Ross Perot.
14:06 (Washington Time) / 22:06 (Somalia Time)
Sunday, November 3, 1996 ‘C’
White House Situation Room
Washington, D.C., U.S.A.
Ingrid found herself to be the first member of the National Security Council to arrive in the underground Situation Room of the White House. She thus used that opportunity to start setting up her documents and upload on the computer system of the Situation Room the electronic files she was going to show and share. The next member of the NSC to arrive, CIA Director James Woolsey, did so some four minutes later. Woolsey came to her and shook her hand, a sober expression on his face.
‘’I must thank you for the quick way your people transmitted to the CIA the preliminary results of the tactical interrogations of the prisoners taken in Somalia, Ingrid. That allowed my own people to start connecting dots with the support of the NSA{8}.’’
‘’Well, intelligence that is not passed on in a timely basis is worthless, Jim.’’
‘’True, but God knows how often in history that lesson was either ignored or forgotten. I must say that the way you truly unified our various military services into one well-integrated and coordinated force made wonders for the quick and efficient treatment of intelligence. Thanks to you, interservice rivalry is next to dead.’’
‘’But it took a lot of head bashing before arriving at this point, Jim. Hopefully, I will be able to continue welding our services together after the coming Tuesday’s presidential elections.’’
James Woolsey didn’t have to ask her what she meant by that: some political factions in the Congress hated Ingrid’s guts for various reasons and would love nothing better to see her sacked as strategic commander of the American armed forces. The issue of who was going to win the presidential elections could thus decide if she stayed in her present post or if she would be sidetracked.
‘’Well, with the great work that you have been doing for decades now and with your popularity among the population at large, anyone wanting to fire you would have to contend with a severe popular backlash.’’
A group of seven other NSC members then arrived in the Situation Room, led by the President’s National Security Advisor, Brent Scowcroft. From there, the remaining members of the NSC walked in, with President Ross Perot arriving last. Perot, a small, thin, 66-year-old man with a balding head, spoke as he was about to sit down in his chair.
‘’Please sit down, ladies and gentlemen.’’
After a bit of shuffling and with everyone now sitting around the long conference table, Perot looked at Ingrid from across the table.
‘’You may present your report on the events of the last two days, General.’’
‘’Thank you, Mister President! As all the Americans now know from TV reporting, two airliners, one belonging to Air Philippines and the other to Alitalia, were hijacked Friday by Islamist extremists, then rerouted to a small airfield in Somalia. You will find in your copies of the report the Pentagon prepared the details about those hijackings and what happened after in Somalia. Thankfully, the battle carrier USS NEPTUNE was cruising at that time in the Indian Ocean, close to the Somali coast, and was able to react quickly, first by locating and trailing the two hijacked planes, then by launching quickly a hostage rescue mission. While the Air Philippines Convair 800 was able to escape by itself and landed safely in Djibouti, thanks to some heroic action by its crew, the Alitalia Boeing 717 was not as lucky and actually crash-landed in Cadaado, ending on its belly. The 336 people from the Alitalia flight were then held for a few hours before our SEAL team and our marines embarked on the NEPTUNE arrived and freed them in a short but intense firefight. Unfortunately, four of the passengers were killed and four others wounded before all the hijackers and gunmen present in Cadaado could be either killed, wounded or taken prisoner. One American citizen was part of the dead, while another one was seriously wounded. As for the hijackers and Somali gunmen present at the airfield, 23 of them were captured, some being also wounded, and are now detained and interrogated by us. We got an early lucky break when we wounded and captured the apparent head of that hijacking operation. A skillful interrogation conducted while that man was under the effect of painkillers and was being medically treated revealed a number of important things. First, that man was an officer of the secret services of the Caucasus Independent Republic, which apparently planned and coordinated the hijacking of the two airlines. Second, the Somali gunmen present in Cadaado belonged to a number of Somali warlords known to be Muslim extremists who hate Westerners in general and Americans in particular. Those warlords participated in that operation because they had been promised to be given the women and girls from the hijacked airliners, who would then have become in essence their sex slaves. Third, those warlords were also paid to participate in that operation. I believe that the CIA and NSA have been able to find some details and to trace some of those payments. Fourth, the hijackers who actually seized and rerouted the two airliners were members of Islamic extremist groups in respectively Egypt and the Philippines and were only mere pawns in the operation. Finally, the head hijacker captured in Somalia alluded to this being only the start of a widespread and prolonged terrorist campaign, the main goal being to humiliate the United States and take revenge for the pounding we gave to the C.I.R. after it invaded Armenia a few months ago.’’
