Crimson Signal

It didn't strike Andy as particularly surprising the discussion that happened when they arrived at the White House, but for at least twenty minutes, he was wondering if they were going to be allowed in or arrested. Of course, the person arguing the loudest wasn't a member of his Team, it was, naturally, Linda from Phil's.

"And as I have told you repeatedly, General," Linda said. "We at the New Eden site have universally declined to follow the unlawful order to put tracking cuffs on all our men. You have been hearing over and over again from people across this great country that this is illegal. Congress itself removed the tracking clause from the Men's Protection Act because they knew it wouldn't pass if it was left in it, and yet, the President, in her infinite wisdom, has decided she can run an endgame pass circumventing that with an Executive Order. And I am here to tell you. That. Shit. Will. Not. FLY. Now, if the President has any interest in seeing my husband, you're going to let us in without trying to put those collars on our boys. Otherwise, we will turn and walk out of here, continuing our protest."

Andy had shown up with Lexi, Melody, Emily, Fiona and Piper; Phil had come with just Linda, Charlotte and Violet. The key was to travel light, seem unthreatening, even as they showed up in total defiance of the President's Executive order, with nearly a dozen armed people surrounding them in the entryway, a combination of Marines and Secret Service, overseen by a four-star General whose name Andy hadn't managed to catch.

The tension in the room had been so thick that Andy was a little terrified it was going to break off and turn violent. There were several hands on their weapons, but no fingers on triggers. Still, it felt like that was only the tiniest amount of reassurance he had. Everything was a powder keg they were juggling torches over. And as much as Andy wanted to speak up, wanted to stand up for his own rights, he knew that letting Linda, rather Lieutenant Colonel Linda Hayes, be the front person was the right approach in dealing with the military.

"And if we choose to not let you leave?" one of the Marines said, trying to present a unified front, although Andy could clearly see not all of them were as resolute as the one talking.

"If the members of my Team don't hear from us, confirming that we've left the White House in five hours, they are under explicit orders to go straight to the press and inform them that we are being held here under duress for having committed no crime."

"Defying a direct order seems pretty criminal to me, ma'am."

"Defying the President's illegal executive order isn't a crime and I think you know it, Marine," Linda said, her nerves as cold as steel. Andy had often admired how relentlessly calm Linda could be in high pressure situations, but in this particular one, even she seemed a little flustered. Still, surrounded by a squad of armed women, Linda seemed less afraid of the Marines and their rifles than they seemed of her. "My husband and his friend requested a meeting with the President to inform her about some new discoveries we have made, things she's definitely going to want to know about. But if she'd rather stand on ceremony and have us arrested because we refuse to go along with her authoritarian order, that's her call."

Both groups seemed like they weren't going to break or budge but eventually the President's assistant Chief of Staff, Tabitha Grey, arrived, waving her hands feverishly at both sides. "Okay! OKAY! Let's everyone just de-escalate this a few dozen degrees, shall we? Take everything down ten notches and and and CHILL THE FUCK OUT!"

Lexi chuckled, still standing in front of Andy, keeping him behind her. "This is what happens when you start trying to tell people what they can and can't do with their lives. It's not an easy thing for anyone to endure, and we're in total agreement with Lt. Colonel Hayes - this order is unlawful, and we refuse to obey it. But we're also still fulfilling our duty to inform the President about new information regarding the Quaranteam serum that has come to light."

"I can't say this bodes very well for first contact to me, Andrew," the voice of CHRIS said in his head. "Just think how uptight they're going to be once they realize we swarms have got minds of our own."

"Just chill, CHRIS," Andy mumbled quietly enough for no one else to hear him. "I sort of expected it was going to be this uptight, at least at first. They're all wound up about the Algerian collapse and this whole thing wasn't entirely unexpected."

