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The Schuyler Fortune V: Rose Down, Rose Home-5
Carol heard no more. Stunned, she left the TV on and asked her security team to get Michael on the phone immediately. When Michael answered, she told him to turn on CNN and said she would be bringing Rainier, leaving within an hour or two from Hillsboro, Oregon (HIO) to Teterboro and would pick up Michael and Marcus there to fly onward immediately to Frankfurt.
After she hung up, Carol called the Rainier pilot and crew hangar at Hillsboro Airport and asked them to prepare for immediate leave and gave them the same destinations. The Hillsboro tower was still open.
The helicopter crew and tower chiefs both had also just seen the news; the request was not a surprise.
Fueling and provisioning was in process and all of the crew were in the hangar, excluding the flight chef, who was ten minutes away from HIO inbound from Portland with newly frozen entrees from the Benson hotel.
The flight chef was astonished to have six of Hillsboro's finest police cars with sirens blaring and lights flashing racing by his van, then turning back, hailing his vehicle and escorting him at top speed for the last bit without so much as a red light stopping them.
Carol called the duty office at the trust who connected her with the on-call trust catering officer now at home in Pennsylvania and notified him of her upcoming flights.
He extended his sympathy and assured her that he would make the arrangements for the Teterboro to Frankfurt segment right away from his computer at home.
Her next call was to security again. The on-duty officer answered on the first ring. Picking up on the breaking news, security had anticipated possible responses after first changing the threat level at the Hillsboro estate as a precaution.
Access was curtailed. Guard leaves were put on hold and canine teams began to patrol the perimeter. The local police and Sheriff's department were notified, a Sheriff's car dispatched to the front gate and the helicopter team placed on `short leave' status. The pilots and crew were ready to go at very short notice.
Carol didn't rate Secret Service protection under the law. The FBI, on the other hand, sent flash traffic to all of its offices in the country: "Extra caution is advised for all locations and interests of the United States."
Those phrases, received in Portland, Oregon, automatically led to notifications being sent to the Estate Security office and the Hillsboro Police department and the Washington County Sheriff's office.
Her next call was to Barbara on Air Force One. A Sergeant Grove answered aboard the Presidential jet and told Carol the President was at Jack's bedside in the temporary onboard hospital room.
She had asked him to relay to Carol that his life was not in danger and that Barbara was shaken but physically OK. Precious few details were available to the Presidential teams that weren't already known by the entire globe through CNN and the other networks.
As far as they knew, no other world leader had been injured in the explosion. No group was claiming responsibility for the attack yet.
Her next call was to the night-call officer at the Cheyenne bank where she had parked her personal money so long ago.
"I need to let you now that I am making an emergency trip to Germany for some days, perhaps weeks. My bank VIP code is 24997-08 and I am asking you to notify my AMEX card number of overseas travel and to approve any charges made without limit." she told him.
"In addition, I need you to initiate immediate contact with your counterpart at our correspondent bank in Frankfurt to facilitate spending up to my available funds on very short notice while there."
He told her he was sorry for her distress and promised to relay the information within minutes to AMEX and to Frankfurt at Deutsche Bank headquarters. He added that he was honored to help. "Please call if the bank or I can do more.
By that time, a maid had packed the two emergency suitcases for Carol, had also taken her own emergency suitcase, the helicopter was spooling up, and it was time to leave.
Carol opened a jewelry safe deposit box in her closet and took out three yellow diamonds of immense size and perfect quality. These were her good luck charms, her talismans for safety, and she brought them in a small leather bag, knotted at the top, when she traveled.
She closed the safe, stuffed the bag in her purse and sat in the kitchen, waiting, thinking, determined to do what she could. A grim chuckle escaped her. Nobody, but nobody messed with a mother bear and her cubs.
The weather had been warm and, in the evening, only a light sweater was needed to fend off the cooling breezes in Oregon. The second suitcase had heavier warm clothing necessary for Germany.
Then she and the maid boarded the Schuyler Sikorsky bound for Rainier. The pilots, having received the short leave notice, were ready and the security team had already told them about the destination and situation. Hillsboro airport expected a direct inbound flight with the President's mother on board.
The Sikorsky pilots noted that the mood at the Hillsboro tower was terse, professional and slightly tense. Traffic at the airport, never heavy, had been halted entirely to accommodate the incoming helicopter and outgoing jet. The Portland International Airport would be closed a little later for a few minutes when Rainier took off to clear the area. The tower at PDX would have incoming jets either divert if needed or circle well away from the area over Mt. Hood.
When they arrived at Hillsboro private aircraft center, Rainier was ready, provisioned and fueled with both engines started. Since Barbara had been elected President, the FAA had instructed towers around the country to give Rainier, as a courtesy, priority takeoff and landings in the US and its territories.
Carol and her maid walked from the helicopter to the Gulfstream G650ER, greeted the pilots, the crew and strapped in. The jet didn't stop at the end of the runway after sprinting down the taxiway. Moments later, the jet shot up into the Oregon sky eastbound, the crew not sparing the horses.
