The Genius in the Room (An Aaron Shore Story)

3

"Mr. President." Aaron greeted as Tom arrived outside the Oval office.

"Aaron. Ella." Tom greeted the pair.

"Morning dad." Ella smiled softly in reply.

"We have a briefing waiting for you in the Oval, sir." Aaron explained.

"Good." Tom nodded in reply as he accepted the file full of information that would come up in the briefing from his daughter.

"Sir, I just have to warn you. This might be a bit more hectic than you're used to." Aaron warned him as the younger man had his hand on the door, ready to enter the Oval office

"I-I understand. I think we'll be fine." Tom replied before the 3 entered the office which was filled with people.

"We've added increased security to our oil and gas pipelines, power grids, refineries, chemical storage tanks. Mass transit is still on lock down. Planes and trains. Immigration remains frozen." A man briefed everyone as the meeting started.

"Sir, you have to authorize we close the banks immediately." Another man stepped forward and spoke up.

"No, we can't do that. We cannot keep the American people from their money." Emily Rhode's, Kirkman's former HUD chief of staff, said.

"48 hours without Bank of America is better than a 48-month depression." Aaron replied as he looked up from the file.

"If everyone withdraws their money at the same time, the banks will collapse. That's basic economics." Ella told them.

"Where are we at with the bombing?" Tom wondered.

"Deputy Director Atwood will be briefing us soon, but we're looking at groups with the skills and resources to do something like this." Cochrain spoke up.

"Well, what's this about violence in Michigan?" Tom asked everyone

"We're getting reports of flare-ups in Dearborn. Police targeting the local Muslim community." Amother man said.

"Yeah, but what I want to know is how did the terrorists bring explosives into the Capitol Building in the first place." Aaron asked standing up.

"We're working on that. In the meantime, we have to go after everyone we suspect. We go after them, after their families any way we can." An asian looking man with glasses said.

"I'm sorry. Are you talking about enhanced interrogation? Which I'm sure you, along with everyone else in this room knows, is illegal." Ella stood from her spot leaning on the arm of a chair.

"They destroyed our Capitol. I'm saying we do whatever we have to do." The same man who sugested the enhanced interrogation replied.

Chaos erupted in the Oval office as everyone started shouting at each other. Ella was getting deja-vu to the similar situation yesterday at The Presidential Emergency Operations Center. The shouting only stopped after everyone was taken back by the slamming of the door, which they soon realised was the sound of the president leaving.

"Tom... I'm sorry. Mr. President." Emily spoke as she, Ella and Aaron entered the room.

"I just needed to find somewhere quiet." Tom said without looking up from the paperwork he has spread across the table.

"Yeah, admittedly, it got a little loud in there." Aaron told the president.

"Loud? A Caps game is loud, Aaron. Back there in the Oval Office, that was chaos. We need order, a system, or this is never gonna work. We need to get this government up and running. We need a cabinet and fast." Tom said the last part as he gestured to the empty seats around him all belonging to the fallen Cabinet members.