The Great Algerian Annexation had proven to be a truly colossal fuck up on a scale that nobody had anticipated, although in retrospect, the problems should've been obvious at the start. The country's military had been stretched too thin too far too fast, and at the first sign of resistance, it had fallen apart. Nearby countries had dispatched military teams to gather up and kidnap the newly docile men and bring them back to their own dwindling population, and the men had been made so pliant that they put up no resistance. But in many cases, the military teams had left some of the women behind, effectively issuing death sentences for any woman who had her man taken from her. As a response, many women demanded they go with their men, rather than being left behind, promising not to put up any struggle, as long as their own survival was guaranteed.

It was a fucking nightmare.

Many of the surrounding countries were already fighting back against the Algerian forces, who were unable to remain focused in any of the territories they had claimed. Every morning, it seemed like the map of where the African countries started and ended was constantly being redrawn. In some cases, it wasn't even countries - it was female warlords just claiming territory as their own, daring someone with military might to come and try and take it from them.

The press had mostly refused to go report from those countries, and most of the information the general population was getting was coming from cellphones, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube videos and Twitter posts. That information was constantly changing - people asking for help, filming the abduction of their neighbors sometimes, or showing troop movements via drone footage. Government buildings were being fought over, but the current estimation was that nearly eighty percent of the land the Algerians had claimed during the annexation was now only partially under their control, if even that. Niger and Mali were the lands with the most Algerian presence still in them, but even those countries were putting up strong resistance now.

All that chaos had basically caused the President to panic, which was why there had been a sudden move to lockdown all the men in America. Male trafficking had skyrocketed overnight and while the number of American men abducted over the last year could be counted on just two hands, that was still nine people too many, according to the President.

Executive Order 13989 had been an effort to try and get ahead of that problem, to step beyond what Congress would allow her to do. It was sudden, it was desperate, and it was smothering. It was certainly misguided, but it had been coming from a place of guardianship.

"I'm going to bring you in to see the President, and we're going to let you walk out of here without putting anklets on your men," Tabitha said to them, "but I need you to understand - that isn't an acceptance of what you're doing, or an endorsement of it. You're in violation of the law. You should be getting arrested right now, but I accept that the national sentiment is currently against us. But in exchange for us not arresting you, I need you to not go to the press and tell them about this meeting."

"Hang on," Linda started to say, but the assistant Chief of Staff raised her hand.

"You can speak to them and tell them you're against the program," Tabitha quickly said. "You can tell them you're defying the order. I don't care about any of that. I just care about the optics of us knowingly let you flagrantly disregard the order here. But if you want to call up 60 Minutes and do an interview about what a dumb idea you think the Executive Order is, you go right ahead. Just don't mention that you were here since it's been implemented. Deal?"

Linda looked at Phil and Andy, both of whom nodded.

"What we've got to talk about is too important to be derailed by this small-scale nonsense," Phil said, rubbing his eyes, "no matter how fucking angry it makes me and no matter how fucking un-American it is. So, fine. Get us into the room with the President, and we promise not to tell the press she's seen us breaking her unconstitutional law."

"Does this have anything to do with Arthur Covington?" Tabitha asked as she gestured for the Marines and the Secret Service to lower their weapons, which they did. "We know you went to see him before his escape."

Andy's eyes widened in anger. "What the fuck do you mean escape?"

The White House aide frowned tightly. "You haven't been informed. I see."

"Covington escaped?" Piper asked, her hands clenched tightly in fists. "How?"

"Professional jailbreak by a military operation originating from an unknown country," Tabitha said. "We don't know who or where they've taken him, only that he's no longer in the country. The jailbreak was staged without any casualties and done with a level of professionalism that I don't think anyone was anticipating. Our security was high, but not enough for this level of expertise. We still don't understand it. His assets have all been seized so it's not like he had any money, and the man was an investment banker. Most of the institutional knowledge he had isn't that applicable in the new world. We can't figure out why anyone would want to make such a serious investment to get the man out of jail in the first place."