We could borrow them.”
“Well, Rachel, I don't think that's a good idea. I…”
“Of course it is, Mr. McAllister. We may have the only power in America. If you don't believe me, come back and see the president. You're still on the team, aren't you?”
The question flustered him. The president was in the school, but he had forgotten that both girls had been invited to join the portal party. “Well, of course I'm on the team.” To Rachel's amazement, he stood up. “Let's go.” They went from class to class. Three charged laptops were in their hands by the time they reached Ashley's room.
“We're not done searching,” said George, “but start with these.” He started to hand them to Ashley.
“Hold on,” said Rachel. “Mr. Jaffrey, do you have masking tape? We need to label where we got these.”
The president entered Fritz's classroom with Nicole and Rachel. His first email went to the energy secretary with instructions to get the nuclear power plants running as soon as possible. He sent emails to his wife, Mel Zack and Ms. Crispin, asking them to inform him of their condition. Then, he sent a private email to the Canadian prime minister, asking if he would send soldiers to the White House to protect it. Rachel had the computer with his addresses and Nicole, a better keyboarder, typed what the president said. The president thanked them both and asked that they get him quickly if any messages came through.
Storm Surge (Quantum Touch Book 5) Page 27
