United States | Number One

[Odinson]

Private

Act One
The State of Our Union​

Act Two
La Traición y el Complot de la Pólvora​

Act Three
Minutes to Midnight​

Act Four
The Business Plot​

WASHINGTON D.C.
The White House
October 7, 2000
8:00 PM EST​

After a lengthy debate with the President, "Day-0" (the day the conspirators in the plot were being arrested) was pushed back. The President's National Security team was able to talk him into waiting for the perfect time when a large number of the suspects would be together at once. It appeared that there was going to be a reunion of sorts, at least among some of them, in New York at the World Trade Forum in 2000. The fewer operations that had to happen at once the better, so the decision was made to wait until the evening of October 7 to apprehend the seventeen accused conspirators. The FBI and the U.S. Marshals Service spearheaded the secret operations. The plan was now to take down all seventeen men in the same ten minute window. Eight of them would be together in New York while the other nine were around the country. President Gore and his team were seated in the Situation Room as they simultaneously watched nine different operations take place at once.

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NEW YORK, NEW YORK
One World Trade Center
October 7, 2000
8:02 PM EST

​

A couple of Port Authority police officers were walking through the lobby of the north tower of the World Trade Center. One of them was telling the other about how he thought his son could play for the Yankees one day when they both noticed some commotion about fifty feet ahead of them in the lobby. The policemen jogged over to one of the help desks as dozens of men and women in suits and a full tactical SWAT team poured into the lobby. "What the hell is going on?" one of the cops asked.

A woman in a pantsuit approached the two officers and pulled out a black, leather ID-holder. The top had an identification card under the transparent plastic sleeve with large black letters that someone could easily see from a moderate distance, FBI. Below the ID was a small bronze badge that was easily identifiable by any law enforcement as belonging to the FBI.

"We have a warrant to arrest some suspects and search a couple of floors of the building. We've already spoken to the front desk. Maintain radio silence - we have a SWAT team going up right now," she said. The officers, both from the Brooklyn, briefly looked at each other with matching annoyance. The Feds never clued them in on these kinds of things, and the Fed women usually had an even bigger stick up their asses then the Fed men.

"Yeah, you're FBI? Why wasn't the Port Authority told about this?" one of the officers asked, reaching for his radio.
"Is there a problem here?" asked a man who was wearing a black bulletproof tactical vest that had FBI written across the front of it in yellow. He was holding his own radio and had a holstered sidearm. "My tactical unit is going upstairs right now - if you so much as touch that radio I'll have you arrested for interfering with a federal investigation. Turn it off," he said. The two cops looked at each other again, and then they both turned off their radios.

The Swat team and other agents took the express elevators to the 105th floor of the tower where the offices of the World Trade Forum were. A twenty-three year old secretary waited at the elevator doors. She was starting to fall asleep where she stood. Not only had her boss worked half the night yesterday, but he asked her to stay for three hours of overtime today as well. She closed her eyes and sighed as she looked at her feet. The elevator dinged and the doors slid open. She yawned and blindly stepped forward, but suddenly stopped when she felt something poke her stomach. She looked up, it was the barrel of a rifle. Before she could say, or scream, anything a man put his hand over her mouth and pulled her fully into the elevator. Then, the SWAT team started rushing out and onto the floor. The receptionist had already gone home for the evening and the frosted glass doors were unlocked. The agents swarmed into an open-air cubicle office that appeared to be devoid of human life. They proceeded to one of the corners of the floor and up to a conference room. Two of them quietly went up to the door and listened, they heard laughter and clapping. They wasted no time - one of the agents swung the door open and threw a small black object in the back center of the room, being careful to make sure it wasn't too close to anyone. He quickly shut the door again and heard someone say, "What?" before there was the sound of an explosion and a flash of light that was visible from the small space between the door and the floor.​

