“SHOOTING STAR” Chapter XXI – Intelligence
LOCATION: President’s Hideout
Just a few days after the President of the United States had his meeting with the Joint Chiefs of Staff and other members of the cabinet he gets another surprise coming his way.
WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: Mr. President, I have a phone call for you from Washington.
PRESIDENT OF THE U.S.: Who’s calling me from Washington?
WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: Takes a deep swallow and then answers the question. According to the person calling from Washington the United Nations Security Council is calling for you.
PRESIDENT OF THE U.S.: Have the phone call forwarded to my office. He gets up from the location he was at with his wife and kids outside and sets off to his office down the hall. The chief of staff goes back to the phone and has the call forwarded to the president.
The president gets to his office and as soon as he sits down the phone rings and it blinks on the secured line, which he knows it is official. He watches it blink for a few seconds before he picks up the phone and answers it.
PRESIDENT OF THE U.S.: This is President Ford, how may I help you?
U.N. SECURITY COUNCIL: Mr. President, good afternoon you know this is Chairman Lee, Head of the U.N. Security Council.
PRESIDENT OF THE U.S.: Mr. Lee, what do I owe the pleasure of your call?
CHAIRMAN LEE: We have been monitoring the situation there in the United States and the effects all around the world. We haven’t contacted you in months after the attacks simply because we wanted your government to focus on the task at hand. How are things going there so far?
PRESIDENT OF THE U.S.: Things here are slowly getting back to normal. We still have a few things to tie up and a few things to take care before we are fully operational. This has in no way weakened the United States to the world.
CHAIRMAN LEE: Well, I’m curious to know about this situation we are hearing about in the western region.
PRESIDENT OF THE U.S.: Western region?
CHAIRMAN LEE: The Pacific West Territories have applied to our office for assistance and to be recognized as a separate union. Well, this was given to us in a several page correspondence and to narrow the explanation down that is what they are saying to the council.
PRESIDENT OF THE U.S.: Well, to make things clear for you and the council is that the Pacific West Territories is not a separate nation and that we are not recognizing it as such. That violates our constitution and whoever is responsible to establishing a nation within our borders will be charged with treason.
CHAIRMAN LEE: I understand the position you and your government stands on this. However, I wouldn’t be so very concerned if I didn’t know about their situation and how they plan on going about it.
PRESIDENT OF THE U.S.: What information do you have on that?
CHAIRMAN LEE: Well, you are aware of the senators and congressman who represent the states that make up that region are pushing for this, right?
PRESIDENT OF THE U.S.: Yes, I am aware of that and that they are also trying to explain that it is still part of the United States. Their reasoning for this is that the state governments are extremely unhappy of our response to assist them. They want to be a separate territory of the U.S., but still part of this country.
CHAIRMAN LEE: So they want to be independent like Puerto Rico and Guam and other territories of the U.S.?
PRESIDENT OF THE U.S.: That’s my understanding of it. We are fighting that along with other members of Congress who represent the states in the south. That situation is well more handled and far less along than the situation in the west.
CHAIRMAN LEE: You might want to focus more on the western region than the southern states.
PRESIDENT OF THE U.S.: We have intelligence people on the ground reporting to us periodically on the situation at hand. So for the most part we have everything under control.
CHAIRMAN LEE: Well, if you have intelligence in place than you should know that other states are being secretly contacted to join their cause.
PRESIDENT OF THE U.S.: What the hell are you talking about Mr. Lee?
CHAIRMAN LEE: The Phoenix government is in negotiations with Colorado, Utah, Alaska, and Montana. Several other states remain neutral and under the order of your authority.
PRESIDENT OF THE U.S.: Oh my god! I’m assuming you have people here monitoring the situation as well?
CHAIRMAN LEE: We’ve had people there almost immediately after the attacks happened. The word is that someone or the information you need to know about the attacks is in Sacramento, California. Nothing has confirmed that, but so far our team is investigating this and reporting to us.
PRESIDENT OF THE U.S.: It would have been nice for you and U.N. to let us know what was going on. How do you think I feel to know I have foreign operatives operating in my country without my knowledge?
CHAIRMAN LEE: I’m sorry Mr. President, but it was a necessary action and we felt as the situation was being investigated we would let you know of the issues brewing. Right now, I am asking that you allow us to operate and we will coordinate with your people to help solve this massive confusion.
PRESIDENT OF THE U.S.: I will allow your organization to operate on U.S. soil, but everything from this point on needs to come through me first.
CHAIRMAN LEE: I completely understand and I apologize for our inconsiderate behavior. We also need to solve this quickly because the world’s economy has seriously taken a hit. So with that in mind you surely understand why we acted the way we did?
PRESIDENT OF THE U.S.: I understand Mr. Lee. We shall work together and bring this situation to a halt immediately. They hang up and continue on with their respective business with their members of their organization.
Almost immediately after his meeting with the chairman of the U.N. Security Council President Ford meets with his chief of staff in his office.
PRESIDENT OF THE U.S.: Emanuel I need to speak to you for a brief moment.
WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: Sure, Mr. President. What do you need?
