She blew another breath, wiped at her eyes, then started across the yard. Her shoulders slumped and the muscles of her neck were coiled cables. Cooper caught up with her, took her hand, and spun her around.
“Listen,” he said, then realized he had no idea what to say next. Tell her that there was nothing to be scared of? There was. Even as they stood here, Director Peters was designating him a target. The most powerful agency in the country would be hunting him, thousands of people with billions of dollars. And even if he could manage to escape them, he was walking into the monster’s den and begging for an audience.
“I’ll be okay,” he said.
And for just a second, a tiny moment, he could see that she believed him.
It was enough.
PART TWO:
HUNTED
My fellow Americans.
Today our nation, our very way of life, suffered an attack of the most grievous nature. The victims were men and women of all kinds, all walks of life. Social workers and attorneys, bankers and artists. Mothers and fathers and brothers and sisters. Hundreds, perhaps thousands of lives were snatched away in the most cowardly fashion imaginable—by terrorists who planted bombs in the heart of our great nation.
The individuals responsible want to disrupt our way of life. By killing innocent people, they want to cow us, like children afraid of monsters shivering beneath their blankets.
But this is not a society of children. We do not hide from monsters. We find them, and we defeat them.
Our intelligence community is united in the belief that this attack was perpetrated by gifted terrorists. Our military and security forces are the strongest in history. They are already at work to track down the people responsible. Make no mistake: we will find them, and they will be brought to justice. Anyone who aids them, anyone who hides them, anyone who supports them in any way will face our wrath.
Since the emergence of the gifted thirty-two years ago, our world has faced a challenge never seen in all of history. A small minority of human beings now possesses a massive advantage. How can men and women on both sides of this divide live together, work together, form a single more perfect union?
The answers will not be simple ones. The road will be difficult. But there are answers. Answers that do not include bombs and bloodshed.
And so tonight, as our nation mourns its dead, I ask you all for tolerance and patience and great humanity. The gifted as a whole cannot be held responsible for the actions of a violent fringe. Just as those who hold hatred in their heart cannot define the rest of us.
It’s said that the strongest partnerships are formed in adversity. Let us face this adversity not as a divided nation, not as norm and abnorm, but as Americans.
Let us work together to build a better future for our children.
And let us never forget the pain of this day. Let us never yield to those who believe political power flows from the barrel of a gun, to the cowards who murder children to achieve their aims.
For them, there can be—will be—no mercy.
Good night, and God bless America.
—President Henry Walker, from the Oval Office, on the evening of March 12.
March 13, 2013
Op-Ed: AMERICA DIVIDED, AMERICA EXPOSED
Since the end of the Cold War, America has been the world’s only superpower. And yet yesterday we learned that we are vulnerable. That no amount of power can protect from a truly ruthless enemy, one willing to abandon the rules of warfare and attack the innocent.
In the days and weeks to come, there will be endless discussion of responsibility. As you read this, our intelligence communities are drawing up a list of likely suspects. One name is certain to top it: John Smith, the activist-turned-terrorist who has long embraced violence as a means to achieve his ends.
But if yesterday’s attack showed us anything, it was that the problem is bigger and more dangerous than we imagine. The problem lies in the fact that we are two nations.
The gifted and the rest of us. And a house divided cannot stand.