And... There Was No Justice: The Saga ends

Awakening

Only a few weeks had passed since Amanda Kline received a beating ruthless enough to place her into Bethesda Naval Hospital Intensive Care Unit. Sam Haley, her fiancé, and Ellie Winter, her best friend, sat patiently by her side waiting and hoping she would wake up from her drug induced coma.

Her broken arm, legs and ribs were starting to mend. However, the built up pressure in her brain from her head injury had been severe enough to require the removal of a section of her skull to release the compression. After several days, the swelling subsided, and her brain activity and vitals stabilized. Only then did the doctors determine it was safe to start eliminating the drugs keeping her in a coma.

The doctors warned Sam and Ellie, no two patients were the same, and only time would tell when she would regain consciousness. Some awaken after only twenty-four hours, others take days or weeks, and for a few, never.

Now, for Amanda, it was only a matter of when she would wake up. When she did, the major question would be whether the brain had sustained any long lasting damage. Her neurosurgeon didn’t think she would have any permanent damage; nonetheless, the outcome would be unknown until she regained awareness.

Peter Winter, Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, had just returned from California. He stood at the window in Amanda’s ICU room wondering when the next attack on the nation would happen. The current evidence being gathered concluded it would be soon.

He wished he knew this wasn’t true. Watching the busy street below the window, the sunny day appeared to be a normal one. Vehicles crowded the street, as pedestrians hurried along on their journey for the day. Wanting to freeze time, he desired nothing more than to stop the pending attack. The country I grew up in is fast slipping away.

Knowing the situation was out of his control, he was more than overwhelmed with the recent events. For the moment, there was nothing more he could do except wait for intelligence gathering to nail down when and where the next attack would be.

As Peter turned from the window to say something to his wife, Ellie, the sky exploded with light.

Sam released Amanda’s hand and made his way to the window. No, no, no, issued from Sam’s lips. The light was brighter than the sunniest cloud free day. Quickly he returned to Amanda and tightly held her hand, determined no matter what, he would never let her go, even though he thought their time together on earth was about to end.

All of a sudden, the machines monitoring Amanda went silent. Quiet prevailed for the first time since she’d initially entered the ICU room. The silence made the moment feel strange.

Peter wasn’t prone to emotional displays, however, his eyes moistened and he was visibly shaken. Hurriedly, he went over to the chair where Ellie was sitting and stood behind her folding his arms around her shoulders.

Silently, he started counting. No percussion wave came. Only distant explosions were heard. There were no more flashes, no rattling of windows or shaking of the building. Although relieved, he knew this was a narrow escape, and for the time being, the country had attained a reprieve.

Within seconds of the flash, the machines monitoring Amanda’s vitals came back to life. Something had caused the equipment to hiccup.

Releasing Ellie, Peter returned to the window and watched as the eastern sky slowly settled back to its normal blue. He let out a sigh of relief knowing the Nuclear Electromagnetic Pulse, or NEMP attack on Washington had not been successful. In his mind, and for the moment, he credited the United States Navy with stopping yet another attack.

Peter spoke to Ellie and Sam, It looks like we got this one. I think we’re safe for now.

Knowing there’d be a briefing, he nestled Ellie’s auburn hair in his hands, savoring the jasmine smell, then kissed her on top of her head, I’m sorry I have to leave, but you know I have to go to Langley. Stay here with Amanda and Sam and I’ll let you know more about what just happened as soon as I can. I love you.

Peter turned, and before he could leave, Ellie caught his hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. He turned back and looked into her emerald green eyes as she said to him, Likewise. Letting him go was difficult for her. She let her eyes follow his lean trim frame out of the room. It was hard for her to think about what he might have to do, knowing firsthand in all probability he would have to leave her again.

Ellie looked across Amanda’s bed with asking eyes, I wonder if what we saw was the only one on this coast? If not, do you think they were able to stop all of them Sam?

I don’t know Ellie. Peter can only tell us so much; we knew they were going to try again.

Sam picked up the remote and turned on the TV. We won’t have long to wait, I’m sure the news wires will be buzzing. However, to get the real story we’ll have to wait and see what Peter finds out, and how much he will be able to tell us.

As Sam ploughed through the Washington D.C. TV channels, he noticed every one of them was running the Emergency Broadcasting System tickers advising people to stay inside and stay tuned for further news.

He finally found one of the major cable news channels reporting on the incident. The commentator was in mid-sentence, ... As yet, it’s not clear who is responsible for the attack. Unconfirmed sources claim it wasn’t an attack, only war games off the coast. We’ve contacted the White House and the Pentagon. For the moment, neither has given us any useful information we can report. However, we have been promised an official report within the hour. For now, stay inside, and stay tuned to CZN. This is Leslie Adams reporting.

