Chapter Thirty-four
Friday, 0030
(Three and half hours into Prometheus)
—“We continue with our breaking news: The streets around the Capitol have been blocked off by the military. The Capitol is entirely closed off. The Army is not allowing any one to enter and has ordered all civilians to stay away. Anyone whose job is within the boundary of the Capitol—as shown on the graphic here—is instructed to stay away until further notice.
“We have sent reporters and camera crews out to investigate and will bring you an update as soon as we have something to add.”—
General Alexander arrived at Camp David in a convoy of SUV’s with U.S. Secret Service as escorts in the SUV in front, and his command officers riding with him and in an SUV behind. During the whole trip he was wrestling with what he was to do. He had started something he didn’t know how to stop. If he ordered the troops to stand down, would they? At this point they were committed, and besides, they were on radio silence. The only communication was to be with secured radios and he, intentionally, didn’t have one so there couldn’t be a link back to them.
Like many of his experiences in the military, what he started with, and was hoping for, was not what he was getting. And now that the hour was at hand he was submerged in concern and regret. People were about do die. Dying soldiers were something he had dealt with before, but American soldiers killing American soldiers? It was unthinkable. Until now.
###
The others in Omilos did not have Alexander’s qualms; they were certain of the rightness of what they were doing—and by rightness they meant advancing themselves—and that made him even more uncomfortable. Their uniformity of thought at their meetings reminded him of a quote from General Patton in his ethics class at West Point, “‘If everybody is thinking alike, then somebody isn’t thinking.’”
As he walked to the house, Alexander noticed what looked to be a company of Marines stationed all around the compound. He was a little annoyed there weren’t any soldiers, but, as he knew, the President preferred Marines, because he “liked their uniforms”. He was okay with that at first since it was his soldiers who were responsible for the execution of the mission, and that placated his pride, but now he was ashamed of the superficiality of it.
The presence of so many Marines was also disconcerting at what had been historically a retreat, and occasionally a site for diplomacy. Now it was an armed compound and command center. The difference was a fitting, if horrifying metaphor.
When he entered the house he found Soleste, Ryan, Sanderson, and Henry, sitting casually in the great room. Their aides were in the background, along the walls, working their laptops and phones and occasionally walking over to hand a note to their respective boss. The mood in the room was light. It was reminiscent of an election night when the outcome was a foregone conclusion—happy, but restrained.
As Alexander entered there was a collective “Welcome, General” or, from some, “Hello, George”, with others simply nodding hello. He followed his adjutant to a table off to the right of the entrance where a station had been set up for him. He laid down his briefcase and waited while his aides booted up their computers.
“General, why don’t you join us?” Sanderson said, with a sardonic smile, “We’re just starting to get reports and things are going exactly according to plan.”
President Henry smiled at him and gave him two thumbs up. Confidence—Alexander saw it as arrogance—was practically radiating from them. Henry was sitting up straight with his chin out and with a thin smile, a posture which indicated to Alexander the President had been given his full portion of adulation. Henry reminded Alexander of Mussolini; of the infamous film of him on a balcony with his chin up, nodding, smiling, prancing, all while he was advocating murder. The difference was that while Mussolini’s face was open, broad, even happy, Henry’s face had eyes that were squinted and his brow was drawn down over his smile with a shadowy expression. It was a striking and telling contrast. He wondered if Henry would be affected when the reports of actual casualties started coming in. He suspected not. He had discovered over the past months that Henry’s particular pathology was immune to empathy. He saw this most strikingly revealed when he was brought casualty reports from the Iranian War as he walked to his office and he waved his hand and replied dismissively, “Yeah, yeah, yeah, cost of doing business,” and continued walking without breaking his stride.
Alexander looked over at the wall of TV screens opposite Henry in the big room. They were each tuned to a different station—local and national—and it was apparent the operation was now having an effect. Most likely those who were stopped at the checkpoints were calling, or posting on social media, to complain about the inconvenience of being rerouted, and that would have brought attention to the checkpoints and would have started people asking why the checkpoints were there. The news media had been speculating about it while they waited for their reporters to get some answers.
Alexander’s aides finished setting up and were working the phones, so he took another moment to scan the room. Everyone was busy, everyone but Henry. He was sitting smugly soaking in the news he had created. Soleste and Ryan, who were now standing in a corner on the opposite side of the room, were quietly talking while they watched everyone. They had seen Alexander arrive—they looked directly at him—but they had given no acknowledgement of his presence, aside from a simple nod, while they continued talking.
Suddenly the anchors on all the networks began gesturing excitedly. The banners changed to a line indicating that a military official was about to speak concerning the military’s presence at the Capitol.
At that moment all of the anchors mimicked each other as the screens shifted to Colonel Jesserton sitting behind a desk with an American flag standing behind him. At that point President Henry yelled out, “Shut up!”, and the entire room went silent as Henry raised the volume on the center TV.
###
Jesserton looked stern, serious. The lighting was bright, which made him squint and gave him a washed out, ghostly appearance. He was looking straight into the camera. His Adam’s apple dropped as he cleared his throat and said,
“My fellow Americans. I’m speaking to you tonight under the gravest of circumstances. We have for quite some time now seen our country spiral down an ever increasing degeneration of civility and respect for law and order. We have an executive who puts his own personal ego ahead of his responsibility to protect and care for the country, his dangerous and irresponsible aggression against our allies, his open thievery and bribery, and his ill-advised attack against Iran, have put us in a position of imminent peril.
“I, along with many in the government and private sectors, have been working with President Henry and his administration, as is our duty, and we have tried to mitigate the damage he has done. But we are now in a situation that we believe to be untenable. He has enriched himself, but left us impoverished. He has consolidated power, but weakened the institutions meant to check the Executive Branch.
“Shamefully, I rode along passively because of my respect for The Office of the President. But I have been forced to change. When I learned of an effort to complete the conversion of our country into an authoritarian dictatorship I could no longer sit by quietly. This is so egregious and undemocratic, by which I mean un-American, that it must be stopped. Congress is pathetically incapable, and the courts have shown their allegiance is to the people who nominated them and not to the sacred document they are sworn to protect and to follow. Therefore, since all the checks the founders put in place to prevent such an occurrence have failed we are left with no other choice but to take measures to prevent the further degradation of our great nation.
“Consequently, beginning immediately I am assuming control of the government. The Capitol is now under our control. No traffic will be allowed in or out of the area, and anyone caught trying to enter will be arrested on the spot.
“We hope this will be a short-term action, only for as long as is necessary for new leadership to be put into place, but, if we must, we will hold indefinitely.
“We believe this action will be judged by history as right, as patriotic, and as called for in defense of this great country; A regrettable, but unavoidable act instituted in order to save our democracy.
“I call on all decent, freedom-loving Americans to join us in support of our action.
“There will be further updates as we move toward our goal, but until then, do not attempt to enter the Capitol.
“Thank you, and God bless America!”
###
The room was silent. Everyone was spellbound. His speech was much more compelling than Alexander, and many others in the room had expected. Then there was a loud “YES!” from a corner of the room. Everyone turned to see Ryan beaming, with his fist in the air. Soleste was also smiling from ear to ear. President Henry simply sat in his chair with a cross between a smirk and smile splayed across his face as he murmured, “Excellent.”