The Never Ending Battle (Prelude to the Conclusion)

The lawyers set up a howl and it eventually took a judge’s order to shut them up.  Daniel showed the paperwork trail that proved the blood he supplied had been taken from Chuck and I testified that his DNA had been changed by the process, so any current blood sample – provided we could figure out a way to get blood from him now that bullets bounced off – would be useless for paternity identification.

The blood proved the kids couldn’t be his and, oddly enough, there were no appeals filed.  Chuck heaved a sigh of relief, but Clark revealed that the remaining members of “his family” had retained a lawyer and were demanding protection from the Bureau … in the form of 24/7 Force security over a private enclave situated in a remote area of Tahiti, with all maintenance and support provided until such time as all the members felt safe once more.

I asked him, “And the government’s reply was?”

“The Attorney Generals office met with their attorney this morning.  I attended the meeting as the resident expert on the Bureau and the Force.  After they screamed Latin at each other for half an hour, I pointed out that you’d solved the problem of the supposedly illegitimate kids with a pre-process blood sample … of which plenty remained … and suggested that the government accept the demands of all the family members who can prove, via blood testing, that they are indeed – ahem – blood relatives.”

Clark was still slapping Chuck on his invulnerable head for having kissed him when the alarm went off.  The lights … no, the electricity flickered on and off while a raucous ringing reminiscent of a high school fire drill rang through the building.  Chuck blurred to my side in an instant, demanding to know what was wrong!

I looked around and shrugged.  ”I haven’t the foggiest,” I admitted.  ”I’ve didn’t even know we had a fire alarm.”

“That’s not a fire alarm, damn it!” Clark screamed over the din, running across the room.  ”The White House is under attack!”

Turned out that the political powers that be installed a special alarm system without my knowledge, one that could only be triggered by a special panic button, one located in the main White House office of the Secret Service.  I’d met a few Secret Service agents in my time … I couldn’t imagine a situation that one of them would call for help.

“Chuck, secure the President, now!” He vanished without replying and I turned to Clark.  ”Details!  I need details!”  I grabbed him by the collar and dragged him down the hall after me, looking for a pocket of calm and quiet.  ”And I need that damn alarm turned off!”

Clark, still a little astonished to discover that I could literally drag a man his size down a hallway, slapped at my arm until I stopped … then produced a small device from a coat pocket and, aiming it at the ceiling, pushed a button on it.  The alarms ceised the instant he did so.

“Good … thanks,” I sighed, still hearing a buzzing in my ears.  ”Can that thing tell us what’s happening at the White House?”

He was explaining that it was just a remote for the alarm system when I realized that my comm unit was buzzing for my attention.  Great, the super secret alarm system drowned out the super secret communication system; my tax dollars in action!

I fumbled the unit out and barked, “Go!”  Chuck’s voice snapped out that he had the President, Vice President, and their families and staff safely secured at a remote location.  I told him to stay with them and hit the all call button, activating all the comm units for the Force.  Without waiting for anyone to pick-up, I quickly explained that the White House was under attack of some sort, to converg on-site soonest and ascertain the situation.  ”Report as soon as detail are available, Out.”

I dropped my unit back into a coat pocket and asked Clark if he had a secure hook up to the White House in his office.  Then we were running down the hallways, scattering confused civil service workers right and left, and leaving shouted commands of “return to work” and “everything is fine; relax; false alarm” in our wake.  Thankfully, most of the workers didn’t bother wondering why, if “everything is fine,” why are the Director and his security chief running through the hallways.

Clark’s second in command was yelling for his boss as we raced through the door.  At the same time, my comm unit went off.  Clark headed for his office and I stepped to the side.  ”Report!”

“Doc?  Cratos.  I’m on scene and, frankly, there’s nothing going on.  Nobody’s attacking, although the Secret Service is at high alert and jittery as all hell.  One bounced a bullet off of me before he realized who I was.  I tried talking to them, but you know how they can get …”

Clark was in his office doorway, yelling for my attention.  ”Yeah.  Stay calm, Cratos, and keep the Force in line until I get back to you.  Defensive parameter, half high and half on ground.  Out.”  I snapped the unit closed and headed toward the agitated security chief.

He started talking as soon as I took the comm unit away from my ear.  ”One, the radiation alarms at the White House all slammed into the red all at once.  Two, a group calling itself ‘PAPA’ …”

“Papa?”  I echoed.