Doing a poor job of hiding his concern from Ellie, Sam said, Let’s hope Peter can tell us what’s going on soon. Something tells me this is far from being over, and I’m definitely not buying into it was only war games off the coast.

Ellie closed her eyes, lowered her head, and managed to quietly say, Why, Sam, why. What did we do to make them hate us so much?

It’s not that they hate us so much. It’s they want control of what we have, and the authority over us to go with the power. Unfortunately, even if they were successful in destroying us, it wouldn’t change anything for them. We’d only be a land conquered, and they’d move on to the next. Warring man has done this for centuries.

A clearly distressed Ellie replied, That’s plainly a sad statement for their lack of humanity.

Before Sam could answer, he felt movement in Amanda’s hand. He leaned in close to her ear and quietly said her name. Amanda. He felt another movement, this time a slight squeeze from her hand.

Somewhere in the foggy distance, Amanda thought she heard Sam calling her name. Trying hard to answer, all she could manage to do was think Sam, I’m here, come and get me. In addition to her thoughts, she managed to squeeze out a tear.

Ellie noticed the tear roll down Amanda’s cheek. Sam, look, I think she heard you!

Sam felt another squeeze, this one firmer than the last. Once again, he leaned down, and whispered in her ear, Amanda, you’re safe, I’m with you now.

This time the haze clouding Amanda’s thoughts slowly cleared. Instead of drifting back into the dark, she was able to open her eyes, and in lieu of only thinking Sam’s name, she was able to say it.

Come Together

Before Peter left the hospital parking lot, he decided to place a call to Chief Charles Coangelo, Division Chief of the NSA’s satellite and communications operations.

After buckling his seat belt, Peter reached over and touched the screen in the middle of the car dash. He selected the Bluetooth link to his phone, and when his contact list appeared, he touched Coangelo’s name. The connection rang and instead of Chief Coangelo answering, the call went straight to his voice mail.

At the tone, he left his message, This is Pete, call me as soon as you can, I’m on my way over to Langley. After leaving the message, Peter touched the screen again, and this time he selected Sierra Love.

He’d just returned from California delivering the news of the death of one of her covert operatives. Knowing Sierra would take the news of Delta Lyon’s death badly, the least he could do was deliver the news in person. Moreover, he couldn’t shake the feeling he’d been responsible for her death.

Sierra’s organization was one of a handful of trusted outside sources used when the NSA, CIA, FBI, or other Homeland Security forces needed deniability on select operations. After the death of her twin sisters, it had taken a herculean effort on Peter’s part to convince Sierra to reinitialize her covert operations business.

Over time they had become more than business associates. A strong family like friendship bond between Peter and Sierra had been forged through adversity. They’d been supportive when personal losses took a toll on both their lives. She’d kept him from falling to pieces when he’d lost his first wife and only child. He’d held her together when she’d lost her twin sisters in a covert operation gone wrong. This double whammy had caused great pain to Sierra, as her twin sisters were the last of her family.

Instead of connecting with Sierra or her voice mail, he received a canned pre-recorded message stating, Service to this area is not available at this time. We’re sorry for the inconvenience. Please try your call again at another time.

Next, he tried his West Coast CIA contacts with no luck at any of the western locations. He then tried Sierra’s operatives, starting with Celia, and didn’t stop trying until he attempted to reach all of them. None of the Valley Operations women answered. Instead, each time he was met with the same pre-recorded communication. The same kind of message one would get when trunk lines were down. It wasn’t unusual for telephone systems to go down when the lines were jammed with too many holiday or major incident calls. He hoped the latter wasn’t the case, however, deep down he felt there was another reason. He didn’t want to jump to conclusions, but his assumption was this time the Chinese may have been partially successful in their attempt to cripple the country.

Having close alliances with the Iranians and North Koreans, China had managed to form a strong coalition with the sole purpose of bringing the United States to her knees. Until Peter could connect with Coangelo, he didn’t know how extensive the damage was. For the moment, the country appeared to be in limbo.

After not being able to reach any contacts on the West Coast, Peter decided against returning to CIA’s headquarters in Langley. Instead, he turned around and headed to the National Security Agency. He needed to find out what information Coangelo’s people had managed to gather and where they stood in the process of putting together communication counter measures.

The sooner they could find out the extent of the damage done, the quicker they could get control of the situation and come up with a viable plan to counter any further destruction. Like an Amber alert, the first few hours were crucial.

Parking in the NSA visitors’ area, Peter made one more call. This time the call went to Valerie Wilson, his second. She managed to answer right before the call went to her voice mail.

Glancing at the caller ID, Wilson answered the call with, Hello Deputy Director Winter.

