Japhy
Banned
"A Rare Executive Ability"
-or-
What's the Matter With Kansas
A Timeline by Japhy
-or-
What's the Matter With Kansas
A Timeline by Japhy
Extra Exciting Cold Opening
Oval Office, The White House
Washington DC
May 2nd 1942
“There’s no real way we can lose the war you realize.” Said the tycoon who sat next to Secretary of the Navy on the couch. Frank Knox turned and squinted at the large bald blob of a man who wore terrible, oversized plaid suits. Or more accurately he squinted and studied the claim Henry J. Kaiser had made rather than the man himself, a difference that he was thankful to be able to make.
The President in his wheelchair between the couches hadn’t been his normal jovial self for sometime. Before December 7th he might have laughed at the Shipbuilder’s comment before talking about it, but now he just studied the man down his nose. “I’m sure that’s a great comfort to the Corregidor garrison, Henry.”
“Irregardless of what happens there, he’s right Mr. President.” came an odd cross of the Transatlantic and Low Country accent of another one of the unofficial advisers in the meeting. “We have all of the America’s behind us. All of our industry, half the Colonial Empires of Europe and all of the Soviet Union. Tokyo and Berlin can't compete. So long as we can keep the fight going, we’re going to win.”
“Thats the problem though, Bernard.” Spoke up Knox’s other official counterpart in the room, the Secretary of the Treasury. “We’ve got to keep the Russians, and the Chinese in this. And we have to keep it so the Brits can keep it up too. Churchill might not be one delayed Lend-Lease convoy away from seeking terms, but England can’t go on if it can’t eat and keep the motors running.”
This tit for tat garbage was starting to get to Knox. This isn’t what he’d come into the Democratic administration to do. He’d come to get the country ready for the war he knew was coming. Morgenthau, Baruch, and Kaiser could do this all day, it seemed at this point they already had been. Before this it had been discussions about how much the shipyards of South America could put onto the trade routes, next it would surely be about what was the cost of building a Superport at the mouth of the Congo River, and a continental rail network to feed it.
At least its not that Goddamned Iceberg carrier again. He thought to himself. Anything was better than another day talking about that insane British project. Well, almost anything.
This was supposed to be a meeting about how best reorganize the merchant fleet for convoys.
As the other men dragged on and Roosevelt nodded and added a few little thoughts into the discussion about the overwhelming material advantage the United Nations now had --- Which should be obvious to all of them --- Knox finally decided to clear his throat and speak up.
Just as he raised a clenched fist over his mouth to do so, it seemed as if the whole building shook. Off in the distance, though not distance enough there was the sound of an explosion. What must have been a truly massive one at that. Somewhere nearby there was the sound of glass shattering, though the thick bulletproof glass now in place in the Oval Office held.
Knox was the first one of the party on his feet and was the first one to the windows behind the Desk, as the first Secret Service agent made it into the room, Knox saw to his right a Mushroom shaped cloud and smoke rising from just a few blocks away.
Morgenthau was speaking as much to himself as he dumbly muttered “Why that looks as if its over at the Munitions Building. But the whole Mall is just offices…”
Neither Morgenthau or Knox had pieced anything together by the time the agent, in his suit was trying to shoo them and the President away from the windows. “Mr. President, Mr. Secretaries, we don’t know whats going on here yet, but if you could just step back from the windo--”
And thats when the sound of heavy machine guns started to blast outside.
Everything was chaos before Knox could even identify the sound of continued, loud ripping as that of flying lead.
Baruch grabbing the back of the President’s wheelchair and pushing him towards the open door.
The Secret Service Agent had his revolver out and scanned the windows.
Morgenthau rushing into the outer office, shouting to know what was going on.
Another agent at the window, his hand on Knox’s shoulder.
“You need to come inside Mr. Secretary.”
Flashes.
Shrubbery snapping to pieces.
Tracers.
The ripping sound joined by other loud cracks. More familiar to Knox’s ear, the sounds of Cuba and France.
Another Roosevelt waving a saber in one hand and raising a revolver in another, crying for Knox and his squad of Apaches and Stockmen to go up a second hill.
The rising smoke and dissipating cloud over the Mall.
The second agent not asking anymore, but pulling him back towards the door.
A loud, dull thud as one of the window panels absorbed an impact.
The President wasn’t in the outer office when Knox finally made it in. Morgenthau was reaching over Missy LeHand’s desk though and shouting though the phone, the energy that had made him an asset to both Roosevelt Presidents and the best administrator in Washington fully unleashed as rage. He looked up at Knox. “All the public lines are down in the city. They’re putting me though on the military ones.”
