Chapter 21

Mike sat well down the highly polished table from the President trying to figure out some way to keep from exploding in response to what the man was saying. For the past ten minutes, the President had been ranting and raving about the violation of due process that had occurred when individuals, under the guidance of Homeland Security, had searched houses and removed evidence without first getting search warrants.

He ended his rant with the question, “What do you have to say for yourself?”

Mike said, “You don’t need a search warrant to search an active crime scene.”

“You need a search warrant to enter a home,” the President said hitting the table with his fist.

“You don’t when some asshole was shooting at police from the window of the house,” Mike replied.

“You can’t say for certain which of those houses those shots were coming from. You can’t go in and search every house. I am a lawyer and I know that you need a warrant to search a house,” the President said.

Mike was tempted to tell him that he must have been a pretty piss poor one if he really believed that. Instead, he asked, “Contract law?”

“Yes.”

“This is criminal law,” Mike said. He sat back in his chair and said, “That entire neighborhood was a war zone in which people were firing upon the police. From what we observed, bullets were originating from every house. That makes each house a crime scene. The police have a right to enter a crime scene. They have a right to pick up any evidence left behind.”

“You idiot! They searched every house in the neighborhood,” the President shouted. His face had turned red.

“It’s called probable cause,” Mike said.

He had spent three hours with the Attorney General making sure of that point of law. They hadn’t been able to find the attorney from Denver.

“This is a nation in which we protect civil liberties. You violated the civil rights of everyone in that neighborhood,” the President said angrily jabbing the table to punctuate each syllable.

Mike leaned forward in his seat and said, “Then you should be yelling at the Attorney General.”

“Why?”

“Because he drafted the policy for the searches,” Mike answered.

“I’ll be getting to him next,” the President said.

Hoping to get the meeting back on topic, Mike said, “Just in case you’re interested, we recovered the names of three thousand terrorists as a result of that search. We expect to find more names before we finish examining all of the computers that were found. On the basis of what we’ve seen so far, we’ve...”

“You can’t use that evidence against them,” the President said interrupting Mike.

“I respectfully disagree with you on that,” Mike said at the end of his patience. He opened his briefcase and stuffed his papers into it.

“Not while I’m President!”

Mike opened his appointment book and looked at the calendar. It was early November.

Smiling, he said, “I’m willing to wait for the next President to be sworn into office. That should be in a couple of months.”

“Get out of here!”

“Certainly, Mr. President,” Mike said snapping his briefcase shut.

Bob’s lawn looked like he had been raking leaves all day. There wasn’t a leaf left in the front yard, but Bob was out there with the rake making the motions as if the lawn was covered in leaves. Mike got out of his car and watched Bob for a minute.

Shaking his head, he walked over and said, “I think you got all of the leaves a long time ago.”

Feeling a little ridiculous, Bob said, “It’s all that I could think of doing.”

“You’re that bored?” Mike asked with a small laugh.

“No. There’s been a black car circling the block every ten minutes. They’ve been doing that for almost an hour. I thought you should know,” Bob said looking around as if expecting someone to jump out at them any moment.

“Do you mean that black car coming this way right now?” Mike asked slipping his hand under his jacket.

“That’s the car,” Bob said.

“I’ll be right back,” Mike said putting a little distance between him and Bob.

He’d hate for something to happen to Bob because someone was after him. When Bob moved to put a little more distance between them, Mike figured that Bob had picked up on the general idea. He drifted towards his car so that he would have some protection if things got bad.

The black car pulled into Mike’s driveway and came to a stop. Mike released the catch on his holster without taking his eyes off the car. The dark windows didn’t allow him to see who was in the back, but the pair of men seated in the front looked threatening enough. Seeing Mike’s defensive stance, the passenger reached over the dash board and held up something flat. It opened and Mike could see the badge. He eased his hand out from under his jacket and gestured for them to get out.

The man behind the wheel of the car got out and held up his badge. In a voice that carried as far as Bob, he said, “We’re Secret Service.”

Mike shook his head in disgust and said, “Don’t tell me that asshole sent you to fire me.”

The backdoor of the car opened and laughter emerged from it. Anthony Archer stepped out of the car and stopped laughing long enough to say, “Is that any way to talk about my predecessor?”

From next door, Bob shouted, “That’s Anthony Archer! He’s taking aim on terrorism!”

Mike grinned and asked, “Aren’t you getting ahead of yourself?”

“You’re right. We must do these things in the proper order. Let me say hello to the rather excited fellow over there. After I’m done with that, we need to talk,” Anthony Archer said.

“While you are doing that, allow me to tell my housekeeper that we have company,” Mike said.

When Anthony nodded his head, Mike went over to the door and opened it. Sticking his head in, he saw that Kim Sung was busy taking down the massage table.

Although it was unnecessary, he said, “We have company.”

“Give me five minutes,” Kim said scurrying around frantically.