Hello Wilson. I need to have you go over to the FBI and get with Marshall. Make sure our Midnight Blue operation team is back at full strength. I know we have been working long shifts trying to find and prevent NEMPs from reaching us, not to mention all the other nasty attacks yet unidentified. We need a damage assessment as soon as possible.

I’m ahead of you Peter. We’re already on our way over to the NSA.

Thanks Wilson. I’m afraid we’re going to have some even longer days ahead of us. Please make sure the staff understands this.

Believe they’ve already figured that out, sir.

Peter asked, I don’t suppose you’ve been able to contact any of our agents on the West Coast. It’s urgent we get back on line out there.

"No, and it’s not for the lack of trying. It appears the entire communications network is down in the Western region. Do you know what’s going on with the rest of the country?

With a discouraged voice Peter responded, "No I don’t. I haven’t had any contact with our West Coast agents. Nor have I been able to get in touch with our black-ops out there. I can’t raise Sierra or anyone else on her team either. I get the same pre-recorded service message with all the calls.

I’ll meet you and Marshall over at the NSA. We can continue our joint efforts there with Coangelo’s personnel.

There was a short pause before Wilson continued, Do you know how much of the East Coast has been affected?

Peter replied, "Not yet, I only know we obviously have some spotty communications problems. Some may be iffy and some may be down. We’ll know for sure when Coangelo runs his diagnostics. Also, I don’t know how much of the power grid has been affected. We’ll need to discern how well our hardened communication systems held up. One good thing is I don’t believe the communication satellites were affected. I’m sure Coangelo can confirm this.

I’ve just left the hospital. That’s where I was when I witnessed the initial flash. There were only a couple of blinks on the lights before they steadied. I didn’t stay long enough to see if power had returned or whether the hospital’s generators had kicked in. I can’t say for sure, but it seems the power grid in the metro D.C. area has held. We’ll know more shortly. See you soon.

Roger that Peter. Wilson rang off wondering what, if anything, the rest of the country had suffered.

On the Mend

Ellie reached up and pressed the call button to alert the nurse’s station. Almost immediately, a nurse was by Amanda’s bedside. When the nurse entered the room, Amanda’s eyes were open and she was quietly weeping.

Quickly checking Amanda’s vitals, the nurse asked, Are you in a great deal of pain?

Amanda softly answered, Only a little.

Puzzled, the nurse asked, Why the flood of tears?

I’m so very happy to be alive!

Looking at Sam the nurse told him, I’ll get in touch with the doctor. It’s not for me to say, but I think you’ve figured it out already. This is a great step forward in her recovery. I’m sure Amanda is on the upswing, and with a little in-house physical therapy she’ll soon be out of here!

The nurse left the room, and Sam settled back down by Amanda’s side, happy she had returned to them and was finally on the road to recovery.

Soaking in the sight of him, a distressed Amanda managed to say, Sam, I didn’t tell them anything.

Tell who? What do you mean Amanda?

With shallow breaths she replied, I didn’t tell the woman and men who took turns beating me. They wanted to know how to defeat the satellites.

Oh Amanda, you didn’t need to be so brave. We only had one piece of the puzzle at World Tech. Nothing matters to me except you being all right. I’m so sorry I wasn’t able to protect you.

Amanda was able to rationalize, "Sam, it was an impossible situation, there were too many of them. If you’d been with me, no one would have known for hours, maybe even days that I had been taken. Besides, if you’d been with me they would have beaten and maybe killed you too. It makes no difference now. I’m safe. We’re safe.

It may be we were only one piece of the puzzle, nonetheless, our one piece could have been the missing one they needed. You never know.

Wanting to bring Amanda into the present, Ellie smiled and said, Welcome back to us.

I’m glad to be back. Was Peter here earlier or did I dream that? I’m not sure.

Lightly touching Amanda’s arm Ellie replied, Yes, he was. He left not long ago.

Sounding concerned, Amanda asked, Did I hear him say something about an NEMP?

Although Sam didn’t have any real information he replied, Yes, however, I think we were able to stop them here on the East Coast. What we did at World Tech did make a difference. Now it’s up to Peter, Coangelo, Marshall, and the rest of Homeland Security to stop them. I only hope Congress lets them do what has to be done. Another two or three years of bickering won’t get us anywhere. It’ll only leave us more vulnerable.

A bitterness weighed heavily on Amanda and she commented, I know forgiveness is necessary, however, I hope they show the Wangs no mercy, or at the very least do unto them as they have done unto me.

Sam asked, The Wangs?

With broken breaths, Amanda said, Yes, I know it was Lei who gave the order to abduct me, I heard my captors talking about her. The worst part is I saw them murder a man who’d refused to kill me. Instead, they put a bullet in his head instead of mine. After I witnessed that, everything went blank.

Sam thought Amanda was getting too agitated for her fragile condition, Shush… you don’t have to think about it now, you’re safe.

