Chapter 37

Jim turned to Alice Crabtree, “I’d better get Treasury.” She nodded, then went to find a place to have a press conference.

Five minutes later, Jim was back in my conference room. “I called the Undersecretary of Treasury. He was watching your speech, Madam Acting President, of course. He’d already alerted the major markets that they’d be closed, so he agreed with your announcement.”

“Jim ... can we just call me Ma’am and get rid of the Madam Acting President stuff. We have too much to do for that falderol.”

“Yes, Ma’am,” he said. “Alice is going over to the hotel across the street to set up a press conference. So that’ll be our HQ for the moment. Do you know where you’re going to be?”

The lights flickered, went out, then came back on. A Secret Service gal stuck her head in. “We’re on emergency power, Ma’am. I think all of central DC is black. We’re thinking of getting you on a chopper to Camp David. We can hole up there for as long as needed.”

I nodded. “Don’t tell anybody where I am. We’ll do it all by phone or internet.”

“Of course, Ma’am.” She left.

“Who is she?” I asked Jim.

“I think she’s an expert in logistics.”

Suddenly, I was tired. “Get me a cot and a pillow. I need to sleep a while.”

“Right away.”

I folded my hands, and put my head down. I was asleep before he left the room.

The laptop buzzed and I jerked awake. I hit the space bar. It was Rollins from the FBI. “Sorry to bother you, Ma’am. I promised you an update.” My eyes flickered to the bottom right, and I saw the clock: 12:39 a.m. “We’ve got nothing yet. Just getting lights set up. Can’t get into the tunnels leading to the Capitol. All collapsed, and we don’t want to move anything in the dark.” He paused. “No sign of anybody coming out of the rubble. We’re listening – don’t hear anything. But we haven’t given up of course.

“One bit of good news. The Secret Service is going over the White House. People and dogs. No sign of any bombs. The sky over DC is cleared except for our fighters flying out of Andrews. All quiet there.

“Get some sleep, Madam President ... err ... Acting President. I don’t think we’re going to know anything ‘til sunup ... At the earliest.”

“Thank you for the update, Mr. Rollins.” Of course, I knew what they’d find, eventually. Right wingers, neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and no survivors.

Somebody had put a roll-away bed in the corner. The lights were dimmed, and the coffee was gone. Replaced by a half cup of milk. I ignored the milk and took off my heels. Staggered to the bed and flopped down. Rock and Bear were nowhere to be seen. I reached out mentally and found them with the press secretaries, coordinating things. The soft green blanket was just right, and I was asleep again.

Early morning had me in the hands of the Secret Service. They’d blocked off the street between the EOB and the White House. There went the ‘secret’ part of all this. A helicopter landed on the street, and we all hustled out and got in. It took off immediately. There were a group of other ‘copters surrounding us. We zoomed out at what felt like an enormous speed.

Thirty minutes later we touched down at Camp David. I’d never been there before. I was taken to the VIP cabin. I stopped at the door. “Where is the communications center?” The Agent I asked pointed to what was obviously the President’s cabin. “We’re going there,” I said, pivoting to my left.

I stayed there for two days, getting updates from all over the place. NSA (National Security Agency) reported that they had some ‘interesting’ and ‘incriminating’ phone calls over the preceding couple of weeks. Get it over to FBI. They’d already done that.

FBI was digging through the rubble and had brought in some dogs that specialized in finding bodies in earthquake situations. They didn’t find anybody alive. Alice and Jim kept the press up to date. The story took a grim turn as one after the other President Bush, Vice President Cheney, Speaker Boehner

and other notables were found ... dead. It looked like they perished in the collapse after the explosion – explosionS as it was discovered by replaying the event at slow motion.

I took calls from all the former Presidents. They all offered whatever help I needed. President Bush senior was very abrupt and broken up by the situation. I offered whatever help I could to him and his wife. I asked him, President Clinton, and President Carter for whatever they could come up with for Supreme Court suggestions.

I reached out to former President Powell. He offered any help he could make. We connected by computer.

“I’ll take you up on that Mr. President. My experience in the military area and foreign relations is non-existent. I’m getting in contact with former State Secretaries, but I’d like you to be my Acting DOD man. You obviously have the chops, and I hope you won’t look on this as a step down.”

He didn’t even pause a half second. “In an emergency, only a fool would be worried about status. If you need help at DOD, I’m your man. Also, if you need any other, more general, advice, please call on me.”

“I promise you’ll be released to your retirement as soon as things settle down to a dull roar, Mr. President.”

“Better make that Mr. DOD Secretary,” said Powell, with a chuckle.

My next call was to Al Gore. “Mr. Vice President, I need your help. You were a Senator and a Vice President, and a near-President. You probably know a lot of how this government works. I would like to call on you to be a temporary advisor to me. What’d’ya say?”

“Short or long term, I’m in.” It was the shortest thing I’d ever heard from Al.

I didn’t say so, but I was inclined to appoint the members of the DC Court of Appeals to temporary positions on the Supreme Court. Since the Supreme Court consisted of Justice Ginsburg, at the moment, what she says goes. Let’s see what she says.

I took calls from major allies: Canada, Great Britain, Mexico, France, Japan, Germany. There were also brief calls from Russia and China. I recorded all of them and forwarded copies to State. There wasn’t anything of note in all of them. Allies offered sympathy and support. The others only sympathy.

Mr. Bush’s Chief of Staff, Sylvester (Sly) Plum, came to Camp David on Saturday and told me what I already knew. I should drop the ‘Acting,’ take a real oath of office as President, and he suggested naming all the Under Secretaries to Acting Secretaries. There was obviously no chance of any approval by the Senate, in this situation. And there was no hope of a line of succession. The legal talking heads on TV were going nuts: “Suppose she died in office? Who would take charge? No VP, no Speaker, no cabinet officers.”

I told Plum that I’d work on what I wanted to say, when I was sworn in. He offered the late President’s speech writers. I’d take a look at what they proposed. Have it up here by Monday. I didn’t like Plum before and I didn’t trust him now, but this wasn’t the time for a staff shake-up.

I called Wolf, who was now sporting a full silver mane. I called President Robbie Deer Horn of the Shoshone. I called President Morning Star of the Navajo. They each gave their advice. I knew I was going to suggest a Constitutional Convention, using the words I’d already said, as reported by Red from next week’s papers. I felt like the snake that was eating his own tail.

Sly Plum’s speech writers delivered me a draft speech. It was full of the standard bull shit. Be strong. We’ll recover. Keep the faith. Blah blah blah.

I started to work on the text I’d use:

“My fellow Americans. I have just taken the oath of office as President of the United States. That film will be available after this speech. There is no Congress and only one person sitting in the Supreme Court at the moment. There is only one person in the line of succession to the Presidency. That is me. You deserve to know what to expect of me.