Case:Black - 33. Chapter 33

3^rd Brigade Headquarters

Tennessee National Guard

Bartlett, TN

General Roger Scarborough wanted to throttle his staff intelligence officer. He needed answers and he needed them fast.

His staff G-2 was a ROTC kid named Sanders. Lt. Sanders was smart enough but he was in a job at least two sizes too big for him. His staff intelligence officer should have been a Captain or a Major. Scarborough shook himself: he had to work with what he had; not what he wished that he had. It wasn’t that Sanders failed for lack of energy. The General needed to step in and focus the young man on precisely what was required.

Scarborough’s mobile command center was set up on a parking lot on Stage Road right next to a telephone pole where they were tapped into the city’s fiber optic net. They hadn’t bothered to disconnect the truck from the command center/trailer so it could move with 10 minutes’ notice.

He walked to the big common room and said, “Sanders, I need to see you.”

The young officer entered the General’s presence like a kid entering the principal’s office.

Scarborough said, “Close the door and have a seat.”

Sanders closed the door and sat in the chair across the desk.

The General said, “I’ve seen you making the classic mistake that almost every young officer makes: you’re trying to do it all by yourself. It’s an honest mistake but I can’t wait for you to figure it out on your own.”

“You’ve got three people working for you. Hand off tasks to them and coordinate. Then I want you to organize the data and present it to me.”

Sanders said, “To be honest General I feel overwhelmed. All the training I’ve had is for Brigades in combat situations. This is a unique situation and we’ve had to make some of this up as we go along.”

The General sat back and said, “Brief me on what you do have.”

Sanders put a Computer pad on the table and began, “We have to coordinate with numerous entities: FBI, DHS, USAMARIID, the cities of Bartlett, Germantown and Memphis their police and emergency services and hospitals. It’s all a huge cluster f... I mean mess and we’re just now getting it all squared away. That’s just a start. The next thing is knowing who to talk to and who has decision making authority. We’ve been working through that all day.”

“What is worse is that even the people that do have authority don’t want to make decisions. They have to talk to their mayors and aldermen and cover their behinds.”

General Scarborough rolled his eyes. He understood exactly what the young officer was struggling with. He asked, “How about our coordination with the Arkansas and Mississippi Guard Units?”

Sanders said, “That’s a bright spot General. We all train together and are having no problems communicating or coordinating.”

The General nodded and asked, “What do you have from the FBI about the drone and the path it took over the city?”

Sanders said, “The FBI has been investigating that.” He pulled up a map on his computer pad and pushed it across the desk. It showed a map of the city and suburbs, the route of the drone and dispersion of the aerosol that it sprayed.

Sanders said, “They aren’t sure exactly where it started. The Feds are still looking but, it was somewhere around where US 78 crosses the state line.”

“The drone drove right up Lamar Avenue passing the train yards, FedEx distribution center and all sorts of apartment complexes and industrial concerns- all as people were moving around for rush hour.”

The General growled, “That’s has to be thousands of people.”

Sanders continued, “The drone crossed I-240 where it was spotted by the cops. It continued through suburbs and urban areas and they lost it for a while. It cut North West over-flying more apartment complexes, spent some time over I-40 and eventually crashed North West of the city near Highway 51.”

Scarborough sighed, “That’s what I needed to know. Can you get this to the rest of the staff? They need to see it.”

“Not a problem.”

The General asked, “When you look at the attack data, what does it tell you.”

Sanders sat back and the General though he could actually see the wheels turning in the kids head. “I think that the attack was planned by people who didn’t know the city well. I think they may have been here a few days, driven around and set it up on the fly.”

Scarborough asked, “What makes you think that?”

“There are much denser populated areas. Some of the areas they did hit were industrial and they didn’t hit the airport.”

The General asked, “Why is the airport important?”

Sanders said, “MEM is the FedEx Super-hub. If it were hit directly, about a third of the countries civilian airlift capacity would have been contaminated. I think that the terrorists launched their drone based on a short reconnaissance, went to the airport and jumped a plane out of the country before everything shut down. It fits the profile based on other attacks. By the way- Homeland thinks they got our suspects on video from the airport out-bound for Mexico City just before the President pulled the plug.”

Scarborough said, “OK. Now you are thinking. That’s what I need out of my G-2. Do you think you can get organized and use your staff?”

Sanders said, “I think that we have worked through the hard part. At the moment, I’m working on another map focused on where we expect the worst of the primary infections.”

The General stood to indicate that the interview was over but before Sanders headed out the door, he said, “Sanders, I only care about two things: smarts and results. If you need anything, just let me or Colonel Gorman know. We’re counting on you.”

Sanders saluted smartly and made his escape for the office thinking either I have a tiger by the tail or it has me.