Nancy didn’t give him an answer. She was too concerned about what was happening in a windowless conference room down the hall. Thinking that she had not heard him, Nathan repeated it. “Colonel, how long before they stage another attack?”

“If we’re lucky,” she replied, “it’ll come after the governor has said his piece.”

The success of their high-risk gamble depended upon creating the illusion that the governor was in complete control and was speaking from a position of strength. Even the slightest hint that he was not, or that he was being forced to deliver his speech at gunpoint, would doom their entire enterprise. “Lieutenant,” Nancy stated as forcefully as she could, “not a shot is to be fired from this building unless I give the order. I want complete silence while the governor is making his announcement. If you have to, use bayonets, fists, teeth, anything. But no shooting. Is that clear?”

Though he was confused by this, Nathan trusted Nancy and her judgment. There was a valid reason for this particular order, one that he couldn’t come up with on his own at that moment. So without further hesitation he nodded. “Roger that, Colonel.”

Without acknowledging the lieutenant’s cocky response, Nancy looked down at her watch. After taking one more look at Nathan’s paratroopers and out the window into the street below she made for the room where Jan, Sam Anderson, and their combined crews were about to make a stab at playing midwife to history.

MOUNTAIN HOME AIR BASE, IDAHO 0500, NOVEMBER 12

The scene that was playing out at the division tactical command post was not at all unusual. The well drilled procedures being used during the impromptu briefing for key commanders and staff officers on the unfolding situation in Boise had been practiced time and time again during numerous training exercises and simulations. Scott, the chief of staff, G-2, and G-3 listened intently to the briefing being delivered to them by the officers belonging to the night shift. Since the events in Boise did not involve any of the division’s subordinate commands or was being reported by them, it was the G-2 who delivered the bulk of the hasty update which was both baffling and full of surprises. One bit of information that inadvertently slipped out was the fact that there was a long range recon section in Boise. “They infiltrated the city two nights ago,” the intelligence officer informed the chief of staff when he asked about this. “They took up position on the rooftop of a hotel near the capitol building. It was from this source that we first got word that something was going on.”

“Are these people still in place?” Felden asked.