A MOMENT OF INSIGHT

By Tim Cooper

"Sir, the impossible has happened. Turn on CNN!" yelled General Trey Raptor, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as he barged into the Oval Office from an adjoining room. His grizzled and normally stoic countenance was in the throes of panic.

President Greerly turned on the television set. The screen was filled with black smoke and burning buildings. "What is this, General? Israel? Bosnia again?" He then read the caption at the bottom of the screen and his eyebrows jumped. "It's New York?" he squealed, " What the hell happened to it?"

Both men stared wide-eyed as the camera pulled back to reveal what was left of Manhattan, shrouded from the sun by a thick, sickly mushroom of smoke.

***

"You all know why I called you here," began President Greerly to his Cabinet, his arms wide on the table, "the question before us is what happened and who did it."

"What happened? New York just got nuked!" shouted Secretary of State Jessica Walaws.

"With all the recent threats and minor attacks at our peacekeeping missions, we should have expected it," moaned a disraught member of the Cabinet.

"General?" Greerly eyed Raptor for answers.

General Raptor shifted uneasily in his olive drab uniform. "The Army has been unable to do all the investigations it wishes to due to the radiation, sir. So far, sir, it's been the Air Force's baby. General Johnson?" Raptor nodded to the blue-suited Air Force officer.

"Recon overflights have revealed these, sir," Johnson began, producing pictures from his attache case. "As you can see, damage is extensive within about a mile of ground zero and drops off dramatically after that. I think we're looking at a small nuclear device of aproximately fifty- to one-hundred-kiloton capability."

"Small nuclear device?" wailed Press Secretary Daniel Quarterly.

"Yes. It's much smaller than the fifty megatonners both we and the Russians have on our intercontinental ballistic missiles. The lack of radar warning from our defense perimeters in the Pacific and Canada rule out that this attack was launched from Russia or China, the only powers with the range to hit us." Johnson leaned back, looking much more relaxed than he really was.

"Meaning?" Walaws asked irritably.

"Meaning that the device was detonated within the city limits. I'm not Army or NSA," Johnson smirked, "but this looks like a terrorist bomb to me, sir."

"That's an insult! My men have had taps on every terrorist cell in this hemisphere!" yelled National Security Agency director Matthew Dreal. The Cabinet exploded in argument.

"Quiet, everyone, quiet!" commanded the President. Eventually he got silence. "Are we agreed that this is a terrorist attack, General Raptor?"

"As certain as possible this early in the game, sir." responded General Raptor.

"Any idea who did it? Betterly, Jackson, Dreal?" asked Greerly.

"None whatsoever," said Jackson, the CIA director, as he threw down his pencil.

"FBI is blank," remarked FBI director Betterly.

"I still think it wasn't terrorist," commented Dreal.

"Do we have anything to go on? New York just sucked atom bomb half an hour ago and the entire popuation of the country is scared and looking to us for answers. Do we have any for them?"

General Raptor squirmed. "No, sir."

***

Greerly sighed, with his head on the desk of the Oval Office. He was not taking this well.

"Hey, something's happening. Turn it up--"

"THIS JUST IN FROM CNN--"

"Turn it down!"

"CNN has just recieved an audio tape from an Islamic Ji'Had sect calling itself the Sword of Justice claiming responsibility for this morning's nuclear attack on New York City." The TV's voice changed to a gruff Arab accent. "Great American Satan," it began, "your tyranny of the world has gone on far enough. We, the Sword of Justice, have created many nuclear bombs for your downfall. We demand that you cease all petroleum operations within your countries, cease your diplomatic ties with the Jewish state Israel, and pay retributions to the peoples of Palestine and Afghanistan whom you have cruelly oppressed. We will destroy a city each day that you do not comply with our demands. You have seen what we have done to New York. Resist, and all of your great cities shall feel the wrath of justice. You have been warned."

***

"What the hell? Sword of Justice?" exclaimed Dreal.

"Do you still think it isn't terrorist?" asked General Johnson.

"Shut up."

"Unfortunately, we must assume that the NSA is not as impotent as Dreal wishes it to be," began President Greerly.

"You mean 'omniscient,' Mister President." corrected Vice President Chase.

"Right. Anyway, find out anything you can about this Sword of Justice thing, Dreal. Move." Greerly ordered. Dreal complied. "General Raptor, we must take action. What can we do? Who do we bomb?"

