Chapter 48

"John, it looks like you will get to have an inaugural parade and attend the balls in your honor, finally," Rebecca said as we enjoyed breakfast with the children out on the enclosed sun porch of the lodge. "You missed all of those things when Val Buena resigned, and then Charles Thornton was killed."

"Not really, because Charles was reelected and I went to most of the festivities, even though you are right, they were in his honor, not mine."

We discussed how to handle the family and the inaugural events for some time. "It's time to just go as a family, introduce you all as members of our extended family and forget about it. I'm done campaigning and we are a family, so let's enjoy being a family and pick the events we want to attend together. When we find one, let's go."

Headlines started to pop up about my family, almost immediately following the inaugural parties. It turns out that the press fell in love with the girls and babies, and went out of their way to report on them with decency, instead of hatred. MSNBC was the lone holdout, but no one appeared to be watching, and Nielsen was reporting that even died-in-the-wool viewers of MCNBC turned the channel when they started their anti-Gray screeds.

Beth Ann grew into her role as First Lady, but steadfastly refused to "work" at it. She attended things with me, or not at all. That policy made the rounds until people accepted it as just the way it was, because the lady chose to live her life in that manner. Brian LOVED the attention, though he chafed when the Secret Service crowded him too much, but I talked it over with Steve and beefed up Jack's people to satisfy everyone, and give Brian the freedom to be a high school kid.

His senior year was flying by, and Beth Ann was thrilled when he received his acceptance letter from all four of his choices. All offered master's degrees in Aviation Technology, and he couldn't wait to start in August. Hopefully he would choose a college before then, and not keep us all in suspense. I promised to upgrade his plane to a twin engine Diamond, diesel and have him fully trained and signed off before he left for school.

No matter what school he chose, the Diamond was plenty of airplane to get him home safely, quickly, and with some class. I wanted him to have it as a graduation gift, so we ordered it very early. That way John Amundsen, his flight instructor, would have plenty of time to get him comfortable before he used it to come home the first time. Then I thought about it and hired Amundsen to fly home with him to make sure he was completely comfortable and safe.

I hired a press agent just to work with the ladies, so they had someone to handle any press inquiries, difficult questions that popped up, and to get ahead of anything we thought might cause a problem. She was recommended by – of all people – Mr. No Name. Solely on his advice we hired Amanda Jenkins, and after being assured by the Judge and Mr. No Name, that she was fully on board with keeping our private lives private - we installed her in her own cabin which I made clear was a combination home – office for her while she worked for us. The lengthy and specific non-disclosure she signed was in addition to the one she signed for the Judge.

Amanda was twenty-eight years old, a former press secretary for a previous cabinet secretary, and extremely nervous about being around me and the family. She did a good job but stayed to herself – at least until I discovered Rebecca was sneaking over to 'comfort' her during the night. Rebecca was still a little bit of a predator and a little bit sneaky, and Amanda never had a chance.

As far as I could tell, Colleen and Beth Ann stayed out of that, but I caught Winnie and Regina exchanging significant looks when she left the room a time or two, so ... maybe.

Putin's on again – off again, flirtation with invading all of Europe was a source of constant concern, and we stationed an additional fighter group to supplement our NATO resources. They were tasked with making sure Vlad stayed on his side of the line, and when he didn't they shot down the invading fighters without a second thought.

Putin made all kinds of noise about 'war-mongering' and imperialistic Americans, but he soon learned that no means no, and stopped testing me.

ISIS murdered four college coeds in April. The girls were attending a wedding of their classmate in Lebanon, and ISIS kidnapped and gang raped them, and then, to taunt us, they released the film on you-tube. Hawk and I were in the Oval office when word came through to look at the you-tube video, and before the end of that day our fighters bombed an ISIS convoy, killing everyone and arranged for the video to be leaked.

That began a summer long campaign by ISIS to attack and kill as many American travelers as possible. Defense and the Joint Chiefs had standing orders to use all possible resources to immediately hurt ISIS by a factor of at least ten, every time they hurt an American.

It didn't work.

ISIS kept up their murderous campaign and broadened their area of operation, so I reluctantly gave the order to use our Air Force and attack every known ISIS training facility, marshalling area, ammunition storage, and operational area. My orders were to leave no ISIS militants alive, using the most lethal weapons we had, short of the ultimate weapon of war.

By October ISIS was reduced to a shadow of their former size, and those militants were reduced to wearing burkas to try and avoid detection and destruction. We captured numerous ISSI fighters wearing women's garb and splashed the photos everywhere. The conservative news segment took to using terrorists in women's underwear as their background images on the websites, and whenever it was possible, they published the names and home towns of those cross dressing thugs, to forever out them for their crimes.