“Yeah; ‘Pure American’s for a Pure America,’ ‘PAPA.’ ” He shrugged with his eyebrows.  ”Called a few seconds later and announced that Washington, DC, was forfeit, starting with the White House, if the President didn’t give them what they wanted.  The timing of the call, plus the fact that they knew the radiation alarms would be going nuts, gave them all the credence they needed for the Service to take them seriously.”

I cocked my head to the side in puzzlement.  ”Lemme get this straight … some group called Papa, as in ‘Papa knows best,’ is somehow blanketing the White House in radiation and making demands?  What will they do if we tell them to get lost?  Give everyone there cancer?”  I dug out my comm unit.  ”Hell, I’ll have Cratos simply take out whatever they have floating over the city and … ”

“No, Al!”  He grabbed my arm.  ”The radiation is from a very particular type of nuclear device, one that would have to be somewhere within the White House itself to set off the alarms.  We need to locate that device and, since they said that the destruction would only begin with the White House, there’s a good chance that the rest of the government buildings in the city might have their own bombs.”

“Is there a time limit?!”  I snapped my comm unit open.

“Yup … fifteen minutes.  If the President doesn’t publicly capitulate within fifteen minutes,” he glanced at his watch, “well, more like ten minutes, now, they’ll detonate … ”

I didn’t let him finish.  ”Daniel, Wanda!”  When they answered, I snapped out, “Rock Hudson time.  Nuclear emergency.  Get to Clark’s office, now.”  They were standing next to me before I finished the last word.  Clark’s eyes bugged out and conversations stopped all over the room.  I quickly explained the situation to my teammates, asked Wanda to start searching high and Daniel low, told Clark to start evacuating the building, and headed for the roof at speed.

Along the way, I made another all-call to the Force and had them start searching all federal buildings for … hold for a second.  I blurred back to Clark’s side and asked him to describe what the device might look like.  He brought up a diagram for the most common version on his terminal (in retrospect, I wish I’d asked him exactly how he had a diagram of “a very particular type of nuclear device” readily available on his computer) and I saw that the components were way over my head.

I lifted the comm unit again.  ”Tech.”  When she answered, I asked her to join me at Clark’s office.  She came through the window at speed, pausing to catch all the pieces and neatly deposit them in a nearby trashcan.

“Sir!” She all but snapped to attention.  She’d been an Air Force sergeant prior to joining and still tended to fall into her military habits.

“Look at this schematic and tell me what’s the smallest area it could fit into.”

She studied the screen for a moment, then gasped, “A 46 Victor unit!”  She turned horrified eyes to me and pleaded, “Is this … are we … ”

“Break it down for me, Tech,” I demanded.  ”What are we looking at and what should we be looking for?”

“Sir, the 46 Victor units are prohibited by joint treaty due to the fact that they’re so portable.  The smallest of them could fit in a shoe box and be used to take out a building, the largest I’ve seen pictures of was a steamer truck that could take out a city.”

“Great, and we have to find a bunch of them.  How about radiation?  Can they be located via radiation signature?”

“Yes Sir!  Easily, if they’ve been activated.”

“Range?”

“From up to a quarter-mile away, when activated, but they’re very had to detect when sleeping.”

“Clark!  Do we have any radiation monitors?”  The flustered security man produced several in a metal case.  I snatched one out for myself and handed the closed case to Tech, signaling a new all-call on my unit.  ”Force!  Converge on Washington Monument and meet with Tech; she’ll tell you what’s needed.”

I snapped the unit off just as Wanda and Daniel stepped into the office, as normally as you please.  ”Al?” Wanda asked, sweetly.  ”What the hell are we searching for, anyway?”

“Never mind, guys.”  I turned on the radiation detector in my hands and told Tech to distribute the rest to Force members she though could use them properly and fly a fast grid over the city, locate the bombs.  Then, as she shot back out of the window, glanced at the one in my hands.

Nothing.

“Wanda, Daniel; we’re needed at the White House.  Clark, keep the evacuation going, but this gizmo doesn’t show any radiation.  Have your men search the underground garage and basement, but I’m betting we didn’t rate any bomb.  Keep me advised and we’ll talk about all this later.”  I held out my hands to my roommates and we all flew out the ruined window.