Chapter 1
THE UNDISCLOSED LOCATION
Vice President Rod Meaney was alone, which was just the way he liked it. He had everything he needed here in the Undisclosed Location, which had been designed expressly for him, according to his duties and his needs, and had been constructed under his own very close supervision. It was a dream house of sorts – and he’d been given almost unlimited resources to bring that dream to life. During any time of national danger, the Vice President repaired to his Undisclosed Location so that he might run the country if anything, God forbid, should happen to the President. And in those days of the Crusade Against Evil, such times came almost constantly. This was the morning of the President’s third inaugural and The Most Powerful Nation The World Has Ever Known was on alert.
According to Meaney’s reckoning, even at the best of times the threat of Evil was constant and dreadful, and had to be confronted with a vigilance that was equally constant and full of dread. But on a day of national celebration such as today the threat was at its peak and the potential consequences of unvigilance were unimaginable – literally unimaginable, as it turned out, since no person in the long, interesting but ultimately pointless history of humanity up to that moment had ever come close to imagining what would come to pass by the end of that brisk, bright January day.
But if Vice President Rod Meaney didn’t know exactly what was going to happen, he had no illusions about Evil not being a very real, very imminent, very gathering threat. Catastrophe was all around – if he could not see it exactly, he could certainly smell it – he was never free of the reek of catastrophe, even here in the hermetically sealed environment of the Undisclosed Location nearly 8000 feet underground.
Today was a day of national celebration, and even if he himself didn't really go in for parades and funny hats and generally carrying on like some kind of giddy schoolgirl, he believed it was right that people should celebrate. Keep the evildoers guessing -- let 'em know they're not getting to us. So national celebration was fine by Meaney. It was what people were supposed to do. And what Vice President Rod Meaney was supposed to do was remain in the Undisclosed Location, monitor the situation, be prepared for the worst, and above all not let unvigilance, which was always lurking, get the better of him for even an instant.
Next chapter:
THE MOST POWERFUL PERSON EVER TO HAVE WALKED UPON THE SURFACE OF THE EARTH, in which the President reflects upon some things.
Vice President Rod Meaney was alone, which was just the way he liked it. He had everything he needed here in the Undisclosed Location, which had been designed expressly for him, according to his duties and his needs, and had been constructed under his own very close supervision. It was a dream house of sorts – and he’d been given almost unlimited resources to bring that dream to life. During any time of national danger, the Vice President repaired to his Undisclosed Location so that he might run the country if anything, God forbid, should happen to the President. And in those days of the Crusade Against Evil, such times came almost constantly. This was the morning of the President’s third inaugural and The Most Powerful Nation The World Has Ever Known was on alert.
According to Meaney’s reckoning, even at the best of times the threat of Evil was constant and dreadful, and had to be confronted with a vigilance that was equally constant and full of dread. But on a day of national celebration such as today the threat was at its peak and the potential consequences of unvigilance were unimaginable – literally unimaginable, as it turned out, since no person in the long, interesting but ultimately pointless history of humanity up to that moment had ever come close to imagining what would come to pass by the end of that brisk, bright January day.
But if Vice President Rod Meaney didn’t know exactly what was going to happen, he had no illusions about Evil not being a very real, very imminent, very gathering threat. Catastrophe was all around – if he could not see it exactly, he could certainly smell it – he was never free of the reek of catastrophe, even here in the hermetically sealed environment of the Undisclosed Location nearly 8000 feet underground.
Today was a day of national celebration, and even if he himself didn't really go in for parades and funny hats and generally carrying on like some kind of giddy schoolgirl, he believed it was right that people should celebrate. Keep the evildoers guessing -- let 'em know they're not getting to us. So national celebration was fine by Meaney. It was what people were supposed to do. And what Vice President Rod Meaney was supposed to do was remain in the Undisclosed Location, monitor the situation, be prepared for the worst, and above all not let unvigilance, which was always lurking, get the better of him for even an instant.
Next chapter:
THE MOST POWERFUL PERSON EVER TO HAVE WALKED UPON THE SURFACE OF THE EARTH, in which the President reflects upon some things.
© by N. Ominous 21.12.04
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