9/12/2001
THE DAYS AFTER CHENEY BECAME PRESIDENT
The Very Bitter End
Part 23 – Last Installment
(A serial book excerpt)
Previous installments – After Flight 93 crashes into the White House on 9/11/2001 killing President Bush as was originally planned, Dick Cheney, the Vice President, is made the leader of the country. He begins immediately to make changes.
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The meeting had gone well. Everyone present was satiated, not only with the smorgasbord of good news but also with the rich foods that filled their bellies.
After it Cheney went off into a side room. Conroy followed him in.
Conroy clapped Cheney on the shoulder, one of very few people who would ever dare to do such. “Just remember Dick, don’t ever let bein’ the President make you think too big of yourself. It is us who put you here.” He then swept his arm off with a finality. Anger puffed in Cheney’s face, but he did not let it out. He knew only too well how true that comment was.
The man took a couple paces before Cheney blew. It did take Conroy by surprise. Unknown to him it didn’t take much these days to swiftly alter the new President’s mood. Cheney had always been the one in control, and he thought the new role of Presidency had put an extra curb on him. He knew that wasn’t the case when Cheney’s glowering face pushed itself into his.
“Just remember this”, said the bared lipped mouth somewhere beneath the raging eyes that bored into his, “I didn’t ask for this job! It was supposed to be Bush’s. He was supposed to be the patsy, the fall guy, not me. It was all worked out before hand and put carefully into motion. You know that. Now thanks to a bunch of Mideast whack jobs we have a huge mess on our hands. Now I get to be the guy out in the limelight. Give me that much of a break. Don’t push me Conroy! Don’t push me. I got enough going on as it is. This is a job for saps. For guys that like getting their picture taken and have everyone love them and put them up on a stage. I don’t need it. It is simply the way the dice went and now I have to go with it. You’ll get your dividends- don’t worry. And I better get mine. I am not putting on this circus act just so I can go hobnob with all the kingpins in the world. If I don’t get my share out of this then I am out of here. Let Rumsfeld run the show and see where that gets everyone.”
Conroy was shocked by this. He wasn’t used to big surprises and hated them when they happened. He couldn’t even speak at first which gave away his weakness. He quickly lit up another cigar and just stood against the wall. He observed the man he had helped make king from a distance. He knew had had to play softball with him.
“OK, Dick, OK. We’ll get our goodies one way or another.”
Cheney was still hot. “I could use a little support here instead of undermining. That’s a tactic we should be reserving for the Democrats!”
Conroy drew a couple worried puffs on his cigar. “”Yeah Dick, yeah. We stand up with you.” A pause. “Don’t worry.”
‘I won’t.” said Cheney fiercely.
“I’ll let myself out.” said the man and quietly exited.
Cheney stood staring at the door for minutes after he left. He didn’t notice how tightly his hands were clenched until he relaxed them and saw how white they were. Conroy would never again try to control the man who was now King.
The entire oil nations of the Mideast were now afraid that they would be next in Cheney’s quest for dominance. The countries had united in ways never seen before. Saudi Arabia extended a hand to Iran, Sudan and Kuwait as well as all other Arabic nations to form an obvious conglomerate against the US. It is well known to US intelligence that they extended a hand to the Iraqi underground and Al Queda. The Saudis knew they would not be able to fight for themselves, their people having become so accustomed to the good life that they would be worthless at defending themselves. Allying themselves with Al Queda would be a calculated risk, but the Al Queda people would know how to stop the Americans if they tried to seize Saudi oil fields. They found a valuable secret partner in China, the masters of hidden deals and who were more than willing to undermine the US in anything to do with oil.
Eventually the Arabic League looked like they had enough cohesion and backing to overrun Israel. Suddenly the Jewish nation became a liability in the card deck. The US remained an arm’s length away. The united Arabs had the power to overrun the small country, although it would be at great losses for them for it was well known that the Israelis would fight feverishly to the end to defend their hard won homeland including using their atomic weaponry. It was a lose-lose situation for the US and a total loss for Israel.
Cheney was well aware of the situation. He didn’t need his Cabinet to know that he and the rest of the nation was in deep trouble. Drastic times make one take drastic measures. He called Bolton to his office.
Bolton stood before him, his arms crossed awaiting the news Cheney was going to lay on him. His tough Scottish terrier demeanor was even more serious than normal.
“There is only one way out of this. We’ve got to seize Mexico. They have the oil that we need. It will be an easy war. Their military is a joke. They can’t even oust drug dealers. If we have control of Mexico it will be easier for us to watch out for attacks from the south and from China. A few missiles silos down there would be a great deterrent.”
The Mexican Intelligence Bureau was never good at keeping tabs on its northern neighbor. They kept themselves busy with the cartels and intrusions into its waters by the Cubans on the Atlantic side and the Chinese subs on the Pacific. The Chinese always seemed to have a keen interest on its coast and were not scared off easily. They had already been caught a couple of times unloading Chinese nationals with recording equipment and pre-set GPS’s with special directions coded into them.
But the northern border they did not keep as tight a surveillance as they really needed. They figured the uptight gringos were doing a thorough enough job of that already on their side of the line. On October 10th, 2007 they would have been very surprised at what they would have seen had they been watching.
At 8 PM Central time a warning to evacuate was issued to the Base Aerea Militar No. 1 Air Force base outside Mexico City, the Base Aerea Militar No. 13 Military Base in Chihuahua and the Base Aerea Militar No. 14 at Monterrey. Its inhabitants were given one hour to evacuate. No explanation was given. Bu the message was followed by blasts in the skies above each base a few minutes later.
At the same time a submarine spliced a device into the transatlantic cable under the water connecting Mexico to Europe. The interruption was expertly staged with it taking the Mexican authorities hours to figure out why messages were being blocked. By the time they did, it was too late; the invaders had found a more permanent way to block them. Simultaneously the major Mexican satellite links with Europe and Asia encountered interference’s that prevented any messages from getting out, although incoming messages strangely did come through. It offered just long enough to buy a little more time from keeping them finding out what the more real and incredibly larger problem was.
Communications were disrupted in the Mexican border towns to the north. Massive helicopters passed over the border at high altitudes and dropped over highways, relieving their stuffed bellies of the heavily laden soldiers who emerged to take control of the highways and block all traffic in either direction.
And, for a final gesture, one of which even the Mexican historians would later not mind writing positively of, a rain of missiles turned the haciendas and airfields of the known drug cartel headmen to writhing flames that consumed all who were within what was left of their walls. It was one of the few incidents in the one sided ‘invasion’ that benefited both sides.
At 8:15 PM Central time 28 B-52’s screamed north over the Guatemalan border headed for the largest oil fields. Each carried almost an atom bombs worth of destruction. Their orders were just to circle above designated areas. Just to be visible, like hawks in the sky.
President Cheney watched this all from his many monitors in the Presidential Office intently. It had all been planned so carefully, so delicately. There was to be a minimum of casualties; the Mexicans were, after all, not real enemies of ours. And as little destruction of buildings and properties as possible; this reason was two-fold. For one, the invaders would have great use for any property standing and second, they didn’t need to anger the Mexicans any more than they already had.
Bolton sat tensely next to him “And if this fails?”
Cheney looked back at the man with the dark, hard eyes the man expected.
“Then there is always Canada.”
There was no smirk on his face this time.
THE END
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The complete book of 9/12/2001 is available from lulu.com under that exact title for $10.00 plus shipping. Now available as an e-book on lulu as well.