by T I WADE
“Where were your men when we needed protection?” added another.
“In Europe, the Middle East and every other place you—Congress— sent us, even behind the president’s back!” replied General Austin angrily.
“We were just doing our job,” added another congressman.
“So were we!” responded Watson.
“And we were thousands of miles away from our own families, of which thousands of military families, women and children, perished, or have never been seen again! Thanks to you guys doing your jobs!” shouted General Austin, his face red with anger.
They were not going to get far, and the day was called to an end by the general to allow everyone present to cool down.
The next morning, and with a slightly quieter House Chamber, the meeting continued with General Patterson giving a short speech. It didn’t take long for the fighting to start again.
“We have lost millions and millions of citizens, including thousands of military personnel and their families. The military has beaten three attempts to take over the government of this country,” he began to a quiet audience of just over fifty people. “And all you politicians are worried about is which party, or which one of you is going to lead this country next!
“You know, I do not like politicians, most soldiers don’t. The political agenda does not always reflect the needs of the people you represent, nor what is best for the welfare of this country and its citizens. Thank God I’m new and fresh to Washington. I got to know the president pretty well. He was a good, down to earth man, and I’m sure each of you is the same, once your political coat of self-preservation is removed. I’ve also seen the greed of Westbrook and Bowers, and I‘m sure there are many others who used to be powerful, behind the scenes players who controlled Washington before all this happened.
“I don’t know any of you personally, and I’m sure you can, or will all run for office again, once a proper and legal system is in place. But as Chief of Staff, and chief of all these soldiers around me, who have offered their lives for their country, I am not going to submit to anybody who comes out of the woodwork once the fighting is over and demands to my face that he should run this country. As Chief of Staff, this is my decision to make.”
Several minor threats, mumblings and foul words were expressed at this statement by General Patterson, and he looked towards the Military Police Captain at the door and several armed soldiers marched in.
“You are taking over the government, General Patterson?” asked one senator, an older man who hadn’t said a word since the meeting had begun.
“No, Senator, just trying to get this new country of ours on the right track.”
“Then who do you propose?” the senator asked.
“A civilian, who has no political experience, with advisors from all walks of life, a good mix of good people; several of you politicians, several civilians and several high ranking soldiers from all our different forces, until we can have free and fair elections.”
“We don’t need amateur politicians in Washington. I’m totally against what you are planning, General!” interrupted the interim Speaker of the House, standing and pointing his finger at the general.
“Captain of the Guard, please escort this man to the outskirts of Washington, or the District of Colombia, wherever you feel it necessary to dump him. He is no longer needed in this Chamber and banned from Washington until he is fairly elected by his constituents, whoever they may be, to return to office!” ordered General Patterson angrily. And, under the Captain’s orders, two soldiers physically escorted the angry and threatening man out of the room.
“Well, who do you propose should be the next president of the new United States of America, General?” asked the older senator calmly.
“I ask everybody in this room to take a piece of paper and write down a name of a person, one person, for consideration, whom you believe could be a good, fair and just interim president. No military personnel please.”
Thirty minutes later, over four dozen pieces of paper sat in a pile in front of General Patterson, and had been sorted. A dozen of them, mostly from the soldiers and civilians had the same name written down, Mike Mallory. Most of the others had all different names, three had Preston’s name on them and three had the oldest senator, Senator Shaw’s name. Only three people in the room had more than one vote.
“Captain Mike Mallory, the Southwest Airlines Captain who has done more for our civilian population in the last eight months, than anybody else I know, was my choice and the choice of 11 other men here in this room. Senator Shaw from Montana and Mr. Preston Strong from North Carolina have three votes each and all others have one vote. Since we are a free and democratic society, I believe all three of these men should be given an equal chance to be interim president, a second person will become interim vice president, both positions for a minimum of one year, maximum of four years, or until a free and fair election can take place. Does anybody disagree? There was silence in the room.
Three days after the interim Speaker was thrown out and forty-eight hours before the funeral, everybody was present and seated in the House Chamber. First, two soldiers were helped in, both men bandaged and needing assistance. Those who knew the men stood and applauded Major Wong and Lieutenant Meyers as they were assisted to their seats.
It took time, but slowly Mike Mallory agreed to be interim president. Immediately upon being asked, Preston declined the positions of president and vice president. He believed he was not the right person.
With a vote of forty-three for and two against, Mike Mallory, dressed in his best suit and still wearing bandages around his head, was sworn in the next day as interim President of the United States of America.
Since there was no Chief Justice to swear in the interim president, the second most senior senator, after Senator Shaw, and who had been present for the last four presidential inaugurations, was authorized by the people in attendance to administer the oath of office; he replied that he would be happy to oblige.
