It took some doing, but President Zamora managed to convince the pilots that there had been a security breach, but that Air Force One was now secure. It also helped that he hadn't used the duress code, "All is well." Then the pilots would have disregarded any orders that came from anyone aboard the plane.
Zamora sat in his office, watching Gigan smash Washington on the plasma screen monitor. Many of his Protective Detail that remained behind in the White House were surely dead, along with other agents at Secret Service Headquarters. Those who did survive could be dealt with later by CEMCOR.
Someone knocked on the door.
"Enter."
The door opened and Master Sergeant Ehrhoff entered. "Mister President. I just heard from Director Burleson. CEMCOR volunteers have moved on all Secret Service field offices across the country."
"Have they met any resistance?"
"In some places, like Texas, Nevada, North Carolina and Tennessee. I imagine there will be other offices that'll put up a fight, too."
Zamora nodded. That didn't come as a surprise. He knew from being around the Secret Service for eight years that they wouldn't relinquish their responsibility just on his say so. Their entire existence revolved around his security, to the point where they sometimes actually told him what he could and could not do and where he could or could not go. He found it aggravating that people who had just enough intelligence to look tough and pull a trigger could treat him like a five-year-old.
Well no more. His new CEMCOR bodyguards would treat him with the respect he deserved.
"Thank you, Master Sergeant," said Zamora. "Have you received any word on my new official residence?"
"No, Mister President, but I can check on it."
"Please do so."
"Yes, Sir." Ehrhoff nodded and left, closing the door.
Zamora smiled and turned back to the monitor. His new seat of power would be a mansion in Key Biscayne, not far from where he grew up in Miami. That the massive home already belonged to a star NBA player didn't matter. CEMCOR would remove him from the premises. No ordinary citizen should be allowed to make unseemly sums of money and live in such opulence. They had neither the intellect nor the level of responsibility to properly utilize that kind of wealth.
But President Horacio Zamora did.
"Mister President."
He turned to Secretary of the Air Force Oliva. "Yes?"
"I just received word from NORAD. Two MF-3 Excaliburs are about to enter Washington air space."
Zamora groaned. The damned 1st Joint Special Combat Squadron. Oliva had used the Air Force's massive bureaucracy to squeeze off their supplies. So how the hell did they manage to keep their jets flying?
I'm going to have to find a way to deal with them, permanently. In the meantime . . .
Zamora pulled out his special cell phone and started punching in numbers.
XXXXX
"Gigan's buggin' out," Yamagata said as he watched the monster soar higher into the sky. He raised the Excalibur's nose and followed, with Captain Ashby's jet right behind him. Both aircraft fired their particle beams. They missed.
Gigan climbed higher, its speed increasing. Before long the monster was just a small dark dot against the blue and white sky. Within seconds it vanished.
Yamagata grunted. No way would they catch Gigan now.
He leveled out and stared down at the firestorms sweeping through Washington, DC. Another city destroyed, this time the nation's capital.
At least The President got away. While Yamagata was no fan of Zamora, the last thing they needed was their Commander-in-Chief dead during this crisis.
The two Excaliburs wheeled around and headed west. They flew over the remains of Cincinnati and Indianapolis along the Ohio/Indiana border. Both jets refueled over Illinois. Yamagata found it curious that Gigan hadn't attacked Chicago yet, or St. Louis the next state over, or other big cities like New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego, especially San Diego, given all the military bases around that city.
And why hasn't Gigan hit our base? Whoever controlled that monster had to know the 1st Joint Special Combat Squadron represented one of the biggest man-made threats to it.
After landing at Joint Base Richards-Gebaur, Yamagata went to his quarters, showered and put on a fresh MARPAT uniform. He typed out his after-action report – much shorter than usual since there hadn't been much action – and headed for the mess hall. As he approached the operations building, he saw the glass doors open and Nicole emerge.
"Nicole." He waved to her.
She stopped and stared at him.
"I'm headed to the mess hall," he said. "You have time to join me for a bite to eat?"