“Who are you calling then?”
“8th and I.”
Knox nodded. “Tell them I said to bring every man and the bulldog to the White House now. Don’t worry about anything else in the city.”
“Not even the Munitions Building?”
“Its probably all gone now anyway. Whatever else happens here, we need their rifles here. Let whoever that is take everything else in town, they can’t come inside here.”
The agent who had been first into the Oval Office came back through the door. “It looks like at least a company out there Sir. The Marine Guards though are making sure no one makes it across the lawn.”
“Hopefully we’ll have more soon.” Knox told him. “Where’s the President now?”
“They’ll be taking him down to the basement, we can get him over to the OEOB from there. Which isn’t much of an escape route this time.” The man said glumly.
“Alright then, so we have to hold here then. Wait until we get some support here. Do we know who exactly is out there?”
The agent nodded. “I saw a few of them try and make it over the fence just now. Olive Drab, but with Tin Hats, Springfield bolt actions, one had a Thompson.”
“That could be half the army right now.” Morgenthau added, taking his hand away from the phone receiver for a moment, before going right back to threatening to court martial whomever it was on the other side of the line if they weren’t taking every marine and sailor in Washington to the White House immediately.
The Secret Service agent nodded at that, and then turned back to Knox. “Wasn’t just that though, they had Blue Armbands on. And the corpses on the lawn right now have something else.”
“Well what is it?” Demanded the Secretary.
Back inside the Oval Office at least part of the bullet proof glass was hit again.
“M 1935’s Every single one of them had the scabbards strapped on their back.”
Well that settled that.
Morgenthau turned pale. “I have to go Colonel.” He wasn’t yelling any longer. Instead the man just put his finger down on the phone and spoke to the operator. “I don’t know how you do it Miss, but get a line to J. Edgar Hoover. Tell him That I want every Socres leader in the country dead or in custody tonight. And if any of them raise so much as a finger he’s to call in regular army to support his boys.” And with that he hung up.
Knox started moving towards the door out to the hallway “Come on Henry, we need to be with the President.”
“Just one more thing.” Henry turned to the Secret Service agent. “Get me and Secretary Knox some pistols. I don’t fancy waiting to get hacked to death by a Broadsword unarmed.”
Somewhere else in the city another explosion went off, like the first everything started to shake.
It seemed to Knox as if the entire world was being shaken to bits.
Cold metal was pressed into his hands, a Colt Revolver. He gripped it tight.
"Come on," said Morgenthau "They can't get anywhere near Franklin."
The President in his wheelchair between the couches hadn’t been his normal jovial self for sometime. Before December 7th he might have laughed at the Shipbuilder’s comment before talking about it, but now he just studied the man down his nose. “I’m sure that’s a great comfort to the Corregidor garrison, Henry.”
“Irregardless of what happens there, he’s right Mr. President.” came an odd cross of the Transatlantic and Low Country accent of another one of the unofficial advisers in the meeting. “We have all of the America’s behind us. All of our industry, half the Colonial Empires of Europe and all of the Soviet Union. Tokyo and Berlin can't compete. So long as we can keep the fight going, we’re going to win.”
“Thats the problem though, Bernard.” Spoke up Knox’s other official counterpart in the room, the Secretary of the Treasury. “We’ve got to keep the Russians, and the Chinese in this. And we have to keep it so the Brits can keep it up too. Churchill might not be one delayed Lend-Lease convoy away from seeking terms, but England can’t go on if it can’t eat and keep the motors running.”
This tit for tat garbage was starting to get to Knox. This isn’t what he’d come into the Democratic administration to do. He’d come to get the country ready for the war he knew was coming. Morgenthau, Baruch, and Kaiser could do this all day, it seemed at this point they already had been. Before this it had been discussions about how much the shipyards of South America could put onto the trade routes, next it would surely be about what was the cost of building a Superport at the mouth of the Congo River, and a continental rail network to feed it.
At least its not that Goddamned Iceberg carrier again. He thought to himself. Anything was better than another day talking about that insane British project. Well, almost anything.
This was supposed to be a meeting about how best reorganize the merchant fleet for convoys.
As the other men dragged on and Roosevelt nodded and added a few little thoughts into the discussion about the overwhelming material advantage the United Nations now had --- Which should be obvious to all of them --- Knox finally decided to clear his throat and speak up.
