Raven Rock¹

Source

"Mr. President?"

Former Secretary of Defense Matthew Burleson looked up from his desk. He had a raging headache, a number of commanders he had been counting on when he had declared himself President of the United States were refusing to take his calls. Didn't the fools realize that his claim superseded that of the Secretary of the Interior? His office was sixth in the line of succession, Nakagawa's was eighth.

When Vice Admiral Thomas Washington, his closest ally at the Pentagon, had gone to the Marine Barracks at 8th and I to confer with the Commandant of the Marine Corps, another of Burleson's supporters, he had completely dropped off the grid. Shortly thereafter the President had demanded his resignation. When he refused, the President fired him.

But that last tidbit was unknown outside of the President's circle, when that President died, Burleson had quickly declared himself President and had found a Federal judge in Pennsylvania's Eastern District to administer the oath. His staff had warned him that that was premature, but Burleson had overridden them. Now that fool of an FBI Director had declared himself to be in charge!

Burleson rubbed his eyes, "What is it now, Anderson?"

"Our communications are down, Mr. President."

"What?! That's not possible, where is General Henry?²"

"We don't know, Sir. The equipment was reset with new passwords and keys, we don't have them."

"Don't tell me Henry has them."

"Yes Mr. President, he does."

"Find that son of a bitch, NOW!"

FBI Director William Sheppard was headed out of the building, he was accompanied by his two "special projects" agents, Special Agents Jack Delaney and Nancy Pelton. He had been trying to get in touch with the CIA and Homeland Security all day, nobody was answering his calls. He had tried Delaney's personal cellphone, which had been answered. Nearly as soon as he had spoken the call had been cut off. Calls from Delaney's phone weren't answered after that.

"I guess their computers have voice recognition, Sir." Special Agent Pelton said.

Sheppard glanced at Pelton and said, "Ya think?"

Pelton turned beet red, she looked ahead towards the exit, oddly enough the screeners were absent. She started to mention it, then held her tongue. The Director was in a very bad mood and she had suffered enough of his sarcasm for one day.

Delaney however, mentioned it. "Sir, where is everybody?"

Sheppard looked up from his phone, at first he looked puzzled, then he had a moment of fear. He hesitated for just a moment, but then saw his car pull up outside. He thought it might be prudent to get out of town, something was in the wind.

Delaney drew his sidearm, as did Pelton, they went through the checkpoint and out into the street. The Director's car stood there, the driver looking out at them with a puzzled look. Delaney saw nothing amiss, so he waved the Director out into the street.

"Target acquired."

The sniper was in the tower at the Waldorf Astoria, not far from the Hoover Building. He had a clear line of sight.

"Take him."

The gunman squeezed the trigger.

Pelton was startled, she had been sprayed with liquid, which puzzled her, it wasn't raining.

She had been looking to her left, the Director was to her right. She turned to see if the Director had also gotten wet.

It all happened so quickly, she had no real perception of time. From the instant she felt the spray of wetness until she turned to her right felt like a hundred years, everything was moving in slow motion.

She saw that the Director's head had snapped to his left, towards her, then she realized that the wetness she felt was from the Director's head, well, what was left of his head.

The phone rang on Burleson's desk, which he thought odd, communications were supposedly down, weren't they? He picked up the phone.

"Burleson."

He listened for a moment, not believing what he was hearing.

"What? Say that again."

Burleson sat there, at a loss for words. He hung up the phone just as his aide walked in.

"Sir, seems our comms are back up ..." Then he noticed that the man he worked for seemed to be staring into space.

"Something wrong, Mr. President?" Ted Anderson asked.

Burleson looked at his aide, "The FBI Director has been gunned down in the street, along with two agents."

"Sir?"

"We need to get out of here. Get me a helicopter, that bastard Nakagawa is running the table."

"Sir?" Anderson was in a state of shock.

"It's over, we need to get the hell out of here before they come for us. Move it man, get my helicopter ready!"

The President of the United States, John Nakagawa was tying his tie when Bill Aspinall tapped on the door, then entered.

"Morning, Bill, what's up?"

"Just had word, Sheppard is down. The onsite team decided that an arrest wouldn't work, so ..."

"Sniper?"

"Yes Sir."

Nakagawa sighed, "I guess we better let Congress know. How about the team up at Raven Rock?"

"They're ready. Burleson hasn't moved yet, their comms were cut last night, General Henry brought the system down, changed all the codes, then left with his staff."

"I trust Billy made it to a safe location?" Nakagawa had been Henry's commander when that man was a young lieutenant.

"Yes Sir, as scheduled, comms were restored at Raven Rock and a call was made, Burleson knows about Sheppard now."

"Think he'll run or will he try to bluster his way out? There are still some folks in DC who think he'd be the better man for this job."

"He'll run, Mr. President. The man is a coward, he proved that in Yemen, to those who were actually paying attention."

Nakagawa thought back to those days, he'd been flying A-10s, that venerable bird's last campaign, his last as a squadron commander. A battalion of Marines had been trapped in the mountain passes near Al Habilayn, Burleson had been in command of Task Force Ruby, waiting off the coast aboard their Navy transports. The Marines had begged Burleson to send in his force, but he had demurred, saying that Washington hadn't authorized that.

The Marines had fought their way out, at heavy cost. No Marine on the ground, and no airmen aloft that day ever forgot that. Burleson had retired shortly thereafter and became a high priced political consultant with a defense contractor.

He remembered when his predecessor had appointed the man Secretary of Defense, his confirmation passing by a single vote.

"Sir?"

Nakagawa snapped out of his reverie, "If he runs, take him, if he stays put, we'll have to go in. One way or the other, his time is over."

Aspinall nodded, "Yes Sir." Then he went out to make the call to the forces positioned near Raven Rock. "Time to water the tree of liberty," Aspinall muttered as he headed to the communications room.

¹ An interesting place.

² In this story he is the Air Force general responsible for communications at Site R.