Slowly a new group of leaders were formed. Jennifer Watkins, Maggie and ex-Detective Will Smart accepted the offers of joining the government and so did Joe, and Pam Wallace. Martie and Sally Powers refused the offer. Martie had work to do with her father and Sally, now married to Carlos, the son of Colombia’s president and, who had returned to Colombia for a few weeks, decided that it wasn’t a correct thing to do.
After several more hours of discussion, Preston also refused his third offered position, Speaker of the House, but made a suggestion that he would accept a new position discussed a few hours earlier, U.S Overseas Ambassador. Martie was sure his suggestion for the post was due to her wanting to see Germany and there could be flying involved. Both of them had shown interest in seeing how the rest of the world was shaping up.
Standing next to General Patterson at the president’s funeral was interim President of the United States Michael Mallory and interim Vice President Joe Shaw. Both had been sworn in on Capitol Hill a day earlier to head the Executive branch of government; the Legislative branch consisted of the forty previously elected members of the House of Representatives and the Senate.
General Patterson and all the people present at the meeting wanted a new president elected before the last one was buried.
The funeral was a solemn affair without the pomp and ceremony, a funeral of this importance would usually have. The president’s family was dressed in black; both General Patterson and Admiral Rogers gave eulogies for the man, a politician they had respected, and after a short and low-key military parade to the cemetery, a twenty-one gun salute was given with rifles over the grave, as well as by 21 artillery pieces positioned along the Mall.
At the same time, the U.S. military soldiers stationed across the country were working hard to address complaints from farming areas where farmers and their families were being harassed and threatened by former prisoners and the couple of hundred men who called themselves soldiers from several anti-U.S. organizations who had be
en hired by the CEOs for the pharmaceutical corporations.
Slowly the troubles decreased as those who were threatening farmers were caught. Very few of these small groups could stand up to the fire power of a Chinese attack helicopter and most did not survive to tell their tale. A couple did.
Epilogue
Three weeks later, fall arrived and with fall came the first time the Law Courts were used in Washington for many months. Seventeen men and three women were on trial for treason, and six men and one woman for first degree murder.
The final story was told.
MonteDiablo had tried for years to get a foothold in the Chinese and Asian markets. Finally, three years before the event on New Year’s Eve, they had their first meetings with Zedong Electronics. A deal was struck between the Zedong Electronics Chairman Wang Chunqiao, Peter Westbrook and Bill Bowers. Zedong Electronics would allow Westbrook and his cronies’ complete control of the world’s food and medical supply markets in return for information fed directly to him from the U.S. Congress.
Much of the information had to do with the state of the country, and the economy. Equally important was information concerning the numbers and whereabouts of soldiers in the country; as these numbers were determined, they were actually decreased by the many paid, political friends of Westbrook and Bowers. Eleven members of the House of Representatives and three U.S. Senators were named as conspirators who used their political power to send more and more American troops overseas. These men, paid millions of dollars, had organized legislation to approve sending over 300,000 extra men out of the country just a few months before the invasion; they were sent in relatively small increments of 30,000 to 50,000. A couple of now deceased high ranking military officers, greedy for power and control, had worked the Pentagon to get these men shipped out, many without any other officer’s knowledge.
Yes, numbers of troops being sent by the Pentagon overseas were presented to the president weekly, but the reports documented far lower numbers than were actually climbing aboard aircraft or ships.
Several of the surviving members of Washington were shocked at the size of the political atrocities that had happened right under their noses, and even the ex-interim Speaker of the House, who had been found beaten up and half naked trying to get home, twelve miles from where he had been dropped off, was one of the names of the men sending troop numbers to Westbrook.
So were three of the surviving House members who had very little to say when the new government was installed; they also went on trial.
Vice President Shaw finally agreed with General Patterson that a thorough airing of the workings of Washington would be necessary for the country to clean itself of the old, entrenched systems.
From the prison inmates, three of them still alive and on trial, and two of the anti-government mercenaries also on trial, stories of what happened before New Year’s Eve came to light.
Most of the prisoners had been released from prison a few hours before New Year’s Eve. Three small prisons had been attacked in the northwest, the guards murdered and before dawn on January 1st, the first group had already been flown into Cold Bay.
Months before that, the anti-government men had been flown to the same location and worked side-by-side with Chinese soldiers building up the airfield as Westbrook and Bower’s base of operations, following the New Year’s Eve catastrophe.
The judge asked what had happened to the people who lived in the area. He had reports that there were still a number of American citizens missing from False Pass, a town of approximately eighty people.
One of the anti-government prisoners replied that he had flown into the town a few days before New Year’s Eve. It had been bitterly cold and the people were told to lock their doors as a bad storm was brewing. They were captured without a fight, and flown into Cold Bay in the Chinese transport aircraft.
Once they arrived in Cold Bay, a troop of the Chinese soldiers took them away from the airfield, and they were never seen again. He believed that every man, woman and child was shot by firing squad.
Westbrook, his daughter and Bowers were asked what had happened to the civilians and none of them uttered a word. They just kept quiet and stared ahead.