Yamagata slowed to a halt when he noticed Nicole's face. Her complexion was paler than usual, and radiated both shock and worry.
"What's wrong?" He placed a gentle hand on her shoulder.
Her mouth opened, but no words came out.
"Nicole." Yamagata's concern grew.
"We found it," she muttered.
"Found what?"
"The control signal for Gigan."
Yamagata's eyes widened. "That's great." For the first time in weeks, he felt a glimmer of hope. Maybe they could finally stop all these attacks.
"Where is it?" he asked.
"We detected it coming from an airborne platform over Lake Erie." Nicole bit her lip and turned away.
"Why are you acting this way?" Yamagata gave her a perplexed look. "We finally have a lead on who or what is controlling Gigan. I would've thought you'd be happy about this."
"Jeff, we did some checking. There was only one aircraft in the area at the time we detected the signal. It was Air Force One."
Yamagata blinked, trying to process what Nicole had told him. "Air Force One? The President's plane?" He stared at her, mouth agape, struggling to come up with something else to say. What the hell could he say? He'd fully expected to hear the signal came from a flying saucer or some secret base in the mountains or under the sea. Not Air Force One.
"Are you sure?"
Nicole nodded. "My SIGINT team went over the information three times. There's no denying it. The signal came from Air Force One."
"But how could someone get a device like that on the plane? The Secret Service has to search everyone who comes on board."
"I'm sure they do," said Nicole. "But who's the one person the Secret Service never has to search?"
Yamagata drew a slow breath before answering. "The President."
He closed his eyes. He could scarcely comprehend it. Sure he had a number of issues with Zamora's policies, some of which he considered rather socialist in nature, but to seriously think the man would set loose one of the deadliest monsters mankind had ever encountered on his own country?
Yamagata thought of the martial law declaration, nationalizing the country's food supply, all the stories he'd heard from base personnel about abuses of power by CEMCOR volunteers.
Could it . . .
Then he thought of something else.
"Can you call up the electoral college map from the last election?" he asked Nicole.
She tapped on her iPad, then turned it so Yamagata could see it. The image showed the United States of America and its territories in a patchwork of red and blue; red for the states that went for President-elect Stanton, blue for the states that went for Vice President Pruitt.
"Now overlay it with a map of all the cities Gigan has attacked."
Nicole again tapped on her iPad. She gaped at the screen. "Oh my God."
Yamagata moved next to her so he could see the screen. "Just as I thought."
All the black circles that denoted Gigan attacks resided in red states. There was not a single one in any blue state.
That included Missouri, home of Joint Base Richards-Gebaur.
"I've been wondering about that," said Yamagata. "Why would whoever's controlling Gigan leave places like New York, LA, the Marine bases around San Diego, Joint Base Lewis-McCord in Washington or our base untouched? They're vital targets, but they're also in states that went for Zamora's man."
"So he's sparing the states that supported Pruitt and punishing the ones that didn't." Nicole shook her head. "Oh my God, we're starting to sound like the conspiracy nuts on the Internet."
"Except we have something they rarely have. Actual proof. You traced that signal to Air Force One. We have to let General Griffin know about this."
"I was just on my way over there, wondering the whole time if he was going to tell me I'm full of crap."
"If you want, I'm available for moral support."
Nicole smiled. "Thanks. I could probably use it."
They walked over to the admin building. When they reached Griffin's office, Nicole said to the receptionist, "I need to see General Griffin. It's urgent. I have new information regarding Gigan."
The receptionist nodded and picked up the phone. "General, Captain Fox and Major Yamagata are here to see you regarding information about Gigan. They say it's urgent . . . Yes, Sir." She hung up the phone and looked back at them. "You can go in."
They entered Griffin's office and saluted. Griffin, sitting behind his desk, saluted back.
"So, what do you two have concerning Gigan?"
Nicole looked to Yamagata. He flashed her a supportive smile. She straightened her shoulders and tapped on her iPad.
"Sir, my SIGINT people detected the control signal for Gigan and traced it back to its source."
