A short, thin young man in a dirty kaki colored raincoat and badly scuffed faded brown shoes pushed his way through the crowd propelling a baby carriage in front of him like a weapon. He was sweating profusely, and had a straggly black beard.

“Get out of my way,” he shouted. “I have to get through, get away, move out of my way damn people. It’s your fault,” he cursed in a hoarse voice. The smell of liqueur was reeking from his breath as he continued up an entrance ramp spewing saliva and curses.

Two security guards who were lounging against the railing on the far wall of the entry way moved over to him to see what the commotion was about. Then the bomb went off.

The bomb blast killed thirty-two children and their parents on the way to the in store Ferris Wheel. Another one hundred and twenty four, many of whom were children, were injured as the blast slammed its way full of shrapnel and nails to the fourth floor and eventually the sheer force of the bomb blew a five foot hole in the roof as acrid black smoke forced its way out into a cold rainy night at the Toys Are Us toy store in Times Square in New York City. It was the first home made suicide bomb detonated in New York City by homegrown terrorists, and things would never be the same.

Fear griped the City of New York and the Nation as a wave of copycat bombings took place in retail department stores, malls, sports arenas, railroad and bus terminals and anywhere else these terrorists could strike fear into the hearts of the people. The first attacks were designed to scare the population, and convince them that no one was safe and nobody was sacred, not even the children. Sometimes the bomber blew himself up with the bomb and sometimes a remote triggering devise was used, but in all the cases where a suicide bomber caused the explosion, the police and the FBI had determined that the terrorists were home grown natives and citizens of the USA. It was almost too much to fathom. Who were these horrible people that hated this Country so that they would sacrifice themselves to kill innocent strangers and children? What had we done to create such hatred for our country by people who grew up and lived here? How could we fight terrorists who didn’t even value their own lives? Who would be next on the terrorists list? Where and when would they strike again?

John Stamper sat at his desk with his hands folded in front of his face contemplating these questions. He had few answers. Were the terrorist’s part of one large cell or did they operate independently? Who was calling the shots? Why had this started now, why now, and why the chain reaction of bombing after bombing? John was a tall thin man with an angular nose that was too big for the high cheek boned features of his face. He had prematurely grey hair that always looked like he had just been to a hairdresser. John had a penchant for wearing grey pin striped double-breasted suits that flattered his steely blue eyes. He looked like an agent of the law. In fact he was the number two man in the New York office of the FBI, and he was charged with the almost impossible task of getting these bombings under control. In the fortnight since the bombings started he had investigated all ten bombings. He had little to show for it. DNA had determined who most of the terrorists were (all had identity chips), which was a federal requirement starting in the year 2013 that allowed for immediate identification of all citizens. But there was no apparent link between the incidents in Grand Central Station, Macy’s, The Wolman’s Ice Rink, The Bus terminal at 42nd street, Saks Fifth Avenue Department Store, Madison Square Garden, Bloomingdales Department Store, Rockefeller Center, The Heralds Square Mall and the original bombing that started it all in Toys Are Us.

John was aware that time was running out. The people were scared. No one was going out in public. Tourists had stopped coming to the City, and the economy of the Country’s largest city was grinding to a halt as people refused to take public transportation to work. The MTA was forced to lay off workers temporarily as no one was riding the buses or the subways. The unions didn’t object. They wanted to keep their workers home and safe. As if matters couldn’t get any worse, John had just been sent a secured e-mail indicating that a bomb had just gone off in the Washington to New York airport terminal in Washington. This whole situation was racing out of control, and John knew it.

His secure phone line rang. It was his boss in Washington, Casey Orin, ordering him to come to Washington for an urgent meeting in the morning. As his boss got off the phone he cautioned John to drive his car to Washington rather than take the train or a plane. John sighed and said he understood.

As John entered the main conference room of the FBI, he was surprised to see that the Director of National Security was present as was the number one Under Secretary of State for internal affairs and The Under Secretary of Defense. In fact just about every major government agency involved with the Nations welfare and security including the Department of Health and the Centers for Disease Control was in attendance.

