"Mr. President, the Admiral and the Senator have arrived," Gail said over the intercom.
"Thank you, Gail, please ask them to come right in," the President replied. Before he'd finished speaking, the door to the outer office was already opening to allow the puffing Senator through it.
"Just what in th' sam-hill is so import'nt yall had ta call me from ma dinneh?"
The Admiral actually stopped to salute the President, and he gratefully returned it.
"I am sorry to drag you all out on a stormy night like this, but we have a bit of a situation. Stan?" The President quickly took his seat, and let the NSA Director give the briefing.
When Stan had finished with the briefing, and playing the message for the assembled people. The Senator looked at the President in disgust.
The Senator's face was florid with his righteous indignation. Also his 'southern' accent got worse when he was agitated. "Just what kinda' load o' shit yall think ya tryin' to pull here? I might have been born at night, boy, but it wasn't last night! I knew yall'd stoop to some low levels to git yer extremist, tree-huggin' liberahl pr'grams in place, bu' this takes th' cake! Well, I'll not have any of it! I simply can' believe yall had yer boys ova at th' NSA cook up this cock an' bull story just so yall cou'd justify forcing yer own liberahl 'genda down ah throats! I'll have yall thrown ou' o' office, boy! I'll..."
"SHUT THE FUCK UP! You fat-assed, red-necked, hillbilly! I don't care if you're the grand-fucking-wizard of the KKK, I'll remind you that people in this room have bled for you! No matter what the color skin, that blood's all red! Now, keep your damn insults to yourself, and listen to the rest before you decide someone's lying, got it?" Admiral Eloyas Beasley yelled. It wasn't just the President she disliked, she hated all politics. She dealt with it, because it was her duty to deal with it. "Director Mansfield, why are you briefing us instead of the Office of Homeland Security?"
The Senator sat shaking in a silent rage at being spoken to in such a way. That was the problem with this damn country. No one knew their place. An Admiral should respect authority, and as a Senator and as a man, he was most definitely her better.
"My office passed this information on to the OHS folks like we're supposed to, but since this one was such a high priority, expected a call back to verify it. When that call didn't come, the analyst brought it to the attention of her supervisor, and it eventually worked its way up to me. Even after I personally called about it, I was told that it would just have to wait like the rest of the common threats.
"Considering the nature of the threat, and the high confidence my people have in it, I brought it here," Stan finished. "Senator Heralds, I swear to you that this is one hundred percent authentic. I wish like hell it weren't, but it really is."
"Do we evahn know ifin this ... this bomb, or whatevah is evahn on American so'l?" The Senator asked, getting his temper under control.
"With all due respect, Senator, it doesn't matter where it is. It's gonna hurt us badly," Dr. Delilah O'Harren, the President's science adviser said. "You see, the whole planet is interconnected by fault lines. Intentionally destabilizing one is to risk destabilizing all of them. We could easily end up losing the whole planet. If we let that bomb go off, I guarantee we'll lose people on American soil. Not to mention the economic and ecological damage."
"Ec'nomic Damage? How so?" The Senator asked immediately.
"How badly would a 10+ earthquake in Texas hurt? How about huge tsunami's in the North Sea or in the Gulf of Mexico?" She knew that big oil pretty much owned the Senator, so she kept her examples to damage he stood a chance of understanding.
"M' God! We'd lose billions! Well ... Da we kno' ifin anah one can actualla pull this off? I mean haw many folks coo'd do somethin' like this?" Heralds asked.
"Uh, actually, quite a few, sir," Stan answered apologetically. "The level of technical expertise shown in the creation of the disc, as well as the included data on the disc shows that these people have far more then just the skill required to create a situation like this."
"Well, I ken tell yall righ' now thet there's no wah in heel thet anah legislation gittin rid of anah gas-o-line is gonna go befo' con'ress; no siree, no! I dowt it'd evahn make it to the bill stage befo' it was kilt." He paused to nod to himself. "We will no't leave this here countrah stranded an' coult by out-lawin' the onlah souce of fuel it has," Gerard said pontifically. "Why the ec'nomic damage o' tha' action 'lone would crash th' market! Cause 'nothah Great D'pression! Then where'd we-all be?"
"Sir, if you were, hypothetically mind you, asked to make sure certain technologies got suppressed by certain of your campaign contributors, for the good of the country of course, you would, hypothetically, look into the matter, for the good of the country of course, correct?" Stan asked. One had to be careful not to let too many people aware of how many skeletons you knew about.
Gerard cleared his throat, and raised an eyebrow at Stan. "I'd most certainlay look intah it. We can't have th' 'merican people duped intah some cock-a-maimy tech-no-logical mumbo jumbo!"
"Well, every one of those things that got hypothetically 'looked into' by you and your fellows is on that list mentioned on the disc. None of the stuff that really was bogus of course, but stuff like the cold fusion reactor, the sealed hydrogen engine, room-temperature super-conductors, all of it. All of the technological advances that would spell doom for the strangle hold big oil, insurance, and pharmaceutical concerns has on the world is on that list.
"So, I need to ask you, Senator, do we let them blow up the planet, or do we put your real bosses out of work?" Stan said, not even trying to be subtle this time.
Gerard could only stare at the man and work his mouth while he thought of something to say to prove the spymaster wrong; all the while knowing he couldn't.
"Relax Senator, only the four of us know the truth, and we're not saying anything," the President said. "However; Admiral, I think we should issue orders to recall all our troops as per instructions. You and I both know that even with steady twenty-four hour work, it'll take at least six months to get them all out of there. Let's get the ball rolling, and hopefully buy ourselves some time.
"Bill? You've been awfully quiet. I would've thought you'd have plenty to say about this," The President asked the fourth person in the room.
The President's National Security Adviser nodded silently. "You know, for the longest time, the thought that a full scale nuclear or chemical and biological war has been my worst nightmare. I think I might have to revise that.
"I'm afraid I'm going to have to agree with the Senator about the reaction Congress will have. Not to mention the questions raised by the American people. The orders to bring the troops home, without the usual hubbub in the press is going to raise red flags in every news agency. If Senator Heralds suddenly turns into a liberal by introducing the needed legislation, more red flags are going to go up. No matter what, this is going to be a publicity nightmare, and, as much as I hate to admit it, I'm afraid that more people are going to have to be let in on the secret."
"I think you might be right, Bill. If Senator Heralds tried to bring this bill in, they'd hang him. Senator, would you be willing to work with ... say a junior Democratic Senator on the bill? That way, you could have your hand in it, but the democrats can take the heat. Then if you could try to drum up support, or at least lessen the opposition..."
Gerard nodded thoughtfully. "Tha' migh' work, ifin yall talk tah him first. I could make sure there is enough crap in there so we republicans have something to hack away at. As long as the young Senator was in on the deal, it would be a good experience for him as well. The only problem I have with it is that all the junior Democrats are either women or should be women!"
"Is there something wrong with women in congress Senator?" Admiral Beasley asked, warningly.
Bill Gent cleared his throat. "I'm sure the Senator didn't mean to say 'women', Admiral. I think he was simply commenting that the junior democrats are rather, uh, more liberal then a good ol' boy republican is used to working with. Isn't that right, Senator?"
"Certainly! Thank ya fo' a-helpin' me tah remove mah foot, Mr. Gent. I usually have one-ah mah speech writers, or at least mah Georgina, tah keep me from messin' up. Mah 'pologies ladies," Gerard said with all the sincerity of a professional politician.