There wasn't a minute between the sight of Congress burning and when a red light started flashing above the television. Roger reset it using a switch on the controller and then got to his feet.
"Please excuse me. That light was the notification from the house and it must mean Werner and Margaret are here. Susan, I'll leave the hosting to you and I'll be back in half an hour."
He left to go back to the tractor as the image on the television panned across the burning building. The CNN news reporter in Washington had been silent throughout as likely was most of the country. The image was suddenly interrupted by a reporter at the CNN news desk in Atlanta and she started talking without any introduction.
"Ladies and gentlemen, we have just been contacted by the White House and have been ordered to prepare for a live feed from a group calling itself the Revolutionary Council of the Raggedy Andy Party. They further ordered the feed must be shared with any other television networks that request it, in or out of the country."
The reporter looked down at what must have been a monitor embedded in the news desk and was obviously reading as she said, "we are further advised that the Raggedy Andy Party numbers in the millions and is ready to escalate across the country should the military intervene. They further stated that they are not armed but they will not yield. Should the military intervene it will create the most shameful bloodbath in American history. The President, who flew out of Washington in a Marine helicopter, is requested to contact the White House to assist in an orderly transfer of power."
Looking up from the monitor and off-camera to what must have been her producer, she looked for confirmation on what she was doing. She must have received an acknowledgement to continue as the news came to her and she went back to reading.
"We are getting reports from every major city that the streets are filling with people but there has been very little violence. We don't know how they are communicating with each other but these events are being coordinated somehow. It couldn't be via mobile phones or the NSA would have known about it long before it started."
She paused to scan down the screen of her monitor to see what took precedence. She was as overwhelmed as anyone else by what was happening but she was doing a remarkable job of keeping her composure.
At the Pentagon, General Haddock spoke to the Joint Chiefs of Staff and said angrily, "We need to annihilate those disloyal bastards."
The Chairman, General Masterson, returned calmly and said, "General, these are Americans and they're exactly right that it would create a bloodbath. We will do nothing except consider options until we have received our orders from the President. Your recommendation to annihilate the bastards is duly noted and is rejected. What other considerations are there, gentlemen?"
General Sanders responded first and said, "I recommend a general order to our base commanders to move to full combat readiness on their bases but otherwise to take no action. Without orders from the President, we cannot exceed that but prudence demands preparation."
"Agreed," said Masterson.
Looking around the table Masterson saw there was no further comment and then said, "It is so ordered. We will stand by here until we either hear from the President or the situation changes in some other way."
Masterson turned to Hershey and asked, "Admiral, do your subs note any type of Russian opportunism?"
"No, General. You know as well as I that the Russians lost interest in imperialism when the Soviet Union collapsed. There's no sign anywhere of anyone trying to take military advantage of the situation. I trust the intelligence as we get it from our own internal systems."
"What the hell could this Raggedy Andy outfit be using for command and control," asked a frustrated General Cody. "We've heard nothing."
"We trusted programmers to provide our intelligence but programmers don't see anything other than computers. The Raggedy Andies have proven quite conclusively that the arrogance of the NSA was grossly unjustified."
Masterson was obviously disgusted by the blank in the intelligence gathering. He again looked around the table and saw nods of agreement this time. All of them had for years been stifling their frustrations with intrusions of directives from the intelligence community in matters which should have been left to the military. Very rarely had those directives accomplished anything with which the generals agreed.
Just then the red phone next to Masterson rang. He picked it up and after a minute started speaking quietly.
"Yes, sir, Mister President. I concur on your identity. I have your orders to stand down. Do you agree with my order to base commanders to assume combat readiness to defend their bases?"
After a pause to listen, Masterson said, "Very well, Mister President. We will proceed as you have instructed."
Masterson looked to the officers around him and said, "We have our orders, gentlemen. The President concurs with readiness at the bases and further orders all external military activity must stand down."
"Damn it, Masterson," exploded Haddock, "It is our duty to defend America and those bastards are destroying it."
Masterson replied quickly, "I'll thank you to control your temper, General. We have our orders and it remains to be seen whether anyone is destroying America."
With that, Masterson looked thoughtfully out the window at the distant column of smoke.
At CNN, Rachel Hawkins was actually shaking as she talked to her producer, Jeffrey Abrams.
"Can you handle it, Rachel," he asked.