"Excellent work, Captain. Do we know who's controlling that thing?"
Nicole paused. "Sir, I know this will be hard to accept, but we checked the information numerous times and it is accurate. The signal originated from Air Force One."
Griffin drew his head back, disbelief showing on his face. "That can't be right."
"We checked -"
"Check it again," Griffin interrupted Nicole.
"Sir, my people have checked the information three times. There is no doubt about it. The signal came from Air Force One. It means that in all likelihood -"
"I'm stopping you right there, Captain." Griffin held up a hand. "You cannot seriously believe The President of the United States, our commander-in-chief, is using Gigan to attack his own country."
"There is other evidence, Sir," said Yamagata. "Martial law, all of CEMCOR's reported abuses since The President deputized them, the fact that we're not getting any more supplies, even though we're the first line of defense against monster attacks. Then just look at the electoral college map. None of the states that supported Vice President Pruitt were attacked, but all the states that went for Stanton -"
"Major, what you are saying isn't only outrageous, it's slanderous. In fact, it's bordering on sedition."
"Then if it's not President Zamora," said Nicole, "it's someone else on Air Force One, possibly someone in his inner circle. But ask yourself this, who could actually smuggle a device that controls Gigan on that plane? It has to be The President."
"Captain!" Griffin bellowed. "You have no solid evidence that The President is behind this, just tidbits of circumstantial evidence you're connecting together, like all those conspiracy kooks do. Now go back to SIGINT and re-check your information until you find out where that signal really came from."
"Sir, I can re-check this information a hundred times and it will read the same. The signal came from Air Force One. You have to -"
"I do not have to do anything, Captain!"
"General." Yamagata stepped forward. "This is something you can't ignore. There is reason to believe President Zamora is -"
Griffin slammed a hand on his desk and shot to his feet. "Major Yamagata, Captain Fox, you are both relieved of duty, effective immediately!"
"What?" Nicole blurted.
Griffin picked up the phone and called his receptionist. "Dunlap. Get Security Forces in here ASAP."
"You're making a mistake, General," Yamagata declared.
"No, you two are the ones making a mistake. I can't believe you've been sucked in by all the crazies out there who think President Zamora is using this crisis to make himself a dictator. You know what's going on out there. How many cities have been destroyed? How many millions of people are dead and injured? Our transportation system is disrupted, supplies aren't getting through, relief agencies are stretched thin. What is The President supposed to do? Martial law is necessary to try and stabilize this situation. You may not like President Zamora, but as members of the United States Armed Forces, your personal and political beliefs are not allowed to have any bearing in the execution of your duties."
The door to Griffin's office opened. Two USAF Security Forces troopers entered in full battle gear.
"Is there a problem, General?" asked one of them, a stocky black man with senior airman chevrons.
"Airman. Take Major Yamagata and Captain Fox into custody. I'm charging them with insubordination and sedition. Confine them to their quarters and relive them of their phones, iPads and laptops. They are to have no contact with anyone on the outside."
The two SF troopers stared at one another in surprise, then looked back at General Griffin.
"Yes, Sir," replied the senior airman.
Both Yamagata and Nicole were patted down, then led out of the office.
"Ignoring this won't change the truth," said Yamagata.
"Get them the hell out of here!" Griffin hollered. "You're both a disgrace to your uniforms."
Anger burned white hot in Yamagata as the SF troopers walked them out of the admin building. He gave Nicole an apologetic look before they were split up.
Eyes narrowed, Yamagata was marched up to his BOQ. The SF trooper opened the door and directed him inside. Yamagata glared at the man. He didn't blame him for this mess. The guy was just following orders. But he needed some outlet for his anger, and the airman was a convenient target.
With a snort, Yamagata entered his BOQ. The SF trooper closed the door. Yamagata looked out the window to find his guard standing right outside.
Yamagata stepped back, arms folded. He looked off in the direction of the admin building, of General Griffin's office.
"That went well."
TO BE CONTINUED