The Final Day (After, #3)(117)

She stared at him wide-eyed and then lowered her gaze and shook her head.

“How about watching a diabetic child die because her frantic parent could not find a single vial of insulin?”

Another shake of her head, but her glance turned back up to him.

“Yes, that was me. My daughter was twelve, and I held her as she died. Even with just a few extra hours’ warning, so much could have been different. Phyllis, those of us left are trying to crawl out of the hellhole of what happened, and those people in Bluemont are about to hit us, to push us back down into that hole. Bluemont is going to smash all that within the next two to three days because it doesn’t fit what they see as their plan.

“Look at me, please,” John said, and she raised her head.

“How old was your sister?”

“Fourteen.”

“My daughter was twelve when she died for want of a vial of insulin.”

He held the eye contact, and this time she did not break away.

“What do you want me to do?” she finally whispered.

*

John stood just behind Phyllis, who was at the control board. It was lit up. She had indicated to him and Bob that the uplink was hot and also being fed to Bluemont as well.

If she was bluffing, she was being damned good at it, and he could only hope for the best and that she had made a moral choice—or, as Bob had interjected, a penance—and it was time for her to set her own moral choices straight.

Bob was sitting behind the desk at the far end of the room.

Phyllis looked over at John. “He’s on,” she announced, and she turned her attention back to the display board.

John wasn’t quite sure what to do other than just hold his hand up and wave.

Bob nodded and looked at the camera, and John could see the image on a small screen in the control room. Certainly not the professional quality the world had once grown all so used to, but it would have to do.

There was no makeup, no smile, just a firm determined look.

“My name is Robert Scales. Until an hour ago, I was a serving major general in the United States Army and in command of all army operations in what was defined as the Eastern Mid-Atlantic Command Zone.

“My task, as assigned to me by an entity located in Bluemont, Virginia, claiming that it was the reconstituted government of the United States of America, was, and I quote from the orders I was operating under, ‘to return to federal control all territory from Charlottesville and Richmond, Virginia, to the north, the Appalachian Mountains to the west, and the border with Florida to the south.’

“Until two days ago, I diligently followed those orders, believing that the entity located in Bluemont that claimed it was the government of the United States was a legitimate government. I no longer believe so, and that is why I am making this broadcast now.

“Several days ago, I was made aware of two actions by those who claim to be the government—one a crime of unsurpassed magnitude on what so many of us now call ‘the Day,’ the other a crime of nearly equal magnitude that same government was planning to commit within the next forty-eight hours.

“I shall review those crimes shortly. But before doing so, I am making the following statement and then demand. An hour ago, I wrote out my letter of resignation as a serving officer in the United States Army so that it can never be stated that one following a tradition going back to General Washington and those who served with him rebelled against his government. I therefore resigned and now have the freedom to act as a private citizen. Bear that in mind as I now make this demand. I demand that the criminal entity that claims to be the federal government based in Bluemont resign from office. That applies to the so-called president and every other official there.

“All of you who resign will stand trial by a duly created civilian court, for your crimes are of such magnitude you must face juries of your peers. Do not resign and you shall be construed as in rebellion against those who defend the Constitution of the United States and dealt with accordingly.”

He paused and looked over at John for a few seconds, who had been carefully watching Phyllis’s actions. Nothing seemed amiss. She had claimed to be linking the signal not just to Bluemont but also to several frequencies commonly monitored by ham operators, the frequency of America’s Voice of Victory, as it was now called, and, even more important, the BBC. Her hands were shaking, and he looked over at her.

She was in tears but then whispered. “I’m with you on this now.”

John gave a reassuring look back to Bob.

“I shall now review in detail my charges against those in Bluemont, an explanation of where I am now, and all that this place called Site R, from where I am broadcasting, symbolizes.”

He spoke for nearly a half hour, amazing John with his ability to have thus organized his thoughts, laying it all out clearly with no teleprompter, relying on nothing more than a few sheets of paper with notes scribbled on them with a Sharpie.

John continued to watch Phyllis’s actions. She stuck to her post, not making any attempts to shut things down. Bob had run down the list of events going all the way back to the Day and how it was now clearly evident that a very select few in the government, and beyond them political leaders and high-level economic leaders not directly in government, had word of the impending attack; conspired to conceal it while ensuring the safety of themselves, their families, friends, and allies; and ensured as well their seizing dictatorial power afterward. This cabal, as he called it, had ceded more than half of what had been America to other nations in order to ensure their continued hold on power and finally had plotted an EMP strike as a means of suppressing those attempting to rebuild and as a dangerous political ploy against the rest of the world.