It’s the morning of the 15th of May. James Gadson turns onto 3rd street. He drives a couple of blocks to the Washington Mall. On his right is The Capital Building, on his left he sees a Patriot Missile Battery. That wasn’t there yesterday. It seems every other day there are new security measures because of a “new threat”. Last month they had tanks parked in front of his museum. James turns into the driveway of the National Museum of Natural History parking lot. He opens his car’s hood and trunk. He flashes his badge to the security guard. Two years ago the badge was enough to get him through the gate. Then some “actionable intelligence” caused a directive that every vehicle had to go through the search. A guard and K-9 do their walk around the vehicle then the gate slowly opens and he gets waived through. His brother, who works at The Pentagon, tells him new technology enables them to get better intelligence on terrorist plans. James suspects President Steele just wants to keep finding new threats so people won’t concentrate on the economy. After six years people are finally getting wise to him. President Steele is tanking in the polls.
James steps out of his office and does his daily walk around the museum. He does this every day before the museum opens to the public. As he walks around the elephant in the rotunda he overheard two docents talking.
“Right before the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor they sent out a bunch of phony messages. This way we wouldn’t know which messages was real.”
“The Japanese always were clever.”
James steps out of his office for his lunchtime walk. He walks through the museum. There seems to be fewer patrons each day. As he walks he hears pieces of conversations from the patrons. When he walks out of the museum and down the steps it dawned on him, everyone he heard talking was speaking in English. When he started working at the museum he would hear a half a dozen different languages every time he walked through the museum. His sister is a hotel manager. She recently told him international business is way down. Foreigners don’t want to travel to the U.S. anymore because of all the security.
He stands on the pebble walkway then power walks towards the capitol. It’s a warm, cloudless, day on the Mall. He walks about 30 paces when the sirens sound. This is the fifth time those nuisances have gone off since they were installed last year. James wishes they would fix that system or, better yet, remove them. The regulars on the mall simply ignored the sirens. Some of the tourists ran one way or another, most of the tourists stopped and looked around as if someone would give them instructions. James wonders why he even bothered to break stride. He sees the flashing lights of an approaching police car. He sees the Patriot crew scurrying around their battery. He assumes it’s some kind of drill. He gets angry since he should have been told about it. The police car’s loud speaker is telling everyone to take cover. People are rushing out of the museums. He thinks, “Typical government, one part says to do one thing, the other part says to do the other.” The Patriot battery fires off a missile.
The blood rushes from his face. He knows it’s no drill. He reaches for his cell phone as he runs towards his museum. James texts Keith, the head of security, “EVERYONE TO THE METRO!” He hears the whoosh of a second Patriot missile being launched behind him. He looks back and sees the missile streaking into the sky.
He exchanges texts with Keith until he spots him at the head of the steps. He makes his way up the steps against the traffic. The security guards are repeating the instructions, “Go down into the metro!” He meets Keith.
“Do you know anything more than the obvious?”
“They told us to evacuate, and it’s not a drill.” Keith looks at his phone. “The second floor is secure.”
“What is the range of those Patriots?”
“Over 50, maybe 75 miles.”
“You know we’re probably standing on ground zero?”
“You know the metro escalators will probably be jammed with people?”
James looks at the crowd of running people. He looks at the trickle of people walking out of his museum.
“We’ll secure these doors and send everyone else out the Constitution Avenue exit. At least that way they’ll be off the Mall.”
James and Keith step into the museum. They echo each other. “Lock these doors. Everyone go out the Constitution Avenue exit.”
Once the doors are locked James and Keith follow the crowd down the stairs. James gets a text from his wife. “Can’t get voice. Are you OK?” James answers, “Yes.” The thought occurs to him it might be the last message she gets from him. He resists the urge to say, “I love you.” He knows that would only make her more worried.
When James reaches the Constitution Avenue exit he orders the guards, “Lock it up, and get out of here.” He steps outside and sees two jet fighters streaking in low and fast. He turns to Keith. “Everybody has to get away from here.”
James follows the crowd to the National Archives Metro entrance. He soon finds himself stuck in a crowd that’s barely moving. Park Police and military helicopters fly low over the city. He can’t send out a text message and the internet is jammed.
After a couple of hours James is able to get into the internet. The reports are fragments and conflicting. There are reports of injuries and damage but no confirmed reports of anyone killed. He periodically goes to the Department of Defense web site, http://www.defense.gov. Finally he boards a train. He calls his wife and asked her to pick him up at the closest station to their house. He goes back to the Department of Defense site. They have a Secretary of Defense briefing posted.
At 12:07 Eastern Time today six surface to surface missiles were fired from the Atlantic Ocean. These missiles were traveling in the direction of Washington, DC. One missile apparently misfired and crashed in the Atlantic. The other five were destroyed in flight by sea based and land based surface to air missiles. F/A-18 Fighters approached a suspect merchant ship. Man portable surface to air missiles were fired at the F/A-18s. The F/A-18s then fired on the merchant ship with anti-ship missiles. All the F/A-18s returned safely. The merchant ship sank. There is an ongoing rescue and recovery operation. Some of the missile wreckage fell in Delaware and Maryland. Five people were injured by the falling wreckage. None of these injuries are considered life threatening. There are reports of property damage.
EPILOGUE
The next afternoon, on his way home, James drives past The Capitol Building and the Patriot Missile Battery. James ponders how much his opinions about Patriots on the Mall, security, and himself have changed in a day.