Morning of Atom

Tania Hill sat engrossed with her prep-work for a Union rally the following morning. The tour-bus bounced and swayed as the city lights whizzed by, she glanced at her wristwatch, seeing it was 2:30 am, she tried to wipe the fatigue from her face. It has been six months since Shadow sent her off to play Governor, and with her background and interest in political science, she figured it'll be a piece of cake. Just make some promises, kiss some babies, and use her "assets" and she could enjoy it. Right, so explain to me why it's so damn hard? she asked herself as she got up and trudged by her aid sleeping head first on paperwork in the small dinette. Darcy Finch was a perky, wide-eyed college grad who was far too enthusiastic, and clueless to Tania's true mission. Most of her staff was, which is why it's so damned exhausting she mused as she undressed and changed into an old beat-up olive shirt and collapsed on the stiff twin bed.

She dreamed of wandering the streets as a young girl, clinging to what little warmth her holed and stained clothing could offer. She saw the man that showed the abandoned and starving girl kindness, without any distasteful act in return for payment, the battle-hardened trainer who taught her to fight, to kill if necessary, the only real family she ever knew. She awoke to Darcy's surprised yelp, apathetically Tania rolled out of bed and slipped on some workout shorts. The morning sun shone through the bullet-proof Lexan windows, as Darcy rummaged through papers, "What is it now Darcy?" Tania asked to ask she walked by her flustered aide to the compact fridge to grab an orange juice.

Darcy pushed her glasses up the ridge of her nose, "I lost the speech I was writing for you!" she answered in an almost panic. "Just print out another one," Tania replied before she took a deep drink of the orange juice, "Well the thing is..." Darcy broke her eye contact and appeared embarrassed, "When I fell asleep I must've landed on the keyboard, and... well I must've, accidentally... deleted it." she finished sheepishly. Tania laughed, "Is that all?" Darcy gave a huff and turned a visible shade of red. "It's not funny!" she protested. "You know I never stick strictly to the speeches, I did my homework, and I know what I want to say, I'll just wing it." Tania said with a sly smile as she put a hand on the young girl's shoulders, "It's OK Darcy, really." With groan Darcy resigned and hung her head, she was still visibly tired, almost as much as her employer.

Tania stood in front of the tall mirror in her small cabin straightening and smoothing her causal suit, she smiled as she remembered a parable Phage told her in training. She just fell face-first in the cold Alaskan mud, she failed a recon exercise were she had to infiltrate and retrieve an envelope representing Intel. Her meeting with the mud came when a watchful guard tackled her. Phage ordered her to her feet and took her aside. "Have you heard of The Widow and Her Web?" he asked as she just replied with a bewildered look, "No sir, I haven't" she answered. "There was once a black widow who wanted a mate, <I'll make a web so beautiful they can't help but to line up to be my mate!> she said and so she weaved a wonderful web which glittered like a rainbow in the sun, but the male widows were unaccustomed to the colors and stayed away. Devastated the black widow tore down her beautiful web, <I'll make a web no prey will escape! Then they see how smart I am!> she said and so she weaved a masterful web with many traps, the male widows were impressed, but none could find her because of how complex her web was.

Frustrated the black widow tore down her web again, <I give up!> she screamed. A while later she felt hungry, so she made a simple web, and as she waited for prey she attracted a male widow, and he became her mate until she ate him a while later." Tania started at her mentor, "So what does it mean sir?" Phage smiled, "If you try too hard you'll never get what you want, but do only what you need, and you'll get your prey. You need to do less and think more, lure your prey with the simple, and they won't doubt you. Use what you have to get your ends." She unbuttoned the top three buttons of her blouse, not showing too much, but not too little. Darcy waited at the bus door, the camera's flashed and news reporters with there cameras crowded outside. "How do I look?" she asked Darcy, who smiled, "Killer!" She smiled, ' Indeed I am', Tania thought as the doors swung open, Indeed I am.

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A glorious day indeed! Today Tania Hill is officially Governor of California, and now work can begin. I'll transform California into our flagship so to speak. If we succeed here, the others will fall in line and a senate promotion in four years for miss Hill. Her first order of business is the formation of an elite investigation branch for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement California Branch, the stated purpose is finding and tracking of illegal transports of arms, drugs, and persons across the California/Mexico border. In reality, the division will seal the border from any and all illegal traffic by all means.