The same agent swung open the door again and the SWAT team started pouring in. "FBI, STAY DOWN ON THE GROUND. PUT YOUR HANDS ON YOUR HEAD, STAY DOWN ON THE GROUND," several of them repeatedly shouted as they went in, wielding rifles and sidearms. The space was a large conference room with an oval table. The men had been around half of the table while playing poker, but now most of them were on the floor, holding their heads in confusion either from the blinding light or the deafening sound of the flash grenade. Once everyone was in the room over 150 FBI agents flooded the 105th floor of the tower. Many of them were from the white collar crime division of the FBI while there were also explosives experts on hand, counter-terrorism officials, and even two people from Army Signals Intelligence. An FBI photographer took pictures of the men as they were put in cuffs, making sure to get several pictures of each man. They were each taken out into the main office area and read their Miranda rights. The last man to be formally arrested was Jay Stevens, the Executive Director of the World Trade Forum.​

Jeffrey Taylor, Special Agent in Charge for the FBI's New York Field Office, walked up to him after he was read a long list of charges and read his Miranda rights. He, very matter-of-factly, looked Stevens right in the eye and then grabbed his shoulder. Two men followed Special Agent Taylor and went into an unoccupied office. The door was closed behind the three of them. Taylor was forced to sit in one of the comfortable leather chairs. The two men standing with Taylor were almost disturbingly stoic. They both showed their identification at the same time, "Mister Stevens, I'm Special Agent Doyle and this is Special Agent Robertson - we're with the Department of Energy. You've just been arrested for treason against the United States, a charge which I'm sure you understand the gravity of. This is a signed letter from the Attorney General of the United States which states that the death penalty won't be sought against you if you can give us two pieces of information: who is 'Number One,' and where is the bomb," the agent said.​

He placed the signed letter on the desk before Stevens and leaned forward. "You have..." he said, waiting for the second-hand on his silver watch to make it to 12, "fifteen minutes to agree to the terms and give me this information. If you don't," he said as he put a Zippo lighter on the desk next to the document, "the agreement will be terminated, we'll take you by helicopter to a secure location where they'll rip out your fingernails with plyers, and then Congress will reinstate the firing squad just for you in four or five months."​

"How did you know that we took the bomb?" Stevens asked, saying his first words as an apprehended man.​

Special Agent Doyle made a small, momentary smile. In truth, they hadn't been sure up until that very moment.​

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WASHINGTON D.C.
The White House
October 7, 2000
11:05 PM EST

The Secretary of Energy was walking towards the Situation Room in the White House when he noticed President Gore waiting for him just outside, near the exterior and not interior doors so that they were not within earshot of the Marine Sentries. The Secretary of Energy looked around and then saw that there was a camera pointing directly at them. He wasn't sure, but he presumed the White House could afford surveillance cameras that also recorded audio. "Mister President, I think it may be best of we speak in the Oval Office... This will only take a minute," he said. President Gore reluctantly agreed and led the way. A Secret Service agent opened the door for the two men to the Oval, which was then closed behind them. Al went stand atop the carpet in the center of the room which had his seal on it.​

"Mister President," the Secretary of Energy said as he approached Gore and went over the concise statements that he had mentally prepared earlier. "The identity of 'Number One' has been confirmed. We believe we may also have a possible location of the... device," he said. Before President Gore could tell him that was good news he said, "The weapon may be armed, and it may be on a missile... We aren't sure what's going to happen. My advice would be to get on Air Force One with the National Security Council and fly over the Midwest until we get this situation sorted out."​

"What are you saying?" Gore asked. "Is the weapon in play?"​

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STATE OF NEBRASKA
Somewhere Outside of Lincoln
October 7, 2000
11:57 PM EST

