Chapter 377: The President Capitulates

Early Summer Vacation, 2007

I also did a little TV watching while my families slept. The two fires had been VERY big news for a couple of hours, especially with the senior Bushes being missing for most of that time. That Washington DC wasn't a crater, but that the two Bush residences had been destroyed so thoroughly, gave people a great deal of hope that the angel had decided on a different approach from that specified in the "explode 2 W80s" email. That the President's parents had been missing for the first few hours inescapably caused people to think that the angel had exacted an appropriate revenge on the President for his failure to stop his agencies repeated attempts to kill Mark Anderson's parents. People were, quite frankly, astonished when the senior Bushes turned up unharmed. Not nuking DC and not killing the old Bushes, and then the most recent email I'd sent, made the Guardian Angel look even MORE moral. And by glaring contrast, the Government even LESS moral.

The nation was MIGHTY relieved; except, I imagine, that part of the nation that was the Bush family. I would've LOVED to have heard their next family conversation [[it was exactly as you'd expect, including being highly amusing for me, but not so much for Dubya]]. The nation was thankful and amazed at the angel's forbearance. Hundreds of thousands of Washingtonians started heading back to the city, although very large number of them decided to stay away for the weekend just in case the President was stupid.

An early morning telephone survey was being done of Bush's popularity rating, working from east to west as the nation woke up and caught the news. For the first time ever, a President had a single-digit approval rating. Even in the worst periods of Nixon's fall from grace, he'd been Mr. Popularity compared to the younger Bush. That survey was also conducted for Washington DC itself, which was a statistically incorrect time to do a survey there because the people at home to answer their phones wouldn't be randomly distributed in their opinions, but even those people gave Dubya's an approval rating that didn't reach even a single digit, being below 1%.

Which explains that while the nation was "Thankful and amazed at the angel's forbearance," many Washingtonians were "Disappointed and amazed" by it. Very many of them were hoping for a change of President, and they wouldn't mind at all if the angel did it for them in the same way it'd caused a change of senior management in the FBI. Washingtonians were VERY angry at the President. Three times they'd thought they were about to be destroyed in a nuclear explosion, after which the Government kept doing even more insane things to anger the angel. If someone does something stupid once, that's one thing, but repeating a mistake of that magnitude over and over again is inexcusably insane. It wasn't a little mistake! At the very least, millions of people would die if the dial-a-yield was maxed out and the warhead optimally placed. That would only happen if the angel was angry, but even it had to run out of its godlike patience eventually. When it did so, people expected some VERY serious anger!

People couldn't understand why the fuck the FBI - and the CIA, DHS and maybe even the Secret Service - wanted to keep trying to kill the Andersons. It made no fucking sense whatsoever! And it ESPECIALLY made no sense because killing the Andersons would make the angel REALLY mad! And to make matters even MORE INSANE, God could resurrect the Andersons again anyway, SO WHAT WAS THE FUCKING POINT!

The angel's latest email had included, "but US Government did kill Mark Anderson". I'd been a bit lazy in my wording, partly to put a negative spin on it and partly because I knew the CIA would have killed me after they'd finished experimenting on me. I hadn't foreseen that the angel now having so much moral credibility meant that statement was taken as gospel, and it fueled even more anti-Government sentiment because it was now very believable that the DHS's and CIA's treatment of Mark Anderson had been part of the Government's ongoing anti-Anderson crusade.

That sentence of the angel's made people ask, "Why did the CIA kill Mark Anderson?" It appeared that I'd been killed in the raid on Fort Dodge, but there was no actual proof that a raid had happened - only the CIA's word, which was worth less than worthless. Large numbers of people jumped to the conclusion that there hadn't been a raid by some still-unidentified, mysterious enemy force, but that the lab's disaster was part of a very nasty Government plot. The conspiracy theorists decided that the Government wanted to be able to release deadly bioweapons inside America and be able to blame it on the mysterious Fort Dodge raiders. People were screaming that the Republicans were going to deliberately cause a nationwide civil emergency, put the country under martial law, suspend elections, and take over using military force rather than lose power when they inevitably lost the next election. An astonishing number of the recent law changes (e.g. empowering the President to use military force against civilians purely on his say so and outside of ANY due process) and illegal Government actions (e.g. the NSA's spying on damned near everyone, and certainly anyone they wanted to) supported that theory, and the Government's current bloodthirsty insanity did too (maybe the Government was trying to kill the Andersons because they'd learned something about the Fort Dodge conspiracy cover-up), so a very large number of people were seriously worried about the Republicans starting a biowar in America. The people's anger and fear about the Government was skyrocketing to unprecedented levels, and pressure on the Government was climbing just as fast.

The international press had only two themes: "America is EVIL" and "Bush is EVIL". As fast as international editions were being published, they were being quoted by the American media, especially in Washington. Hearing unanimously condemning headlines from all over the world being read out one after the other for dozens in a row had a powerful effect. The US Government had turned America into an international pariah. Protests were forming outside US embassies all over the world, especially those countries that had sizeable Christian, Islamic or Jewish populations, which is pretty much all of them. Other countries were issuing travel advisories to their citizens warning them not to travel to America, and clearly worse was yet to come because the world was only just starting to react to the US Government's latest illegal, immoral, blasphemous act.

