The Anvil

Chapter 1

Chapter One

President Daniel Anson stood looking out the bulletproof windows of the Oval Office. The world was on the brink of destruction, and here he stood. Daniel was the most powerful political leader in the world, and he was helpless to do anything. Worse yet, to avoid panic, he had to keep this tragic news hidden from the people he swore to serve. He'd never felt more alone and ineffective.

He'd first learned about the impending disaster about a year ago when he was only a few weeks into his second term. He was thankful for that. Trying to manage this situation was bad enough, but trying to run his re-election campaign at the same time would've been unthinkable.

This morning, the President had asked to be left alone until his visitors were all assembled for the 9:00 AM meeting. That had given him almost ten full minutes of quiet time to contemplate the situation and the decisions he would make in the coming months.

The phone on his desk buzzed, and a voice said, "Mr. President. General Draper and his party are here."

"Thanks Liz. Send them in."

A secret service agent opened the door, glanced around the room, and then allowed the trio to enter. The first into the room was General Draper. He was the acting Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. The sixty-three-year-old General stood six-foot-four and was relatively thin. His receding hairline left a large scar visible on his forehead.

Following the General was the National Security Advisor. Jeremiah Baker was a sixty-year-old African American man and a former senator from Virginia. He had extensive experience in areas of national defense and politics. He'd spent twenty years as an officer in the Marine Corps and later another eight years in the Senate, part of that time as the Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

The final person to arrive was Dennis Roberts. Dennis was the Deputy Director of Homeland Security. Dennis was also former military, having spent eight years in army intelligence before transferring to the Central Intelligence Agency. While at The Agency, he'd served for over a dozen years and distinguished himself on several occasions. He'd come to Homeland Security strictly to deal with the current crisis.

"Gentlemen. Please come in and take a seat. Where's General Fitch?" the President asked.

"General Fitch is busy, sir, and since this meeting is of limited scope, I instructed him to continue his work," General Draper explained.

The President nodded as the men came in and took seats across from the large desk. He too sat before continuing, "Dennis, good to see you again. I know when we first met a couple of months ago; we dropped a bombshell on you and gave you a difficult assignment. As you know, General Draper, Mr. Baker, and I meet weekly on this project. And they've been keeping me up to date on your progress. However, I wanted to have the four of us get together to hear where things stand with your branch of this effort and share any ideas that we may have."

"I understand, Mr. President. Now that I've had some time to get a grasp on what's going on, I think it's safe to say that we'll have about 150 underground shelters available in time. We're working on two hundred locations but don't think we'll have time to get them all completed. The sites are mostly natural caverns or abandoned mines. All places where there's a year-round clean water supply. That's necessary for human consumption and reactor cooling."

"Dennis, if there's anything any of us can do to move your efforts along and make more shelters available, let us know. Each shelter means around a thousand lives saved and a better chance for the human race to rebuild.

“Now, what about the selection process? Who is going into the mines and caverns, and how are they being selected?"

Nodding, Roberts explained, "Sir, we're calling the selection process Project Anvil. I was amazed to see the detail of the records that Homeland has on US citizens. We started with tax records. That automatically will exclude anyone that doesn't pay taxes. Then we removed anyone with a criminal, d**g, or psychiatric history. Since we're only going to save about one out of every 10,000 people, we need to select those that will function well and not cause problems while in an underground shelter for an extended time.

“There's also the problem with medications. While there will be medical services available in every shelter, including a pharmacy, we can't be storing the prescription medication needs of every shelter inhabitant for twenty years. Anyone going to a shelter must not be on any daily medications.

“We are then trying to locate people that reside relatively close to the shelters. When it's time to get to the shelters, there will be a massive logistical effort, and the closer, the better. Next, we're trying to make sure that those we're sheltering have valuable skills. We'll pick the electrician or trauma surgeon over the window-washer or birthday-party clown."

There was a brief chuckle at the last remark before he continued. "We also want families. It'll do us no good if most of the inhabitants are past their prime when the shelters open in twenty years. We're also trying to include a diverse range of ethnic backgrounds."

"Why ‘Anvil’? Does it stand for something?" the President asked.

"Sir, as you know, an anvil was used by blacksmiths to take raw iron and pound and form it into something useful. We are using this project to take the people we gather and form them into a new society once the radiation is gone," Roberts explained.

"Okay, I like that. Now, how will it work when it is time to go to the shelters?"

"Everyone who signs on for this is thinking that nothing will ever happen. The idea is that in the event of a nuclear war, pandemic, or other devastating events, we'd bring them into the shelters. We won't inform them that we already know the nature of the disaster and the date this will all go down. They'll get the packing requirements and a limit of how much they can bring, and then go about their lives. Hopefully, they won't think much about being in Project Anvil, but they will know that it is real and urgent if they get the call.

“Forty-eight hours before the event, we'll collect them and transport them to the shelters. It's looking like there will be some people that we'll go out and gather from their homes. Others will get a text message, instructing them to meet at a specific location. We are still working out the logistics. We've already interviewed and signed on about forty percent of the shelter inhabitants."

Pointing at the other two men in the room, the President said, "If there's anything you need, contact them immediately. I don't want anything to slow your efforts."

The four men continued discussing details for several minutes before the meeting finally ended.