Shelter: Book 2, A Long Days Night (42 page)

“Good evening Mr. President, no, you’re not interrupting anything. How can I be of service?” At the same time his front doorbell rings, Linda opens the door to see three men standing on their door stoop dressed in dark suits, she also notices their street is blocked by state police cars with their roof mounted lights flashing. “Mrs. Blacke?”

“Yes?”

“Madam, I’m secret service special agent Jason Burke, I’m been tasked to escort your husband, I assume he’s currently on the telephone with the President?”

“Yes, he is, would you like to come in?”

“Thank you Mrs. Blacke.” She sees four SWAT officers in front of her house holding M16s, she also hears a helicopter circling over her home.

The secret service agents enter the foyer, they hear, “Yes, Mr. President, I haven’t seen any new reports on any Strep breakout. No, sir, I haven’t had my television on, I haven’t seen any news reports of riots and burning pharmacies. Yes, sir. Yes, sir, I understand, Sir, now?”

Special Agent Burke lifts his left hand to his mouth where there’s a hidden microphone, “Confirm, target acquired. Repeat, target acquired, proceed to land and move to phase 2.”

He hears a voice in his earbud respond, “Roger, landing now.”

The President is saying, “Doctor Blacke, I would like you here in DC as soon as possible, the secret service agents at your home will escort you to a US Army Blackhawk helicopter which should be landing on your street, I’d like you to be on it with a packed bag in less than five minutes. The bird will take you to Hartsfield where there is an Air Force plane waiting to bring you to Andrews.”

“Yes, sir. I’ll be on the bird in five.” He hangs up the phone, Agent Burke says, “Sir, I’ve been tasked to ensure you are on the Blackhawk and the plane to D.C., if you don’t mind I’ll escort you upstairs.”

Doctor Blacke is already taking the stairs two at a time while Special Agent Burke is still talking, he hears his wife say, “Jim, what in the world is going on?”

“Honey, I’m sorry, I have to go, we have a fire alert.” His wife knew fire alert was code for a very serious situation, possibly a biological attack. As she’s thinking about the words ‘fire alert’ a black helicopter is landing on their street, four armed Special Forces soldiers exit, they’re dressed in all black MOPP 4 biological suits, each is holding a silenced M4 automatic assault rifle. The troops ensure no neighbors or press interferes with their orders to bring Doctor Blacke to Washington. His wife sees the MOPP suits and starts shaking. Jim returns downstairs, she points at the soldiers asking, “Is it that bad?”

“I honestly don’t know. I haven’t checked the office email for the previous four days, I wanted a nice quiet holiday weekend with just us. I’ve got to hurry, there’s jet waiting for me at the airport.”

“What should I do?”

“Stay here, I’ll get a message to you. I love you.”

Her words, I love you too are drowned out by the Blackhawk, which is already rising before her husband even closed the side door. Special Agent Burke says, “Mrs. Blacke, will you please pack a bag and come with us?”

“Where are you taking me?”

“To a safe location.”

“Okay.”

Neighbors watching the scene take place on their street become very worried, all know who Doctor Blacke is. If their street was blocked and the Doctor taken away in a black helicopter with armed soldiers, something very bad is happening. Many of the Doctor’s neighbors being packing to get away from Atlanta.

Look for “Silent Death” coming to Amazon Kindle October 2015.

Copyright July 2015,

Ira J. Tabankin, Knoxville, TN

“In the Year 2050.”

America’s Religious Civil War

Ira Tabankin

1st edition

Copyright April 2015

Ira J. Tabankin

Sterling, VA 20166

Author’s note

This story started with me reading a report, “The Future of World Religions: Population Growth Projections, 2010-2050. Why Muslims Are Rising Fastest and the Unaffiliated Are Shrinking as a Share of the World’s Population” By the Pew Research Center. They published a chart which woke me up.

When I read the report, I thought, what would happen if a radical Muslim were elected President? How would one get elected? Since the report made it’s projections in the year 2050, I choose that as the year to place this story. Rather than turn the story into a “SciFi” story focusing on the advances in technology in the next 35 years, I made very few technology projections used in the 2050s, I wanted the story to be about the ‘What if’ America elected a Muslim as President. Since technology plays a major role in our lives, I did project that our televisions and gaming will be replaced by 3D hologram technology which seems to be a logical step in entertainment devices.  If anyone is interested, the full report is available online at the Pew Research Center site.

