“All right then. My office annex on Thursday, say around nine a.m.”
“See you then.”
Ted Jeffers, FBI Director, wondered why the Attorney General Simons had asked for an immediate meeting with him, and was surprised to see Donald Cray, the CIA Director, waiting in the outer office when he arrived. Attorney General Simon’s secretary showed them both in immediately.
“Ted, Don,” Simons said. “Thanks for coming on such short notice. Let’s step into my secure office for this conversation.”
As they seated themselves in the smaller, electronically-shielded inner chamber, Jeffers got a sick feeling in his stomach he was going to be asked to break the law somehow. This time he would refuse.
“Gentlemen, I am hereby putting you on notice that under the US Secrets Act the President has granted me discretion to discuss a matter of urgent national security, and you are on notice that, under no circumstances, may you discuss with any other individual, unless authorized to do so directly by the President or his designee, the contents of what I am going to divulge to you. Nor are you to take any action that could arouse suspicions concerning this matter. This conversation is being recorded, do you agree to continue?”
Both men acknowledged by answering yes.
The Attorney General then proceeded to lay out for them what was coming. Cray began wringing his hands. Jeffers kept shifting in his chair from one side to the other, fighting the urge to get up and do something…anything.
Simons quoted the President as saying the Constitution was essentially suspended. They had to do whatever was necessary to keep anyone unauthorized from learning anything about this. He provided a list of the known persons who knew of this matter and ordered them all to be put under heavy surveillance.
“Bob,” Cray said with a voice laced with iron control, “Just how far do we go to keep this out of the public eye?”
“Don, listen carefully. You are authorized to use any and all means at your disposal to carry out your objectives.”
“Forced detention?” Jeffers asked.
“Yes.”
“Terminal force?” Cray asked.
“Yes. Even against the innocent. Gentlemen, consider what happens if this gets out. We’re talking total anarchy, food riots, murder sprees, chaos at home and abroad, and a complete and total breakdown of civilized behavior worldwide. One possible result would be that no one—none of humanity—survives. We are the best and last hope for any possible recovery after the event, the front line of defense.”
“Sir…Jeffers asked. “Our families?”
“Immediate families will be assigned as critical personnel to the Mount Weather facility.”
“Immediate families?”
“Spouse and children only. I’ll need immediate action plans on your parts to be submitted in person by Thursday at 10:00 a.m. That’s all.”
As Jeffers and Cray walked down the long corridor of the Justice Department Jeffers was the first to speak.
“Holy Christ Don.”
“I know.”
“How am I going to keep 6,500 agents from finding out if I’ve got them out there trying to stop the revealing of something they’re not supposed to know anything about? That makes no fucking sense!”
Cray held up a hand. “Ted, I’m…I’m still trying to restart my heart. I haven’t thought that far ahead yet.”
“Well, think. I’ve been given an impossible task. Any help with it would be appreciated.”
“Okay, look. Remember the broken pie theory? Give each a little piece, not the whole thing. The whole pie gets eaten, but not by any one individual. Set up your teams, give them each a separate task, but have them report results directly to you, and not share with anybody else in the department.”
“Yeah. I’d already gotten that far, but I can just imagine my senior guys and gals chafing for trying to hide something from them. They’re smart enough that they don’t follow orders blindly.”
“Let them chafe. We’re talking terminal Cretaceous Event here, a change in ownership. If we don’t survive, it will just be the goddamn roaches and ants left. Besides you’ve got the easy job. When we start military redeployments, I’m going to have every agent of every major power, friendly and unfriendly, sniffing around to find out why. At least your people are under your orders.”
“This could be the world’s largest and last cluster fuck,” Jeffers said. “Jesus mother of God, I’ve never ordered someone killed.”
“Well Ted, come down to our range at Langley and we will show you how to kill with the best of them.”
Jeffers stopped. He was scared to death and Cray was joking about it all? Maybe that’s what he had to do to stay in his job. Maybe Jeffers should try it.
Chapter 3
Keepers of the Truth
FEMA Director Allen Haverty was busy compiling his punch list for the Mount Weather COP ramp up. His staff, already at work on details of the fictional one-year operational test, had less than twenty-four hours to get him their plans for the individual areas of responsibility. Keep them busy enough and they won’t have time to ask questions.
But in the back of his mind, he was sure there was something he was overlooking. Maybe it was just the rush making him think something was missing. But if there was something, he was hoping whatever it was would be revealed in the plans he would receive from his staff within the next day. In the meantime, he buzzed his secretary and asked her to contact the National Security Advisor’s office.
“Arlen, this is Haverty over at FEMA.”
“Good morning Allen.”
“It’s about money. Ramping up Mount Weather puts me beyond my budgetary guidelines by at least a factor of two. How will we explain that to the GAO?”
“We won’t have to because, we now have an off-budget fund we will be tapping as we go along, besides we got the GAO to buy in yesterday. They’re on the team.”
“This just keeps getting bigger by the minute. Have someone send me a list of the accounts to be charged?”
“Of course.”
Tim Greenberg, President Betts Chief of Staff was reviewing what might be the most frightening Power Point presentation he had seen in his life. It was prepared by the National Science Foundation Committee, which was comprised of some of the leading scientists in the nation. The purpose of the presentation was to advise the President and his cabinet of various impact scenarios of an incoming asteroid swarm. All hypothetical, but it was this presentation that most of their contingency planning would be based on.
Besides being frightening, Greenberg thought the report was too technical, entirely too many formulas, and not enough basic impact analysis. The scientists didn’t have to show their work, just give the President an insight into what to expect. He returned the presentation to the committee chair with a note suggesting that they downplay the technical side. Rather, provide more concrete input on potential damage to infrastructure, loss of life grids, and ongoing post event environmental issues. Greenberg went into the Oval Office and told the President he’d called for another draft.
“Tim,” the President said, “how are you feeling about all of this?”
The question touched him. With everything