Ingrid then paused as her revelations caused a wave of indignation and anger around the table. State Secretary Daniel Inouye in particular appeared quite angered.
‘’The Caucasus Islamic Republic, again! When will those fanatics understand their lesson?’’
‘’Well, they will be served another lesson, soon.’’ replied Ross Perot, his own expression hard. ‘’Do you have any other information to pass on from your side, General Dows?’’
‘’Only that I have started to pass warning orders and redeployment taskings in order to prepare for, prevent and counter any other terrorist attack or hijacking which could be in the making and would threaten American lives and interests, Mister President. I however do believe that Director Woolsey has more info on his side.’’
That made Perot look at James Woolsey, sitting next to Ingrid.
‘’What do you have, James?’’
‘’Mister President, thanks to the quick sharing of the results of the interrogations of prisoners made on the NEPTUNE, the NSA was able to concentrate its electronic monitoring capabilities in the right direction and was thus able to intercept a number of transmissions and conversations of significance to us. My own agents were also able to follow up on the information collected by the NSA and the Pentagon. I am now going to distribute copies of the combined preliminary intelligence report we prepared as a result. I must warn you that those copies contain highly sensitive sources and methods and are classified Top Secret Codeword, Noforn{9}.’’
Woolsey then stayed silent as the other NSC members got their copies and started reading them. President Perot raised his nose after a minute of reading, a flash of anger in his eyes.
‘’The money those Somali warlords received came from secret Russian GRU bank accounts in Switzerland?’’
‘’It did, Mister President. While the GRU and the Russian government still doesn’t know it, we have been able for a few years already to identify and then monitor a number of Swiss bank accounts secretly set up by the Russian GRU and used by it to fund various clandestine operations and pay criminals who execute contracts on behalf of Russia. By the way, those same GRU secret bank accounts were used in last September to try to hire a professional assassin for the purpose of killing General Dows. We now believe that the Russians tried to have General Dows killed in order to help their future plans for terrorist attacks against the United States, by eliminating our top strategist and military commander.’’
From angry, Perot became furious but managed not to explode, instead speaking in an icy tone at the men and women sitting around the table.
‘’That’s it! I have had enough of this Russian duplicity and hypocrisy! I believe that it is high time to put them and those C.I.R. bastards back in their proper place. Director Woolsey, I want you to provide to me some information on those Russian and C.I.R. actions which I could then communicate to members of the Congress and, if possible, to the American public. Once I have that information, I will then use it to justify severe measures to be taken against Russia and the C.I.R., going to and possibly including retaliatory military actions.’’
That last sentence was enough to make the President’s political advisor, Jack Gargan, nearly jump out of his seat.
‘’Mister President, such military actions could be painted by your opponents in Congress as an attempt by you to appear tough in order to help your reelection bid. Representative Dellum{10} will most probably paint you again as a warmonger who is simply looking for excuses to use our military and promote more defense spending.’’
‘’Screw Dellum!’’ replied Perot in a forceful tone. ‘’My job is to serve and protect the United States and its people, not to appease pacifists-at-all-cost like him. I intend to teach a serious lesson to those Russian and C.I.R. bastards: they used terrorism by proxy against us and they will pay for it. General Dows, could all this hide some other threat to us?’’
‘’Definitely, Mister President. This all smells like a coordinated plan by the Russians and the Caucasus Islamist Republic leaders to weaken us and make us lose our focus. The fact that those hijackings happened just before our presidential elections probably mean that they were hoping to catch us while we are distracted by our elections. They are also hoping that you will lose your reelection, which would then make you a lame duck president with a diminished ability to initiate military action around the World. I would recommend that our forces go up to DEFCON 3 and prepare for possible hostilities, including the possibility of an enemy Russian nuclear strike on us. While I doubt that they would go that far, the present Russian leaders have proved that they don’t always act in a rational manner. Better be safe than sorry.’’
