In the Halls of Power

Source

Captain Alex Choe was heading down the corridor, on his way home, when Vice Admiral Thomas Washington stepped out of a nearby office.

"Choe, my office, now."

Washington's office was on the E-Ring, before Choe could ask what this was about, Washington had disappeared back into the office he had come out of. Choe was puzzled, he didn't work with Washington, who was a big shot in procurement, and the abruptness of the Admiral's command was rather surprising.

Choe shrugged and thought, "Maybe the guy is just a prick," as he turned and headed towards the building's outer ring.

Arriving at the Admiral's office he stepped in, no one was around, the outer office was empty. The door to the inner office was open, but Choe took a seat in the waiting area. Absentmindedly he looked up and saw that a news program was on, but the sound was off, as was the closed captioning.

Looking around, he saw the remote for the set on the Admiral's administrative assistant's desk. He looked it over, found the button he was looking for and pressed it. Looing towards the set, he saw captions running across the screen. Only then did he notice that it was the President of the United States who was on the screen.

Choe sat back down, checked his watch and wondered how long this was going to take. Only then did he pay attention to what was happening on the news. The face of the news anchor was back on screen, apparently the President had been on earlier. Then he saw the "Breaking News" graphic as the station went to commercial.

"Congress asks President to commit Federal units to quash insurrection. Maryland and Virginia under Martial Law!"

Choe shook his head as he stared at the screen, then he looked round the office. No, he wasn't dreaming and yes, he was watching an actual 24 hour news channel. "What the heck is going on?" he wondered aloud.

It took almost every shred of willpower Vice Admiral Washington possessed to keep from running down the corridor and shouting for joy. The goal his cabal had been working on for months was coming to fruition. As the ranking member of the military side of the cabal, he had just left a meeting with three fellow flag officers. One Navy and two Air Force, each wore a single star and were fairly new in their positions. But they thought like Washington.

The country was ill-disciplined and far too well-armed for his tastes, he wasn't alone in that respect. Fairly sizeable contingents in both the Senate and the House of Representatives felt the same. Now, thanks to certain far-thinking individuals in certain agencies around DC, the opportunity to strike was upon them.

"Martial law!" his inner child screamed at him, "Finally!"

While the President had to be prodded by Congress to declare that an insurrection was in progress, he had done so that afternoon. While a vote had been held in the House to declare it, and take it out of the President's hands, a certain willful minority had prevented the vote from actually passing. Enough of the dissenters had convinced the waverers in the majority party that there was a significant element of risk in voting for the motion declaring that an insurrection was occurring in the states of Maryland and Virginia. Especially if things went wrong.

"Didn't matter," the Admiral muttered to himself as he stepped into his office and saw Captain Choe waiting, "didn't matter that some of those gutless bastards wouldn't vote 'yea,' the President was convinced to declare it himself."

"Sir?" Choe started to stand, thinking Washington was addressing him.

"Have a seat, Captain, I'll be with you in a minute." Washington said as he closed the door to the inner office.

Choe wondered again what this was about, then a thought struck him. He remembered meeting that CIA-cum-Homeland Security fellow at Arlington. Then he remembered telling the man of "admirals at the Pentagon who wished to destroy the 2nd Amendment." At the time he'd been speaking of rumors and innuendo, he knew no names. Maybe Admiral Washington?

Admiral Washington what? The guy was brusk, sure, but this was his first encounter with the man. But why did this 3-star want to talk to him? He was sure he would find out shortly.

Washington came out of the inner office, noticed that the TV was on, and shut it off.

"Did you see the news?"

"Yes Sir, just a little ..."

"Damned traitors out there, killing cops and Federal agents, President has invoked the Insurrection Act, though it took those fools in Congress to prod him into doing so. Anyway, we have a common acquaintance."

"Sir?"

"Fellow name of Johansen, he's got some weird Biblical first name, but that doesn't matter. Do you know him, don't lie, I have my sources."

Choe paused, then spoke, "Ephraim Johansen, that Johansen?"

"There you go, you do know him. Do you know where he works?"

"Yes Sir, Department of Homeland Security."

"Think he's still at work?"

Choe looked puzzled, "Sir, how would I know ..."

"Come on man, martial law proclaimed just outside the District, he'll be at his desk trying to figure this shit out. Where else would he be?"

Choe realized then that the Admiral knew very little about Johansen. His desk would be the last place he would be, but he resolved to call Beth Chapman as soon as he got away from this pompous ass of a 3-star pacing back and forth.

"I need you to go over to the DHS' St. Elizabeth Campus, that's where Johansen works, he needs to know where our troops will be concentrating. He can get intel on the opposition in both Maryland and Virginia, I'm sure he already has that information."

"Wait here."

Washington went back into his office, Choe could hear the man spinning the dial on a safe, then he heard the rustle of paper. Within a minute, Washington was back, stuffing paper into a plain manila envelope.

"Take this information to Johansen. If he has anything for me, bring it back in the morning."

Choe looked puzzled, again, "The morning, Sir?"

"Of course, man, I need to go home and get some rest. Tired leaders make mistakes."

And without another word, Washington swept from the office, leaving a very confused Navy captain standing speechless.

Choe took a chance and dialed Chapman's office, she picked up immediately, "Chapman, Department of Homeland Security."

"Hello, you order a pizza? Extra oregano? Extra sardines?" Choe asked, disguising his voice with a fake Italian accent. A very bad Italian accent.

"What? I didn't order ..." then it struck Chapman, Captain Choe, it had to be Captain Choe.

"Is this Pizza Boli's, on Alabama Avenue?"

"No, no, Mama's Pizza Kitchen, on MLK Avenue."

"Sorry, wrong number." Chapman hung up.

She wondered what the Captain wanted at this hour, but she knew better than to ask over her office phone. So she went outside and used her cell to call Choe.

"Captain?"

"Hi Beth! I was just going to call you. Johansen around?"

"No, he left early, said he was going to Maryland."

"Ah, too bad. You hungry? I've been running around all day, know any place near the Yard¹ to eat at this hour?"

"Sure, I'm hungry and I need to take a break. Do you know 6Co?"

"Over on MLK? Sure, I can be there in 15 minutes."

"Great, Sir. See you then."

Chapman had seen the news earlier, it's why she was still at work and probably would be all night. It's also probably why Johansen had rushed out soon after the news of martial law had broken. She wondered how Captain Choe was involved. She would soon find out.

Then it struck her, maybe using her cellphone had not been a very good idea. But anyone listening would know that she and Captain Choe were friends. Heck, they were also both employees of the Federal Government, why wouldn't they get together if the Captain was in her neighborhood?

She hoped anyone who might have been listening in believed that. All at once, she was very frightened, even more frightened then she'd been when her bird went down in that sandstorm. Things were getting very serious.

¹ Washington Navy Yard.