For a while, at least, ISIS comforted themselves with terrorizing non-Americans, and that worked for a little while. When ISIS fighters kidnapped and murdered a young French child, the French President went absolutely nuts. He ordered air strikes, ground force attacks, and included all targets where ISIS was welcomed, or protected.

Within days the region was awash with the bodies of unfortunate Islamic murderers, and those who helped them. By the fifth day, ISIS was forced out of previously friendly quarters, when the ruling juntas realized the damage that was being done to their homeland. Without safe quarters, and denied safe passage, French fighters strafed the roads killing hundreds and hundreds of fleeing Islamic Terrorists.

When the French President asked for AWACS support, I ordered the military to provide all possible assistance, including rescue and evacuation, if necessary.

That did cause us some terrible reprisals and they were all my fault.

When my eyes flew open, I saw the clock.

Three-twenty-four A.M.

The beside phone continued to ring, and I grabbed it up.

"Yeah," I said, still waking up.

"Mr. President," It was the duty officer at the Pentagon. I didn't even try to learn their names, because they constantly change. "We have a situation. Apparently ISIS has been training to attack public places in America. Defense tells me that they are prepared to launch some kind of attack in eastern Texas, from a camp they've apparently been using out in the hills, not far from Texarkana.

"The whole thing gets sketchy, but the intel looks good. There are between two-hundred and two-hundred twenty five extremists, based on our satellite photos. They are using modern automatic weapons, and appear to be loaded for battle. Their convoy is spread out and moving rather deliberately towards the south east, right now."

"I've been on it all night and things just started to heat up, along with Governor Abbot's blood pressure, so you will definitely be getting a distress call from him soon."

He went on with more details, until I was interrupted by the White House operator. "Mr. President, I have the Governor of Texas on the phone. He says it's extremely urgent."

"Put him through, please, and tell the Pentagon I will call back when I shake free."

"Mr. President. My intelligence people have been watching Islamic extremists massing inside Texas, preparing what we think is for a major offensive. A couple of hours ago they started to move. I called DHS, and they haven't responded. We need you to be engaged before Texans are killed, or injured, Sir. Please give me your assurance we can count on your help..."

He was scared.

"Governor," I said. "Where are the terrorists right now?" While he answered, I punched a button on my console and got the Pentagon.

"Governor. Please hold for just a second. General, this is the President. I am speaking with the Governor of Texas and he tells me that they are fully aware of the group of ISIS terrorists in his state, and their sudden movement? We need to respond quickly. Call the Chiefs and get them on board. Have the Secretary picked up and brought in, and have him call me as soon as he is in the War Room."

I went back to Governor Abbot but got side tracked by the Pentagon, again. "Mr. President, DHS has purposely kept us in the dark about terror activity inside the United States. How can I respond for you, sir? Where are we headed, and how free am I to handle those bastards?"

He had excellent problem solving skills, in my opinion.

"General, hold the line while I will loop in some other people." I put them both on hold, and ran to my office, downstairs. "Ok. Sarah, get me the Vice President, and the Secretaries and Directors of Defense, Treasury, FBI, CIS, DHS, and the Joint Chiefs on this line, right now.

"Governor, I am moving everything to get you relief, as we speak. Please hold the line as I coordinate activities." I put him back on hold, and picked up the other line.

"Gentlemen. We will talk about blame later. I have the Governor of Texas on the phone and he tells me he asked unsuccessfully for help and intel, due to hundreds of ISIS terrorists on the move, across eastern Texas, from a training base relatively near Texarkana.

"Defense, you are ordered to respond forthwith. Use whatever you need. Weapons are loosed, and the orders of engagement are this: Kill every single terrorist. Stop whatever they are planning. Try to cull out the leaders and interrogate them at Gitmo. Do not harm innocent civilians and keep me informed every step of the way. Each of you, assign an executive level staffer to liaise with me until this is finished.

"FBI, what have you got on this?"

The Director was an appointee of mine, and he was all over it. "Mr. President, as per protocol, everything we have gathered, we shared with DHS. They have everything we have."

"CIA, are you in the loop, and why wasn't I briefed in?"

CIA was one of Charles' appointees. He was obsequious, and correct when he said that everything they gathered was forwarded in real time to DHS.

"Who is on from DHS?"

"Mr. President, this is Director Jenkins. We are still evaluating the validity of the materials forwarded to us by other agencies. I will have reports sometime after breakfast and messenger them to you then."

"Mr. Director you are relieved. Treasury. Make sure the former director of DHS is off federal property right now." I had the operator cut him off the call before I went on. Until I can deal with an appointment, you all know my Chief-of-Staff, Rick. He will head up DHS. Rick, you know exactly how we want DHS to work with us, and make sure you handle it.