Read Online Collapse by Richard Stephenson - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Richard Stephenson
Tags: thriller, Science-Fiction
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Secretary Laferriere never held his punches. The president had hired him because he wasn’t a “yes-man” who told him what he wanted to hear or sugarcoated his answers. The secretary leaned back in his chair and looked to his close friend, Warren Gill.
The FBI Director took his cue and began. “Our soil is being attacked on two fronts. Domestic terrorists are the hardest for us to capture. The Empire continues to activate sleeper cells around the country, and we almost never see them coming until it's too late. We have seen some progress capturing the waves of Silent Warriors that make it across our 7,612 mile borders. The majority of the terrorist invaders have no identification of any kind, not so much as a fake driver’s license. They avoid the major cities and the National Guard checkpoints, and well, we don’t know what they are doing.”
“What do you mean you don’t know?” Stacy Reid, the president’s Chief of Staff asked.
“Well, ma’am, they aren’t like anything we’ve seen in the past. Our best estimate is that Iranian submarines bring them over and they just swim right up to deserted beaches with nothing but the clothes on their backs. We also have credible evidence that large numbers of enemy forces are simply walking into the country from Mexico. Most of those we captured welcome torture and are hard to crack. A few have told us that they’re set loose on our shores with no plan of attack whatsoever; they are told to be creative and improvise.”
“Hard to stop an attack that has no intelligence to track until the damned thing happens,” the CIA Director managed to bark in a raspy voice.
Secretary Lafferiere nodded in agreement.
The president focused his attention back on Jimenez, “Roberto, what do we know about Bunker Five? Any indication that they’re planning some sort of attack for us here at home?”
The director turned his attention back to the screen, “Computer, display image of Bunker Five, begin playback from six months ago and show the progress in high-speed, ending with the most current image. Compress playback to sixty seconds.”
The interactive image of the Iranian Theater remained on the screen and a new window opened in the bottom left corner, far too small for anyone to see. The Director had forgotten to close the first screen.
“Son of a bitch,” the Director cursed under his breath. Roberto Jimenez hated to give the appearance that he was the stereotypical senior citizen that didn’t know how to work a computer. “Enhance.”
The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff finally saw his chance and laughed out loud. “You need help there, Robert-O?” Moody had placed emphasis on the last “O” to really drive it home.
Director Jimenez was becoming visibly frustrated, and his face flashed beet red as he realized that Carl Moody had just made fun of him. Roberto raised his right hand to grab the image. He succeeded in taking hold of it, but the pain in his arm was too much to endure and his hand fell back in his lap. The wall sensors tracking his hand movements misinterpreted his last gesture, and the image quickly disappeared.
Governor Lori Prince could not stay quiet any longer. Watching this old geezer display his obvious incompetence with computers sent her over the edge.
“Excuse me, Mr. President. I must know, exactly why am I here? This is all very interesting, but I just don’t understand exactly how the state of Florida is in any condition to help with the war effort.”
The president raised his hand in a calming gesture. “Governor Prince, I understand your confusion, but if you would just remain patient for a few more min...”
“Patient? PATIENT? You have the nerve to ask me to be patient? I have been patient for over a month waiting for you to make good on your promise to help the people of Florida. You have
The FBI Director took his cue and began. “Our soil is being attacked on two fronts. Domestic terrorists are the hardest for us to capture. The Empire continues to activate sleeper cells around the country, and we almost never see them coming until it's too late. We have seen some progress capturing the waves of Silent Warriors that make it across our 7,612 mile borders. The majority of the terrorist invaders have no identification of any kind, not so much as a fake driver’s license. They avoid the major cities and the National Guard checkpoints, and well, we don’t know what they are doing.”
“What do you mean you don’t know?” Stacy Reid, the president’s Chief of Staff asked.
“Well, ma’am, they aren’t like anything we’ve seen in the past. Our best estimate is that Iranian submarines bring them over and they just swim right up to deserted beaches with nothing but the clothes on their backs. We also have credible evidence that large numbers of enemy forces are simply walking into the country from Mexico. Most of those we captured welcome torture and are hard to crack. A few have told us that they’re set loose on our shores with no plan of attack whatsoever; they are told to be creative and improvise.”
“Hard to stop an attack that has no intelligence to track until the damned thing happens,” the CIA Director managed to bark in a raspy voice.
Secretary Lafferiere nodded in agreement.
The president focused his attention back on Jimenez, “Roberto, what do we know about Bunker Five? Any indication that they’re planning some sort of attack for us here at home?”
The director turned his attention back to the screen, “Computer, display image of Bunker Five, begin playback from six months ago and show the progress in high-speed, ending with the most current image. Compress playback to sixty seconds.”
The interactive image of the Iranian Theater remained on the screen and a new window opened in the bottom left corner, far too small for anyone to see. The Director had forgotten to close the first screen.
“Son of a bitch,” the Director cursed under his breath. Roberto Jimenez hated to give the appearance that he was the stereotypical senior citizen that didn’t know how to work a computer. “Enhance.”
The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff finally saw his chance and laughed out loud. “You need help there, Robert-O?” Moody had placed emphasis on the last “O” to really drive it home.
Director Jimenez was becoming visibly frustrated, and his face flashed beet red as he realized that Carl Moody had just made fun of him. Roberto raised his right hand to grab the image. He succeeded in taking hold of it, but the pain in his arm was too much to endure and his hand fell back in his lap. The wall sensors tracking his hand movements misinterpreted his last gesture, and the image quickly disappeared.
Governor Lori Prince could not stay quiet any longer. Watching this old geezer display his obvious incompetence with computers sent her over the edge.
“Excuse me, Mr. President. I must know, exactly why am I here? This is all very interesting, but I just don’t understand exactly how the state of Florida is in any condition to help with the war effort.”
The president raised his hand in a calming gesture. “Governor Prince, I understand your confusion, but if you would just remain patient for a few more min...”
“Patient? PATIENT? You have the nerve to ask me to be patient? I have been patient for over a month waiting for you to make good on your promise to help the people of Florida. You have
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