Reboot

Woolford didn’t look impressed. To her it was ridiculous to think that someone had any energy left to come knocking on our back door. “So you’re saying he’s an agent working on behalf of one of our enemies? Come on. That’s just ridiculous.”

“Do you have a better explanation?” asked McEllum.

“Well since we have nothing to hide, why don’t we invite Mr. Morgan to produce his proof? Maybe it’s just a stupid misunderstanding.”

“It could simply be manufactured, that’s why. The last thing we need now is a lack of trust in the government. No, we have to silence this man. Fast. He wouldn’t trust us anyway,” added Anderson.

“What is this proof he speaks of?” Mooney continued. “Any ideas? Something he can use? Something that could hurt? If it was manufactured, what could it be?”

“I can’t imagine.”

“No. I dunno…”

“Well, this message must be answered. Mr. Anderson will work on a retort. Have it done by tomorrow please. “

“Yes sir. And sir?”

“What is it?

“The radio message is being rebroadcast.”

“Excuse me?”

“Other towns are rebroadcasting it. At this rate, everyone in the country will have heard it very soon.”

“Can we stop it?”

“Not really. Wouldn’t look good for us down the road.”

“Of course. Get on that retort right away please and make sure everyone hears that too.”

“Yes sir.”

“Next item then. The census.”

“The population of the United States is about five million people.

“How did you calculate that? asked Woolford.

Mr. Stone explained: “Mostly statistical guesses. We really have no idea what’s going on in Texas and central and southern states so we guess. About a hundred thousand per state. Might be a lot more in some untouched states, a lot less in places like New York. We determined which spaces were left relatively untouched by bombs and fallout and the reasonable survival rate in those areas. All larger centers are gone. Millions more are gone because of disease and famine.”

Our armed forces are almost non-existent. Five thousand. Difficult to have an army when you can’t pay them or threaten them. But we can arm them well if needed. We keep them in line by feeding them and promising them benefits. We have plenty of stored food and our private agricultural program is doing well. For now, it works, but it won’t forever. We need to organize or we will slowly lose our people. Luckily, I’m sure it’s the same everywhere. There can’t be a standing army anywhere in the world. There are plenty of gangs though, and some are getting stronger. We project a resurgence of populist violent leaders like Genghis Khan and the Taliban, Charles Taylor, Isis. The more violent, the more successful they’ll be. But we won’t see much of that in the US. This is a problem more prevalent in the orient and in Africa. We might get a threat from the south at some point as some south American countries like Venezuela and Peru were relatively untouched, but that won’t be for a while. They seem docile for now. Introspective.

Cities are small and staying that way, though they seem to be thriving now. More are springing up. But, there is no calculable economic growth.”

“Explain,” said Mooney.

“Populations centers are not growing and are simply not acknowledging their government. They don’t trust us. For example, they’ve refused our directives to reset the financial system. We got a letter from a bunch of leaders in the West.”

“Understandable,” said Woolford.

“What do you mean, understandable? Why would they do that?” asked Mooney a little panicky. “How are we supposed to thrive without taxes? How can we trade with other countries? Rebuild oil refineries? How can we protect ourselves?” His voice pitched upwards at the end of that last sentence.

“We just came out of a war that nearly wiped us all out. It’s reasonable to conclude that the population at large would be hesitant to jump right back in the same old system that put us at risk in the first place. How did you bring it up with them?” said Woolford.

We’ve broached the subject directly. We offered to give everyone new paper. Say a thousand dollars for every citizen based on the old gold standard. But they refuse. They say they have their own system,” said Haltmore.

“And how does that work?” Asked Mooney.

“Barter. IOU’s. Point system. Internal monetary economy. Micro stuff.”

“But that’s ridiculous. It has to move away from that obviously,” said Mooney.

“They know that, but they don’t trust us. I think they want to work it out amongst

themselves as the need arises.”

“Well that simply won’t do. Said Mooney, his voice rising. “That won’t do at all. In fact, it’s treasonous. It undermines us.” He slammed his palm on his desk. “Could it be that Morgan guy? Could he be influencing this?

“You think he could have that kind of influence? Already?” Countered Stone

“Why not?” said Mooney.

“I don’t think so. This seems to be a direct result of the war. People are rebelling against the old ways,” said Woolford.

“Well… It’s clear that we simply can’t make any reasonable decisions without more information. I want to know who’s leading this. I want to know more about these towns. I want to know more about Mr. Morgan. Let’s start by finding him please. And we need to start thinking about how to build this country back to the strength and power it once was. Any ideas?” continued Stone.

Mooney looked at Anderson, the tiniest of smiles on his face. He’d just succeeded in getting everyone to hunt down Robert Morgan while keeping attention away from himself.

“OK, that’s it for now. Everyone out. Mr. Anderson, stick around for a while please.”

Everyone left the office. Ian and Mooney stayed alone.

“They have to need us. They don’t need us now,” said Anderson.

“How would you fix that?”

“Well I’m just thinking out loud here, but they need a threat. Either from elsewhere or from inside.”

“Robert Morgan?”

“Robert Morgan! Yes. We use him. For example, he could be responsible for some terrorist activities and the populace would then need us to keep them safe.”

“Sounds like one of those old protection rackets…” Mooney smiled.

“It is. Exactly like that. Only at first of course, just to get people moving in the right direction, of course. It’s for their own good really”.

“Ok, first we start by some sort of terror activity, then with sending Marshalls, to keep the peace. They look for Mr. Morgan. Once we find him, we involve him. And if there’s trouble, we contain it.”

“Can they defend themselves? Will they arm?”

“The only organized groups would be those survivalists groups, the militias, and you know how ridiculous those people are. The others, in the Midwest, are too involved in their own personal squabbles to be of any consequence at this point.”

“So you can handle this?”

“Shouldn’t be a problem.”