“Good enough, Master Chief. Nice job tonight. It’s vitally important to get as much of this equipment online as we can,” he said. “I appreciate your hard work,” he added smiling at the man.
The old Master Chief smiled back. “Our pleasure, Admiral.”
Then the admiral turned back toward Lt. Collins. “Lieutenant, let’s see about reactivating some air conditioning over here. As a matter of fact, let’s see about opening up a berthing space or two and the galley. The old girl may never get underway again, but if we are using her as a command center, then we might as well go all the way. I think we have a couple of those big portable a/c units over in a warehouse. If we hook them into the blower system we might get by. See to it.”
The Lieutenant said “yes sir” and left to get more people out of bed.
Now the admiral turned back to Butler and Hammond. Both looked like they had been dragged through a grinder. He figured Butler hadn’t slept in a few days. “Jim, you and Roger get the hell out of here, I got a base to run. You’re going by the White House to tell the President?”
They nodded.
“Good. You tell the man I’ll have a fully operational center here in two days. If he can get one of those Army jokers to run us a phone line, I will hook it up to this system. I’ll even scrounge around some of these old warehouses and see if I can scare up some more gear. No matter what, we will be ready,” he said with a determined look. Then he softened. “Damn good job, Jim. You and Roger got it nailed. Now go on and leave things to me,” he said patting Butler’s arm.
The two men bid the admiral farewell and climbed back into the Olds. It was a short trip back to the White House. An hour later both men were sound asleep in their beds.
Chapter 3
The President fell into a fitful sleep after Butler and Hammond left. With all that was on his mind, he just couldn’t get into a deep sleep. So it was not surprising that, when the Secret Service agent entered the room to wake him, the President was found shaving in his bathroom. To the agent, the President looked tired — bone tired. The circles under his eyes appeared deeper and more pronounced. He even slouched in front of the mirror as he dragged the razor across his lathered chin. Despite this, the President smiled up at the agent and gave a slight wave of his hand, still holding the razor. That was one of the things that endeared the President to the agents in his detail. Despite any problems going on, the President always seemed to find the time to be pleasant and personable. He rarely lashed out at anyone, and at least so far, he hadn’t buckled at Agency restrictions. He was a genuinely nice guy.
“Can I get you anything, Mister President?” the agent asked.
“No, thanks Bill,” the President answered with a smile again. He also took time to find out their names. “I’ll be down for the usual in about 10 minutes.”
“Yes, sir,” the agent said, turning and leaving the room. The “usual,” meant coffee and some sort of pastry. Not a great breakfast, but at least it was something. He went back to his station relaying the message to the watch commander. He could tell by her grunt that his watch commander wasn’t too pleased with the “usual” either.
After shaving and putting on the normal business suit, the President left his quarters and, picking up his detail, made his way to one end of the second floor where they had set up the dining table for the meeting he had called the night before. The table was actually set at the end of the house in front of the large windows. As he walked down the hall he could see the early morning sunlight shining through the curtains. Mark Reeder, his Chief of Staff was pacing beside the table, lecturing two other men. As he got closer, he could see it was Captain Butler and Commander Hammond. The sound of the Chief of Staff’s voice was raised. He slowed a moment to catch the conversation before he got too close.
“I don’t ever want either of you two going behind me again to the President. My job is to make sure he gets the right information from the right sources, not from two people who don’t have any idea of the political repercussions of their actions,” he said tersely. Butler sat quietly. He was evidently used to such tirades. Hammond wasn’t.
“As I recall, you weren’t here,” said Roger in a steady voice.
The Chief of Staff almost exploded. “My whereabouts are of no concern to you or anyone else!” he nearly shouted. “As it was, I was busy walking from my home in Maryland to get here.”
“So no one can talk to the President until you make your way?” Hammond questioned.
“Listen, Mister Hammond. I don’t need you questioning me or anyone else in the White House. I have a political situation here in which you have NO say. I want you and Captain Butler out of here right now. I will give your apologies to the President. And Mister Hammond, I’ll thank you never to even visit the White House again,” he said turning beet red in the face. Then he turned and pointed at Captain Butler. “And you will be reassigned tomorrow. I suggest you start cleaning out your desk!”
“You are so full of shit.”
The Chief of Staff turned in a rage to Hammond again. Hammond sat in his chair and glared back.
“I have better time than to listen to someone who is so intent on pressing his own agenda he doesn’t see people trying to help. It’s people like you who helped me make the decision to leave my job. Well, for your information this isn’t a political situation, it is a military situation. Someone used weapons of mass destruction against our cities day before yesterday and probably killed off a couple of million people. We are at war with someone and we better start getting ready to knock heads. It was the two of us who got you the first form of communication last night, and the two of us who will probably get things started towards winning this war. So you can either get on the wagon, or you can find yourself some hole to crawl into while the leadership gets things underway. You’re right about one thing, I don’t know politics. I have no idea what you guys do and quite frankly don’t care. I’m just a civilian taxpayer who knows what he and his neighbors think. And right now we want to know what happened and what we’re doing about it. As for me, hand me a rifle so I can go shoot the son-of-a-bitch who did this.”
The Chief of Staff turned to the Secret Service agent in the room. “Get him out of here and never let him around me again!” he shouted.
“I don’t think so,” said the President as he rounded the corner.
The Chief of Staff swung around with his fists balled. “What?” he said as he turned.
The President calmly walked to his place at the table and set his coat on the chair beside it. “I said I don’t think so,” he said calmly.
“Sir, these men have been giving you bad advice, and I’m here to set you straight.”
That had been the wrong thing to say and he realized it as soon as the President’s eyebrows flew up. “Mark, I hired you because Mr. Knowles said you were the best person to have in this job. Since then, I have watched you bully your way around this office. It’s time you learned that I am the President of the United States, not you. I will determine who I listen to, and I will make the decisions on what is political or not,” he said with a determined look. He turned to Captain Butler. “Jim, call in a relief and have someone here tomorrow morning.”
The Captain got a surprise look on his face. “Yes, sir,” he said. Butler looked over at the Chief of Staff who was standing with his hands on his hips and a smirk on his face.