Casey opened the meeting and immediately put John on the line by asking him to brief everyone on the current state of affairs. John got the sinking feeling that he was being offered up as a sacrificial lamb. His boss hadn’t even told him that he would be called on to give a report. He nervously cleared his throat, shuffled some papers and began.

“As of this morning there have been ten bombings in New York City and One in Washington. Eight of these terrorist acts have been by suicide bombers and three have been bombings detonated by remote control. We have ascertained from DNA evidence that all the suicide bombers were American citizens who were born in this country. Two of them were Moslems of Iranian decent, two were Hispanic, two were African American and two were Caucasian. We have not to date captured any of the people involved in the three remote control bombings or determined who the terrorists were that were involved in those cases. In fact we have no evidence as of now linking any of the bombers to any others, and have no way of determining if this is all part of a centrally controlled plot by one master cell of terrorists or a group of independent cells operating in a copycat fashion. However, all of the bomb fragments recovered so far indicate that the bombs were home made, of simple construction, and composed mostly of chemicals one could obtain at a local hardware store, but most of them seemed to have a common highly explosive agent included in each bomb package that was not obtainable locally. We do believe based on this that these bombers are acting in some sort of a coordinated plan even though we do not as yet have any direct proof that this is so. I want to assure all of you that our agents are working around the clock to identify the people involved in these insidious attacks and to prevent them from committing other bombings or other acts of terrorism. We are offering a ten million dollar reward for information leading to the capture of the terrorists involved. If you have any questions I will be glad to take them now?”

The moment John said that he was sorry that he had. The onslaught was without mercy.

The head of the Centers For Disease Control (CDC) said, “What other acts of terrorism are you talking about? Do you have any knowledge that they plan to use chemical poisons or toxic gases? Is our water supply safe? How do we protect the subways?”

John assured Tim Levings of the CDC that the FBI had absolutely no knowledge of any other terrorist threats.

The Under Secretary of Defense asked if the terrorist organization Al Quida was involved.

John said that there were no known ties to that organization as far as they knew and no terrorist organization had taken responsibility for the bombings.

Then the head of National Security asked, “Do you think they have nuclear suitcase bombs? Is this all a prelude to a much more terrifying explosion? Where the hell is the CIA in all of this? Are you guys working with them? Why aren’t they all at this meeting” I thought Homeland Security was supposed to be in control in a situation like this?”

John said, “I have no knowledge of any suitcase bombs, and will defer to Mr. Orin to fill you in on the CIA and Homeland Security.”

Casey said, “Thank you John, I’ll take it from here. You know gentleman that the CIA by mandate can’t get involved in domestic affairs, but rest assured that we are in close communication with them in case a foreign element like Al Quida is involved. We are the front line agency involved working directly for Homeland Security. We will keep you informed.”

At this point the Undersecretary of State for Internal Affairs, Ross Phalen, jumped to his feet and said, “The President wants this stopped. We don’t care what you have to do. Bring in the CIA. Bring in the National Guard. This cannot be allowed to continue. Do you understand me? This can’t wait. We need action now. Lock down the Capitol if you have to. We have to protect the Nation. If you need the President to declare Martial Law he will do so. If we have to suspend civil rights we will.”

Casey flushed and said, “I am fully aware of how dangerous this situation is. We will do what we have to do to bring this under control. I will let you know what type of additional action is indicated if any. Thank you for coming gentleman.” Then he stormed out of the room followed swiftly by John who wasn’t about to hang around to answer any more questions. This crisis of National Security was quickly spiraling out of control. John knew that he and Casey would have to work miracles or our democracy as we knew it would not be able to sustain itself. Our very freedom was on the line. Who would have thought that less than a dozen home grown terrorists could bring this country to its knees. Who was behind this diabolical plot? Why was this being left to the FBI to control? Where was Homeland Security in this whole mess? This should be their responsibility. They didn’t say a word at the meeting and only had their number two man in attendance. Why is it that no one even asked them a question?