Chapter Seven - part eight

    The long days had become longer, weeks passed as everyone worked and struggled to manage all of the needs of the people and the nation as a whole. But as long as the days were, as painfully slow as the progress was, time still seemed to be flying by for James to get done what had been asked of him. He had been given just two months to restore order to the major cities on the west coast and the rest of the nation west of the Mississippi river. No matter how slow progress seemed to be going or how long the days seemed to be; the months had passed almost before James knew it. James had been well aware of the rapidly approaching deadline, but he was also well aware of the reality of what had been asked of him too. The deadline arrived without any great fanfare. The last day was still much the same in many ways as the first day had been. Supplies had to be kept flowing and troops had to keep after the areas where there were still issues. The infrastructure repairs were still moving slowly, but the overall progress had been tremendous in most areas. After two months of almost non-stop work fuel was available, the lights were on, and water was flowing in a great majority of most cities. The same was true in most of the smaller towns and many rural areas.

   James had been expecting a call or a summons to go to D.C. for a formal meeting and report, but neither had come. The deadline day came and went without any major events. That was fine with James. There was still a lot of work left to be done. It was early April now and while James was glad to see winter beginning to wind down, spring would bring an entirely new set of problems to be dealt with. While James might not have been concerned about the deadline passing without any response from D.C. his staff weren't so inclined. They all had heard about that video call and knew what had been said. Almost everyone had been getting more nervous with each passing day and now... nothing! General Hodges was probably the worst of all. He was growling and snapping at everyone since the deadline had passed. Finally one morning when he was little better at the morning staff meeting; he stopped James after it was over and asked the others to leave them alone. The rest of the staff members were quick to vacate the room for them.

   James wasn't surprised or upset when Hodges asked everyone to give them a few minutes alone. He had come to know Patrick Hodges very well over the long days and nights they had spent trying to figure out how to get the most done with the least loss of life and property damage. More than once they had spent several days in a row with only short naps taken on a cot while one of them remained awake to monitor the situation at hand. It had been a while since they had been faced with one of those extended sessions, but they had come to know a great deal about each other during them. James was well aware of how upset Hodges was over the lack of any word at all from D.C. about the deadline. As a four star general he had faced many deadlines over the years and they always had some kind of response when they arrived. Unless of course the deadline was simply changed before it arrived. There had been no word of any change to this deadline. Therefore they should have heard something by now. One thing about D.C. deadlines was constant; if they were for anyone other than the military they came and went without notice or change. But when the military had been given a deadline it was kept or changed before it arrived or heads rolled and not in D.C. either!  He had made that clear to James very early on in this operation.

    Once they were alone Hodges wasted no time. He faced James and told him exactly what he thought. "I don't know what is going on, but apparently you must. There is no way that you could be so calm and at ease about this if you don't know something. Would you please just nod your head, wink, or something to let me know that you do know something? You can't possibly believe that it will all be good if you are as in the dark as I am about this. Deadlines matter in the Army!  And I didn't think it was much different in the Air Force, or have they been misleading me all of these years?" James actually had to laugh as he shook his head and looked down. When he finally looked up again Hodges was starting to glare at him and get a bit red. James quickly motioned for him to take a seat again as he spoke. "Sit down Pat. I will try to explain, but I doubt you will like my explanation if you even manage to believe it." Hodges did sit down, but the look on his face told James there might be some more yelling done before this was over. That was one thing that he had learned about this man. He wasn't afraid to raise his voice when it was needed. In fact he often raised his voice when something really bothered him. That didn't happen often because once he started yelling things that bothered him seemed to disappear. James had also learned that he would yell when he was deeply concerned about something or someone. This time James had little doubt of the concern that the man had for him.

   "Like it or not Pat, I don't know any more than you do about the deadline. The truth is I wasn't even sure I would make it to the deadline. Now that I have I simply don't see the point in stressing about something like that. I think I have plenty of real problems to occupy my mind. Life will go on no matter what Washington decides to do. I just intend to keep on working until they say different." Patrick Hodges was so pale he almost looked white by the time James had finished talking. He just sat there staring at James for a long moment before everything changed. His face went red and he seemed to jump to his feet and start shouting all at once. "Are you serious?! Good Lord, your entire career could be hanging in the balance waiting for some self righteous know-it-all in D.C. to give a report to the President! And you sit here smiling and tell me you aren't worried!" Hodges started to swear and curse like a sailor denied leave as he turned and stomped around the room. That did surprise James. The man rarely cursed beyond uttering the occasional hell or damn and James had never heard him ranting like this.

    Finally Hodges stopped and turned back to face James. He drew a long slow breath and then spoke in a more normal tone of voice. "I want to apologize for that outburst. I know all my cursing must have been offensive to you, but I was going to explode if I didn't let it out." He walked across the room and placed a hand on James shoulder and leaned down slightly before he continued. "Son, I don't think you understand how important this is. I know I called you a fool and an idiot, but I was wrong. You have proven yourself to be one of the wisest most thoughtful men I have ever known. You not only have a great deal of understanding concerning both people and situations, you have something extra too. You have a deep and true compassion for others. You feel their pain and you understand them in ways that most people simply can't. You don't let attitudes or opinions effect your decisions or your own attitude. You always treat everyone like your friend, even your worst enemy, but you never forget that they are your enemies while you treat them as friends. You do what has to be done and deal with the consequences. James, I don't think anyone except you could have done what has been done. And I don't think we can keep it going without you. You may not care what happens to you, but a lot of people do! I certainly do!"

   James sat there for a long moment looking up into the face of the man who had just poured his heart out too him. He smiled and slowly stood up. Then he tried to find the right words to say despite the feelings that were suddenly overwhelming him. "Pat, I appreciate all of that more than I know how to say, but I think you may be exaggerating. I have only done what anyone would have done and without you at my side I doubt I could have done a lot of it. And just for the record, I do care very much what happens to my career! I still don't think I can do a lot about what happens in Washington D.C. at the moment. I can make a difference here though, and that is what I am going to try to do. Maybe they will hang me out to dry, but until they do I can do some good. But only as long as I don't let concerns about what might happen distract me. I think the best thing I can do is to keep working at this. Quite frankly, I think in the end that is the only thing I can do. Washington will do whatever Washington decides to do; regardless of how much we worry about it. Now let's just concentrate on the job we have to do and get as much done as we can before some real fools and idiots in D.C. decide they know a better way to get things done."

    Hodges stood there looking at the tall young man standing in front of him. He slowly began to smile and nod. He said nothing more though. He just turned and walked out. James followed him and watched as he walked down to the situation room. James smiled and went his own way once Hodges was out of sight. Maybe he would get hung out to dry because there were still areas in the inner cities that weren't secured. They also had roving gangs that were causing a lot of issues both inside the cities and outside them too. If the folks in D.C. were expecting things to be back to normal in just two months then James figured he was toast. That could very well be why nobody had contacted him yet, but he didn't think so. They would need to step in and replace both him and Hodges when they did. James had seen no sign of anyone that was doing better than they were. In fact the rest of the nation was in a lot worse shape in almost every area. The only major city on the east coast that was secure was D.C. itself. The reason it was secure was the sheer number of troops located there. Anyone who had remained in D.C. had no choice other than to do as they were told. That and the politicians had made sure that everything was back to normal for them as quickly as possible. That alone had made regaining control of things in other cities harder for them to do. Washington D.C. was the one place in the world that James wished he could keep off the news. When people saw everything looking so perfectly normal there compared to where they lived; it made it much harder to explain the slow progress they were seeing there.