Out of the Ashes

PROLOGUE

Long before the events of 9/11, even before the first attack on the World Trade Center, America has been under siege by the dark forces of terrorism. Radical Islam, technology, and repressive regimes in oil-rich nations had encouraged the disenfranchised to seek new and more deadly ways to bring harm to our nation. The attacks of 9/11 demonstrated to the world that America was vulnerable. However, in response to those attacks, an aroused America proved it could strike back.

The incursions into Iraq and Afghanistan, while only modestly successful in stabilizing those nations, took a fearful toll on the senior leadership of al Qaeda and their franchises around the world. The world’s most formidable terrorist group was decimated to the extent that Americans began to look at the attacks on New York and the Pentagon as a one-time event. Such an attack on our soil had not taken place before, and it hadn’t happened since. Perhaps those trillions of dollars spent in the Global War on Terrorism had not been wasted after all. The U.S. military and intelligence communities could rightfully take credit for pushing the terrorists back into the shadows, but there had been another force at work — one that operated in the shadows as well.

Before 9/11 and for several years afterward, our nation was protected by a quiet, covert force known as the National Crisis Management Center. More commonly known as Op-Center, this silent, secret mantle guarded the American people and thwarted numerous threats to our security. The charter of Op-Center was unlike any other in the history of the United States, and its director, Paul Hood, reported directly to the president.

Op-Center dealt with both domestic and international crises. What had started as an information clearinghouse with SWAT capabilities had evolved into an independent organization with the singular capacity to monitor, initiate, and manage operations worldwide. They were good; in fact, too good. Budgets were tight and cuts had to be made. There also was the vaunted U.S. Special Operations Command to deal with terrorists. So Op-Center was disbanded, but the need for Op-Center remained.

For America in the second decade of the twenty-first century, Op-Center was becoming little more than an increasingly distant memory and even those who had taken issue with Op-Center’s disestablishment were finally moving on. However, the nation was about to learn just how dangerous it was to do away with this valuable force and the awful price it was about to pay. Just how much Op-Center was needed was about to be demonstrated.