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The White House Situation Room. 230 AM.

The Secretary of Defense spoke up.
"Mr. President, I must again recommend you..."

"NO. At least from here I have some chance to control the situation. If we evacuate to Air Force One all I can do is manage Armageddon. Besides, the Admiral just got done telling me the Navy hasn't detected any subs in the Atlantic. So we will have warning time if the worst happens."

The Admiral spoke up. "Mr. President, as good as my men are, it is not impossible there are a submarine or submarines lurking off our Atlantic coast. If there are, I cannot guarantee we could sink them before they could launch. If there are subs there, and they do launch, our warning time here will probably be measured in seconds if at all."

The Director of Central Intelligence spoke up. "Mr. President, every last scrap of intel we have says they're getting ready to attack. EVERYTHING."

The President of the United States looked pained. "But what if you're WRONG. By evacuating we could be..."

His sentence was interrupted by a sharp tone. The Chairman answered the phone. His face turned ashen..."Right away. Code word is Citadel One. OUT."

The room exploded with action. The Secret Service ran directly to the President's side. As he was getting up, the Chairman almost shouted..."NORAD has 12 ICBM launches. Multiple launches from their western missile fields towards NATO." The President looked back at him...uttered the fateful words. "Defcon One GO status. SIOP option one. No cities unless they attack ours. Good luck, gentlemen."

With that, the Secret Service almost bodily rushed the President out of the situation room. As he was getting on the helicopter to take him to Air Force One, the President turned back for a moment, and looked at the White House...

"It wasn't supposed to end like this...", Barack Obama thought.
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