A Chinese soldier was then presented to the court, and he affirmed the first man’s assumptions. He had been ordered to drive a small bulldozer that had tried to make a hole to bury the Americans, but the ground was too frozen and all he could do was to move loose rubble like stones and rocks, it took two days, but a new hill was formed over the bodies.
After a week of witnesses and exhausting testimony, the news came that attacks on farmers had died down to zero. Final reports came in: 587 dead terrorists who were responsible for the deaths of 81 farmers, 35 farmers’ wives and 16 children. All the remaining terrorists were killed; there was no mercy.
For two more weeks many of the government officials, civilians and military officers were in the court rooms. Preston and Martie wanted to hear the whole story and were shocked and sickened by the size of atrocities against the country and its people. Since New Year’s Eve, they had been isolated from the realities that had happened around them. They had lived well and were fed and housed in the splendor they were used to. But these stories, one after the other, took away that curtain of safety. Back in their apartment at the Colombian Embassy, they discussed and speculated on what had actually gone on while they were playing war.
Carlos returned from Bogotá towards the end of the trials and Preston, Martie, Sally and he, often with the Smarts present, learned what their country and its people had actually gone through.
Reality smacked them hard in the face and feelings of anger built up in them again, as it did in most who attended the trials.
After a month of hearings, the first convictions were handed out. There was not one prison open anywhere in the United Stated, and the judge stated that one should be opened.
General Austin, now in charge of hospitals, prisons, and military bases suggested that the military could have one open in a few weeks. Northern Texas was the most likely area as there were over 300 other prisoners in military confinement in and around the Texas military bases, mostly remnants of the South American army, and who needed to be put away.
“Your Honor,” General Austin stated. “It seems that many of the people currently in custody here, in Texas, and at army barracks around the country have one conviction for which they need to be sentenced: murder. Up to last year, the prisons were full and overflowing with these people and the country struggled to pay for the upkeep of inmates. Surely, a simple sentence of execution for murder is a fair price to pay for those who don’t think twice about taking somebody else’s life. It’s time this country’s laws became real and just again. I believe jail-time, or even the old African trick I heard while in Somalia, cutting off a hand for theft, should be reserved for lesser crimes. Why go back to the old-fashioned “civilized methods” which never worked. Our full jails proved it.”
As usual there were people for and against the death penalty, and even after the deaths of millions of their countrymen and women; many did not want to see more death. Unfortunately they were not in a majority and “an eye for an eye” was accepted at the end of the day’s discussions.
President Mallory signed his first law soon after that. “Death by Public Hanging” for people who planned, or committed murder, a maximum of 25-years, or life prison sentences for Treason and lesser time for smaller offenses. The word “Parole” was not part of the new law.
During the first day of sentencing, four former members of Congress and two former Senators were given life sentences, and two others received lesser sentences. The main sentences would be announced the following day.
There was no jury needed. The law was simple and sentences were determined by the judge.
The last day of legal proceedings was short. It took just two hours to hand out the death sentences. Carlos mentioned to Preston that the Colombian Necktie should be handed out to some of the p
eople on trial for a punishment; even in Colombia he hadn’t heard such gruesome stories.
Westbrook and Bowers were shocked at the change in law and objected, shouting out that they wanted proper justice and to be able to appeal their convictions. The last six men and one woman were extremely unhappy and condemned the new law in no uncertain terms.
When the judge added that these hangings would be carried out within twenty-four hours, in public, and in front of the courthouse, the condemned prisoners fell silent.
There was a new law in town, and the judge was not afraid to administer it.
Preston and Carlos stayed for the hangings. There were many people who did, but Martie and Sally were like many others, they headed down to North Carolina the night before in Sally’s Pilatus from Andrews.
A week later, Preston, Martie, Carlos, Sally, Little Beth and Clint headed back up to Andrews in the Pilatus for their helicopter flight into arrived aboard Marine One for the day.
Mo’s new friend, Tim O’Shaw, the Marine who had looked after his homes while he was away was shocked at seeing so many VIPs in the small town of Ocracoke. He had cleaned up well over the months, looked good and was still waiting for the admiral who was yet to return.
He was given the bad news by Admiral Rogers that the remains of Admiral Peterson, the man who owned these units had been found on a floating Attack Cruiser off the west coast of Africa a month earlier.
Admiral Rogers now had dozens of vessels of all types and sizes, scouring the seas looking for still-floating military ships and, so far, only 119 out of 382 missing military vessels had been located. One, the USS Enterprise had been found, aground in the Middle East with several men and women, still alive on board. The only ship so far which still had live seamen on board… but that’s another story.
The same church minister from Seymour Johnson was invited to conduct the ceremony as he had done at Prestonville, and the honeymoon was to be with best friends squashed aboard the cutter for a week’s fishing. There wasn’t much else anybody could plan for a honeymoon in this new age.
