“John,” laughed Mike. “It looks like our best flying days are still to come and from now on can I assume my call sign is Mike and he is John? What happens if we have more than one Mike or John?”
“Mike One and Mike Two, I guess. Shit, who cares!” laughed Preston. “Let’s help unload the aircraft and wait for our meeting. If I know my good buddy, Carlos, this is going to be a good one. I’ve never seen him so excited!” and he patted Carlos on the back. “I hear I owe you $500, you naughty boy!” Carlos grinned back but said nothing.
An hour later, Baby Huey came in directly from the north, turned in over the hangar, and came in to land from the south. Captain Jennifer Watkins had arrived five minutes earlier and the majority of the passengers from Captain Mallory’s convoy were getting ready to depart for Seymour Johnson.
This time, there was no honor guard as Baby Huey landed, but a lot more civilians were totally shocked to see the president. The general and Secret Service men exited the plane first and then the president. He shook as many hands as he could, especially the children’s hands. Little Beth gave him a kiss on the cheek and shyly introduced him to her new teenaged “big sister” and all her other friends from New York—especially the ones who also had a puppy like she did.
The president was then ushered into the hangar where Carlos and Lee had already set up a meeting room, and the hangar door was closed. All goodbyes and kisses and thanks had been shared with Mike Mallory, John, and Pam, who were staying behind while all the others from New York were about to be transferred to Seymour Johnson. The other remaining flight attendant was going along to look after the passengers. Jennifer started up and taxied out to the runway for take-off, as the growing team sat down for the next meeting. Martie was the last inside after hugging little Beth, who was also leaving for Seymour Johnson with her new sister, new friends and the retired teacher as her chaperones. It looked to Preston as if he had Martie to himself once again, and he smiled.
“She is going to make a good mother one day when this mess is over,” he thought to himself.
“Please we have little time. I must call this meeting to order,” started Carlos, still a little agitated. “Mr. President, General Allen, we believe that we have about 24 hours before New York is the victim of an invasion of sorts.” THAT got everybody’s attention and they all immediately sat down.
There was silence for 20 minutes as Carlos explained what he and Lee had achieved over the satellite link to China. He also showed an old television screen on a table with a real live picture of the United States, showing the massive winter storm heading northwest and currently over New York and New England. It looked like a Lego-made view of the earth, but he explained that they could now see only very large ships coming in from 300 miles out and the map stretched down to northern South America.
“I believe that within another 24 hours, Lee and I can patch ourselves into the three Chinese satellites and get their digital pictures bounced through our Navistar P. I don’t believe they ever thought to scramble their pictures, because who else would be watching if they terminated the electronics of all the other satellites? This is an important factor, General Allen. If we can see what they are seeing, then we can view China and Russia and see if they have their cities lit up. If they do, then they are the enemy. Whoever the real enemy is out there will light up the night sky. So please do not touch our stolen television truck in Salt Lake City, Utah. We are getting live feed from across the United States and will continue to do so. The pictures are just good enough to see any extremely large ships approaching within 300 miles of either coast, but not Hawaii or Alaska, I’m afraid.
“Pilots! Important! This picture is your only source of weather information, and once other television trucks are set up they can also view the same picture for weather patterns. Hill is already up, so is Edwards, and I believe Andrews will be online by late this evening. General, tell your men at the bases to find the same electronics we found at Hill and they will be able to see the same picture. An unlimited amount of people can view a satellite feed—it’s like satellite television was last year.
“Okay, back to the situation in New York. I have taken the liberty to warn all your bases through our radio link so they can prepare troops for battle. Jennifer—Captain Watkins—is dropping off the civilians at Seymour Johnson and picking up a company of readied troops—92 soldiers plus gear—and transporting them to Andrews. Captain Powers is currently heading to Andrews with another 92 fresh troops from Hill. I believe the Edwards-based C-130 is in the air with her and is loaded with two small bulldozers that can be lifted in by helicopter. They were put aboard by the commander at Hill to help clear the snow off the New York runways. I took the liberty, General Allen, to get things started since you were not in radio contact. I will now hand the operation over to you.”
“Thank you, Carlos,” replied the general. “I appreciate your quick thinking. I would have mobilized what I could if I were in the same position. So, Mr. President, pilots, thanks to Carlos and Mr. Wang, we have a little knowledge about our future. At this point we are transitioning into express mode. Everything has to be done yesterday. I now have six C-130s available to ferry troops into New York starting at midnight tonight, but the runways are blocked with snow. As Carlos explained, they must have men in or near New York who are going in to clear a runway for something big straight out of Shanghai. If that is the case, they must have bulldozers stashed away somewhere. We might as well let them clear the runway for us, but I want troops into JFK in the next couple of hours, before any incoming enemy army soldiers or Chinese termination squads get there.”
He walked over to the radio.
“Andrew, this is Pete. Do you copy? Over.”
“One moment, Pete, I’ll get him for you,” came the response. The base commander arrived a few seconds later.
“Hi, Pete.”
“How are those two whirly birds, Bud?” the general asked.
“Ready for service, Pete. We had two more units come in five minutes ago from our buddy Mr. Dover. That makes four. Ghost Rider will be taking off in an hour and she has Cousin Seymour’s address down yonder.”
“When you get her in the air, tell her to go and see Grandpa Pope (Fort Bragg) instead. He’s waiting to fill her up with men and she must return to Mr. McGuire’s (McGuire AFB) house.”