​

Expertly trained federal forces from the FBI, U.S. Marshals, Department of Energy, the Navy, and the Air Force were mobilized for what would perhaps be the most important operation of their entire lives. The mission area: a large 2000-acre farm west of Lincoln, Nebraska. First on the scene were the Department of Energy's "Federal Protective Forces." These simply named forces were actually an elite unit who were originally made to protect, or retake, nuclear weapons/material. Officially they exist today for other "sensitive" weapons in the United States, but they all still had in-depth radiation training, technical experience, and Top Secret Clearance. A team of one-hundred were flown in via helicopter to the north side of the farm. The helicopters, which had all of their lights turned off, landed far enough from the farmhouse so that the blades of the Blackhawks would be barely noticeable over the chilling, howling wind. This semi-police, armed unit was one of the few paramilitary forces of the United States government. Its unique status, which gave the agents within it law enforcement power when conducting official business, made them a militarized oddity. The creation of the unit under the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 was arguably dubious, but it was ultimately found reasonable seeing as the consequences for nuclear weapons or material in the wrong hands was an extraordinary circumstance that would require extraordinary help.

The unit was going to continue, on foot, to the farmhouse. The plan was for it to split into two so that the first could enter and secure the farmhouse, and the second could go into the barn. While no one knew for sure, the assumption was that if the device was on the property, it was either underground (be it berried or in a basement) or in the barn. The plan was that once they had the weapon, they would secure the area so that the DoE bomb squad from the East Coast could disable it. The team, however, would not get this chance.

President Gore received live up dates from the Situation Room in the White House. Vice President Sinclair was there, right by his side. Sinclair demanded to the President, in private, that he be allowed to stay. He was no coward - he'd fought in Korea and had earned the Medal of Honor. He wasn't about to leave the District with his tail between his legs. Gore reminded him that if the government's mission was not successful, then the second in the line of Presidential succession was George W. Bush. Sinclair's hands were clinched into fists as he considered the awful options he had before him. He agreed to be taken to Dover Air Force Base, about 80 miles away, but he wasn't going to be put in some bunker in a mountain. The President promised to keep him on speaker in the Situation Room, no matter what. The Speaker of the House, a few key cabinet officials, and the majority and minority leaders of the Senate were sent to Mount Weather. John Glass, the Secretary of Defense, recommended to the President that the Air Force's Missile Defense Command be ordered to DEFCON 1. The President agreed, and ordered it.

The Federal Protective Forces quietly entered the farm house, which didn't appear to have a security system. One of the leading agents unlocked the door. The armed men walked inside of the house. Some began quietly clearing rooms downstairs, however a small fireteam went straight to the master bedroom that was located upstairs. The agents broke down the door.

The other team that was moving in on the barn was working on breaking the large wooden beams that had barred the barndoors to it shut. Two soldiers had put down their rifles were wielding axes and were chopping away at the wooden barn. Everyone looked up once they heard a gunshot and saw, from outside, one of the covered windows of the upstairs room momentarily flash. Then, they heard a mechanical noise from inside of the barn. Something, or multiple massive things, were moving. The men listened for only a second before they started working harder to get the doors open. While they couldn't see it from their viewpoint, the soldiers from the window in the home could. A massive part of the roof of the barn had moved, it was some kind of sliding roof. Then there was a flash and a deep rumbling. Several of the men outside lost their balance and fell down.

Two Air Force A-10 Warthogs had been circling the site on standby. They were souped up with their full range of weaponry from their infamous 30mm autocannon to a loadout of sophisticated air-to-ground missiles. The pilots onboard each had been briefed on the situation and were told that, in a worst case scenario, they would possibly have to fire on targets that would endanger civilians. Fortunately they were in one of the more rural parts of Nebraska tonight. The flight leader watched the complex with his night vision as the DoE's Federal Protective Forces moved in on the farmstead. Then, to all of the pilots surprise, they saw as the roof of one of the large barns began to slide to the right. The roof fell to the Earth - it broke and fell apart into pieces as it hit the ground. It was obvious that the roof was not meant to be put back in place once it had been moved. Then, the pilots heard a message through their encrypted communications.

"Gold Leader, Gold Leader, this is Architect. Fire on kill-box one and two alpha. I repeat, open fire on kill-box one and two alpha. Two-hundred feet, danger close. Make your shots count. You are clear to engage. How copy? Over."
"This is Gold Leader, copy all. Engaging now."

