“I’m glad you’re back.”
Colonel Decker went straight to the head of the table.
He didn’t acknowledge Boomer’s or Skibicki’s presence other than with a curt nod.
“What’s our status?” he asked Falk, who had a headset held up to one ear.
“Looking Glass is down. SEAL Team Three has the SHARCC secure. We haven’t heard from Task Force Reaper yet,” Falk succinctly reported.
“Will someone tell me what is going on?” Boomer demanded.
“Major Watson,” Decker said, holding up a hand.
“Have some patience. All your questions will be answered in a few minutes. Right now I’m trying to get the information together so that I can answer them.”
In confusion. Boomer slumped down in the chair next to Trace as General Maxwell was escorted to the chair next to him.
Decker spoke into the radio and seemed perturbed at the lack of answer.
Reluctantly, he faced the senior ranking military man in the room and saluted.
“General Maxwell, what you are about to hear must be relayed to the President and that is why we asked you to come here this morning,” Decker said.
“No one asked me a damn thing,” Maxwell said, returning the salute angrily.
“We apologize for some of our methods, but as we explain I think you will understand the reasoning behind our actions,” Decker continued.
“First, let me give a little background. The Line has been in existence for over seventy years. We,” he said gesturing about the room, “have been fighting them for the last five of those years.”
“Who is we?” Maxwell asked.
“Members of the Special Operations community,” Decker answered vaguely.
“And who elected you to this job?” Maxwell asked.
“No one elected us,” Decker said.
“We have been trying to do what was right and—”.
“The right thing would have been to expose The Line as soon as you were aware of its existence,” Maxwell cut in.
“That is what your oath of office and your sense of duty would have required.”
“Yes, sir, you are correct,” Decker said.
“Unfortunately, I became aware of the existence of The Line over twenty years ago on Ring Weekend as a cadet at the Academy when I became a member of the organization. I only turned against it five years ago, and by then I was already too far involved to be able to walk away or expose it.
“For a long time, I thought I was doing the right thing.
It was only in the late eighties, after a good friend of mine was killed by The Line, that I changed my convictions. It has taken years to gather together a few men that I could trust in order to accomplish what we did today.”
Decker then proceeded to relate the story of the fight between the Special Operations community and the regular Army for the past several decades.
“After the death of the 1st Ranger Battalion commander, Colonel Bob Kelly, one of my roommates from West Point,” Decker continued, “there were certain people in Special Operations who realized that The Line was a threat that went beyond intra-service animosity. I knew — because I was on the inside — that The Line had caused Bob’s death and the cover-up of the crash of his Blackhawk at Eglin. I approached a few people, and we began watching and waiting.
“We didn’t know about Colonel Rison having the diary, but we did know about the events at Nha Trang where he had been arrested and we knew that the war between the regular forces and our forces was continuing.
“Even then there was no consensus on action to be taken. That is until we discovered that The Line was plotting against the President. At that point, we no longer felt we had an option. We had to act.
“Since I was already on the inside it was felt that it was best if I continued to play my part. Major Keyes also was on the inside and turned against The Line when he heard what I had to say after I approached him at Fort Benning. In fighting The Line we had the support of many people within the Special Operations forces,” Decker said.
“Otherwise today would have turned out much differently than it did.”
“I understand all that,” General Maxwell said, “and your story is very interesting, but please tell me what is going on right now.”
“General Martin and the Army, Air Force, and Navy Joint Chiefs of Staff are dead,” Decker said.
“Their E4B command and control aircraft was destroyed by a bomb less than an hour ago forty miles southeast of Oahu.”
“You’re joking!” Maxwell said.
“No, sir, I’m not.”
“You killed them,” Maxwell said.
“We transferred a bomb they had placed on board Air Force One onto their E-4B. I prefer to think they killed themselves. They were preparing to take over all satellite media in the United States after the death of the President and declare martial law. It was thought best they not have that opportunity.”
He looked Maxwell in the eyes, and Maxwell nodded for him to continue.
“General Hooker, the man who has been in charge of The Line — and the members of his staff, the controlling committee of The Line — should be dead. That was Major Keyes — Task Force Reaper’s — responsibility at the V.I.P quarters a quarter mile away from where we are right now.
Unfortunately we haven’t heard from Major Keyes yet.”
“What about The Line?” Maxwell asked.
“It will wither and die,” Decker said.
“Hooker has been the brain for The Line for the past fifty years.
Without him and the influence he exerted through the Joint Chiefs, The Line is finished.”
“Wait a second,” Boomer said.
“I don’t understand what’s going on. Why was I involved and—”
“We knew The Line had a plot against the President,” Decker interrupted.
“So we had to come up with a plan to foil them.” He rubbed his forehead, as if trying to figure out the best way to tell the story.
“All right — let me back up and tell you first what The Line had planned. Then you will see why we had to do what we did.
“Between the MRA, the recent budget cuts, the cancelling of Hard Glass, the events in the Ukraine and Turkey…”
Decker paused.
“Well, I could go on and on, but to cut to the chase. The Line — and many other people-have not been very happy about the direction the country is going in. The difference is that The Line does something about it when they don’t like the way the country is going.
And usually something illegal.
“There were many small incidents — the raid into the Ukraine that Major Watson participated in for example-that were done to embarrass this administration and try to manipulate policy. Unfortunately — or fortunately, depending on whose side you’re on — those efforts didn’t work.
“The MRA passing Congress was the final straw, so to speak. General Hooker didn’t think it had a snowball’s chance in hell of getting Congressional approval but the President won that round. Hooker didn’t want to wait around and take his chances with the Senate. He decided to take action and this trip by the President to Hawaii played right into his hands. As you could tell by Hooker’s diary. The Line has a history of acting drastically against presidents if necessary, “Their primary plan was to kidnap the President when he attended the command and control exercise aboard the SHARCC. When that was canceled, they went to their secondary plan which was to kill the President this morning on the Arizona Memorial with a torpedo fired from a Mark IX swimmer delivery vehicle.”
“How did they think they could get away with that?”
Maxwell demanded.
The SDV that was to fire the torpedo was delivered off shore by a Barbel Class submarine that we captured from Iraq during the Gulf War back in—”
“Wait a second,” Boomer said.
“What about the Sam Houstont’ Skibicki answered that. “The Sam Houston is further off shore — but it is under our control. We had to be prepared to stop all The Line’s plans. The SEALS on board the Sam Houston were ready to take over the SHARCC and save the President if he had gone through with the C&C exercise.