Prologue

In the year 2050 the world’s population based on their religious beliefs is almost equally split between Christianity and Islam. The high birth rate in the Islamic communities combined with the much lower birthrate in the world’s other religions laid the foundation for Islam to pass Christianity by the early 2050’s.  By 2050, Islam controlled most of the European Union states. The shift started in the late 1990s when Europe’s open borders allowed large numbers of Muslims to relocate to Europe. Instead of assimilating into the existing population the Islamic immigrants separated themselves into Islamic ghettos where they followed their own religious practices and practiced Sharia law. Infidels were not welcome in these ghettos, the Muslim immigrants patrolled their ghettos which over time grew to encompass entire cities with their own government, police, and fire departments.  In order to be competitive local banks were forced to follow Sharia law, which outlawed charging interest.  The Islamic cities formed roaming religious police, who were called the Mutaween. Their job was to ensure the population followed Sharia law. The Mutaween ensured that no remnants of the ‘Western lifestyle’ remained to pollute the followers of Allah. With high birth rates and high immigration, the size of the Islamic cities and communities grew, as did their political power. The Muslim’s voted in an Islamic block. By 2020, they were running their own candidates for public offices.  In 2022, Muslims held the offices of the mayor of London, Birmingham, Paris, Berlin, and over 200 smaller towns and cities. In 2050, the Islamic Caliphate covered all of Europe, the Middle East, Africa, (with the exception of South Africa which after numerous race wars was a devastated battlefield of ruined cities) and a third of Eastern Russia. The Chinese Communist Party fought the expression of all religions. Australia and New Zealand outlawed radical Islam, they deported any who tried to overthrow their democratic lifestyle.

In 2015, America and Iran signed the worst treaty in modern history. America agreed to release all economic sanctions against Iran in exchange for Iran agreeing to not produce a nuclear weapon for ten years. Iran laughed at America’s stupidity in accepting their word without a backup plan. Iranians chanted “Death to America”, “Death to Israel.” While their government signed a worthless treaty.

In 2020, Iran launched a surprise attack against Israel with fifty nuclear-armed missiles. Forty-six of the missiles were intercepted by Israel’s expanded anti-missile shield. Israel struck back at Iran with 200 nuclear missiles and bombs. Tehran was struck by six 350KT Israeli weapons, the capital of Iran was vaporized, the city ceased to exist. Saudi Arabia also struck Iran using their secretly developed nuclear weapons.  Israel had secretly traded nuclear assistance to Saudi Arabia in exchange for them attacking Iran if Iran struck Israel first. Israel also shared with Saudi Arabia various technologies. The two entered into an uneasy peace. Saudi Arabia knew Israel had enough weapons to destroy the Kingdom if Saudi Arabia moved against Israel. With the destruction of Iran, Saudi Arabia took its place as the leader of the Islamic world. The King of Saudi Arabia signed an agreement with Israel agreeing to recognize the right of Israel to exist in exchange for Israel agreeing not to attack Saudi Arabia. The treaty allowed Saudi to focus on converting the rest of the world to follow Allah. The Saudi Royals knew that when Islam was strong enough, they would return to the question of Israel.

While In the United States, twenty Muslims were elected to Congress in the midterm elections of 2020. In the 2024 elections, Muslims won 55 seats in the House and 6 seats in the Senate. In 2026, there were 102 Muslim members of the House and 16 Senators. They formed a powerful congressional group, the Congressional Islamic Group, (CIG). The CIG pressured the liberal media to suppress any story which didn’t reflect Islam in the best light. Any Story about an Islamic attack on an infidel was suppressed. The CIG understood that most Americans got their news from fifteen-second sound bites, they knew, whoever controlled the media, controlled how the average American thought. Their antagonists were the right-wing talk radio hosts who had the largest share of the radio market. The CIG pushed the equal time rule through Congress. Any media that broadcast a right wing radio or television program also had to broadcast an opposing program for the same amount of time in a similar time slot that had a similar number of listeners or viewers. The new law doomed talk radio. If Rush was on for three hours in midday, then the same station had to broadcast an opposing view program in a time slot that had the same number of listeners. Since Rush had the highest rated radio program, there wasn’t another time slot or available program that provided an opposing view. Talk radio’s success was its own downfall.

The right wing talk radio and television hosts, Rush, Glen, Sean, and Mark were all kicked off the air. The four of them merged their networks into a new Tea Party/right-wing network they called the EIBLAZE network. They quickly learned, regardless of their number of viewers and listeners, due to the equal time rule, no commercial station could host them. They began broadcasting on the on internet. The CIG brought suit against the EIBLAZE network and Google saying internet providers, under the FCC’s takeover of the internet in 2015 were covered by the equal time rule. The FCC sided with the CIG. The EIBLAZE found no provider would host them due to the fear of being sued by the FCC. The EIBLAZE’s only option was to move offshore so they could continue their broadcasting. The CIG and FCC pressured service providers in the EU and Asia to block the EIBLAZE network, which left the hosts having to fund their own internet provider based in Israel. The CIG filed suit against the new network and all broadcasts originating in Israel. Israel refused to hear the lawsuit. The CIG pressured Congress to cut all aid to Israel until they followed the equal time rule. Israel had sufficient support in Congress to block the CIG from cutting aid. Israel continued to host the Tea Party/right wing broadcasts which became the only voice of logic and conservatism available to the American public.