The Japanese government officials involved in this attack—whether it was the Prime Minister, who knew about the assault and tacitly allowed it, or the Chief Cabinet Secretary, who directly oversees the intelligence agencies—were all targets of Benjamin's retaliation. However, now was not the right time for revenge. The easiest target at hand was the members of the LockSat organization, who were essentially low-hanging fruit. After all, Japan was currently in disarray, and Aamir Barkawi was hiding in the mountains of Argentina. Although Castle, Benjamin's benefactor, had already located the general area where Aamir was hiding, sending special forces from North America to South America—a region not particularly friendly to the U.S.—was not a realistic option in the short term.
By now, the attackers outside the White House had been largely wiped out by the defending security forces, who had suffered no major casualties. However, Benjamin had no intention of leaving the safety of the White House. Protecting the President had always been the top priority, and there was no need for Benjamin to personally oversee the cleanup outside. Instead, he remained in a secure, hidden room within the White House, urgently discussing how to handle the aftermath with the Speaker of the House and the now fully aligned Black Vice President, both of whom were at the Pentagon.
The attack on the White House, which unfolded in front of numerous news reporters, had lasted less than ten minutes from the moment the transport plane was shot down by four F-22 air-to-air missiles to the near-total annihilation of the attackers. However, in those ten minutes, both the attacking militants and the defending White House security forces had paid a heavy price.
The fountain and lawn in front of the White House were now littered with bodies—at least fifty unidentified attackers and an equal number of security personnel lay dead outside. In fact, if it hadn't been for the expert sniping skills of Agents Bob and Booth, the militants might have actually breached the main building of the White House.
This outcome was partly due to Benjamin and his chief security officer, Michael Banning, agreeing to Castle's suggestion not to inform the Secret Service in advance about the impending attack. Instead, they only revealed the information after the South Korean Prime Minister's motorcade arrived and Steve and Booth had captured the LockSat mole within the Secret Service. As a result, even though the "elite bodyguards" were mentally prepared, they were outgunned by the attackers, leading to such heavy casualties.
But for politicians, especially the U.S. President, what exactly is "collateral damage"?
During World War II, when Japan planned to attack Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt, despite receiving warnings from the Chinese government about the impending assault, chose to ignore the threat. He only moved the two aircraft carriers out of Pearl Harbor, allowing the Japanese fleet under Admiral Nagumo to launch a surprise attack that killed over 2,000 American soldiers. The result? The American public, previously isolationist, rallied behind the war effort, allowing the U.S. to profit immensely in both Europe and Asia.
Similarly, in 2001, did President George W. Bush and the CIA really have no prior knowledge of the 9/11 attacks? Nonsense! But after the attacks, the U.S. immediately used the war on terror as an excuse to invade Afghanistan, decimating the Taliban. And what did the U.S. military do in Afghanistan afterward? They grew opium! It's no secret that the U.S. military used transport planes to ship drugs back home.
Who remembers that under Taliban rule, Afghanistan had nearly eradicated opium cultivation? While the Taliban's destruction of the Buddhas of Bamiyan was infuriating, it paled in comparison to the U.S. turning Afghanistan into the world's largest opium producer and exporter after occupying the country.
The Golden Crescent became the world's largest opium-producing region under U.S. occupation. Compared to the Colombian drug lords, the U.S. military's blatant patrols of opium fields and their open use of military transport planes to ship drugs back home made the Colombians look like amateurs.
This illustrates the American logic: what we can do, others cannot. If others do it, we'll slap a label on them, destroy them, and then profit from it. Just like when President Bush ordered the invasion of Iraq two years later, falsely accusing Saddam Hussein of possessing "weapons of mass destruction." How many people know that the Bush family made a fortune from that war?
So, in Benjamin's eyes, the security personnel who died because he didn't warn them in advance or make proper arrangements were not that important. What mattered was that he could use this incident to completely dismantle the LockSat organization, a cancerous tumor hidden within the U.S. political system. This typical American mindset may be hard to judge as good or bad, but it is almost instinctive for every U.S. President.
Thanks to the help of Steve, the close-combat expert, and the two super snipers, the attackers, whose planned assault route was disrupted by Bob, never managed to breach the White House. Even more astonishingly, not a single journalist among the many present was injured. This seemingly impossible scenario actually happened, proving that American journalists are indeed a tough bunch.
The only remaining issue was the South Korean Prime Minister, who was still being held at gunpoint by Kim Yeon-kang. Tragically, they had no hope of driving out of the area, as they were surrounded by National Guard troops. However, without orders from above, the soldiers couldn't launch a final assault on the bulletproof limousine in front of the media and live cameras, especially with the weeping Prime Minister inside.
In truth, Benjamin had completely forgotten about the Prime Minister. He was busy in a video conference with the Pentagon, the CIA Director, the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, and other agency heads, all discussing how to completely eradicate the traitorous LockSat organization.
Mozzie, the former small-time con artist from New York streets and now a master forger and art expert, felt like he had reached the pinnacle of his life. A year ago, he could never have imagined sitting in the White House, next to the U.S. President, discussing matters with the most powerful people in the country. If he told anyone, who would believe it? The guy who earned the nickname "Detroit Dentist" as a teenager was now sitting in the White House, attending high-level meetings. Truly, reality is stranger than fiction.
Meanwhile, Ivan and his team were facing a minor hiccup. Following Gianna's orders, they had ambushed and brutally eliminated a large group of LockSat operatives sent to capture the First Lady and Benjamin's son on a road several kilometers from the vacation retreat. The scale of the firefight inevitably drew the attention of the already jumpy D.C. police and National Guard helicopters patrolling the area. Assuming the gunmen were part of the same group that attacked the White House, the National Guard quickly dispatched a large force to the scene.
Although the helicopter crews could see that the victors were dressed in U.S. Special Forces gear, so were the attackers who had assaulted the White House. Not taking any chances, the police and National Guard armored vehicles surrounded Ivan and his men. Fortunately, Gianna, who had been monitoring the situation, immediately sent Secret Service agents from the First Lady's detail to the scene. They confirmed to the nervous National Guard troops that these burly, heavily armed Russians were private bodyguards for a friend of the First Lady and had acted to prevent the now-dead attackers from kidnapping her. This explanation finally allowed the National Guard to lower the heavy machine guns mounted on their Humvees and breathe a sigh of relief.
(End of Chapter)
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