Amanda squeezed Sam’s hand, I have to tell you what they did to me.

Sam placed his other hand on top of hers, Rest, you can tell me later.

Obviously upset, she continued, "No, please bear with me. I want to tell you about it, and then I can put it in the past. She pressed his hand lightly, and then continued.

They usually beat me upstairs, and then when they tired of me not giving them whatever information they were looking for, or I’d pass out, they’d drag me to the basement. What was down there was horrible, my worst nightmare.

Amanda shuttered, closed her eyes, and took a long pause before continuing. "I don’t know how long I would be down there before I’d wake up in pain. Often I’d awake to find a rat nibbling on me. The last time this happened, I know I screamed. I wished I hadn’t because then they would know I was awake again. When no one came down, I realized I no longer heard any noise from upstairs. I tried to get up, but nothing worked.

"My whole body hurt so unbearably I was wishing for a quick death. I didn’t think I could take another beating. All I could do was keep thinking of you Sam. I thought if I kept thinking about you, somehow you would sense where I was and find me.

"After what I believed were my last thoughts, I don’t think I was awake long before I blacked out again. Time became a blur after the first day, so I don’t know how long I was down in that basement before Valerie Wilson found me. I vaguely recall her picking up my arm. I think she was checking for a pulse. I thought I remembered her saying I was alive, but I wasn’t sure it was real. I could hear her talking to her counterpart Agent Marshall.

"By this time I wasn’t feeling any pain, so I thought surely I’d died and was having an out of body experience. I imagined I could feel something being laid on top of me, a blanket, or maybe a coat.

I’m fairly sure it was agent Wilson who was by my side when it all went dark again. That’s all I remember until now.

Sam was overwhelmed with what had happened to her. As gently as he could, he raised Amanda’s hand to his lips. Please don’t think about anything now except getting well, and know how much I love you.

Before Amanda could say anything else, exhaustion overcame her as she slipped into the blackness again, except this time she fell into a peaceful slumber.

****

The West was having their own issues, and unfortunately, their problems were far worse than what the East was experiencing.

Hard Decisions

Unfortunately, there had been no time to evacuate the multitudes in cities. With only hours before detonation, and telling the public about what was going to happen would lead to panic and a mass exodus of major metropolises.

President Edward Cameron had to make a decision as to whether to tell the public about what might occur, or let the situation ride out. His long–time friend, and most trusted advisor, Carley Gemz, convinced him the upper echelon military advisors were not telling him the truth, or at the very least they were exaggerating the situation.

Casually sitting down across from the President, Gemz shrugged his shoulders, Look Ed, the military needs a war to justify their existence. Don’t let them start one.

Still grieving the loss of his wife, Cameron had more or less been letting his friend Gemz make the difficult decisions. For the moment, what he advised seemed to make sense.

So far, Gemz had been successful keeping the President at bay. He owned nine-tenths of the news stations in the nation, so he didn’t need to persuade the powers-that-be in the government what would be in the news reports. He controlled the airwaves, so owning most of them made it easy for him to have editorials faked and published.

President Cameron reasoned Gemz had the country’s best interests at heart, however, he couldn’t see leaving the governors out of the loop. Come on Carley, don’t you think at the minimum I need to get the governors involved in this decision?

Absolutely not, Ed. Think about it. Not one of them has the resources you have. They’re not able to look at the overall picture like you can. Besides, most are not capable of making rational decisions concerning the union to begin with. They only think in terms of their own state. Gemz replied.

This meant playing Russian roulette with far too many lives and the president wasn’t comfortable thinking about it.

Gemz walked over to the president and put a firm hand on his shoulder. Come on Ed, you know I’m right.

Not wanting an argument, the president replied, I suppose you are. He decided should there be the unlikelihood a major attack actually happened, no matter how it played out, there would be no way to avoid a substantial number of civilian lives that would be lost.

As much as it pained him, he asked his secretary Bertha Hill, to send in Mary Hoffenberg, his press secretary.

The president pointed to a chair and Mary took a seat.

Gemz had laid out what the president should tell his press secretary and Cameron willingly complied. Mary, I need to have you leak a story. We need to make some kind of statement, and I have an unsubstantiated report that the Republicans started a nasty rumor about an imminent attack. To my knowledge, all that’s going on is war games. Under no circumstances will the White House confirm this rumor. I intend to take a wait and see stance. If it turns out this wasn’t the case, I’ll deal with the downfall later.

Mary’s jaw dropped, but no words came out.

The president continued with a casual dismissal, That’s all.

Mary wasn’t sure what to think of what just came out of the president’s mouth. Regardless, she would do as he ordered.

Gemz smiled at the president, and gave him a gentle pat on the back, "Look, the harsh reality of the facts will be