‘’I concur! You have my permission to go to DEFCON 3. Make sure in particular that the Russians can’t launch a surprise nuclear strike on us. I believe that their missile submarines would then be the biggest potential threat to us, right?’’
‘’Correct, Mister President! If they could approach really close to our coasts, they would then be able to launch their ballistic missiles on flat trajectories which would give us very little warning time to react. I will have the Navy reinforce its anti-submarine patrols along our coastal areas.’’
‘’Excellent! Well, ladies and gentlemen, it seems that we will have more to preoccupy us than mere elections. For the moment, I will let our armed forces and intelligence agencies deal with this threat and liaise as needed with our allies, but I want all of you to keep it in the back of your minds and to be ready to react to it in your respective capacities. That will be all for today, ladies and gentlemen.’’
As the NSC members started to file out of the Situation Room, Perot signaled to Ingrid that he wanted her to stay for a moment more. He waited until everyone else was gone before speaking to her in a low voice.
‘’Ingrid, your hindsight and prescience are legendary, partly thanks to those old ATHENA files which describe future events and technical advances. What do they say about my chances of reelection?’’
Ingrid made a gentle smile then and shook her head.
‘’I’m sorry, Mister President, but I cannot tell you anything about that, for the good reason that the history as described by the ATHENA files does not correspond anymore to our own history, by a far shot. Since World War 2, this timeline has been steadily diverting from the historical timeline as known by Nancy Laplante and our World today bears little resemblance to that of the historical timeline, which I call ‘Timeline ‘A’. For one, in Timeline ‘A’, you did run for President in 1992 but didn’t win, while you became President in our timeline. You again tried your luck in 1996 ‘A’ after founding your Reform Party, but ended up with less results than in 1992 ‘A’. If I would have to assess your chances of reelection, then I would need to focus strictly on the present situation and conditions in our own timeline.’’
‘’And…how would you rate my chances of reelection in your opinion, Ingrid?’’ asked Perot after a short hesitation, making her smile.
‘’I am sorry, Mister President, but I would prefer to keep my opinions on this to myself. As strategic commander of the United States combined armed forces, I have to stay apolitical.’’
That answer made Perot nod his head slowly.
‘’I appreciate that, Ingrid. Thank you for your frankness.’’
‘’Thank you, Mister President, and the best of luck for the elections.’’
Ingrid then walked out of the Situation Room, followed by Perot’s eyes. Once she was gone, the President sighed to himself, then grabbed the classified files in front of him and tucked them inside his own briefcase before returning upstairs to his Oval Office.
22:20 (Washington Time)
Tuesday, November 5, 1996 ‘C’
Apartment # 4, 607 West 51st Street, Hell’s Kitchen District
Manhattan, New York City
‘’Can’t they count the votes faster than this?’’
The complaint by Lucy prompted a quick retort from Erika, who was sitting like her four friends and band members in front of the television set in her apartment, which she shared with Nancy and Lucy.
‘’Don’t forget that they were legally obliged to wait until all the polls closed before starting to count the votes and announce the results, Lucy. Right now, most of what we got were simple exit polls, which are neither accurate nor complete.’’
‘’Maybe, but the suspense is killing me.’’
There was a silent pause for a few minutes as the five girls watched and listened to the CNN reporting on the presidential elections, which opposed the Democratic candidate, Bill Clinton, and the Republican candidate, Bob Dole, to Ross Perot, the incumbent President, and his recently formed Reform Party. A remark by one of the CNN analysts then made Sarah Weissman comment about it.
‘’Dole and the Republicans really seem to get quite a beating up to now. They are faring much worse than the polls predicted.’’
‘’That’s because Perot has been sucking up many ex-Republican voters, Sarah.’’ replied Lucy. ‘’The same could be said about the Democrats, but to a lesser degree.’’
‘’Why so?’’ asked Carmen Estrada, who had never shown much interest in politics.