Dismantling all unapproved dealings to and from Mexico, and quietly deporting all undocumented persons from the U.S. This will bring our beautiful young governor to legendary status in the political arena, and the political and civil unrest within Mexico in the last few years will play right into my hands. I may have to stir the hornet's nest there if things get into the public light, and how I loath the political correctness of my country, but fear from across the border will quench any political opposition. Once I succeed, and I will, all of the southern states will line up to do similar programs, and of course, I'll be there, as CEO of my technology company I can place myself in opportune circumstances to where I'll lead in border security technologies, and with War Eagle's in charge of several private security contractors, supplemental border security as well. More Americans will get jobs, feel safer, and I'll have a solid foothold to move forward to my goal.

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Battle Phage loaded his M4A2 assault rifle and checked his night-vision scope and IR/Red Laser sight mounted on the side of the barrel, while his team also prepped for the mission ahead. They were dressed in dirty cloaks and appeared as members of a local cartel hit squad, armed with Mexican military issue M4 rifles and uniform cameos. The Vasquez Cartel hired him under the sudo-name Michael Hunter, mercenary and combat specialist, as well as his team. Phage's "team" was his top 5 students and all loyal to him and Shadow. Satisfied with his weapon, he nodded to his team and they exited the VC armored car/troop carrier and into the early morning, downtown streets of San Luis Colorado, a nearly deserted border town, and now center of violence between increasingly desperate drug cartels. The six-man squad advanced down the street with military precision, hugging the bullet-riddled walls until they reached a darkened alleyway, Phage put his fist up and the team stopped, he raised his rifle to his shoulder and slowly rounded the corner, his night-vision scope showed the decrepit alley, but no contacts. He cautiously entered the alley with the team matching his movements.

As Phage got twenty-five feet down the thirty-foot alley when the trash beside him moved and rustled, and he and his team snapped to the origin of the noise to a very startled rat who scurried away. Battle phage chuckled turned to the end of the alley to a very surprised three-man patrol, Phage and his team fired there silenced M4 rifles and dropped the men before they could return fire. Without hesitating two of his men quickly dragged the three corpses into the alley and

covered them with garbage, then toke the men's weapons and stripped them of anything useful, and quietly placed what was left into a dumpster. With the patrol thoroughly hidden Phage's team regrouped and continued to move, crossing the street and into another alley to an eight-foot, barbed-wire topped, concrete wall of a large compound at the edge of town. The team took

off there cloaks, "Ok, beta-team move north, myself and alpha-team will move west to the back gate. Stay quiet till the fireworks start, sync time 0400. Mark. Go." Phage quickly relayed to his teams, beta-team leisurely walked along the wall toward the north, acting and looking like a patrol, five minutes after the beta team left Phage and his alpha team walked west toward the back gate.

Phage greeted the guards in Spanish, they returned the greeting and asked about a soccer game the guard in the tiny security station was watching on an equally tiny TV. As Phage and his team socialized with the guards, he reached into his pocket on his vest and pressed a button on a hidden remote as he retrieved a cigarette. Back in the armored car, the display on a large cylinder counted down from thirty seconds, and ever louder whine droned when the numbers hit zero the micro-nuke went off, vaporizing the truck and leveling a city block. The flash lit up the sky and a mushroom cloud lifted into the air. Phage and his team ducked behind the walls milliseconds before the blast-wave hit, blasting the compound walls with debris and dust. The blast's EMP knocked out power and the resounding sound of the bomb seemed to rock the earth, bringing the compound into chaos.

Battle Phage and his teams went to work, they quickly executed guards and barked conflicting orders to others as they moved through the compound. The micro hydrogen bomb Cork Screw built had too little radiation to be a concern and to avoid confusion, every one of his squad had Extreme-IR lights sewn into there clothing. X-IR lights are undetectable by conventional night-vision, both civilian and military-issue models, but show up like signal flares by his team's

special-built scopes. As Phage neared his target, the wall in front of him ejected plumes of dry-wall

and stucco as the rattle of an AK-47 pierced the chaos. Phage turned to see a guard with IR goggles getting a bead on him, Phage ducked into a side room as his team also ducked into cover. More rounds punched holes into the wall as the guard continued to fire. Phage peeked thru a near-by hole to see his target struggle to reload his rifle, a snap of an M4 came from his right, and the guard dropped as a 5.56mm NATO round shot a plume of blood from the side of the man's head.

His radio clicked twice, his team's signal for the all-clear.

Battle Phage came cautiously from the side room and he and his team continued down the second-floor exterior hall, to large double doors flanked by nervous guards, Phage dropped both of them quickly and aimed down a staircase, he held fire as beta-team glowed in his scope, and the six men flanked the doors. His men taped pre-sized strips of DET-CORD to the hinges and stuck the detonators to the door. Both teams took five steps back and the explosive charges blew the hinges from the wall, and the armored doors fell to the floor. Beta and Alpha teams rushed the bedroom, dropping the six guards in as many seconds and switched their lasers to visible-red and bathed the startled Julio Vasquez, head of the Vasquez Cartel, in blood-red laser light. Battle Phage walked

into the room with his rifle's tac-light on, 'Good morning Mr. Vasquez' Phage said coolly in Spanish, Vasquez blinked, 'Michael? What are you doing!'