The two A-10's banked hard right and both fired a barrage of the Maverick missiles at both of the barns on the targeted property. The missiles traveled just below the speed of sound before detonating and instantly destroying both of the barns. The DoE forces narrowly escaped serious injury as they darted away from the structures. The A-10s broke formation and came around for another pass, if necessary.

"Gold Leader to Architect. We have solid hits on kill-box one and two alpha. But, we have a bird in the air. Over."

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EL PASO COUNTY, COLORADO
Cheyenne Mountain Complex
October 8, 2000
12:21 AM EST

​

Air Force General Liam Shepard was seated in an office within the Cheyenne Mountain Complex. The north wall of his office was solid glass and faced the control room which included stations for some fifty personnel, and also a giant map of North America. General Shepard had just received a call from the NMCC at the Pentagon that there would be a possible rogue nuclear launch from the central United States. As he turned the door knob to his office there was a blip on the map of North America, somewhere around the central United States.

"ACOC confirms an unscheduled ballistic missile launch in region 27. Confidence level?" one officer asked to another over the communications system.
"BEMS confirms that confidence is high, I repeat confidence is high. What is missile trajectory?"
"Missile trajectory is being calculated stand by."

General Shepard dropped his cup of coffee as he stepped outside of his office and looked at the screen in front of him. In Washington, President Gore ordered that the Russians be immediately informed of the unscheduled launch and that it was not directed at them.

"Missile trajectory confirmed - target is D.C. metro-area."

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STATE OF NEBRASKA
Offutt Air Force Base
October 8, 2000
12:22 AM EST

A THAD missile battery at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska was on high alert after Air Force Missile Defense Command was set to DEFCON 1. A dozen terrified officers and enlisted airmen manned their station past midnight as they waited for any incoming targets. Instead, they received an urgent message from the National Military Command Center at the Pentagon, from Washington D.C.

BREAK BREAK BREAK
Unscheduled missile launch in progress. Shoot down at all costs. Use deadly force. Fire at will.

The crews on the ground at Offutt identified a ballistic missile heading at an eastern trajectory. The wasted no time and immediately opened fire with their battery.
One away
Two away
Three away
Four away
Five away
Six away

Half a dozen missile batteries throughout the state were firing at the missile launch as it screamed hundreds and then thousands of eat into the air. One of the missiles made their target - the projectile exploded and made a conventional detonation in the air.

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STATE OF NEBRASKA
Somewhere Outside of Lincoln
October 8, 2000
12:45 AM EST​

Dozens of federal agents and local police arrived to the farmstead as the entire military apparatus of the United States federal government sprang to life in the middle of the night. On the site of the farm were two craters where the barns had formally stood. The farm house, however, was still there. The Special Agent in Charge from Lincoln, Nebraska was now on-site. His name was Elijah Anderson. He walked up the steps of the farmhouse and into the bedroom where the DoE's Federal Protective Forces had been some twenty minutes ago. The agent walked in to see half a dozen other federal agents standing with their guns drawn and the prime suspect sitting on his bed. The man had been shot once in the arm; the wound had been covered with bandaging, but it was just a temporary fix.

Special Agent Anderson walked into the room where the suspect was behind held and cleared his throat.
"Sir, are you 'Number One'?" he asked.
"Lawyer, I want my lawyer," the man responded.

Anderson stared at the man. "Richard Bruce Cheney, you are under arrest for the murder of 972 civilians, the murder of 435 congressmen, the murder of 99 senators, the murder of President Bill Clinton, and treason against the United States of America. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be provided for you. Do you understand the rights I have just read to you?"

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WASHINGTON D.C.
The White House
October 8, 2000
7:00 AM EST

President Gore stood at a podium in the Rose Garden at the White House. Standing behind him were Vice President Sinclair, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of State, and various White House staff.

