Without Consent

No State shall, without the Consent of Congress, lay any Duty of Tonnage, keep Troops, or Ships of War in time of Peace, enter into any Agreement or Compact with another State, or with a foreign Power, or engage in War, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent Danger as will not admit of delay. Article I, Section 10, Clause 3 United States Constitution

They met in one of the committee rooms of the Capitol, away from the prying eyes of other members of Congress. Two men and three women, all had held unprecedented power until the past few days had left them staring into the abyss.

"Has this been confirmed?" the Speaker of the House asked in a shrill tone.

"Madam Speaker, this just came in a little over three hours ago. You know how difficult it is to get messages in and out since the military closed off access to the building. We are getting meals and the like delivered, and our sympathizers are helping with that, but full blown intelligence reports and up-to-the-minute news reports are nearly impossible. We get tidbits of what's going on in the outside world, that's it."

The Speaker looked down at the floor, she had to be aware that things were changing, but she still seemed to be in denial. Without rich donors, she and her ilk could lose their power over the rest of Congress.

The Marine staff sergeant looked at the pizza delivery man, who had been a defense contractor working out of Dahlgren until Congress had decided that his job should be outsourced to a company in India. "So they sick of pizza yet?"

The ex-contractor grinned, "Well, a couple of 'em were bitching about why they were only getting cheese pizza. I told 'em that their supporters were kinda cheap about supporting free pizza for them when they've been having trouble paying their own bills lately."

The staff sergeant grinned and said, "I wonder if we should tell 'em about the latest polls showing that the head of the Chinese Communist Party has a higher approval rating than Congress right now."

"Seriously?" the contractor asked.

"Well, he did order their peacekeepers pulled out of the country. That's something."

"True."

Billy and Ida Kasparian were outside making repairs to their house and the various outbuildings they had on their little patch of heaven, as Ida called it. Billy stopped what he was doing then looked over at Ida, "Do you hear that?"

"Hear what... Oh, it's a helicopter..." as she said that she looked up to see an Army helicopter fly over, then turn and come back towards their property. "Are they going to..."

"Land here? Sure looks like it."

As they watched, the helicopter flared then settled down about fifty yards away from the house. Three people disembarked, one of them turned and waved to the pilot, then the helicopter lifted off and headed towards town.

As the people got closer, the Kasparians recognized the two men, but not the woman. Billy's eyebrows lifted in surprise as he realized that the woman was Chinese. Jack Bishop was one of the men, Frank Teller was the other.

Billy nodded and said, "Jack, Frank, ma'am. What's up? Gotta be important if it justifies using an Army chopper to bring you out here."

Jack spoke, "Billy, Ida, this here is Ye Meihui, sorry ma'am, did I pronounce that right?

"Close enough Mr. Bishop." the woman stepped forward to shake hands with Billy and Ida. "I suppose that seeing a Chinese person is perhaps not a good thing in these times."

Billy spoke first, "Well, Ma'am, seeing someone not from around here was pretty rare, up until a couple of months ago. What do you do?"

"Ah, perhaps a better question would be, which China am I from?"

"Yes, Ma'am, that's good for starters." Ida said.

SSG Craig Sager knocked on the door of the shack Major Morrison was using for his personal quarters. The man was trying to catch up on much needed sleep and Sager hated to bother him, but for this, he knew the major would want to be bothered.

"Okay, okay, I'm up." the door opened to reveal a very disheveled Army officer. "Damn it Craig, what the Hell..." he stopped talking as soon as he saw who was behind his sergeant. "Holy shit, General Jones! Er, sorry Sir, but what brings you way the Hell out here?"

Major General Allan Jones, until recently the Adjutant General of the New York National Guard, smiled and said, "Well, the Chicoms chased me out of Albany, so I headed west, seems that some of our boys have been chasing Chicoms with some success out here in the boondocks."

"Let me throw my uniform on, we can go over to the TOC¹ and I'll brief you on what's happening."

"Wow, you guys went old school," the general commented as he looked at the various maps of the region tacked up on the walls of the enclosure. Most of them with plastic overlays upon which grease-pencil markings had been applied showing the tactical situation.

"Well, when you have no network to connect to, or in our case don't have the latest access codes, then it's back to the 20th Century. Hell, Sarn't Sager here even dug up an old manual typewriter for written reports."

"So what is the situation? I've been on the run for over a month now and I'm kinda out of touch." General Jones leaned in and looked at one of the maps.

Major Morrison briefed the general on the current state of affairs, he knew the general had questions about the map with the annotation of "eliminated" next to a red flag marker. General Jones had a broad smile on his face at the end of the briefing.

"So the Chicoms are on the run?" he asked.

"Well, most of 'em," Morrison leaned forward and tapped on a position marked in red, right on top of Fort Drum, "suckers are holed up here, no air support but they're in strength. We don't have enough ammo remaining, nor the numbers, to hit 'em ourselves. But we had a courier come in this morning. We might be getting some help out of Hancock Field."

Jones nodded, then asked "Air Guard drones?"

"Drones and Warthogs General. A-10s, four of 'em. I sent one of my company commanders to liaison with the zoomies. Plan is to hit the sumbitches in three days. After we clear Camp Drum, we're going to drive the bastards into the open and kill the ones in Albany as well. Then the state north of Poughkeepsie will be clear of those Chicom bastards."

"Excellent, what's going on in the rest of the country, do you know?" the last thing Jones had heard was that a coup was in progress in DC, which he related to the major.

"We haven't heard anything in weeks from outside our little AO². Maybe the zoomies can tell us, they do get out more, so to speak."

"Let's hope."

"So Miss Ye, is it miss, or..." Billy began the questioning.

"It is Miss, I am too busy to start a family just yet. I think I know your question, I am here from the Republic of China, what your government insists on calling, 'Chinese Taipei.' My government has dispatched a number of representatives to the United States to work with the organizations currently fighting the illegal regime in Beijing. I am the representative for New York. Do you have any questions for me?" the young woman paused.

"No ma'am, seems pretty straightforward, but what can you do for us?" Billy asked.

"And what's it going to cost?" Ida continued.

With that question Miss Ye reached into her briefcase and withdrew a thick document which she handed to Billy, "This details what my government is prepared to offer your resistance movement. As to what it will cost you? Nothing, Sir. We have a mutual enemy, one that has threatened the peace of the world for far too long."

"While there is no tangible help we can offer right now, substantial funds have been deposited in various bank accounts removed from your government's scrutiny. There is a set of debit cards inside that document which can be used for anything you might need to resist the criminals from Beijing."

"Where'd your government get all this money?" Sheriff Frank Teller asked. He had been wondering how a government so far away, and from a pretty small country, was going to help them. Could they afford such largesse?

Miss Ye smiled and said, "A certain Mr. Cancelli, from Seattle, decided to cooperate with us after we showed him the error of his ways."

"Cancelli, the big computer tycoon?" Billy asked.

"The very same." Ye answered.

"When did he get so patriotic? I thought he was some kind of globalist?" Jack Bishop had to ask.

"Ah yes, well, as a character in one of your better motion pictures might put it, we made him an offer he couldn't refuse." Ye smiled as she said that.

In that moment, Billy Kasparian actually felt sorry for Will Cancelli.

¹ Tactical Operations Center, a command post, in this case it was two Humvees connected by a canvas tarp. A fairly minimal set-up, but in tough times, you go with whatever you have at hand.

² Area of Operations.