‘’Because Perot and the platform of his Reform Party have hit the sweet political middle spot for the American public. Perot has proved to be a moderate centrist politician who is financially and administratively competent, while also proving to be tough and resolved in terms of foreign affairs. He was able to attract to him many people who objected to either democratic policies seen as too liberal or to conservatives’ policies considered too rigid or even intolerant. This business of a third main political party in American politics is a big novelty and the Americans seem to like it and, as that commentator just said, seem to think that it is one way to break away from rigid partisan politics in the Congress.’’
‘’Oh! Okay! And for whom did you vote today, Lucy?’’
‘’I voted for Perot, for a number of reasons. First, he did a good job during his four years in the White House and has proved to be both competent and moderate. Second, I didn’t want to support the Republicans, who still have way too many racists in their ranks, while this Bill Clinton is tainted by a number of extra-marital affairs. Why vote for a man who cheats on his wife and drops his pants every time that he sees a nice-looking woman?’’
‘’You certainly got that right, Lucy.’’ said Nancy in support of her sister by adoption. ‘’His vice-presidential candidate is also spouting too many anti-gay comments to my taste.’’
Nancy’s last comment drew approving nods from her four friends. Erika Lang then glanced at Nancy to ask her a question.
‘’And for whom did you vote, Nancy?’’
Nancy’s response was an amused smile.
‘’I didn’t vote, for the simple reason that I couldn’t legally vote. I may look to be nineteen, but I am still legally fourteen-years-old. You celebrated my birthday yesterday, remember?’’
‘’But you should be considered as an adult, Nancy.’’ protested Carmen Estrada. ‘’You don’t only have the looks but you also have the maturity given by your 2,000 years of past incarnations’ souvenirs.’’
‘’Er, flash news, Carmen: my claims to my incarnations’ souvenirs have no legal value in the United States, or anywhere else, as a matter of fact. My mother is now 71 years old, yet she still is asked for an I.D. card when trying to go into a night club or bar she has not visited before.’’
‘’Maybe you should try to obtain a special legal status because you are a half-angel, Nancy?’’ suggested Sarah. Nancy showed less than enthusiasm for that idea.
‘’Yeah! A great way to waste years in legal disputes and to make a few lawyers rich. I will stick to Coca-Cola instead of beer for the time being…except when in private with you girls. Talking of beer, who wants a refill?’’
A concert of giggles greeted her declaration, with all four asking for more beer. Nancy then got up from her sofa and went for the refrigerator sitting in the small kitchen corner of her apartment, opening its door and extracting from it five fresh bottles of German imported beer. In that, she agreed with her mother, who said that, compared to German beer, American beer mostly tasted like colored water. On second thoughts, Nancy exchanged one of the German beer bottles for one from a Canadian micro-brewery which she and Ingrid appreciated a lot, then went back to the lounge to distribute her bottles and also collect the empty ones. Technically, none of them were old enough to drink but they all thought that being considered too young to drink while being old enough to vote, drive or even enlist in the Army was ridiculous and a typical holdover from American conservative social thinking.
Around midnight, the lounge erupted into happy cheers when CNN analysts declared Perot as the winner of the elections, having sucked away voters from both the Democrats and the Republicans. The girls’ enthusiasm redoubled when the preliminary results from the various elections around the country for congressional seats were announced as well, making Lucy look at the television screen with disbelieving eyes.
‘’MY GOD! THE REFORM PARTY WON ENOUGH SEATS IN BOTH THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES AND IN THE SENATE TO CONTROL THE BALANCE OF POWER! The Republicans may have won the most seats for one party in the congress but they will now have to kiss the Reform Party’s ass if they want to stop the Democrats from blocking their law proposals. The same will go in the Senate, while the Democrats will have to gain the support of the Reformists in order to stop the GOP or present their own law proposals. This is huge!’’
‘’It certainly will send seismic tremors through Congress.’’ agreed Nancy, smiling while eyeing the statistics shown on television. ‘’I believe that the days of the so-called ‘Do Nothing Congress’ are now over. Hell, this calls for more beer, girls!’’
Wild cheers greeted those last words.