"Yes. It's scariest before the red light goes on as I start thinking of all the things that could be coming."
"That's when it gets me too," said Abrams. "We're going to go back on the air with very little notice. Is there anything you need?"
"Yes, please. A Pepsi would be swell."
Abrams said to an assistant, "Get her the Pepsi. There isn't much time."
The assistant scurried off and Abrams returned to checking his monitor for any change. He wasn't hearing anything through the earplug he was wearing except a periodic message to stand by.
Hawkins looked away from the camera and started doing some breathing exercises. A make-up team came out to fuss over her but she waved them off. They insisted but she glared at them furiously and waved to Abrams to get rid of them. He sent them off the stage immediately and Hawkins returned to her breathing exercises. In a few minutes the Pepsi showed up and she drank deeply and appreciatively from it. She thought the bubbles in the drink did more for her composure than her attempts at meditation and she smiled to herself.
Just then, Abrams called out, "Rachel. I just got the word the feed will commence in five minutes. I've synced the stage clock and it is counting down now. We will go back on-air one minute before it starts so you can do the intro."
At The Refuge they had been talking with great animation among themselves after the coverage cut back to the video from Washington. It wasn't changing particularly and there was only a periodic message that they would broadcast the feed from the White House as soon as they received word it was going live. Meanwhile, the video feed cut back and forth between the fire at Congress which had largely burned itself out and the White House briefing room.
Their discussion was interrupted when Roger returned with Doctor Kreitoff and his wife. He introduced them and then said there was someone else. She walked slowly in behind them and Gill was the first to react.
Looking happier than anyone had ever previously seen, Gill cried out, "Judith!"
Harrison smiled as he saw immediately there was more to this man than he had realised. He looked over to his wife, Caroline, and squeezed her hand.
Hoffman's dogs, Bonzer, Ralph and Digger, scampered into the crowd, all of them saying over and over, "Hi, Hi, Hi."
Hoffman almost ran over to him as Gill got up from his chair and they hugged with such enthusiasm that a wise guy would usually ask at a moment like that for the two to get a room. No-one spoke as everyone was curious, fascinated to discover there was yet another silent romance in their group and amazed that Gill was part of it.
Doctor Kreitoff, oblivious to the romance, said with utter astonishment, “Die Hunden sprechen!”
Margaret, his wife, turned to him and said sweetly, “English, mein Herr.”
He replied, “Of course, of course. This is extraordinary. I must know more about it.”
At the same time, Gill said to Sweeney in a voice low enough that no-one else could hear him, "I'm so sorry for what happened, love. I've been missing you terribly."
She replied back, "So am I. It's been horrible. I called Professor Harrison's office and his house but there was no answer anywhere. I couldn't find anyone. After that the letter arrived and I had to come. I couldn't stand the thought of the chaos in the world preventing us from working things out."
They turned to see the faces unashamedly watching them and Gill said to them, "May I present my fiance, Judith."
"Congratulations, Harold. My best wishes to both of you. Unfortunately, my best wishes just now are that we get safely through the political situation and we will have to return to that pretty quickly as the news feed is due to start again soon."
Harrison then walked over to shake Gill's hand and was followed by the other men in the room as they did the same. The women huddled around Hoffman, all of them sharing hugs happily with each other. They knew this moment would be short but they were determined to enjoy it.
With everyone so much focused on Gill and Hoffman, Harrison took his wife's hand and led her away to the relative privacy of the kitchen area. His mother saw them walking away and smiled to herself as she walked back to her seat.
As soon as they got to the kitchen, Harrison took his wife in his arms and said, "Girl, we have been the picture of restraint but I haven't seen you in two years and I'm not feeling like keeping up that discretion."
"What happened to the professor I left because he would never leave the laboratory?"
"He's had a lot of time to think over the last two years, plenty of time to remember why he married you in the first place."
Caroline kissed him and it rapidly grew to a kiss that didn't belong in a kitchen or at least not when someone could walk in at any moment. Thinking suddenly of the attention Gill and Hoffman had been getting she broke it off but didn't let go of her husband.
"We can talk about restraint later, Tiger. Right now we better get back to the other room."
Harrison squeezed her close one more time and then they walked together back to the common area. Susan smiled when she saw them but she didn't say anything as she knew Caroline would have been mortified. Caroline saw she was holding back and beamed at her as she went to her seat.
