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Major General Alice Zimmer’s eyes burned with barely controlled fury as she screamed orders at her staff. “I don’t care if George effing Trebow says he needs to hold back three tanks, tell him he will send all nine or I will personally come down there and kick his nuts up between his shoulder blades, and you can quote me. What about Jimmy-John?”
“I’m here, Alice.” The woeful voice proceeded from a pale hound-dog face, but the man’s manner was confident and his eyes stared at the short middle-aged black woman without fear. The very fact that a Lieutenant Colonel called a two-star by her first name said it all, though only a close inspection of their matching wedding rings would have revealed what “it all” was.
She took three steps over to her much taller husband and put a hand on his arm. “Jimmy-John, you got to go corral George for me. That chickenshit son of a bitch doesn’t want to weaken his defenses but hell, there ain’t no one to defend against closer than Raleigh, not since we cleaned Petersburg’s clock. He don’t need those Abrams. The mobile gun systems will do him just fine for emplaced defense.”
“Sure, Alice. I’ll handle it.” He leaned down to kiss her, and turned to go persuade Nervous George to give up his armor.
“James,” she said to her aide – she called him James to clearly distinguish him from her husband – “you got them plans run out to everyone?”
“Yes, ma’am. Everyone should be ready by first light.”
“You keep after them, hear? I got to go see the boss and some fancy-boy from Washington. I mean Pueblo, I guess. Just don’t seem right...” She turned and stomped out of the operations center and jumped into her Humvee. A few minutes later she pulled up to the front steps of the Governor’s Office building, waving at the nearest Capitol police officer to park it. They were used to her proclivities; she was a force of nature and there was no point protesting. Besides, with martial law declared she seemed to think they worked for her, and they weren’t about to argue.
She marched past all the Governor’s functionaries and gatekeepers, ignoring their looks and faint protests to barge right into his office. She crushed Allaine’s hand in hers. “Howdy, Howard. What the hell is going on?”
He never could figure out how she generated so much strength out of a body no taller than his armpit. “That’s what I called you to discuss, Alice.”
She tried the same trick on Tyler, but he squeezed back, unperturbed. She said, “Good to see you again, General. Got the virus and they put you out to pasture? Well, I can’t blame you. Marcy musta got tired of your willy going limp every time you tried to give it to her.”
“Alice!” cried the Governor, but Tyler waved him off with a laugh. “Don’t worry about it, sir. Alice and I are old friends. I can’t think of anyone better to put in charge of this operation. And no, Alice, I didn’t get retired because I’m an Eden. I’m working directly for the President now, trying to put the country back together again.”
“You jes’ keep telling yourself that, Travis. Nice suit, by the way. I thought you had better taste.”
“And I thought you had better manners. Now can we skip the lovefest and talk about saving my peoples’ lives?”
Alice Zimmer sat down like a jack-in-the-box run backwards and peered intently at Tyler. Her face puckered up like she was sucking lemons. “Okay then Travis, git on with it.”