With all that condemnation and with the fear of their nuclear destruction, you have to wonder that 9% of surveyed Americans thought Bush was doing a good job. They were probably Christians who were staunchly supporting their President because of how critically important it is not to tell teenagers about condoms. It was worth losing a city to keep teenagers pure.

The Guardian Angel's email to the media got one totally unanimous response: EVERYONE thought holding the President and his family personally responsible was an EXCELLENT idea. They wished the angel had started doing it earlier.

A few people tried to be sympathetic to the elder Bushes, but others gleefully pointed out, "The FBI damned near killed Mark's parents with their unmanned plane and the poison gas would've killed everyone in his family. The angel just gave the Bushes a little taste back, and it's not as if they can't afford to build a new house."

Many federal buildings had been attacked overnight. Usually by being spray painted with obscenities, shot at, or having Molotov cocktails thrown at them. That was especially true in DC, and especially true of FBI buildings, although easier Government targets had been popular too. The Washington media was VERY happy to report on it, and on everything else that involved people expressing anger and condemnation of the Government. If you'd been out of touch for a week and came back this morning, you'd have thought that Fox News was under radically new management.

It being Saturday meant that the public had nothing better to do than let the Government know that The People STRONGLY disapproved of it. Large protests were formed, some becoming riots when there was something nearby they could vent their anger at, like an FBI building.

The President was a VERY unhappy man:

• His parents had just lost their main home and everything in it, and it was because their son was pissing off an angel. Who, if it was pissed off again, had threatened to wipe out three generations of the Bush family tree.

• Bush had also lost his own ranch home, which he dearly loved and where he had spent a great deal of time. He was very angry at that, and really wanted to take revenge on someone for it, but the Andersons were the only obvious target and the public would tear him from limb from limb if it became known that he'd ordered any form of retaliation. It would become known, because there was so much condemnation of the previous attacks that someone would leak the details of a new one.

• Because he'd been hiding deep in an Air Force nuclear-proof bunker, the Air Force generals with him took the opportunity to let Bush know that they were reluctant for there to be any military response to anything involving the Andersons. That meant they'd either refuse a direct order, or more likely that they'd leak their orders fast enough that the public would demand the operation be stopped. The Prez could ask for something to be done quietly, which would either be a disaster if it failed, or a disaster if it succeeded. If anything happened to the Andersons now, it wouldn't matter if the angel took revenge or not because the public would tear the President apart with their bare hands.

• My repeatedly speaking of the public tearing him apart wasn't an exaggeration. There were so many public calls for his assassination, especially from religious groups, that the FBI and SS had no hope of being able to investigate them. He had to cancel all his public appearances for the foreseeable future. Even low-level members of his administration were suffering attacks on their persons, homes or offices. Nothing lethal yet, but a widespread and dangerous level of anger was being directed at them and a great deal of physical damage was being done. The President of America was now the subject of so much public anger that he was afraid of appearing in public anywhere in America, and especially in DC. That was a MAJOR gut punch to his ego. Most of all, he was mortally afraid of Christians, his traditional support base. He felt, and was, besieged.

• To make matters worse, it was obvious that the angel could get hold of Bush whenever it wanted. For the past few hours he'd been in genuine and substantial fear for his life. It could ignore bullets and pass through walls or the ground, so could appear in the Oval Office or in the deepest underground bunker regardless of how much security he had. Bush had VERY determinedly asked his protectors about how to stop the angel, but no one had a single clue, let alone an answer. Plus, to quote one advisor, "Even if we could take it out, there are probably more of them wherever it came from. Do you want more of them sent to Earth to get revenge for the first one?" Then there was the whole issue of whether the Guardian Angel really was from God? As in THE GOD, rather than some super-powerful alien or the even crazier theories that'd been thrown around. The President had prayed for guidance about that, but that'd proved inconclusive (prayer tends to be conclusive only when the person praying already knows the answer he wants. Which I guess proves that God is omniscient and omnipotent, because how else would He know the opinions of all the millions of people who pray to Him?).

As I said, the President was a VERY unhappy man.

How'd you like the job as the speechwriter for the President's next speech?

• The President could hardly condemn the attacks on his and his parents' homes because: (a) He was condemning an agent of God, and (b) The President's agencies had repeatedly attacked the Andersons' homes. He couldn't even publicly express sympathy to his parents because what happened to them too closely paralleled what his Government had been doing to do to the Andersons.

• The Prez couldn't say that he was ordering the Federal agencies to stop harassing the Andersons because he'd already ordered that. He was looking pathetic because the agencies appeared to be ignoring his orders, but he'd look even more pathetic if he repeated the same order.

• The President had been repeatedly called "Evil" by an angel of God. It was difficult for the speechwriter to think of a snappy comeback that would negate that accusation.

Everything the Prez could say, even if it was heartfelt, would be received with harsh condemnation. People were ANGRY!

Nor could the Prez duck the issue. As hard to imagine as it was, that'd be even worse.