"Please excuse me. That light was the notification from the house and it must mean Werner and Margaret are here. Susan, I'll leave the hosting to you and I'll be back in half an hour."
He left to go back to the tractor as the image on the television panned across the burning building. The CNN news reporter in Washington had been silent throughout as likely was most of the country. The image was suddenly interrupted by a reporter at the CNN news desk in Atlanta and she started talking without any introduction.
"Ladies and gentlemen, we have just been contacted by the White House and have been ordered to prepare for a live feed from a group calling itself the Revolutionary Council of the Raggedy Andy Party. They further ordered the feed must be shared with any other television networks that request it, in or out of the country."
The reporter looked down at what must have been a monitor embedded in the news desk and was obviously reading as she said, "we are further advised that the Raggedy Andy Party numbers in the millions and is ready to escalate across the country should the military intervene. They further stated that they are not armed but they will not yield. Should the military intervene it will create the most shameful bloodbath in American history. The President, who flew out of Washington in a Marine helicopter, is requested to contact the White House to assist in an orderly transfer of power."
Looking up from the monitor and off-camera to what must have been her producer, she looked for confirmation on what she was doing. She must have received an acknowledgement to continue as the news came to her and she went back to reading.
"We are getting reports from every major city that the streets are filling with people but there has been very little violence. We don't know how they are communicating with each other but these events are being coordinated somehow. It couldn't be via mobile phones or the NSA would have known about it long before it started."
She paused to scan down the screen of her monitor to see what took precedence. She was as overwhelmed as anyone else by what was happening but she was doing a remarkable job of keeping her composure.
At the Pentagon, General Haddock spoke to the Joint Chiefs of Staff and said angrily, "We need to annihilate those disloyal bastards."
The Chairman, General Masterson, returned calmly and said, "General, these are Americans and they're exactly right that it would create a bloodbath. We will do nothing except consider options until we have received our orders from the President. Your recommendation to annihilate the bastards is duly noted and is rejected. What other considerations are there, gentlemen?"
General Sanders responded first and said, "I recommend a general order to our base commanders to move to full combat readiness on their bases but otherwise to take no action. Without orders from the President, we cannot exceed that but prudence demands preparation."
"Agreed," said Masterson.
Looking around the table Masterson saw there was no further comment and then said, "It is so ordered. We will stand by here until we either hear from the President or the situation changes in some other way."
Masterson turned to Hershey and asked, "Admiral, do your subs note any type of Russian opportunism?"
"No, General. You know as well as I that the Russians lost interest in imperialism when the Soviet Union collapsed. There's no sign anywhere of anyone trying to take military advantage of the situation. I trust the intelligence as we get it from our own internal systems."
"What the hell could this Raggedy Andy outfit be using for command and control," asked a frustrated General Cody. "We've heard nothing."
"We trusted programmers to provide our intelligence but programmers don't see anything other than computers. The Raggedy Andies have proven quite conclusively that the arrogance of the NSA was grossly unjustified."
Masterson was obviously disgusted by the blank in the intelligence gathering. He again looked around the table and saw nods of agreement this time. All of them had for years been stifling their frustrations with intrusions of directives from the intelligence community in matters which should have been left to the military. Very rarely had those directives accomplished anything with which the generals agreed.
Just then the red phone next to Masterson rang. He picked it up and after a minute started speaking quietly.
"Yes, sir, Mister President. I concur on your identity. I have your orders to stand down. Do you agree with my order to base commanders to assume combat readiness to defend their bases?"
After a pause to listen, Masterson said, "Very well, Mister President. We will proceed as you have instructed."
Masterson looked to the officers around him and said, "We have our orders, gentlemen. The President concurs with readiness at the bases and further orders all external military activity must stand down."
"Damn it, Masterson," exploded Haddock, "It is our duty to defend America and those bastards are destroying it."
Masterson replied quickly, "I'll thank you to control your temper, General. We have our orders and it remains to be seen whether anyone is destroying America."
With that, Masterson looked thoughtfully out the window at the distant column of smoke.
At CNN, Rachel Hawkins was actually shaking as she talked to her producer, Jeffrey Abrams.
"Can you handle it, Rachel," he asked.
"Yes. It's scariest before the red light goes on as I start thinking of all the things that could be coming."
