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co-plaintiff were run over by Morgan’s custom-made Cadillac Escalade.
    Traffic was moving again, and the car made its way east toward the Norwood Memorial Airport. Morgan breathed in deeply as he thumbed through a black address book retrieved from his safe. The next call was going to be one of the most important in his life.
     

Chapter 6
    September 3, 2016
    9:49 p.m.
    Norwood Memorial Airport
    Norwood, Massachusetts
     
    Richard Sears was an early settler of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the seventeenth century. His descendants populated the original Plymouth colony and branched out across America as philanthropists, business owners, and politicians. The Sears family had an impact on not only the original British Colonies but the United States and the world. Today, over twenty thousand people could trace their lineage back to Richard Sears.
    One of those descendants was General Mason J. Sears, USMC, and the current Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Born and raised in Quincy, Massachusetts, General Sears graduated from Boston College in 1977 and immediately earned his commission. He furthered his military career by graduating from the United States Army War College, Ranger School, and then the Amphibious Warfare School. By holding a master’s degree in government from Georgetown and a second master of arts in international law from the Harvard Kennedy School, Sears was one of the most educated generals in the history of the U.S. Armed Forces.
    General Sears earned the respect of his fellow Marines when he led the initial attack into Iraq and on to Baghdad during the first Gulf War in 1991. As a result of his service, and with the help of some strongly worded recommendations, General Sears rapidly shot up the chain of command faster than almost anyone in recent Marine Corps history. He was considered a war-wise general by his peers. In his capacity as chairman of the Joint Chiefs, by law, he was the highest-ranking military officer in the United States Armed Forces and was the principal military advisor to the President. General Sears was also beholden to John Morgan.
    “General, this is John Morgan.”
    “Yes, John. I hope all is well. I wasn’t expecting your call— yet .”
    “Mason, I have a situation that will require your assistance.”
    “How can I help?” asked General Sears.
    “I am en route to Florida via my helicopter. Mason, my daughter is stranded in Tallahassee. I’ve sent word for her to meet me at the nearest military facility. I need you to arrange the necessary clearances for us to get refueled.”
    “Okay,” said General Sears. “Tell me what you need, John.”
    “We will stop midway at Seymour Johnson, both coming and going. I will pick Abigail up at Camp Blanding, now used by the Florida National Guard.”
    “I know it well. Very historic facility. I’ll make the arrangements for you, John. What else?”
    Morgan hesitated before he spoke. Agreements had already been reached, but reiteration never hurt. “Have you heard from the President?” asked Morgan.
    “Only briefly,” replied General Sears. “As you probably are aware, the President has been in Hawaii for several days. We have discussed the situation, and I’ve made several calls to the Joint Chiefs in this very short period.”
    “Go on.”
    “We’ve elevated our readiness level to DEFCON 2. This level of readiness hasn’t been invoked since the first Gulf War as part of the opening phase of Operation Desert Storm. The only other time before that was during the Cuban Missile Crisis in ’62.”
    “Mason, based upon your intelligence, is there a reason to believe we might fall under attack from Russia, China, or others?” asked Morgan.
    “No, not at all. Other than the Russians testing our fences from time to time, our adversaries have been noticeably quiet. It seems the entire world is trying to determine the cause and extent of this outage. With no actionable intelligence that a nuclear-delivered EMP caused the