Tony sat down in the rocking chair with a contented sigh. After setting the chair in motion, he said, “One of the great tragedies of modern times has been the loss of rocking chairs. I’ve traveled this country from one end to the other on the campaign trail and I almost never see a rocking chair. I never get to sit in a rocking chair except when I’m at home.”

“You came all this way to talk about rocking chairs?” Mike asked with a grin.

“No. I came to talk about that mess in Illinois,” Tony answered. He held up a hand to stave off any objections and said, “Before you ask, let me tell you that I was briefed that your team was the one that identified the factory.”

“Okay,” Mike said sitting back in his chair. He knew that his involvement wasn’t exactly a secret.

Tony said, “I need a straight answer and you’re the only one who I trust to tell me the truth.”

“Ask your question and I’ll answer to the limits of my ability,” Mike said.

Tony was silent for a long time before he said, “I thought the terrorist situation was getting pretty bad, but I didn’t expect to have a major battle like that on American soil. Was that a one of a kind event or can we expect more battles like that in the future?”

“I’ll tell you what I was prepared to tell the President earlier today. What we saw in Illinois was a minor skirmish. We caught them by surprise. Despite that, they kicked some ass. Next time, they are going to expect the National Guard to show up and then we’ll see a real battle,” Mike said.

Tony sagged down in the rocking chair feeling very tired. He said, “I was afraid that you were going to say that. When you said that you were prepared to tell the President that, am I safe in assuming that you didn’t tell him?”

“We got into a discussion about the searches that were performed by the police after they got control of the area. Before we had a chance to talk about anything else he had sent me out of the room,” Mike answered.

“Let me guess, he’s hung up on the warrants,” Tony said with a sigh. Mike nodded his head. Shaking his head in disgust, Tony said, “I can’t believe that man is that stupid. Didn’t he watch the surveillance satellite footage?”

“I don’t know,” Mike said.

“I’m going to need some position that I can take with the public regarding battles like that,” Tony said.

He was convinced that he was going to win the election and was now looking at how to manage expectations. One of the worst things that could happen was for him to get elected and immediately fail to keep his campaign promises.

Looking at the expression on Mike’s face, he asked, “What do you suggest?”

“That these situations are a result of an irregular army that has invaded America and is covertly occupying territory. The only proper response is to face them with the level of military force necessary to defeat them. There is no need to apologize for sending an army to deal with an invading army,” Mike said.

“Perfect,” Tony said pleased to hear Mike echo the stance that he had been planning on taking. He sighed and said, “I hope that I live long enough to become President.”

“What’s happened?” Mike asked.

“It seems that someone doesn’t want me to become President. There have been three assassination attempts on my life in the past two weeks. All of them were by Muslims. The Secret Service managed to prevent them before there were any shots fired or bombs exploded. This information has been kept out of the press,” Anthony Archer answered.

“You should spend the rest of the campaign in the Midwest. There are a couple of places that you should avoid there, but the chances of one of the terrorists getting close enough to you without being observed should be pretty small,” Mike said.

“I can’t do that. I’ve got to go into New York City, Los Angeles, and Miami,” Tony said.

Mike shook his head and said, “You are ahead in the polls by thirty-three points. You’re going to lose California and New York no matter what. The Peace At Any Price crowds are thick as thieves there. The rest of the country is a little smarter than that.”

“You’re forgetting that I won’t be elected by popular vote. I have to win the vote in the Electoral College. Losing New York, Florida, and California is not an option. Even if I only lose each of those states by one vote, it will make my win look a lot weaker than it really is. I have to win at least two of them for the result to be accepted as significant,” Tony said.

“You’ve got Florida. That should be sufficient,” Mike said.

“I’m going after New York and to do that I need to win over the voters in New York City. The way I see it is -- spending New Years Eve in Times Square watching the ball drop is an American tradition. 2010 was a disaster; it was canceled last year and has been canceled for the upcoming New Years Eve. I need to make the point that at the end of my term, we will again be able to stand in Times Square and watch the ball drop as the clock reaches midnight,” Tony said.

Mike frowned and said, “Give your speech at Times Square at noon, but don’t announce it before hand. You don’t want anyone to know that you are going to be there. Not even the mayor. If anyone knows, then the terrorists will know. Bring the Press with you, give your speech, and then leave. No matter how tempting it is, don’t stay there for more than ten minutes.”

Jim said, “They are about to go in.”

Mike sat down at his chair and turned his attention to the situation board. Three Predator Drones were circling over the factory and they were watching the feeds from them.

He asked, “Has anyone shared their plans with us?”

“Charlie and I were briefed on the plans. They are going to send in a dozen radio controlled police cars just in case it’s a trap and they get blown up. That will allow them to test the waters without risking their people. Unofficially, I heard that they had converted the dozen oldest police cars in the entire state and they were afraid that half of them wouldn’t run long enough to make it to the factory,” Jim answered with a grin.

“Then what?” Mike asked.

Charlie said, “Well, they are prepared for a full scale war. They’ve got tanks, fighters, helicopters, and troops ready to engage the terrorists. All they need is for the terrorists to make the first move.”