whispered as he gazed into her mesmerizing smoky blue eyes.
“I have never loved someone as much as I love you, you are my life, I’ve loved you across time. And I will love you until time comes to an end.”
“Alex, your passion was on a different level tonight, instead of making love to me, you made me feel loved. It is very important to me and I love you so much for that. Also…we need more comets to threaten earth.” Alex felt her passion and understood her humor…he would come to rely heavily on both as precious time passed.
Chapter Two
Gearing Up
Alex had the Pentagon operator connect all his former facility managers to his secure phone in his Pentagon office for the nine o’clock conference call.
“Agnes is everyone on the line?” Alex asked.
“Yes General, I took a roll call and everyone on the list is present.”
“Thank you Agnes, now route this through the scrambler and disconnect your side.”
“Yes sir.”
“Good morning ladies and gentlemen, I assume all of you are familiar with what we’re now facing. As of this moment I’m implementing the survival strategy that was in place before. Everyone from the west coast to the east coast will assume your original positions, you are to immediately inspect your facilities, determine what material and supplies you will need for a sustained two-year period post event. All military commanders are to reassign your military units as before, get critical armor and airplanes into their respective locations for storage, our depots have been untouched and are in good shape. Admiral Hanover is heading up a task force to move most west coast Naval, Marine and Army personnel inland and will set up bivouac areas in eastern California. The Pacific Fleet is being moved to the Gulf of Mexico, the submarine units will stay on duty at their assigned locations until shortly before the comet hits the earth, then they will go into deep waters to ride out any tsunamis that may develop in the Pacific. The several thousand civilian technical specialists are being notified and will be dispatched to their originally assigned facilities. I will establish my headquarters at the Coeur d’Alene facility. We will maintain communication using the same numbers and terminal prefixes as before. On January 2nd I will announce to the world what we have learned and as you can imagine pandemonium will reign supreme.
“That’s why you must work non-stop from this moment on to be prepared before the whole fabric of society breaks down. You must get your supplies and foodstuffs ordered and in transit before wholesale riots take place. People are going to panic, your facilities could come under siege, therefore you must ensure all adequate security measures are taken. I’m placing at your disposal three hundred heavy cargo planes at Air Force bases across the nation to move men and material and to retrieve supplies and food at vendor locations throughout the country. Colonel Brad Cole at Nellis will coordinate the utilization of these planes to meet your mission requirements. Now I’m open to questions,” Alex paused and waited.
“General, who do we take orders from, you or the President or the new President-elect when he is inaugurated?” Admiral Byers asked.
“President Cantwell will address the nation on the day I appear at the UN, he will explain that I’m in control of the entire survival strategy as the President-elect and the Cabinet would not be up to speed to handle the threat. Remember, they haven’t even been sworn in yet. Oh yes, and one final note. He promoted me to a fifth star as a congratulations on a job well done, but the more I think about it, I’m not so sure,” laughter could be heard in the background.
“To answer your question you will take your orders from me for now.”
“What if the President issues a conflicting order?” General Tymes asked.
“I’ll see to it that he doesn’t General,” Alex responded.
“How do you propose to keep him from doing that?” Monroe interjected.
“They’re both reasonable men, bear in mind Cantwell literally abdicated his authority to me.”
“General, what if these vendors say they can’t release that much inventory at one time or they put us off for weeks or months?” the General followed up.
“I want all of you to pay close attention to what I say, if you encounter even the slightest resistance, you tell them this,” that General Hanken has your GPS coordinates locked, if my trucks or one of my planes pulls up to your dock and the requested material is not there well, you don’t even want to know what happens next.” Murmurs of approval could be heard in the background.
“Seriously though, we’re not going to go around threatening people with cruise missile strikes, just remind them that General Hanken has a long memory, he’ll not forget those who are a friend, but he will definitely remember those who aren’t.” More cheers and clapping in approval.
“General, you mentioned possible sieges at our facilities, how far do we go in dealing with civilians?” General Paul Amos of Nellis AFB asked.
“Paul, regrettably we must ensure the integrity of these facilities, remember many of these facilities are not just military. We’ll have critical civilian personnel at some sites to help restart the country after the event. To answer your question, I want a kill zone clearly marked with signs to that effect; these zones are to extend five hundred yards from all facilities. You and your men are authorized to use lethal force to defend that installation at all costs.”
“That couldn’t be stated any clearer, thank you General,” Amos replied.
“Ladies and gentlemen some of us won’t make it to next August, but who does remain must step forward and take the mantle of challenge and meet it head on. All of you are highly skilled and experienced, the nation is fortunate to have such a fine group of leaders as yourselves to meet the coming threat. Now go out and perform at your best level, we are all counting on you.”
Sandi was sitting on the couch while Alex conducted his conference call and overheard the entire conversation and questions.
“You handled this pretty well, and the pep talk at the end was exactly what they needed to hear.”
“So are you suggesting I keep my day job anyway?”
“I know this…your night job is pretty damn safe too. After last night, I’m hiring you on as a permanent employee.” Alex smiled, gave Sandi a hug, then got back to business.
“Would you get hold of Ted Jeffers at the FBI and have him meet me here along with the Chief Justice?”
“Relax, I figured as much, I’ve been in touch with both, they’ll be here at three today. Now you sit down and I’ll rub your neck, you’re getting all tensed up.” Sandi massaged Alex’s neck while kissing him to soothe his mind and body. She was more than a rock to him…she was the elixir…the fuel…that gave him the drive he needed to maintain his pace.
Alex brought Ted Jeffers, Director of the FBI, and Chief Justice McKinney into his office. He spent the next hour detailing what was going to happen. As he went through the scenarios both had their own reaction from stunned disbelief to utter despair. Alex outlined what he had done to date and the UN announcement time frame.
“Alex, it looks like we’re
