Divided We Stand: Fractured Union - Book One by Robert Cole

Author:Robert Cole [Cole, Robert]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Carentan Publishing
Published: 2024-06-18T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

WASHINGTON, D.C.

Thursday, March 21

Sharyn had never been to the PEOC before tonight, and that was probably a good thing. The PEOC—the Presidential Emergency Operations Center—was located deep beneath the White House. It contained an exact replica of the Situation Room, which Sharyn had visited often, but there were also living quarters, dining areas, offices, and everything needed to serve as a protected command post should things turn bad on the surface.

Sharyn had no idea how deep she was underground, but based on the elevator ride, she knew it was deep.

At 6:30 p.m., Sharyn had been discussing tomorrow’s schedule in the Vice President’s West Wing office before she and the Vice President departed for the evening, as much of the West Wing staff had already done. Three Secret Service agents, members of the Vice President’s personal protection detail, had stormed into the room, physically grabbed both Vice President Moore and Sharyn, and rushed them down the hallway to a waiting elevator. Only on the ride down to the PEOC did the agents inform them of a potential threat against the White House.

It was now approaching ten p.m., and Sharyn was in the PEOC conference room with a half dozen members of the West Wing’s inner circle. She’d been sitting there for more than three hours, mostly watching one of the large television screens on the wall. The President had participated for the first two hours before retiring to the underground bunker’s special quarters set up for him and his family.

The Vice President sat at the end of the table, looking exhausted and sipping sparkling water from a can. Next to the VP, John Reynolds was watching the same television monitor as Sharyn, while next to him, Geraldine Fox was typing away at her laptop computer, undoubtedly churning out bullet points for the press briefing they were planning for the morning.

“Is this war?” Vice President Moore asked no one in particular.

“I don’t think so,” answered Carl Tidhams, the National Security Advisor. “If it is, who’s the enemy? This seems more like a terrorist attack, but I just can’t see who’s behind it. Or what they’re trying to accomplish.”

“Two Supreme Court justices blown up by coordinated suicide bombers,” said Brad Nesbitt, the deputy chief of staff whom Sharyn wished hadn’t been included by the Secret Service in the personnel whisked to the PEOC as soon as the Supreme Court justices had been attacked. “The governors in four states assassinated. All Democrats. An attempted assassination on a fifth governor in Arizona, also a Democrat. Mass shootings across several states from Virginia to Minnesota—all seeming to target Democrats. I’ll tell you who the enemy is, Carl. It’s the goddamn Republican fascists!”

“But what do they have to gain?” Tidhams asked. “I mean, all four of those states are just going to have elections in November to install new governors. Hell, in North Carolina, the governor was term-limited and wasn’t even running for re-election. And all the shootings were local Democratic party officials or members of the state legislature.

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