Battle Phage smiled, 'My job, you see I had a higher bidder, Mr. Vasquez.' Vasquez became visibly angry, 'And who may that be? I'm paying you six-hundred-thousand US a month!' Phage just stared into the man's eyes with a smirk, 'The Cartel Chihuahua, and they doubled my fee,' Phage raised his rifle, 'Goodbye Mr. Vasquez, may God give you mercy.' Vasquez panicked, screaming as he begged for his life, Phage fired three rounds into the man's stomach, the pain and shock caused the man to pass out, but Phage wanted the mass murderer to live, at least long enough to reveal his attacker's "employer". Battle Phage and his team took on the role of friendlies and helped organize the chaos, then made up a plausible excuse for himself and his team to leave. A block from the back gate a black SUV waited for them. Phage and his team changed into civvies and stowed their weapons into hidden compartments, and drove off into the desert, as Mexican military helicopters circled the bomb scene behind them.

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Apollo watched the news in horror as the news anchor spoke, "...It is unbelievable, we have confirmed, a low-yield nuclear device has been detonated in downtown San Luis Colorado, Mexico. I repeat a nuclear weapon has been detonated in Mexico..." The anchor stood in front of the Tijuana border crossing, "...Our Arizona affiliate has just received amateur footage of the detonation..."

The scene changed to shaky video of a bunch of teenagers joking around a campfire when a brilliant flash ignited the horizon, and a fiery mushroom cloud rising in the distance. The teens swore un-edited as they looked on in horror, a second later the blast hit them and the camera shook and sand shifted, the scene changed to the news desk, "We apologize for the language in that video, we too are in shock, and of course we will keep all of you informed as the situation unfolds. We go now to California Governor, Tania Hill." The governess looked somber as she stood before the press and the California seal behind her, "My fellow Californians, members of the press, ladies, and gentlemen. First I give my condolences to the victim's families of this heinous act of violence and devastation. The use of nuclear weapons is, in my judgment, unforgivable. The Cartel War can no longer be a secondary priority to this country, and I implore the President, and Congress to take immediate steps to ensure the safety and security of The United States, and declare the drug cartels, officially, terrorist organizations. As of now, the border between Mexico and California is closed. I have asked Californian National Guard Units to deploy, in-force, to seal and secure the Mexican border.

"All local and state governments are at full alert, and as of now, I am declaring a state of emergency in the counties on our southern border. I want to assure Californians that I will not declare martial law, and no such decision will be considered at this time. In saying that, I will keep California safe and secure to my utmost ability, and keep you all informed. There will be no questions at this time,

and once I have read the details of the investigation of this terrorist act another press conference will be scheduled and at that time I will take questions, but until then I ask that we all stay calm and give prayer to the victims of this tragedy, thank you." Apollo sank in the couch, Sakura, Fist, and others gathered around the screen as aerial video of the epicenter was shown, the crater was cracked obsidian and buildings were leveled for a block from the five-hundred-foot diameter scar,

Mexican troops in HAZ-MAT gear survey the damage as black-hawk helicopters circle overhead. "Why didn't we see this coming?" Apollo blurted out, still in shock of it all. "That's a good question," Argo's voice said coolly as everyone turned, "The cartels have never tried to acquire such weapons before, why kill potential customers?" Apollo thought for a moment, "Sniper, you have been there

before right?" He nodded, "Yes, once. Cartels use small towns like that for production, since almost all of the town's people are so desperate for work they don't care that they make drugs, so they won't tell anyone snooping around.

San Luis however, has been shot up so much the town's people have long-ago ran or got killed in the crossfire. It's on the edge of the desert, and a prime spot to smuggle product into the U.S. so control of San Luis is control of a major smuggling line."

"But would a cartel use a nuke?" Apollo asked, and Sniper thought for a moment, "It's possible, a small yield bomb like that isn't hard to put together with the government so corrupt, a cartel could easily acquire a small amount of fissionable material from processing a fresh fuel-rod from a nuclear power plant, but something doesn't add up." Apollo stared at Sniper confused, "What do you mean?" He looked back at Apollo coolly, "The report says that there isn't too much radiation, which suggests a hydrogen bomb, which is far more difficult to construct. Only a Ph.D. nuclear physicists would know how to make one, and they are closely monitored by Homeland Security." Apollo gave a look of horror as he realized something, "How bout a genius super-villain?"