Second Nature

Chapter 2

2 

 Marine sentries escorted President Jane Campion and two aides down the halls of the Pentagon and into an elevator that opened three stories below the ground. Nobody spoke. Jane Campion's stomach sizzled with a presidential ulcer. It had revealed itself the morning she took the oath of office and had made her wince that same night as her husband zipped up her silver-sequined white Versace gown for the Inauguration Ball. She had come to regard the ulcer as a badge of power: first woman to be President of the United States. 

A few hours ago, she had taken a phone call in the Oval Office-on the red phone, no less-informing her the National Emergency Council had gathered to deal with a crisis that involved "imminent danger to the planet." That's how Gen. Cunningham, Military Chief of Staff, had put it. Now Marines in gleaming black shoes were sweeping her briskly down tiled halls and she knew very little about what the hell was going on, and the dread was burning a hole through her gut. 

As the President's entourage swept through double doors, a waiting assembly of men and women in military uniforms and business suits rose to stand at attention. The sentries locked the doors behind her and took their post in the hall. 

Jane Campion arrived at her station at the head of a mammoth mahogany table. The smell of wood polish saturated the oak-paneled chamber. With a curt nod, she acknowledged directors and staff from the National Security Agency, Defense Intelligence Agency and senior military advisors from the Department of Defense. The tension in the room felt like a static charge; tiny hairs stood on the back of her neck.  

"Ladies and gentlemen," she said, "please be seated." The President took her seat in a high-backed leather chair. "I can tell by your worried looks that we are in deep trouble, so let's dispense with formalities and get straight to the bad news. This morning I was yanked away from a quiet breakfast with my granddaughter, and informed that our armed forces are standing at Defense Condition One. I know next to nothing about what's going on, and I am more than a little angry about that." 

She drummed the polished table top with manicured nails and scowled at the faces around the room. It gave her some relief to indulge in wrath; the only other emotion she had available at the moment was fear. "Would anyone care to explain to me why the President of the United States has been left in the dark on this situation?" 

After a pause, a tall man in an Army dress uniform cleared his throat. "Madam President, for security-" 

"Your name? Your position?" she interrupted. 

"Sorry. Colonel Jack Eberhard. United States Army Chemical and Biological Weapons Response Team, Redstone Military Labs, White Sands, New Mexico." 

Colonel Bullet-head. His looks alone made her bristle. Or was it his lordly body language? Eberhard was the kind of man people reacted to when they wondered, Wouldn't it be better if women ran the world? Jane glanced about the table, surrounded by two dozen such men. Precisely the types of leaders who had helped her to get elected on the simple platform that she was not one of them. The only other woman of power in the room was Air Force Major-General Paige Paine, who had fought her way up the glory-ladder by kicking and slugging as if she had bigger balls than her competitors; and judging by her flat-chested, square-jawed, sharp-boned looks, maybe that really was her secret. The half-dozen other women in the room were mere assistants, secretaries, coffee-fetchers. 

She nodded. "Proceed, Colonel." 

"Ma'am, for security reasons, Project Second Nature from its inception has been ultra-secret. A small, select team has conducted the research and the information has been strictly monitored and controlled." 

"What you call a need-to-know basis?" 

"Exactly, ma'am." 

She felt her face grow hot. "And you're saying, Col. Eberhard, that your Commander-in-Chief did not need to know?" Her dark eyes flashed. "According to a quaint old document called the Constitution, I am the final authority over all military and intelligence matters in this nation."