Treason

PROLOGUE

It was just past two in the afternoon when the president’s motorcade sped down 17th Street NW toward the White House. In the center of the convoy, the president rode in the back of Cadillac One, a hybrid vehicle built on a truck frame and extensively modified with armored plating and bulletproof windows. As the motorcade approached the President’s Park South, commonly called the Ellipse, Cadillac One screeched to a halt, as did the rest of the motorcade.

The president’s door was yanked open and he was pulled from Cadillac One by his Secret Service detail. They surrounded the president, shepherding him toward the nearest building as the head of the president’s detail explained.

“We’re under attack — ballistic missile!”

Atop several buildings surrounding the White House and Capitol Building, surface-to-air missiles streaked upward. The president followed the white exhaust trails, spotting five reddish-orange objects descending toward the city. He almost froze when he realized what they were.

There had been no warning.

How was that possible?

Neither NORAD nor the Joint Air Defense Operations Center had provided a warning, which should have arrived twenty or more minutes ago.

Through a gap in the Secret Service detail, the president spotted the Navy officer carrying the Presidential Emergency Satchel, sometimes referred to as the nuclear football, containing the nuclear launch authentication codes and attack option matrix, sprinting toward him. But there was neither the time nor the necessary information — who had attacked — for a response.

As the missiles streaked upward, the president knew the probability of destroying the descending warheads was minuscule. Not even the most sophisticated anti-ballistic missiles in the American arsenal could consistently intercept nuclear warheads traveling in the descent phase.

A few seconds before warhead detonation, the president and his security detail had just begun climbing the steps toward the nearest building. They weren’t going to make it. The head of the president’s detail reached the same conclusion. He forced the president to the ground and ordered the agents to cover him with their bodies. As the president was smothered by his detail, one question in his mind stood out from the others.

How could this have happened?