Check it out and enjoy reading it!
Tom
12:30am
“Men.” began Harvey
Harrison “The chatter has died down.” he noted in reference to
Afghanistan. However there is still a
cause for concern though “We are in the midst of a long and protracted
recount. One that could very well divide
this nation. It is obvious that al-Qaeda
will somehow take advantage of this. We
must be on our toes. I need your
suggestions on how to beef up our security.
We know that something may be in the works, but there is no credible
threat out there as of this hour.” Harrison
was the 5’8”, 175 pound leader of Ridgemont.
He was clean shaven with gray hair as well as a ruddy appearance from
his many years in the field tracking and capturing a considerable number of terrorists. Those present were in the twenty foot by
twenty five foot conference room was the most start of the art room in
Ridgeview. The twelve foot conference
table was made of cedar and would seat up to ten people. The walls were covered with either state of
the art computers as well as the newest tracking devices that have been made
available to the intelligence community.
The maximum of ten people were seated at the table. The group leader Harvey Harrison and the rest
of his ten man crew including his assistant Reginald Patterson occupied each
seat at the table. The only topic of
conversation in the room was what had been the sudden increase in chatter
throughout the Middle East until the sudden silence which took place exactly
nine hours earlier.
“As our intelligence has evolved so they have
evolved.” Ian Daley acknowledged “We need to beef up our security in the most
vulnerable of places. I suggest that the
malls would be a good start.”
“You think so?” Graves said sarcastically “And where
do we get the extra security from, your average Joe walking down the street.”
“Enough!” Harrison said sternly.
“We need a more coherent plan.” Daley urged.
“Would you like to come up here and run this
meeting?” Harrison snarled.
“That would actually be a good place to start.”
Daley replied with contempt in his voice “I lost my wife on 9/11 and what is
our intelligence community doing to prevent another attack.” as there was
silence in the room “Zilch.” Ian noted “We need to improve our National
Security and fast or there will be another attack like 9/11 but on a far more
devastating scale.”
“Has there been another attack since 9/11?” Harrison
asked challenging Daley.
“Not yet, but if we are not careful, one will soon
occur. We can’t keep getting lucky like
we’ve been since 9/11. The odds are
against us.” Daley exhorted.
“You do your job and I will do mine!” Harrison
ordered “If there is anything you would like to say that would be a
contribution for fighting this threat then say it. If not sit down and keep your mouth shut! Do I make myself perfectly clear!” he
exploded.
“Just listen to what I have said about how to fight
this war!” Daley noted.
“I am taking what you have said and put it on the
record.” Harrison noted as his tone became very irritated over the direction
that the meeting was heading in. “Is
there anyone else who feels the same way that I am not doing my job
properly?” Everyone else in the room
shook their head no in unison. “Alright
then let us pick up where we left off.” Harrison noted as the meeting went on
for another twenty minutes. Harvey
Harrison had long been a member of the National Security Department. He first joined the department during the
early years of the Reagan Administration.
Harrison slowly worked his way up the ladder. When Harrison first became a lower level
manager of the National Security Department during the second year of the Clinton
Administration, among his first hires was Art Graves as well as Ian Daley. Graves and Daley quickly became rivals of one
another. Daley was more concerned about
doing his job while Graves was more concerned about being a star employee while
quickly moving up the ladder. This
resulted in a lot of tension between the two men. At times the tension threatened to become
counter-productive to the NSA. After
9/11, the Department of Homeland Security was created. Harrison, Graves and Daley were transferred over
to the new governmental agency. Daley
was very gung ho in joining the Department of Homeland Security since his wife
was killed while working in the Pentagon on 9/11. They were joined by a CIA agent who
specialized in Counter-terrorism named Reginald Patterson. The four gradually moved up the ladder of the
Department of Homeland Security. They
were now among those who not only analyzed data but were very influential when
it came to making recommendation about how to handle the latest terrorist
threats while deciding where to allocate governmental resources to. They were now meeting once again to decide
where they would allocate governmental resources in order to prevent another
terrorist attack from taking place.
“Do you have any stories to share about Black
Friday?” Irene Daley inquired.
“Believe me I have more than my share.” the lady
with the platinum blonde hair began “Before I continue my name is Harriet.”
“I’m Irene.” she responded “Nice to meet you.”
“And I’m Irma.” the younger twin by five minutes
replied “It’s nice to meet you too.”
“Before I share my stories with you, do you have any
questions about how to get through Black Friday? I see that you have the food and drink part
well taken care of.” Harriet noted.
“How crowded do the lines actually get?” Irene
asked.
“Ten times more than what you see now by the time
the first doors open.” Harriet responded.
“Have there ever been any problems during the wait
or when the doors first open?” Irma inquired.
“Other than the occasional rowdy person waiting in
line and having too much to drink, nothing major during the wait. However, when it comes to the medical
personnel arriving due to people getting hypothermia or passing out due to
exhaustion or fatigue while waiting in line, I see at least ten for both cases
every year.” Harriet recalled.
“What time does it usually start?” Irene asked.
“I would say between one thirty and two o’clock in
the morning.” Harriet replied.
“That should begin in less than an hour from now.”
Irma mused aloud.
“You two should be fine. You’re both well bundled up for the
occasion. You have more than enough
food. I would say don’t be afraid to
take frequent rest breaks. One of you
rest up while the other waits in line.
My daughter Sophie got a head start with the resting. I’m about to call her in a little while to
switch places. You two might want to
work out a similar plan.” Harriet then suggested.
“We will definitely listen to your advice.” Irene
replied. Irene and Irma Daley were
twenty six year old college students who had graduated from Johns Hopkins
University and were now in the process of getting their doctorate’s degree at
Syracuse University only three months earlier.
