None of these memories seemed to disturb Jan’s sleep. Not even the fear of being eclipsed as one of the nation’s top media personalities by a spry young thing with blond hair, a manufactured smile, and perfect skin robbed Jan of her sleep. Instead, the one recurring nightmare that could trigger a cold sweat involved Jan hearing the phone ring in the middle of the night and being unable to rise and answer it. While some might find this rather silly, the panic that Jan felt whenever she heard a phone cut through the haze of her slumber was very real and very disturbing. For even if it wasn’t a replay of her nightmare, it meant only one of two things, neither of which were good. The first was that something had happened to Scott or Nathan. The second was that a story had broken while she was asleep and that she was already behind the curve.

Tonight a call from the Washington office of WNN informed her that it was the second of these. This, Jan told herself as she dressed after calling her crew together, she could handle. What worried her was not what she would find in Boise. The dark thoughts that plagued her all concerned her husband and son. Somehow she knew the two people she dearly loved would soon be in the thick of the fighting that was sure to come.

The morning briefing in the National Guard headquarters pressroom was a far cry from those of previous days. The spokesman, a young female captain that Jan thought was too perky to be taken seriously in any other role, gave only the sketchiest of details concerning actions from their side of the lines. Journalists like Jan who were tapped into news agencies that had people covering the Federal operations were quickly able to compare notes, spot discrepancies, and ask for clarifications or explanations. The Guard officer could provided neither. She had a prepared statement from which she could read, a few sketchy notes she had made while talking to the Adjutant General’s executive officer, and nothing else. “You must understand,” she repeated time and again after she sidestepped a question for which she had no answer. “The situation is still quite fluid. The time lag that exists between reports generated in the field and good information reaching here is considerable. I am sure that we will have more for you later.”