PRESIDENT OF THE U.S.: I just finished my meeting with Chairman Lee and apparently he has intelligence people in our country monitoring our handling of this crisis.
WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: What? Do you want me to file a motion to have them cease operation immediately and turn over all information gathered to us?
PRESIDENT OF THE U.S.: That won’t be necessary Emanuel. What I do need you to do is contact the Joint Chiefs and alert them of the situation. Then have them gather a joint intelligence team to go in and figure out the weakness of this whole mess. I want information on who is responsible, what the west intend to do once they complete their task, and what are our options to stop this from happening.
WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: Well one way to cease this from happening is to order sanctions and state that anyone going along with this plan will be charged with treason.
PRESIDENT OF THE U.S.: Ordering sanctions on our own people will just exacerbate the situation and cause more people to just join their cause. Whatever that cause maybe. We need to succeed in this issue and failure is not an option.
WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: Yes, sir I will get on that immediately. How soon do you want this team to be on the ground?
PRESIDENT OF THE U.S.: As soon as possible. Also I was thinking that no cities on the west were hit to our knowledge. So why would they want to cause division within our unification? The 64 million dollar question needs to be answered and time is running out.
The White House Chief of Staff gets his orders from the president and calls up the Joint Chiefs for an emergency meeting. They meet Emanuel in the room where the last meeting was held.
EMANUEL: Thank you gentlemen for meeting me for this emergency action that the president is calling for.
ARMY GENERAL: What’s going on Emanuel?
EMANUEL: The president wants all of you to form a joint intelligence team to have on the ground within the next couple of days.
MARINE GENERAL: That needs to be cleared through the Department of Homeland Security Secretary. Besides we can’t use federal troops on the ground because it violates the Posse Comitatus Act.
EMANUEL: You can’t use them for any reason that enforces the federal and state laws of the country. However, you can use them for gathering intelligence on the enemy. The Joint Chiefs look at each other with somewhat of a perplexed look on their faces. The United Nations has foreign operatives operating in this country monitoring our handling of this crisis. They are gathering intelligence on the ground and they would like to coordinate with us in doing so.
AIR FORCE GENERAL: That’s insane! How long have they been here?
EMANUEL: Almost immediately after the attacks happened. I offered to file a motion with the U.N. heads, but the president told me not too.
NAVY ADMIRAL: You telling me we have foreign operatives in this country without permission from the president?
EMANUEL: That’s exactly what I’m saying to you Admiral.
ARMY GENERAL: These bastards want our cooperation on the ground after they practically invaded us?! I can’t believe this! I can’t believe that the president is willing to work with them side by side.
EMANUEL: I understand your concern and your opinion on this, but this is the order of the president and he needs to know immediately.
MARINE GENERAL: What does the president need from us?
EMANUEL: A number of individuals that will be involved in the joint intelligence operation.
AIR FORCE GENERAL: You mean a counter-intelligence operation on the Pacific West Territories.
EMANUEL: Call it what you want to call it, but the fact remains that this is what the president wants. He’s still waiting for the information from the troops on the ground in Afghanistan and Iraq.
MARINE GENERAL: I have it on my computer and I will forward it to you.
ARMY GENERAL: I have it on my computer as well and will send it to you.
EMANUEL: Good. When you figure out how to set up your operation let me know ASAP. Also since we have military bases there in the western region what is happening to them?
MARINE GENERAL: Most of the base commanders were arrested and many of the authorities there were involved in a fierce fire fight.
EMANUEL: So what are you telling me general?
ARMY GENERAL: Most of the base commanders of all military bases were either arrested or forced to change over. Anyone resisting would face swift action.
EMANUEL: So this is looked at an attack on the United States?
NAVY ADMIRAL: I’ve got some ships that were hijacked and now under operation of this so called territory. This is unacceptable and our swift action is needed.
EMANUEL: What you are asking for is a military strike on our own people?
MARINE GENERAL: They sure didn’t think about that before they started committing treason on our troops and all federal buildings.
EMANUEL: The president is not going to go for it. Besides the information we need to know about all of this is supposedly located in Sacramento. I overheard the president’s conversation with the United Nations Security Council.
ARMY GENERAL: Sacramento, California? Oh my god.
EMANUEL: What general?
ARMY GENERAL: There is an abandon warehouse about 10-15 minutes outside of the city heading north on the Pacific Coast Highway. That warehouse is secured by locks, codes, and constantly secured by armed guards.
EMANUEL: Okay, well what’s in it?
ARMY GENERAL: I didn’t think about this before, but that warehouse contains chemicals such as mustard gas, anthrax, and other biological and chemical agents.
EMANUEL: Oh no, are you telling me that is where the terrorists got the stuff from to raise an attack on the cities?
ARMY GENERAL: No, I know that location was not hit because if it was we would have known and action would have been coordinated immediately.
EMANUEL: Okay, then what is the big issue?
MARINE GENERAL: There is a tunnel inside the warehouse that leads to a silo that controls at least half a dozen ICBM’s in California, Nevada, and Oregon.
EMANUEL: This just gets worse by the day.
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