Since their mother’s death, the twins had been withdrawn for the most part
and had rarely socialized among their peers.
However when they arrived in Syracuse, they befriended by another set of
twins who had lost their mother in the World Trade Center on 9/11. Alexis and Andi Davies quickly befriended the
Daley twins and quickly brought them out of their shell. Irene and Irma learned about how both Alexis
and Andi lost their mother on 9/11 and saw how the two refused to let tragedy
rule their lives. The Daley twins began
to feel very enthusiastic about life once more.
They became very outgoing and like the Davies twins became very popular
among the SU graduate students not to mention among the undergraduates they
befriended along the way. Alexis and
Andi were now among the people who the Daley twins would do their Christmas
shopping for on this very day.
House
Speaker Nate Grumbly was reclining in the chair in his study while surfing the
internet. Grumbly was fifty years old
and had gray hair and brown eyes. His
customary attire included silk suits which were professionally tailored as well
as white silk shirts and dark silk ties.
Grumbly was known by his nickname Silk.
He was now scanning the NFL website looking over the scores. He was very pleased about Detroit losing to
Denver 24-3, not happy about both Dallas beating New England 35-31 and his
beloved Packers being blown out by the Bears 42-7 in the nightcap. The study had tan walls and a series of ten
well organized bookshelves which ranged in subjects from ancient history and
philosophy up to American History and Political Thought to Sports. The tan walls had white trim. The curtains were a dark brown given the fall
and winter seasons. During the summers,
the curtains would be white. There
were displays of maritime scenes throughout the room which ranged from
paintings to model ships. The maritime
collection ranged from America and the West Indies to Europe, Africa and the
Middle East. The works of the collection
that also ranged from depictions of the Roman Era through the mid-1800’s. Classical music was the only music that
Grumbly would ever play while he was in the room. The combination of classical music and an old
book brought the feeling of complete relaxation to him. It was in this very study that Nate Grumbly
would be able to do his best thinking. Grumbly’s
cellphone. Grumbly then reached for his cellphone. He was about to place a call to his answering
service in the nation’s capital when the phone rang. Grumbly picked it up and then spoke to the
person on the other line. The
conversation would last for a few minutes.
After it was over, Grumbly hung up the phone and placed a call to the
answering machine in his office “I have decided to take a later flight
back. I should be arriving around 4pm
tomorrow. I have some matters to take
care of tomorrow morning in Milwaukee. I
apologize for any inconvenience that I may cause because of this.” Grumbly then hung up the phone and proceeded
to look at the website for another moment.
He then retired for the evening. However,
he received another call. Grumbly
answered the call.
“Nate, it’s me Kirk.” Kirk Roberts began “The president
would like to meet with you in the morning.”
Roberts was fifty eight years old and was tall and lanky. His light brown hair and blue eyes made him
look youthful. His causal dress by
Washington standards helped bolster the case that Roberts was youthful beyond
his years.
“Tell the old windbag that I have a few things to
take care of tomorrow morning first.
After that I will take the noon flight back to DC.” Grumbly replied.
“It’s very important that you attend the meeting.”
Kirk noted.
“It was more important that President Wolcott chose
Thomas as his running mate instead of remembering all that I did for him
through the years.” Nate shot back “I’m sorry, but I have more important
matters to attend to.”
“The meeting is about a grave national security
matter.” Roberts said.
“Look every time there has been a grave national
security matter, nothing happened or it was a false alarm. Please don’t bother me anymore for the
night.” Grumbly added as he hung up the phone.
The tension between Nate Grumbly and Jeff Wolcott had lasted since the
before the George H. W. Bush Administration when they worked on both the Mike
Dukakis and the Al Gore campaigns respectively.
They later parlayed their work in the 1988 presidential campaign into
victories in the 1990 mid-term elections in both Wisconsin and Pennsylvania
respectively. Both men were considered
to be conniving and shrewd while becoming rising stars in the Democratic Party. Their political rivalry became even tenser
during the 2008 presidential campaign when Wolcott worked on the Obama campaign
while Grumbly worked on the Hilary Clinton campaign. Four years ago, they were vying for the
Democratic presidential campaign. The
two were the last candidates standing and it resulted in a brokered convention. One that would last for three ballots until
Wolcott barley had enough ballots for the nomination. Wolcott both courted the support of Texas
Senator Vince Thomas whom they both offered the vice presidency too. Grumbly thought he had the perfect deal in
place where Thomas would be able to convince enough delegates to support
Grumbly until Wolcott blackmailed Thomas into endorsing him. Thomas not only threw his support as well as
the delegates that he controlled to Wolcott, but this convinced Grumbly that
the nomination process was rigged. Since
then the only thing that consumed House Speaker Nathan Grumbly was revenge and
the desire to bring down Jeffrey Wolcott once and for all.
“Men, we must begin final preparations to reclaim
Taiwan.” Sung Ju Luang began “I have come here directly from a meeting with the
chairman of our military. He has
informed us that Premier Ming has approved the excursion that is to take place
within the next twenty four hours. As
soon as he gives us the official order we will enter Taiwan and take it
back.” It was these words that made the
soldier’s day. Meanwhile in North Korea
similar scenes were being played out among the various military branches. However it would not only involve South
Korea, but Japan and the United States as well.
At the same time, another teleconference was taking place throughout the
Middle East. This time it would involve
various Arab leaders discussing a covert military plot. As the meeting ended, they agreed to inform
their military commanders to prepare their soldiers for war while awaiting
their final orders to carry out the military strike.
