Information Overload
Mike Rogers, the National Security Advisor, was receiving intelligence reports from across the country of attacks taking place by Chinese or Japanese Special Forces and complete chaos out on the West Coast. He was still trying to determine what the reports he was receiving about the Japanese all meant; they were still getting distress messages from the Japanese fleet, so the reality of the situation on the ground remained murky. The Japanese Ambassador to the United States was supposed to meet with the President shortly; hopefully, he would get some clarity after the meeting. Right now, it looked like there might be a split within the Japanese military, with some supporting the Chinese and others still supporting the Americans.
A Secret Service Agent walked up to Mr. Rogers and said, “Sir, the President would like to speak with you immediately in the Oval Office. Please come with me.” Not sure what to make of this, Mike followed the agent out of the Situation Room.
He walked in the Oval Office just as the Japanese Ambassador was being rather forcefully ushered out the door by several agents. As he turned to watch him leave, he almost ran into another group of agents that were ushering out the Indian Ambassador. Mike was confused — it just didn’t make sense for both of them to see the President at the same time.
As Mike entered the room, he looked quizzically at President Stein; he saw in his eyes the fire of burning anger and rage. Then a change came over his countenance; he took a couple of deep breaths and then he transformed into a look of intense sadness. He noticed that Henry’s hair had noticeably turned more gray, even within the last few weeks. The weight of the presidency was sitting heavily on him now.
“What’s going on, Mr. President?” asked Mike, genuinely concerned.
The President sighed deeply and then walking over to the chair behind his desk, plopping down like a man who had expended every last ounce of his energy. He closed his eyes briefly, ignoring Mike’s question for just a moment. He thought to himself, “The enemies are truly at the gate. I am not sure we can overcome them this time. We need to find a way to turn this war around. I will not be the last American President; I don’t want to be the man in charge when the country finally collapses.”
Looking up at Mike, the President signaled for him to take a seat at one of the chairs in front of his desk. “No matter how bad things have gotten before, I have still maintained some hope for the future…but I just don’t know if there is a way past it all this time,” he confided.
“Sir, what just happened?” Mike probed.
The President reached in front of him to grab a couple of documents, and then passed them over to Mike for review. “This just happened,” he responded.
As he read both papers in front of him, Mike’s eyes grew wide with terror. “Sir, can this really be true? India and Japan are making a formal Declaration of War against us?”
“Those are real. It’s true,” replied President Stein solemnly.
“Sir, we need to assemble everyone right now. The Directors of the FBI, NSA, CIA and Homeland Security, the heads of the armed forces…we need to meet them at the Presidential Emergency Operations Center (PEOC) as quickly as they can arrive.” The PEOC had been reinforced heavily at the start of the Stein Administration and now included an underground tram system that linked it to the Pentagon and another undisclosed location in case the President and his advisors needed to leave the city in secret.
The President nodded, exhausted. He signaled to one of his agents to notify the appropriate people. Then he summoned his last remaining strength to stand up and walk out the door, headed for the upcoming meeting.
A few minutes later, General Branson walked into the room to see Mike Rogers sipping a cup of coffee and the President milking a 20 ounce half frozen Red Bull, deep in thought. When Stein signaled for him to come and sit down, the general knew this was going to be a long one, so he signaled one of the aides to bring him a coffee with two sugars.
President Stein didn’t waste any time while waiting for everyone else to get there. Once the general had sat down, he began to issue orders right away, “General Branson, I do not feel Washington is as safe as it should be in light of the information I have just received. I want you to double the number of soldiers guarding the Capital.”
The general sat up even more straightly than he normally did, soaking in each word. The President continued, “I want checkpoints coming and going from the city. I also want you to issue an immediate alert across the country for our military bases to provide military protection to our key critical infrastructure points: railways, bridges, airports, power plants, dams etc. I want this ordered immediately. Please take the time right now to make the calls and make it happen. I will explain more when the others arrive,” the President said indicating he wanted these orders issued immediately.
General Branson pushed aside the coffee cup that was being brought to him as he pulled out his smart phone and began to issue the alerts and orders to the Pentagon Operation’s Room. As he did, he thought to himself, “Well, the secure network may still be down, but at least the civilian communication systems are working. I should still be able to get this up and running quickly.”
The President began to pace as they waited for everyone else to arrive. Then he stopped suddenly, and signaled to the head of his Secret Service detail. “George, how many agents do we have on duty at any given time?” asked the President.
“Sir, we have 105 agents on duty along with 85 Marines. There are also another 60 police officers outside the perimeter. Is there something I should be aware of?” asked his detail chief, with a bit of concern in his voice.
“George, I was just made aware of a new and immediate threat to our nation. I do not have credible information of a direct attack against the White House or the Capital, but I am not taking any chances. I want you to issue Threat Condition Viking and prepare the White House to repel a possible attack — not an immediate attack, but one that could happen at any possible time. Tell the Marines they are to bring in some heavily-armored vehicles; I want their presence tripled, and they should be equipped in full combat gear. Until the situation stabilizes over the next couple of weeks, I want you to be ready to repel a concerted attack.” The President was so stoic while he spoke that his face seemed to be made of stone.
A bit alarmed, his detail chief said, “Sir, I will issue the order immediately. If you feel it is this bad, perhaps we should move you to the HIVE and have you work out of there, where we know we can more easily secure your operations as well as the surrounding area.”
“If we gain more credible information, we will move. Let’s make sure we have some Razorbacks on standby. In the meantime, I do not want to go into hiding unless I absolutely have to.” the President replied.
With that, the Secret Service agent nodded, lifted his left arm to his mouth and spoke into the microphone in his sleeve. A flurry of activity began to take place all throughout the White House property.
Twenty minutes later, the Director of the FBI, Janet Smart, walked into the PEOC. Soon afterwards, the Director of Homeland Security, Jorge Perez, and Director Patrick Rubio from the CIA arrived at the same time. They were followed shortly by Attorney General Roberts. The heads of the military branches all came in as a gaggle (there was General Marcy Lynch from the Marines, General Adrian Rice of the Air Force and Admiral Juliano from the Navy — the heads of the Army and the Coast Guard would be joining the group via telecon). The last one to the party was Admiral John Casey, the new Director for the National Security Agency and US Cyber Command.