TYRANT: The Rise

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Authors: L. Douglas Hogan
not greeted with the usual military brass and fanfare. She made her way to the command room, but the door was being blocked by UN soldiers and they would not allow her to pass.
    “I am President Adalyn Baker. Please step aside so I can enter.”
    The guards looked at her and spoke in a European language she did not understand. She made one more attempt, this time grabbing the door handle. The guard grabbed her arm, jerked it off the handle, and pushed her away. Shocked, Adalyn began to walk away and heard her escorts communicating with the two guards at the door. She then looked at the escorts and asked, “Do you speak English?”
    They both smiled and one of the guards said, “We do,” in a very strong European accent.
    “Then tell them who I am and to let me in the door.”
    The escort smirked at her and replied, “He already told you. You’re not in charge anymore and your Joint Chiefs aren’t either. They are dead.”
    Her escort blocked the door while the other guard opened the door wide enough for her to see in. Five Chief of Staff members were lying on the floor.
     
    Elsewhere in the District
    General John James, commandant of the United States Marine Corps, and Admiral Belt McKanty, admiral of the Navy, two of seven Joint Chiefs, were anything but dead. Their use of secret word-of-mouth-based communications systems may very well have saved their lives. General James and Admiral McKanty saw impending dangers on the horizon as the president began usurping authority from Congress by ever-increasing use of executive orders. Each order went unchecked by Congress until there were too many to manage. By the time the Flip came, it was too late to act. All that was left was for them to react. It was against John’s nature, as a hardened Marine, to wait for a crisis before he acted. That’s why he confided in Admiral McKanty. He needed one person to trust with his life, and he had known Belt for two decades. Now, both John and Belt sat in a cab, having barely escaped the same fate as the other five Joint Chiefs.
    Their day was much like most of them had been until the Chiefs of Staff were requested to report to the Pentagon. The phone call didn’t come from the usual secretary at the usual time, but was from an unknown voice at an odd hour. That was John’s cue. He and Belt had a contingency plan for such idiosyncrasies. They both noticed congressmen and women were failing to show at capital hearings. It wasn’t isolated events that they had noticed, but was a long and growing concern. At first, it was assumed that they were quitting and merging with their districts and states, but later it became all too apparent that oppositional right-wingers and conservative politicians were vanishing off the grid. Slowly and methodically after that, the moderates were not showing up. Only the staunchest of executive supporters remained, until at last, there were twelve.
    Admiral McKanty and General James were military men. They kept their political opinions reserved, but when the shady call came, their contingency plan initiated. As part of the contingency, they each called their families and stated, “Headed to work. Won’t be home tonight.” That was code for “Get out of town and rejoin me at X.” As for Belt and John, they met at a predetermined historic location in Old Town, Alexandria, on the corner of Lee and Queen. From there, they jumped in a cab and requested the driver take them to the southernmost tip of the District.
    The District was the only place travel was permitted after the Flip. No one was allowed to enter or exit the District. It was strictly controlled by police and military force. Any unusual activity observed by the drivers of cabs and other public transportation was to be reported to the Department of Homeland Security immediately. Every cab and bus had emergency contact numbers on the dash and visor.
    Commandant James knew diplomacy was now nonexistent. The republic he had hoped to be restored

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