I almost felt sorry for him - the speechwriter I mean; obviously I don't mean the asshole who didn't get his agencies to leave us alone and who just stole $215.9 billion from us. The FBI HAD surveilled us repeatedly and extensively, in clear breach of the settlement agreement the Government had agreed to be bound by, so that money was inarguably owed to us, and I'd been REALLY looking forward to being able to establish an absolutely wonderful scientific lab.

From the Government's perspective, the ONLY good thing about the Guardian Angel was that it should stop its attacks if the Anderson family was left alone. That, not having any other choice, and being in real fear for his life, dictated the strategy Bush had to use: to give up handsomely.

The President had FINALLY decided to do the obvious, although doubtless hating that he'd had to back down about something that was happening inside his country's own borders - although "backing down" wasn't really the right phrase because the President couldn't find out why there'd been any "going forward" in the first place. (Why isn't the opposite of "backing down" "forwarding up"?) The Prez had tried hard to find out why there'd been any attacks on the Andersons. He'd DEMANDED to know the reason for the attacks, but the FBI swore black and blue that they'd never intended any assassinations. The previous Director and Deputy Director weren't available to answer questions and there was no written evidence of any assassination intent that anyone could find, so it was a screwed-up situation all around. The best the FBI's new Director could do was to apologize profusely - while blaming the previous management - and promise he'd never allow the FBI to do anything like that again.

The Director did get his ass SEVERELY kicked over the bugs and gas canisters though, the Prez screaming at him that he should have ordered those removed. Clearly the Director had to bend over and take it because the Prez wasn't interested in excuses, but the Director had been in a real dilemma over that issue: It had appeared that the Andersons and angel were unaware of that stuff. Because there'd been no way of getting FBI technicians onto the property sneakily to recover that stuff, the Director would've had to ask the Andersons for permission for technicians to "do something secret" inside the Anderson's homes. No way would the Andersons have granted that request! The Director would have had to explain about the bugs and canisters. When the angel learned about them, it was all too easy to imagine that it would've reacted by immediately nuking Washington. On the other hand, if the Director said nothing and the angel eventually found the stuff, maybe it'd nuke Washington then. It would be VERY bad for the Director's career if he and the rest of DC was vaporized, so he'd been very unsure which way to go. The only thing he'd been sure about had been the merit of letting tensions ease for a while before doing anything. That had seemed the best option because the Andersons clearly hadn't known about the stuff. He didn't think the President would appreciate having that logic explained to him now though.

The Prez may have been ignorant about why things had happened in the recent past, but he knew very well what would happen in the near future if someone pissed off the angel again. His doing anything other than backing down would lead to a public uprising on a scale never before seen in modern America, and the unstoppable angel would exact a terrible penalty, quite likely including several Bushes in the retribution. The Old Testament was full of examples of all sorts of things that the Prez couldn't afford to let happen let alone be blamed for afterward, and the only way of preventing them was his total capitulation. The angel mocked every single weapon America had in its arsenal, it could ignore matter including bullets and missiles, and the energy it'd been exposed to - passing through flames, for example - seemed to have no effect on it either. Bush loved the power of being the president, but he hated that he was powerless in the face of the angel.

Military scientists, when they weren't drooling with envy, wondered about the angel's vulnerability to things like high-energy lasers or nuclear explosions, but there was no way to test those, or to work out the answers from first principles because no one had the first clue how the angel's non-body worked. Archangel Michael's description about Guardian Angels had said that God created them without a body so they'd be invulnerable, and that truly seemed to be the case. Scientists couldn't even understand how the angel could exist without a body, let alone be as powerful as it so demonstrably was. They'd dearly love to understand it, but all they had were wild ass guesses that they suspected would be almost certainly wrong (they were right about that).

The speechwriter crafted a "Magnanimous in Defeat" speech. The President made a nationwide address in which he praised the angel's dedication to its job, stated unequivocally that there'd be no more misunderstandings or mistakes by federal employees, and other bullshit. Bush banged his rostrum and firmly declared that he'd decided that every employee of the CIA, DHS, NSA and Secret Service had to sign a form stating that they understood the Anderson extended family was not to be subjected to any investigative or other interfering actions. He firmly announced other strong "Take Charge" measures that he was taking, making himself seem like an innovative, go-getting, problem-solving sort of guy.

He barely mentioned the disastrous past - maybe because people laugh when he says "nukular" - instead spending most of the speech enthusiastically concentrating on the wonderful future. There was lots of crap about the glowing success that was going to be Mark Anderson's career and the contribution he'd make to America, plus even more crap about how wonderful it was to have God's personal involvement in events on Earth again and God's representative in America. Bush said he was sure that it would reinvigorate the spiritual life of all Americans and lead society to re-embrace the decent, Christian values that the country had been so successfully built on. He even worked in a "Praise God!" and his speech ended with a short, touching prayer to show that he was on God's side too.

He regretted he couldn't stay to answer questions, making a carefully rehearsed impromptu joke about all the work he had piled up because his protectors had kept pulling him away from his desk. But - he stated with impressive determination - he was going to ensure that there would not be any need to pull him away from his desk again.