“Madam Speaker, are you the acting President?”
“No.”
“Why not, the 25th Amendment is there for something like this.”
“There has never been anything like this, Mr. Williams,” Valerie said then pointed to another reporter.
“Was the President hit by any of the shots?”
“Unable to tell but I doubt it.”
“Why?”
“It seems to those who are best able to discern the motives of this group that they would rather have both Presidents as hostages.”
“Hostages for what?”
“That we don’t know but I’m sure we’ll soon find out.”
“What military action has been taken to get the President back?”
“I can’t say, Dawn, surely you know that.”
“What has the Russian government said about this?”
“They’ve sent coded messages claiming they were not involved.”
“Do you believe them?”
“I do, there’s no reason for them to precipitate a crisis when tensions are starting to relax between us.”
“We’ve heard rumors of a carload of our secret service agents being killed.”
“I don’t know the details but I’ve heard the same thing.”
“When will we know more details?”
“When we have them. I’m going to keep the populace informed when we have something.”
“Have we raised our alert status?”
“I can’t comment on that either.”
“Is this all we can expect from you, just brief snippets with no explanation?”
“Until we know something yes, I can’t tell you what I don’t know, Stan.”
“Where are the First Gentleman and his children?”
“That is not for me to disseminate.”
“When will we have another briefing?”
“Let’s see,” Valerie said glancing at the clock. “How about midnight? You do stay up that late don’t you Stan.” There was a smattering of faint laughter.
“I will today, Madam Speaker.”
“Good, I look forward to seeing you again,” Valerie said and abruptly left the stage and disappeared.
“You did fine, Madam Speaker,” Perry said and the two walked down the hall, went into a room and closed the door.
“Dad, what’s going to happen to Mom,” Shelly asked.
“I don’t know.”
“Can’t the army go in there and get her out?” Brian asked.
“It’s more complicated than that,” Don said. They were upstairs in the living quarters of the first family. Brian and Shelly were on a couch facing Don who sat in a chair staring blankly at the television news station that was broadcasting non-stop about the kidnapping.
“Why is any answer to any question about anything is, it’s complicated?” Brian asked.
“Because it is. Your mother and her party are in a foreign land and not one that is very warm to us right now. The Russian government doesn’t want anything to happen to your mother or President Deniken or any of the people being held but they also aren’t receptive to outside interference from the U.S.”
“I’m scared, Dad,” Shelly said as she sat on the arm of his chair. She put her head on his shoulder and he hugged her. Brian sat watching then his eyes went red and he began to tremble.
“I miss Mom,” Brian said and sat on the other arm. Don hugged him too as they all three hoped for the best but feared the worst.
“What do we do, Perry?” Valerie asked as they both sat at a table. They weren’t ducking the cabinet but they needed a few minutes to plan their strategy.
“We’re in uncharted waters to be sure. Nothing like this has ever happened. Whatever happens and what we do about it will be called into scrutiny.”
“Should I invoke the 25th Amendment and take over?”
“You can’t win, you’re in quicksand the moment you start. If she shows up safely in two days, you’ll be the scourge of the Earth.”
“I know but what if that lunatic at Kapustin Yar launches twenty missiles? These are hydrogen warheads aimed at New York, Washington, Chicago, Los Angles, and wherever else they have targeted. Just twenty hydrogen bombs and this country is paralyzed. We each have about seven thousand but twenty could do the trick.”
“Oh, you’re right. No electricity, phones, emergency services would be non-existent. Things would grind to a halt.”
“And what do we do? Do we launch twenty missiles of our own at St. Petersburg, Moscow, their naval bases etc.?”
“Then they launch a full-scale retaliation and we do the same. The Earth as we know it would disappear,” Perry said.
“That’s why I think I should take over. We have to be in contact with NORAD, Alaskan Air Command, Pearl Harbor, Wiesbaden, the whole damn works.” Perry nodded understanding. “I know I resisted it at first but the more I think about it, we need someone in charge.”
“We need to discuss this with the cabinet.”
“Why?”
“Because they’ll have to approve any transfer of power.”
“They do?”
“Of course, tell me you knew that,” Perry said.
“I guess I didn’t until now.”
“Let’s pretend that you knew all along.”
“Agreed, I guess we should go back now.”
“You did a nice job in the press room, Madam Speaker,” Louise Chen remarked.
“Now, what do we do?” Haakon asked.
“We talk with General Zumwalt at NORAD and see what he has on Kapustin Yar,” Valerie replied.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
“Comrade, we’re through the door,” A man said to Kulagin who stood with an assault rifle in his hand.
“Okay, go get them, Kolchevsky,” Kulagin said. He remained behind expecting to see his men in a few minutes with the two presidents in their custody with everyone else dead.
“Good, let’s go.” He was followed by twenty other “comrades”, all well-armed. They charged upstairs and searched each floor as they went.
“What do we do when we see them?” Manatov asked.
“Kill them, all but the Presidents.” There were fourteen men headed up the main stairs and six who moved up the back stairs.
“They’re coming up,” Retzlaf said as he returned from a scouting mission. Zhadanov had sent him to the lower floors to see when Kulagin’s men had broken through the doors.
“Where are they?” Zhadanov asked.
“The sixth floor but they’re moving fast.”
“So, we go into action, Trent said. They had all six met one last time before Kulagin’s men started upward.
“Should we move downward?” Tatiana asked. Normally, Tatiana would be telling people what to do but this was different.
“We have to, if we wait for them to meet us up here, they’ll win. They’ll have us out gunned 100 to 1,” Trent said.
“Agreed,” Vladimir said and after a brief discussion the three pairs moved in different directions.
“General, sir, we have a problem,” Deke Winters said to his superior at NORAD.
“What?”
“Two Russian subs are thirty miles off the east coast.”