John Miller had already had 2 beers and was working on his third. He finally was able to relax a bit and was taking the time to enjoy it. Qi Lian was working with Benjamin on the details of the plan to attack the lighthouse on Valcour island in Plattsburgh. Frankly John didn't care to hear all the details of the planning he just wanted to know the big picture. He was going to actively watch during the attack, but for now it was good to have his eyes away from the screen.

John took a moment to look around the bunker. He was hard pressed to find how it was different from the White House, except there was no natural light entering. In the bunker he had a full staff, similar to his White House staff, including cooks and servers. The bunker was decorated similar to the White House, and now they had even set up a situation room that looked just like the one he had in the White House. Now he even had several secret service agents, people he knew personally, hanging around him. These were the ones who were originally on their day off and had not been wiped out by the Red Tide attack. These agents were now buffered by Code Blue soldiers however. John figured this might well end up being a permanent change, considering the circumstances.

John was now more relaxed but certainly no happier than before. What was there to be happy about? This situation was terrible and it was stressful. John needed this whole thing to be over. It was making him miserable. John tried to think back to a time where he felt this terrible before in his life. He realized that he could think of only one time. The time he had cheated on his wife Joni.

Joni and John had just been married for about 2 months when the incident happened. The two of them had been arguing since their wedding day over some family incidents at the wedding. John had insisted on inviting his uncle, since he wanted to have everyone at this moment of celebration. This had been a poor choice on John's part however. John's uncle Joe and father had not talked to each other in years because Joe was an unreliable alcoholic. At the wedding, quite predictably, Joe got drunk and had a confrontation with his dad. Joe took a swing, his dad stepped out of the way, Joe fell down and ruined the wedding cake. Yeah that was a terrible and embarrassing day. And to top it all off, Joni had insisted that John not invite Joe.

Of course Joni had been correct in her judgement, but John became irritated every time she harped on it. This led to a seemingly endless bout of arguments between the two, mostly because John himself just couldn't let it go. He always felt the need to respond, which always led to escalation.

After a couple of months of this, both John and Joni were naturally feeling unhappy. Then John bumped into an old girlfriend of his, and in a moment of weakness he cheated. This was the most terrible mistake of his life. It took years for John and Joni's relationship to recover, not to mention the therapy which was still ongoing.

Amazingly Joni was eventually able to forgive him. In fact in the past several years, things between John and Joni had been extraordinarily happy. Even through the stress of a Presidential campaign and the Presidency itself, the bond they had remained incredibly strong and loving. John had never been so happy as he had been in these past several years.

That is until the last couple of days. Since the Red Tide attack on the White House John hadn't really had even a tiny bit of happiness, save for the few moments he had been able to spend with his family.

His family was now being kept in an isolated part of the bunker, to allow the top secret meetings to be held. John really missed being with them. But right now the country needed him. He hoped that he was the right person for the job.

John saw general Howard across the room. He could see him turn and walk in a hurried fashion. John realized this meant that his moment of relaxation was over. Perhaps that was for the best.

"Sir the rest of the Code Blue soldiers have finally made it state side. With military transport they should be able to make it to Plattsburgh in about an hour. Also the attack in Plattsburgh is about to commence momentarily. All planning with Qi Lian has finished and the group is now getting into their positions." General Howard explained.

"Thank you general. I will head over to the viewing area momentarily. When the Code Blue soldiers arrive in Plattsburgh, I think that many of them should help the TSA at the airport there. I imagine there are many more Red Tide soldiers that will be making their journey to Plattsburgh, and obviously TSA can't handle them without help." John ordered.

"Yes sir, I will give them the orders to split off a team to help TSA." General Howard said.

General Howard now stepped aside for a moment after being tapped on the shoulder by Emma Hager. Hager was a tough military woman, which was the reason John had chosen her as his secretary of defense, though he would have loved to put his wife Joni in that position. It obviously wouldn't have been a good look to do so. Right now there was a look of displeasure on Emma's face. Undoubtedly she was reaming general Howard right now for there being a military program that she didn't know about. John didn't envy general Howard in the slightest, indeed he pitied the man. John chuckled at the vision he had in his head of Emma choking the general. He was sure that if there wasn't other people in the room she might be doing just that.

John took a moment to survey the room. The rest of his staff seemed to have loosened up after the alcohol had started flowing freely. This was good, because the stress related to the battle was about to begin. Everyone needed a break from stress, except for the poor general apparently. He was going to age 10 years after these past few days!

John now turned his attention back to general Howard. He could see a staff member come up and whisper something in the general's ear. Then general Howard said a few parting words to Emma and walked back over to John.

"Sir Qi Lian said that it is time to head into battle." general Howard said.

"She doesn't want to wait an hour for the reinforcements?" John asked.

"No sir, she is worried that Han Xin, the Red Tide leader, has something up his sleeve in anticipation of more troops arriving. She wants to start the attack now, she said that if this wave fails at least you have a second wave coming shortly thereafter. She really insisted on getting started now. She felt that they had already given Han too much time during the planning phase." General Howard said.

"Very well, then let the battle commence. Gather everyone around the large screen so they can watch. Everyone needs to see with their own eyes what we are dealing with." John replied.

General Howard nodded his head and walked toward a group of John's people. Emma was already standing near the screen watching intently. John walked over and stood next to her.

"John are you sure that we should trust this Qi Lian? What if she is an infiltration unit and is trying to destroy our only method for fighting back?" Emma asked.

"If that was the case wouldn't she want to wait to start the attack until all Code Blue troops were there?" John responded with a question of his own.

"Maybe you are right, but I am still nervous." Emma answered.

John was about to say something when the screen suddenly switched away from Plattsburgh and to the face of representative Turner.

"Oh rep. Turner, this is a really bad time, an att..." John started.

"John we are knee deep in it right now. I have reporters all over me, following me everywhere. I have the representative from the twenty-first district of New York all over me about these attacks in his district. Please tell me what is going on." Representative Turner pleaded.

"Rep. an attack on the stronghold of the terrorist group is about to commence. We are trying to watch the attack now. I promise I will update you shortly." John said.

"OK, please let me know right away." Representative Turner requested, turning off his screen.

The screen switched back to the Code Blue soldiers. John toggled until he found Benjamin's camera. Benjamin was hopping into a boat, preparing for the attack. John was praying the attack went well.