"That's when it gets me too," said Abrams. "We're going to go back on the air with very little notice. Is there anything you need?"
"Yes, please. A Pepsi would be swell."
Abrams said to an assistant, "Get her the Pepsi. There isn't much time."
The assistant scurried off and Abrams returned to checking his monitor for any change. He wasn't hearing anything through the earplug he was wearing except a periodic message to stand by.
Hawkins looked away from the camera and started doing some breathing exercises. A make-up team came out to fuss over her but she waved them off. They insisted but she glared at them furiously and waved to Abrams to get rid of them. He sent them off the stage immediately and Hawkins returned to her breathing exercises. In a few minutes the Pepsi showed up and she drank deeply and appreciatively from it. She thought the bubbles in the drink did more for her composure than her attempts at meditation and she smiled to herself.
Just then, Abrams called out, "Rachel. I just got the word the feed will commence in five minutes. I've synced the stage clock and it is counting down now. We will go back on-air one minute before it starts so you can do the intro."
At The Refuge they had been talking with great animation among themselves after the coverage cut back to the video from Washington. It wasn't changing particularly and there was only a periodic message that they would broadcast the feed from the White House as soon as they received word it was going live. Meanwhile, the video feed cut back and forth between the fire at Congress which had largely burned itself out and the White House briefing room.
Their discussion was interrupted when Roger returned with Doctor Kreitoff and his wife. He introduced them and then said there was someone else. She walked slowly in behind them and Gill was the first to react.
Looking happier than anyone had ever previously seen, Gill cried out, "Judith!"
Harrison smiled as he saw immediately there was more to this man than he had realised. He looked over to his wife, Caroline, and squeezed her hand.
Hoffman's dogs, Bonzer, Ralph and Digger, scampered into the crowd, all of them saying over and over, "Hi, Hi, Hi."
Hoffman almost ran over to him as Gill got up from his chair and they hugged with such enthusiasm that a wise guy would usually ask at a moment like that for the two to get a room. No-one spoke as everyone was curious, fascinated to discover there was yet another silent romance in their group and amazed that Gill was part of it.
Doctor Kreitoff, oblivious to the romance, said with utter astonishment, “Die Hunden sprechen!”
Margaret, his wife, turned to him and said sweetly, “English, mein Herr.”
He replied, “Of course, of course. This is extraordinary. I must know more about it.”
At the same time, Gill said to Sweeney in a voice low enough that no-one else could hear him, "I'm so sorry for what happened, love. I've been missing you terribly."
She replied back, "So am I. It's been horrible. I called Professor Harrison's office and his house but there was no answer anywhere. I couldn't find anyone. After that the letter arrived and I had to come. I couldn't stand the thought of the chaos in the world preventing us from working things out."
They turned to see the faces unashamedly watching them and Gill said to them, "May I present my fiance, Judith."
"Congratulations, Harold. My best wishes to both of you. Unfortunately, my best wishes just now are that we get safely through the political situation and we will have to return to that pretty quickly as the news feed is due to start again soon."
Harrison then walked over to shake Gill's hand and was followed by the other men in the room as they did the same. The women huddled around Hoffman, all of them sharing hugs happily with each other. They knew this moment would be short but they were determined to enjoy it.
With everyone so much focused on Gill and Hoffman, Harrison took his wife's hand and led her away to the relative privacy of the kitchen area. His mother saw them walking away and smiled to herself as she walked back to her seat.
As soon as they got to the kitchen, Harrison took his wife in his arms and said, "Girl, we have been the picture of restraint but I haven't seen you in two years and I'm not feeling like keeping up that discretion."
"What happened to the professor I left because he would never leave the laboratory?"
"He's had a lot of time to think over the last two years, plenty of time to remember why he married you in the first place."
Caroline kissed him and it rapidly grew to a kiss that didn't belong in a kitchen or at least not when someone could walk in at any moment. Thinking suddenly of the attention Gill and Hoffman had been getting she broke it off but didn't let go of her husband.
"We can talk about restraint later, Tiger. Right now we better get back to the other room."
Harrison squeezed her close one more time and then they walked together back to the common area. Susan smiled when she saw them but she didn't say anything as she knew Caroline would have been mortified. Caroline saw she was holding back and beamed at her as she went to her seat.
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