Stein was a little taken aback at the way Perez had responded; he decided to take a softer approach. “Why the uncertainty? Do you need additional resources?”
Jorge sighed. “We have the resources we need; they are just good at evading us. We have a wide net, and once they make a mistake, we will catch them. Until they move out of hiding again, there is not a lot of we can do other than to keep a vigilant eye out for them.”
Director Smart, the head of the FBI, interjected to add, “Mr. President, we are close. My agents are tracking down each lead that comes in and it won’t be long before we have them.”
The FBI had been working with DHS on tracking down these groups since they arrived in the country eight months ago. Slowly and steadily, they were either apprehending them or killing them. The Chinese and Japanese Special Forces groups had stuck to military and critical infrastructure targets, refraining from attacking civilians when possible. For that, everyone was grateful.
The meeting continued for another 90 minutes as the various advisors brought the President and each other up to speed on their specific aspects of the government that they managed. The economy was running at full speed, and was as close to full employment as it was going to get. The stock market was still going strong, despite the periodic domestic attacks and the war.
Now that the enemy had been fully defeated in Alaska and California, hundreds of billions of dollars were being poured into the affected areas to rebuild the destroyed infrastructure and housing. Tens of millions of people across California had lost their homes and were living as refugees in their own country; the President had already visited many of the refugee camps, encouraging them and letting them know the government was going to ensure it did everything it could to help rebuild the cities and towns they had fled from during the invasion. The damage to California was extensive; nearly all of the major roads, overpasses and bridges in and around LA, San Diego and Oakland had been destroyed. It was going to take years to remove all the rubble and rebuild what had been lost. The only good thing to come from it was city planners now had the ability to completely redesign the transportation system of these cities and improve upon them with the latest in maglev trains and mass transit systems.
Following the meeting, the President dismissed his domestic and law enforcement advisors so that he could meet privately with the national security and military advisors. Before the second half of the meeting started, Stein had more beverages and some finger foods brought to the room; the President was sort of like a friendly grandma in that he never wanted anyone to work on an empty stomach.
Once everyone had a chance to grab some food, the President began the meeting again. He surveyed the room full of professional killers. “I know these past 90 minutes may have seemed like a waste of your time, and you may be thinking that you really did not need to sit through all these domestic reports and updates of what is going on in the country. I assure you it was not just an exercise in increasing your patience.”
The President saw the looks on his military advisors’ faces, and clearly, they were not impressed. “I wanted you all to be a part of that discussion so that you could remember that this is ultimately what we are fighting for. It is these people’s lives, and a vision for the prosperity of our great country and the world — that is what this is all about. It is not enough that we win this war; we need to also win the peace. That is going to be harder than anything we have ever embarked upon, and I am going to need each and every one of you to push your people harder and farther than ever to not just bring this war to a close, but to push through and win the peace that will follow. We need to identify those who will oppose peace and wipe them out.”
The President saw the faces of these hard men and women soften. Maybe they realized that the challenge he was laying out for them was not just the military one, but what to do after the war had been won. Maintaining the peace and rebuilding the world would be as challenging and fraught with danger as the war has been.
Admiral Casey was the first to break the silence and address the President’s challenge. “Mr. President, the war is still some ways off from being won. While I appreciate the lesson on why we fight and who we are fighting for, the conflict is far from over. The intercepts that we have received from the enemy governments indicate that they plan to continue fighting, despite the battlefield losses.”
This was becoming a source of contention among the military and intelligence leadership. The Chinese had been forced to return their armies back to Asia, and Russia had lost Poland and parts of the Ukraine during the summer offensive in Europe. Despite these defeats, none of these enemy powers were willing to discuss an end to the war. The Indians, on the other hand, had approached the American embassy about a separate peace. The cyber-attacks against their country had begun to so cripple their economy that the government was on the verge of collapse, and many of the provinces had fallen into complete anarchy. The implosion of their financial system and collapse of select portions of their transportation system had nearly ground the country to a halt. Starvation was starting to run rampant through their country as the logistical network needed to move resources from the farms to the city had ground to a halt.
Despite the initial success in the cyber-attacks against the Japanese, they had managed to restore most of their systems within a couple of weeks. The strikes had caused some serious economic damage to Japan, but nothing they could not recover from. What was plaguing Japan now was an internal resistance to the government’s decision to continue to support China and the war against America, despite the devastating naval losses and invasion of California. The Japanese had lost nearly 283,000 soldiers in the first four months of the war; much of their navy was gone. They were now relegated to providing the Chinese manufacturing support for the war and allowing the PLAAF to use their land as forward operating bases to house their aircraft. Once the American SUDs had cleared the waters around Alaska of enemy ships, they had moved to the waters around Japan and were causing havoc on a nation that depended on imports to survive. They were slowly being economically choked out of the war, and the people of Japan had had enough. The reduced rations, consumer goods and continued presence of Chinese soldiers was becoming more than they were willing to tolerate.
The President knew that the Admiral had a point; he needed to bring them into the loop on Project Terminator. “Everyone, this next portion of the meeting is going to be highly classified. Everyone will need to be read onto the program before we continue.”
Everyone’s eyes opened wide in surprise. Admiral Casey’s jaw dropped; there were very few secrets within the government that he did not know about. Clearly, the President still had a few aces up his sleeves. Dr. Gorka and Professor Rickenbacker walked into the room, and everyone shook hands and welcomed them to the room; Casey was particularly excited that whatever the President had in mind involved these two secretive and brilliant men. After a few moments, the President signaled that it was time for them to get the meeting going. Monty opened a vault on the side of the wall in the PEOC and pulled out several folders. Before each person could read the contents inside, they had to sign paperwork swearing them to secrecy.
Once the formalities had been completed, the room was darkened as Dr. Gorka prepared the holograph brief he and Professor Rickenbacker had brought with them.
The President smiled and announced, “Gentlemen, I believe it is now time for everyone to learn about Project Terminator.”
A few of the men in the room snickered at the reference, but everyone was still very eager to see what the President had up his sleeve.