air before I make my speech to the UN, scheduled for ten Eastern, that’s seven Pacific. There’s a satellite fed TV on board and you’ll be able to watch my speech while in the air. You’ll arrive at the facility and settle in to your new quarters; my family will already be there. A highly trained security detail will be on site. You’re allowed two suitcases only, that’s all the luggage the jet can hold. Submit your specialty instrument and equipment needs to Terry as soon as possible so we can get them to the facility before all hell breaks loose.
“Any questions?” There were none. Alex stood and shook everyone’s hand again.
As he concluded the meeting he said, “I look forward to seeing all of you soon.”
Walking back into his office Alex sat down to rest his mind. Thoughts were running rampant, so many dying needlessly…the choices people were going to have to make…life and death choices. He knew what was coming, and there was a sense of hopelessness, the feeling that there was nothing he could do about it…the weight of his conscious bore down upon him. He knew he had to stay focused…so many people were depending on him.
Chapter Three
Now Everybody Knows
Admiral Felix Hanover, Pacific Fleet Commander, was feeling good about the progress being made at the three sites he had chosen. The six-man tents had arrived from various bases and vendors and four thousand personnel were working nonstop assembling them. Truck after truck rolled into the sites loaded with food and supplies. Huge flatbed tractor-trailers carrying power generators and cold storage units streamed into the compounds. Temporary fuel storage tanks, water tanks, specially designed portable latrine and shower units were ordered and some being delivered. Power poles sprang up like new saplings in a forest. Flexible steel portable storage buildings by the hundreds were up and ready at each site in three days’ time. By the end of the seventh day all that remained were last minute deliveries of bottled water, cold storage food items and some of the dry goods still in production.
Hanover ordered heavy security around each site with a five hundred yard kill zone clearly marked and warning signs were posted. The sites were located at Edwards Air Force base, a second one outside Lancaster, and the third near Victorville, California. By January 2nd the three California sites would almost be fully operational and awaiting Hanken’s orders to man the sites. The other survival units located at strategic sites across the U.S. reported similar readiness status with a heavy security force present at each site. When the exodus to the survival sites was underway, base and facility shutdown teams would be dispatched to those installations being shuttered along the U.S. coasts.
Alex arranged for a conference call to all of the new sites in California and the existing ones nationwide on Saturday morning December 31st. He told them he planned to deliver the speech to the UN on Monday morning followed by an address to the nation later that evening. The next morning he would board Air Force Two to fly to his command headquarters in Coeur d’ Alene. He warned the facility managers that interruptions in delivery of final items would become commonplace. If anyone felt it necessary they were authorized to dispatch a military combat unit to the vendor to secure any items not delivered. A palpable relief could be heard with Alex’s final words. Some sites had already experienced delivery delays on selected critical items, now they had the authority to solve those remaining issues.
Sunday morning, January 1st 2017, New Year’s Day, Sandi kissed Alex one last time as he watched his team board Air Force One; the President insisted they use the plane for their trip to Alex’s new headquarters. Ted Jeffers, his wife Marcia, Mike, Tina, Elena and Andrade joined Sandi on the plane for the trip to the Idaho facility. Bill, Liz, Curt and Cynthia arrived several days earlier at the Coeur d’ Alene facility and were settling in. Sandi lobbied Alex to let her talk to her dentist in Davis along with the lab tech and an assistant to offer them the opportunity to join the team at the main facility. Dr. Linda Chan and her two staff members had arrived and were arranging their quarters.
Alex watched the big silver and blue plane lift off the runway and make a left turn for a westerly heading. It was a cold day a few flurries were falling, it seemed oddly quiet as he walked back to the Marine helicopter. He felt the sting of the cold wind biting his face, the wind whistling down the tarmac, tiny rivulets of wind-blown snow snaked across the ground. Deep inside Alex felt a loneliness similar to when his first wife Ellen, had died.
Alex met Ellen in 1979 at a ski lodge in Vail, a year after graduating from the Air Force Academy. He had just completed A-10 advanced flight training and was meeting some friends for a class reunion at the Vail resort. From the first moment he saw her he thought she was the prettiest girl he had ever seen. She was tall, like a New York model, with beautiful legs, and a smile so brilliant… her teeth seemed to sparkle. Her eyes were jade green her hair was raven black. She had a slight build, but wasn’t model thin. Alex had never been shy around girls and upon seeing her that first time he walked straight to her and introduced himself. His confidence intrigued her, and the fact that he was handsome didn’t hurt. He was quite the gentleman and treated her with respect as opposed to a prize to be won. After she graduated from Northwestern, Ellen was offered a job at a large west coast managed care provider located in Sacramento. After their first meeting they continued dating while Alex was assigned to Luke Air Force base in Arizona for F-16 advanced pilot training. They maintained a long distance relationship that lasted nearly a year, until they decided they didn’t want to be apart anymore and Alex asked her to marry him. She was convinced Alex was the man she could love unconditionally, they were married in 1980.
Soon after they were married Alex was assigned to Air Force Logistics Command at Wright Patterson AFB in Ohio. Ellen’s career was interrupted, but she didn’t mind. Alex was number two in his graduating class of 1978 and good things were being said about his potential in the Air Force. Occasionally she had to remind Alex he needed to spend a little more time at home rather than at the base. By 1987 he had risen to Major, the same year his only child Curt was born. Now that they had a son Ellen assumed Alex would pay more attention to his home life. Instead, he worked even harder at his assignments…he was in demand as a logistics planner.
In 1991 his A-10 unit was activated for Desert Storm and Alex volunteered for combat duty. Alex distinguished himself in combat and was awarded the Air Force Cross, the second highest medal you could receive, the Air Force Commendation medal, and the Purple Heart…his plane was pummeled by ground fire while providing close air support for a Marine detachment isolated near the Iraqi town of Basra.
After the war he was reassigned to the Pentagon as a Logistics Liaison Officer between joint services and promoted to Lt. Colonel. When Alex was sent to the Middle East during Desert Storm, Ellen was terrified. Curt was only four years old at the time. Upon his return from the Gulf War, she insisted they spend more time together as a family. What she really meant was more quality time. Time just for the two of them to create those special moments they would always remember and cherish.
Ellen hadn’t fared well during her pregnancy, or after Curt’s birth for that matter. Her doctor advised her not to plan on having any more children. Alex was unfazed; he loved her so much and was not at all disappointed. She was the perfect mom, Little League baseball, Pop Warner football, all the way through high school she followed Curt’s successful athletic career. She was always there when he fell and scraped a knee, or didn’t understand why girls acted the way they did. She didn’t baby him though…Alex saw to that. It couldn’t be said they were strict disciplinarians…they simply set rules and expected Curt to follow.
Alex mentally planned vacations for he and Ellen, but something always came up dashing his good intentions. In 1996 while attending the Air War College at Maxwell AFB in Alabama, he flew her and Curt out to meet him and the three of them would either go camping or fishing or head to the Gulf of Mexico. Ellen cherished those times, and she loved Alex for what he gave of himself to