Following the jet with an iPad app across the country, the Administrator of the FAA sat as his desk at home, determined to clear the way for Rainier that day of all days. At that hour of the night much of the domestic air traffic across the country had already quieted down a little.
He watched ahead of the plane for unusual local congestion, double-checked altitudes of nearby planes, called FAA Air Route Traffic Control Centers along Rainier's flight path, and asked them to make absolutely certain that Rainier had a wide berth across the country with absolute priority for landing and take-off at Teterboro.
Those centers would have done just that without the call; the very fact that the Administrator himself had called, a very unusual event, had the effect of all controllers taking note that this was not a routine flight.
Michael hung up the phone, stunned for his sister and Jack. He thought of the kids in Washington, D.C. and with the White House on speed dial, telephoned there to find them just fine.
"Hi, Uncle Mike," said Jack Jr., "Are you coming down to see us today?"
"No, Jack," replied his uncle, "Have you talked to your mom or dad today?"
"Yes." A prolonged silence. "Mom said Dad was in an accident but will be OK."
"Sure thing, Jack. Grandma Carol and Marcus and I are going to fly over tonight to see your Mom and Dad early in the morning. Can I give them a hug for you and the girls?"
"Well, I don't know. You can for me. But you had better talk to Hannah. She doesn't like it when I talk for her. It's a White House rule now."
Michael recognized true parental genius when he heard it and figured that the subject had come up more than once to be honored with a rule status.
"Is Marcus still your best friend?"
This was code for "Am I still your best friend, Uncle Michael?"
The standard required a correct answer immediately given to Jack, Jr.
"He's not my only best friend, you know, I believe I have two of those and one of em is you!"
Then a new one. "Uncle Michael, when you get Eric and Loren, will they be your best friends too?"
"Nah, Jack, they will be my kids. You can be friends with your kids, but not best friends. I think that's a rule or something." He could hear a sigh of relief at the White House.
Hannah seemed distracted, gave her permission for a hug, wondered if she should go and then `remembered' her tutors tomorrow and declined to go. Jack wondered what she was really hiding in that complex head of hers. He wondered if she was still in some kind of kid denial. It was unlike her, he thought, to waffle or be unfocused.
Michael asked security to find Marcus. They didn't have to find him. They always knew exactly where he was. "He's at the New York Public Library or near by doing research for the Fund."
Michael asked the security staff to empty the park now, raise the security threat level to the highest possible step and inform the NYPD immediately. The head of museum security came on the line just then and joined into the duty agent's conversation with Michael.
"Michael," the duty officer continued, "Jeff and I have already informed the NYPD."
"They said the FBI had already told them about the attempt and we were on the NYPD Operations short list to double up on sometime this afternoon. They are finishing their citywide threat check and adding security to the airports, Grand Central, Penn Station, the Manhattan Port Authority Bus Terminal, the tunnels, bridges and subways, and the Moroccan embassy. We should see extra officers outside the walls of our block at the corners and entrances from our precinct at first and possibly the NYPD Threat Team later on."
"The Captain's brother works at the Pentagon and says that the building is buttoning down and gearing up as expected for the event. Apparently Central Command in Florida has gone into lockdown and crisis mode in Tampa too. The White House isn't expecting trouble but raised the threat level by a notch. Federal installations have been notified by the FBI and Joint Chiefs that "Extra caution is advised for locations and interests of the United States."
"Our park is emptying rapidly, and we will begin to raise the last two transparent ceramic shield exits inside the titanium wall in five minutes. Six of the eight ceramic shields are up and sealed to the permanent portions of that wall as we speak, and the park is emptying through the last two now. We'll do a final sweep after the last two ceramic gates close. The Museum is clear and swept for traffic."
The Museum had been designed with an outer wall around the entire city block made of closely spaced, twisted titanium bars which rose and divided into forward and backward graceful curves at the top, each bar terminating at the top to a starburst of very sharp points. These looked great and also had a definite purpose.
Some fifteen feet inside that wall was another wall made of a three-inch-thick transparent ceramic material many times stronger than steel which emerged from very deep in the ground only to rise a few feet out of the ground and gracefully angle of twenty degrees outward, up and out to a height of eighteen feet, rising higher than the strip of grass the hedge and the outer titanium bars.
For ten yards inside the ceramic fence, pressure sensors, frequently spaced around the block just underground had been placed. Motion detectors had been replaced after too many false positive squirrel and bird alarms.
The new infrared motion detectors, computer-linked, helped to rule out false alarms.
Each block entrance, whether the outer metal fence or the inner ceramic wall, had gates that could be closed (the metal fence) and the ceramic gates that could be raised, locked and sealed to the adjacent ceramic wall. The inner ceramic gates, when raised and sealed were waterproof to accommodate sea level rise or flooding or both in the future. Each gate was closed at night after eleven p.m. and could be lowered and/or opened by security quickly.
