June 3rd, 2015 11:00 am EST united states of america Zeus thundered down the stairs. His battered chair wheezed as he sat down hard. When he clicked the mouse, his computer screen jumped to brightness. The call to his cell had come from outside the area, and he had a feeling of dread deep in the pit of his stomach. He frantically keyed in code. He wasn’t quite done, and if he wanted PANDORA to work flawlessly, he was going to need a little more time. The sound of an approaching helicopter made him think he wasn’t going to get those spare minutes. The test run on the Federal Reserve had been swift and devastating. If that call was his warning shot, then they had traced him in less than a day, but his fate didn’t matter. As he touched the keys and wove his mad geometry of open networks and transparent agencies, he heard the sound of his front door being blown off the hinges. He was ready. He stood and put his hands behind his head just as the barrel of an M-16 rounded the corner. *** June 3rd, 2015 1:00 pm EST the white house General Harold Hughes stood solidly behind his chair, and looked down the long table at the assembled stars of the mightiest military yelling at one another like schoolchildren. The professional warriors were coming undone, and he needed to find a way to put them all back together. The President had summoned him to the Oval Office at dawn, and then stood unspeaking for an uncomfortable thirty minutes. Out of the recognized 196 countries of the world,
70 Timeless Tales 2