ReUNION: What if the Civil War had never happened? Read Online Free PDF Page A

showing
the weather worldwide, foreign military bases, the disposition of navy ships at
sea, television news channels from all around the world, and the current
location of the country's communication satellites.
    In the center of the room was a big walnut conference table, around which were
sitting a selection of Very Important People:
    * Vice President Darren Garvey, ex-governor of Ontario, a former NFL
quarterback, a man with a rocket arm, aw-shucks charm and a weakness for women,
chosen mainly to balance the ticket geographically;
    * The grandmotherly Secretary-of-State designate Veronica Tennenbaum, who was
generally considered to be the smartest woman in Washington;
    * Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Major General Richard Hutchison,
square-jawed, keen-eyed and pompous, the very model of a modern major general;
    * CIA Director Linus Hawke, scion of an old, rich, socially prominent Philadelphia family, a
mossy but elegant holdover from the last administration; and
    * Dr. Sidney Burton, National Security Advisor-designate, a bearded,
balding celebrity professor fresh from the Ivory Towers and Ivy-covered walls
of Cambridge, one foot in MIT and the other in Harvard.
    The table itself was littered with their notebooks, briefcases, speaker phones,
laptop computers and binders, as well as coffee cups, small plates and
carefully folded damask napkins.
    Two huge sterling silver chafing dishes sat in the middle of the table, one
holding a heaping platter of fine pastries, the other incongruously bearing a
large, garish box of Dunkin' Donuts, well known to be the Chief Executive's
favorites.
    President Callaway slid into the deep red leather chair at the end of the
table, exchanging nods, hellos and handshakes with his high-ranking co-conspirators.
Wang took a seat at his elbow. "Well," said the President, "here
we go. Director Hawke, do we have any international emergency situations in
progress?"
    "Not at the moment, but there's always tomorrow," Hawke said. He
spoke with a slight upper-class British accent, acquired long ago at a New England prep school and never abandoned.
    "We should discuss the Mexican situation," said Dr. Burton, the
National Security Advisor-designate. "It worries me."
    There were nods all around the table. "Yes," said General Hutchison,
clearing his throat impressively. "I've spent a lot of man-hours worrying
about how to deal with Presidente Garcia. He is quite a piece of
work."
    Callaway nodded, unsurprised. "In our opinion, General Hutchison, does he
still have territorial ambitions?”
    "Damn right he does. He doesn’t conduct those annual military exercises
just to entertain himself," Hutchison asserted.
    Callaway glanced at his National Security Advisor. "Dr. Burton?"
    Burton put on
his glasses and stood, as though addressing a class. "Well, let's take a
look at history," he said, "Back in 1861, when we and the CSA
separated, Mexico snatched up Arizona and New Mexico before anyone knew what
was happening."
    "Yes, yes, we know all that," said the President. ”But what about now ?"
    Burton was not
easily interrupted. "And then, in 2005," he went on, "while
Garcia and the Mexican Navy were attacking New Orleans,
the Mexican army seized Texas,
as we know. It's a miracle the CSA survived."
    "Thank God for little hurricanes," said Eric Wang.
    "And now ?" This time the question came from Secretary-of-State
designate Tennenbaum. "Does Garcia pose a threat today?" She fumbled
around in the Dunkin' Donuts box and found a sugar-coated jelly donut.
    Callaway, deciding to share the guilt, got himself a cruller.
    "A threat?" the DCI asked rhetorically. "Well, there's nothing
to make us think El Presidente is planning any surprises for us,
but..."
    "...but he isn't spending all those billions his defense budget for no
reason." General Hutchison interrupted.
    "Could we be his target, now or in the future?" Callaway
asked.
    "Oh, I don’t think he’s looking in our direction,” Hawke said, with