"Good morning, my fellow citizens. I am delivering this special address to inform the American people of events that occurred last night and over the past few years. The federal government now has conclusive evidence which confirms who planned and conducted the attack against the capitol during the State of the Union. This information has been brought to me after a widespread investigation from various federal and state agencies across the country. The information that has been brought to me was unthinkable, but it is true. A conspiracy reaching to some of the highest ranks of our government took place in an attempt to perform a coup d'etat in the United States. Thanks to the efforts of the FBI, the CIA, our armed forces, and dedicated civilians and civil servants in the federal government, these efforts have been thwarted.

"On February 4, 1997 during the State of the Union, a number of explosive devices were planted underneath the House Chamber of the Capitol Building. At approximately 9:15PM, an explosion occurred which killed President Clinton along with every member of Congress, except for then-Senator Benjamin Sinclair, and every member of the Supreme Court, except for then-Justice Clarence Thomas. Army Special Forces picked me up from my family home in Tennessee and brought me to the White House where I was sworn in as President. You know the story from there...

"What you don't know is who was behind it. Dick Cheney, who served as Secretary of Defense under President George H. W. Bush, conspired with Jay Stevens - the Executive Director of the World Trade Forum in New York City - and a number of other business executives to overthrow the federal government and to put in place politicians who would be sympathetic to their cause. Part of the plot on February 4th was to kill me, however the perpetrators failed. On February 4th my father died and I flew to Tennessee to comfort my family. The conspirators went ahead with what they called 'Operation Guillotine' which was an attempt to decapitate the federal government. They sent operates to kill me, and my family, but we were rescued by Army Special forces, led by Army Major Robert Lee.

"Over the past years, the full force of the federal government has been used to track down these conspirators. Yesterday, most of them congregated in New York City for a celebration of what they had accomplished. Waiting for them were over hundred federal agents from the FBI and U.S. Marshals Service. The Department of Justice has apprehended over 150 people involved with the attack on the Capitol. After these arrests were made last night, a last-ditch attempt was made to destroy the federal government. A missile carrying a dirty-bomb was launched from Nebraska. Its trajectory had it aimed at Washington D.C. But, thanks to the bravery and quick response of airmen from the Air Force Missile Defense Command, the missile was shot down and did not detonate.

"Because these arrests have now been made, and there are no outstanding suspects left, I have ordered the Department of Justice to cooperate fully with Congress so that a formal investigation can be made into the attacks on February 4th. The White House and the Office of the Vice President will also fully cooperate in any investigations from the House of Representatives and the Senate. I encourage our legislature to conduct a full investigation into what happened and what caused this attack on our republic, so that we can prevent any such incursions in the future. We will be bringing you more updates today, but I thought it was necessary to inform the American people with all of the information we had as soon as we could. I ask that you pray for our republic, for our nation, and for the continuation of representative government. Thank you, good morning, and may God bless the United States of America."

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ARGENTINA
On A Secluded Beach
October 8, 2000
3:00 PM EST​

Matias Gomez was laying back on a beach bed at a resort somewhere in southern Argentina. His sunglasses concealed his brown eyes which were focused on a John Grisham novel. There was no one in site for several hundred feet. A waitress walked up to him and handed him some kind of fruity drink, maybe a kind of margarita that an American would order at a place like this. He took it without looking at the waitress and took a sip.

"Thanks," he said.
The waitress stood there for a second and watched as he took another sip.
"I'm happy to help, Mister Gomez."

Gomez put down his book and turned his head to her. "How do you know my name?" he asked. He had signed into the resort as Martinez. No one there should know who he is.
The woman didn't say anything. She just smiled, and watched.

Gomez tried to reach for her arm, but he couldn't. He was paralyzed. His body twitched and jerked several times as he laid there. Caroline Eriksen watched as the man started to convulse and then eventually laid still. Blood ran from beneath his sunglasses and from his mouth. He was dead. Caroline pressed a small microphone in her blouse closer to her face and said, "Geronimo."