A transparent ceramic tunnel, large enough to accommodate a semi-truck, was located just inside the front ceramic gate aboveground in a way to pierce it when the gate was sealed and folded out from the top of the tunnel when the ceramic gates were down.
Inside the tunnel were two sealed doors so that traffic could move into the tunnel, the outer door could seal, the traffic could move into the park followed by closing of the inner ceramic door which would be sealed. The process reminded Michael of a lock for a ship.
"All of the high priority display rooms inside the Museum have been locked down, bars and shields, indefinitely. We have also called the Repository downtown. They said that they have seen no unusual activity and have logged our call. You and Carol and Barbara should be receiving texts confirming that text soon."
"Have you thought of putting the dirty bomb air filtration system to work?"
"Just switched it on standby, boss. That means the entire software has been brought up and checked, but that ventilation system is still off because no radiation has been detected. The fans are on standby and the computers are monitoring air around the block for radiation. If a threat is detected, the main fans and filtration system will kick in immediately."
"With the officers who are staying on duty tonight and those scheduled to come on tomorrow, we'll have enough staff to see us through indefinitely. The staff will stay as long as needed."
"As you know we've enough food and supplies plus our own water supply to last."
"We sent some of the older paintings down to storage for now. They are locked down. All of the sensors report no change in water levels, humidity, temperature or movement in the lower four floors or in the two sub-basements."
"We packed any painting whose assessed value is over five million dollars in its waterproof case as you requested. We have four aides packing paintings of lesser value starting down the lists by value and that project is in process. All the computers are happy at the moment."
Michael knew what he meant.
"Just got word the last two transparent ceramic exits from the block are closed. The outer titanium gates are all closed and manned. One of the security staff just phoned in."
"She saw the first of a real long line of NYPD cruisers coming up Fifth Avenue with lights flashing. No sirens, thank God. We don't need that much extra press attention right now or crowds for that matter."
"The only point of exit or egress now will be by helicopter or directly at the main gate through the titanium gate and then through the large aboveground transparent ceramic tunnel with two inner ceramic waterproof gates. We have a Schuyler Sikorsky on the roof now. You probably heard the clatter earlier. We just brought it over from the City heliport."
"The lasers are turned on to detect and control unwanted drone access to the block. The jamming GPS and radio equipment for drones has been switched on."
That anti-drone equipment had been in place for several months, never used yet, to prevent nuisance cameras and the Press from access to the block at times just like this. The system scanned the sky over the block very rapidly, compared what it saw with a computerized list of what should be there, was able to identify drones by size, movement and with the aid of listening devices, the make and model. Michael was delighted by this system and especially with the tiny explosive drones made to inactivate the intruder drones.
"I'm sure the NYPD is going to be a little stretched beefing up City and Federal security in New York for a few days. Thanks for your help. I feel better. By the way, can you reach Marcus and put him through to me when he calls? I'd appreciate that. By the way, while I'm talking to Marcus can you get the Mayor on the line?"
"Will do, boss."
When Marcus called, Michael and Museum staff were talking on the third floor over coffee and a last-minute supper.
"Marcus? Are you watching CNN?"
"No," Marcus replied. "I'm at the New York Public Library doing some research. I should be back at the Museum in an hour."
"Marcus! Have you heard the news?"
"Yes, I heard really quick about the mess over there about two milliseconds after it came on CNN. I got a beep on my watch and I walked until I found a TV. I've been waiting for you to call when you had a chance. I knew you would. Glad Barbara is OK."
"Michael, I'm really sorry about Jack. Are you going over?"
Marcus gave me space to invite him or not. That was the kind of guy he was.
I told him that mom was flying out to Teterboro from Oregon and that I would leave at first light from there in Rainier.
"Will you come too, Marcus?"
"I was hoping you would ask. Any chance you could ask Kathy to make sure my bag marked `AA' gets into the limousine for Teterboro? No. Forget that. I'll do that when I get there. You're up to your eyeballs probably. I can load my own suitcase. I will arrange a leave here from the brokers. I'll take my laptop with me."
"I already asked Kathy to put your `AA' travel bag, laptop, laptop charger, cell charger, passport, warm clothes for Germany, and your shaving kit plus Dramamine in the luggage hall by the entrance, Marcus. I also activated your global cell service with AT&T and called your bank to notify them of your upcoming foreign travel. I left messages for your mom and John. All you need to bring is chocolate, your wallet, yourself plus relevant body parts and, well, me."
The limousines and security vans had already gathered in the circular drive out front.
"This time we'll have a police escort as well, courtesy of the Mayor but we'll reimburse the city."
That's the kind of guy I was.
"The block is locked down. Come to the front entrance in your Tesla and they'll let you in through the outer gate and the ceramic tunnel. Come on home soon if you can. The limousines are here. I need to see you."
"There in a flash, as they say."