The news reports were unable to provide any more details on what had happened. Photos of the scene of the attack were released, showing the extent of the devastation caused by the rocket. The explosion was so forceful that it was difficult to separate the remains of President Hampton from the other occupants of the limousine. The decision was finally made to cremate the remains. The urn was placed within a specially-designed coffin that was laid in state under the Capitol rotunda for a week, so mourners from around the world could say goodbye to the President.
In a quiet ceremony in the Oval Office, Vice President Sanborn was sworn in as President of the United States. His inaugural address was short and to the point: the culprits would be captured and brought to justice, and steps would be taken to ensure that nothing like this could ever happen again. The safety and security of the nation would be his highest priority.
President Sanborn selected Senator George Irwin Sheppard to be his Vice President, and the nomination was swiftly approved by Congress. Vice President Sheppard was a freshman Senator, and many wondered at the choice. But with the nation rallying around the new President, the speculations and comments quickly ceased.
President Sanborn wasted no time settling into his new position. He immediately began recalling military forces from around the world, and he placed them on highest alert so they’d be ready to deal with any situation. He appointed the Secretary of Homeland Security to coordinate all activities related to preventing any future attacks on American soil and placed combined resources from the military and the Department of Justice under Homeland Security’s oversight.
A number of new laws and regulations were quickly passed as well that were applauded by most Americans. He eliminated the H1B Visa program and ordered all foreign nationals working in the United States to return to their home countries. He cancelled all student visas and had all foreign nationals attending American universities and schools sent home. Outsourcing American jobs to other countries was made illegal, and he gave companies who had offshore outsourcing contracts six months to bring all of those jobs back into the United States. He had the borders sealed to immigrants and cancelled all green card applications that were still pending. Foreign nationals were given one month to get their affairs in order and leave the country. Seasonal agriculture work permits were also cancelled.
Sanborn eliminated social welfare benefits to non-citizens. He implemented a National ID Card program that not only had a photo of the individual, but also had a smart chip that contained personal information, medical history, and fingerprints, retina scans and other biometric information about each citizen. He changed the law that allowed for any person born in the United States to automatically become a citizen. “If your parents aren’t citizens,” President Sanborn stated when he proposed the law to Congress, “then you’re not a citizen either just because you’re born here.”
Unemployment began to drop dramatically as a result of President Sanborn’s new social and economic initiatives. Government spending on crime prevention across the country rose, and the crime rates dropped. Americans felt safe and secure, and they praised the President for making life better for everyone.
The mainstream press was unusually positive about the President and his Administration. No President had allowed the press to have as much access as President Sanborn did, which gave the members of the White House press corps the sense that they were part of the Administration, rather than outside observers of its inner workings.
As the deadline approached for foreign nationals to leave the United States, a number of incidents occurred all around the country. Car bombs were set off in over a dozen major cities. Two commercial airliners, filled with passengers, were shot down by the same type of rocket that had destroyed President Hampton’s motorcade. Several utility company stations were bombed, causing an instability in the power grid that led to a major blackout across the mid-Atlantic region. A missile was fired at Boulder Dam, but overshot and exploded in the water instead.
President Sanborn was quick to respond to these terrorist attacks. He accelerated the deportation of all foreign nationals – in some cases, rounding up whole families and putting them on airplanes with only the clothes they were wearing.
He created a new security force within the Department of Homeland Security that would be separate from local police and the FBI. “Their job is not to investigate crimes, but to prevent crimes that could jeopardize the safety and security of America and its assets. Just like the Transportation Security Administration protects our ports of entry, the Homeland Security Force will protect our important national assets, such as energy distribution, telecommunications, ground transportation, and other assets that are deemed vulnerable or targets of our enemies.”
Most Americans welcomed President Sanborn’s actions for keeping them safe. The attacks demonstrated all too clearly how vulnerable America was to terrorism. President Sanborn promised to keep everyone safe, and so far he was keeping his promise. Most Americans were happy, but others wondered what the true price of safety would end up being.
3
May 16, 0800
Guided Missile Destroyer USS Bulkeley (DDG 84)
Off the Coast of Navassa Island in the Caribbean
Commander Alex Kinkaid, executive officer of the USS Bulkeley, had the deck watch on another muggy morning in the southern Caribbean Sea. For several weeks, the Bulkeley and several other cruisers, destroyers, and cargo ships, had been on patrol or anchored next to this strange piece of rock that was 160 kilometers south of the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He didn’t know why the ship was there, but the Captain had received orders to make sure that no one came near the island for any reason. Several fishing boats from Haiti had been turned back, but apart from that, their patrols were very routine.
Navassa Island, also known as the “Galapagos of the Caribbean,” is a five square kilometer teardrop-shaped island in the Caribbean Sea, about one-fourth of the way from Haiti to Jamaica. The island is ringed by steep white cliffs and is made of mostly limestone and coral, with minimal vegetation.
Guano phosphate was an organic fertilizer important to American agriculture in the 1800s. After the U.S. War Between the States, the Navassa Phosphate Company of Baltimore expanded its mining facilities on Navassa. The tropical heat and abusive overseers eventually caused a rebellion on the island in 1889. The mines were closed and the island abandoned shortly after that. Navassa had been uninhabited since that time.
The sound of rotor blades overhead made Kinkaid look up in time to see another cargo helicopter heading toward the island. Dozens of helicopters landed every day, delivering their secret cargos before taking off again.
When the Bulkeley had first arrived at the island, there was nothing there but the ruins of the old lighthouse and the settlement used for the guano miners. However, in the last few months, dozens of long, prefabricated metal huts had been erected in neat rows in the center of the island. Kinkaid saw their roofs gleaming in the morning sunlight. Near Lulu Bay, docks, helipads, and other structures had been erected so that small vessels could unload their cargos closer to land.
Asking questions about what was happening on the island was officially discouraged. Kinkaid had heard of similar projects happening on other islands under United States control – along both the east and the west coasts. There were even rumors of similar building projects in the Aleutian Islands off the coast of Alaska. With each patrol as uneventful as the previous, it was hard not to spend a great deal of time watching the activity on the island.
Over the past several days, Kinkaid had noticed a number of towers being built at evenly-spaced intervals all around the island. They appeared to be guard towers. Fence posts had also been sunk into the ground, and chain-link fencing and razor wire were being unrolled and attached to the posts. The island was beginning to look like the modern version of a World War II prisoner of war camp. As he watched the rows of fencing go up, Kinkaid couldn’t help but wonder if the fencing was to keep people in or keep people out. Whatever the case, it was going to be difficult for anyone to cross that fence line, especially with the