Raptor was enjoying his job less and less. "Do you mean 'bomb' bomb or do you mean 'bomb' bomb?"

"'Bomb' bomb."

"Christ," stuttered Raptor, "t-t-there's a lot of Arab countries, s-s-sir. Any one c-c-could be the HQ of some nutcase group."

"Could we nuke them all?" asked Quarterly.

General Johnson took the question. "Sir, we have enough firepower to recreate the Great Flood in the Middle East, but--"

"What do you freaks want to do, make the entire world hate us?" exclaimed Secretary of State Walaws.

"As if that's a change," muttered Jackson.

"That's my point, Ms. Walaws," explained Johnson. "We could kill every man, woman, and child on the globe six times over. That's a horrid power to release especially if we don't know where the enemy is."

"What about Delta Force?" asked Walaws. "Quick, efficient, quiet..."

General Raptor laughed nervously. "Same problem. Even Delta Force needs a target."

"Is there anything we can do?"

"Well," begain Johnson, "let's assume that these terrorists are on the level. They're going to blow up a city a day."

"Right..."

"Well, they certainly can't plant the bombs now because we've just sent all military and civil forces to Defcomm Two, which means someone may get nuked. Defcomm One means that someone is gonna get nuked."

"Right..."

"This means that the bombs must already be planted at their targets."

"Where?"

"Sewers, abandoned office buildings, abandoned warehousess, anywhere empty. I suggest we evacuate everyone we can out of every major city we can as we send in CDC and FEMA agents to locate and defuse the bombs."

"Would it work?"

"Don't know. It's worth a shot."

Just then, Dreal bounced back into the room. "Bad news, guys. We don't know any Ji'Had group called Sword of Justice. But we do know an Israeli militant group called Sword of Justice."

The reaction was explosive. Israel? Why?

Dreal hunched over and spoke in his best conspiratorial tones. "The Israeli Sword of Justice wants the Arab problem solved. For good. Israel can't nuke the Arabs because a) it's obvious and b) the Arabs can nuke them back. However, if they could get us to do it for them..."

"We take the blame while they get the results," said Walaws.

"That makes no sense," said Johnson. "If we nuked the Arab Middle East Israel would reap the nuclear fallout."

"I'm saying they're nuts, General," said Dreal, "not smart."

"But then again, they may really be an Arab terrorist cel who are only posing as Israeli terrorists so we call their bluffed bluff and nuke Israel." Betterly offered.

"Yeah," concurred Dreerly in a conspiratorial snarl.

"We can second-guess ourselves later," blustered Johnson, "but now we should take action to find the bombs and defuse them. While that's going on in the background we can then find the responsible party."

"We don't have time! We must retaliate before our enemies sense weakness!" exclaimed Dreal.

Greerly suddenly changed his tone. "That will be all, thank you. General Raptor, you are relieved of your chairmanship of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. General Johnson, you are to take his place. Dreerly, you simply scare me. Pack your things, you're fired. Good job, Directors Betterly and Jackson. You did well, Secretary Walaws. So did you, Quarterly."

The entire Cabinet looked at the President of the United States very strangely.

"Don't you understand?" he asked. "This was a test! New York is perfectly fine. I just wanted to see how my aides did under pressure. Raptor, although you're a good man, you don't take pressure well. Dreerly, you're just too weasely for my tastes."

"Weasely is good in the NSA," Dreerly moaned.

"Too bad. Walaws and Johnson, you remained relatively calm and coherent throughout. That's why you're being promoted, General."

"Thank you, sir."

"But the reporters, CNN--" mumbled General Raptor.

"All paid schills, General, set up to test you. In fact, here's the so-called 'anchorwoman' now." An attractive Asian woman walked in, smiled and waved. "And here's our terrorist." A Middle-Eastern man sauntered in, sipping a hot drink, and made a short bow. "They are both White House aides. The 'CNN' reports you saw were piped in from a closed-circuit camera in the basement. Your reconnaissance information, General Johnson, was pre-made by some staffers. I acted as a weak leader to see what you would do. I am glad to say that the test is over and we at least have," he nodded to Walaws, Johnson, Betterly and Jackson, "some reasonable people who wouldn't have caused World War Three. Man, am I tired. Been a rough day. Good night, everyone." With that, President Greerly walked out whistling a stupid little tune.

General Raptor scratched his head.