Just as he raised a clenched fist over his mouth to do so, it seemed as if the whole building shook. Off in the distance, though not distance enough there was the sound of an explosion. What must have been a truly massive one at that. Somewhere nearby there was the sound of glass shattering, though the thick bulletproof glass now in place in the Oval Office held.
Knox was the first one of the party on his feet and was the first one to the windows behind the Desk, as the first Secret Service agent made it into the room, Knox saw to his right a Mushroom shaped cloud and smoke rising from just a few blocks away.
Morgenthau was speaking as much to himself as he dumbly muttered “Why that looks as if its over at the Munitions Building. But the whole Mall is just offices…”
Neither Morgenthau or Knox had pieced anything together by the time the agent, in his suit was trying to shoo them and the President away from the windows. “Mr. President, Mr. Secretaries, we don’t know whats going on here yet, but if you could just step back from the windo--”
And thats when the sound of heavy machine guns started to blast outside.
Everything was chaos before Knox could even identify the sound of continued, loud ripping as that of flying lead.
Baruch grabbing the back of the President’s wheelchair and pushing him towards the open door.
The Secret Service Agent had his revolver out and scanned the windows.
Morgenthau rushing into the outer office, shouting to know what was going on.
Another agent at the window, his hand on Knox’s shoulder.
“You need to come inside Mr. Secretary.”
Flashes.
Shrubbery snapping to pieces.
Tracers.
The ripping sound joined by other loud cracks. More familiar to Knox’s ear, the sounds of Cuba and France.
Another Roosevelt waving a saber in one hand and raising a revolver in another, crying for Knox and his squad of Apaches and Stockmen to go up a second hill.
The rising smoke and dissipating cloud over the Mall.
The second agent not asking anymore, but pulling him back towards the door.
A loud, dull thud as one of the window panels absorbed an impact.
The President wasn’t in the outer office when Knox finally made it in. Morgenthau was reaching over Missy LeHand’s desk though and shouting though the phone, the energy that had made him an asset to both Roosevelt Presidents and the best administrator in Washington fully unleashed as rage. He looked up at Knox. “All the public lines are down in the city. They’re putting me though on the military ones.”
“Who are you calling then?”
“8th and I.”
Knox nodded. “Tell them I said to bring every man and the bulldog to the White House now. Don’t worry about anything else in the city.”
“Not even the Munitions Building?”
“Its probably all gone now anyway. Whatever else happens here, we need their rifles here. Let whoever that is take everything else in town, they can’t come inside here.”
The agent who had been first into the Oval Office came back through the door. “It looks like at least a company out there Sir. The Marine Guards though are making sure no one makes it across the lawn.”
“Hopefully we’ll have more soon.” Knox told him. “Where’s the President now?”
“They’ll be taking him down to the basement, we can get him over to the OEOB from there. Which isn’t much of an escape route this time.” The man said glumly.
“Alright then, so we have to hold here then. Wait until we get some support here. Do we know who exactly is out there?”
The agent nodded. “I saw a few of them try and make it over the fence just now. Olive Drab, but with Tin Hats, Springfield bolt actions, one had a Thompson.”
“That could be half the army right now.” Morgenthau added, taking his hand away from the phone receiver for a moment, before going right back to threatening to court martial whomever it was on the other side of the line if they weren’t taking every marine and sailor in Washington to the White House immediately.
The Secret Service agent nodded at that, and then turned back to Knox. “Wasn’t just that though, they had Blue Armbands on. And the corpses on the lawn right now have something else.”
“Well what is it?” Demanded the Secretary.
Back inside the Oval Office at least part of the bullet proof glass was hit again.
“M 1935’s Every single one of them had the scabbards strapped on their back.”
Well that settled that.
Morgenthau turned pale. “I have to go Colonel.” He wasn’t yelling any longer. Instead the man just put his finger down on the phone and spoke to the operator. “I don’t know how you do it Miss, but get a line to J. Edgar Hoover. Tell him That I want every Socres leader in the country dead or in custody tonight. And if any of them raise so much as a finger he’s to call in regular army to support his boys.” And with that he hung up.
Knox started moving towards the door out to the hallway “Come on Henry, we need to be with the President.”
“Just one more thing.” Henry turned to the Secret Service agent. “Get me and Secretary Knox some pistols. I don’t fancy waiting to get hacked to death by a Broadsword unarmed.”
Somewhere else in the city another explosion went off, like the first everything started to shake.
It seemed to Knox as if the entire world was being shaken to bits.
Cold metal was pressed into his hands, a Colt Revolver. He gripped it tight.
"Come on," said Morgenthau "They can't get anywhere near Franklin."
