****
Grant Stephens, head of UN Security for the New York City metro area, sat in his situation room along with more than a dozen of his UN security staff, still trying to figure out what the unfolding situation was. Behind him George Ricket, Facility Manager, stood anxiously, awaiting more information. On the panel in front of them a dozen red warning lights blinked, warning buzzers buzzed, and voices announced things that they didn't really want to hear. At least Stephens had covered similar sorts of things in practice drills. But drills weren't the same thing as reality.
The Ann Richards situation already had the facility on edge. Following pre-established protocol, the kidnapping had already caused extra security for all events at the UN Facility. Then on advice from the President of the United States himself, all events were canceled. Only a few UN representatives and staff insisted on remaining at the Facility. Most ambassadors and staff sensibly retreated to hunker-down in their individual embassies that were spread throughout the City.
Personally, Stephens thought that such precautions were over-zealous. He had high confidence in the security of this Facility. However he also believed in following protocol devised under calmer circumstances, and following the advice of the President was also usually a good idea.
But more alarming anomalies occurred as the morning progressed. There were NYPD reports of possible terrorist activity in the area. Then the drones came and crashed themselves into area ground-level observation cameras of the City. UN observation cameras on buildings and lamp-posts were also destroyed by the drones. As a precaution the City police sent three swat teams to the UN neighborhood, though so far they reported that no threats had been found.
Most disturbing, UN guard outposts were apparently being neutralized all over the Facility! But how? He didn't hear shouts, explosions, or gunfire. Several guards then reported using personal phones and claimed that absolutely nothing had happened at their posts, but that normal digital communications had been cut-off.
"Probable cyber-attack," Stephens informed Ricket. "The NYPD including their drones, as well as our most remote guard outposts, have evidently been hacked."
Ricket breathed a sigh of relief. "Ones and zeros and no sticks and stones then, Grant," he said hopefully. "Let the bad guys fling as many ones and zeros as they want; we'll be hunkered down and fine. Odd day for it though. We are already in emergency recess. And the few representatives and their staff still on board have of course now been moved down into the Box as a standard precaution."
'The Box' was local UN vernacular for the steel and concrete encased safe-facility two hundred feet below the new UN Headquarters Building built only a decade earlier. It was built to provide temporary total safety to up to five thousand UN VIPs and staff for up to two months. After that, UN personnel would be moved to several even more secure facilities in the Catskill Mountains equipped to house people for up to several years.
As the UN grew stronger in recent decades, so did its enemies. Many regarded the UN to be the vanguard of an emerging world-wide government, something bitterly opposed by ultra-nationalists and many others that ignored the reality that the UN was still far too weak to even fully accomplish its much more modest goals of world peace and basic well-being.
"How many in the Box?" Stephens asked one of his staff.
"Only one hundred and eighty-three representatives and staff, plus fifteen guards and support people. One hundred ninety-eight individuals in total, including three ambassadors."
"How many are non-human?" Stephens asked.
"Three are Eastern Consortium zombies with their colonies in suitcases and two are Stone-Coats."
"What news about the Egborg investigation?"
"Our visual records say that his last reported visit to this facility was two months ago as staff for the Swedish delegation. This morning the Swedes disavowed knowing anything about him."
"Egborg was a spy," Stephens concluded, "maybe gathering intel for yesterday's kidnapping and for today's attack."
"More of a mock attack," said Ricket.
"We don't know that yet," said Stephens. "In addition to the hacking and loss of much of our communication capabilities, over three hundred NYPD drones and as many surveillance cameras were destroyed around this facility. That's why the City declared an emergency. Flying cars and busses are grounded in Manhattan and much of Brooklyn. And we're half blind and we don't know what is coming next."
Alarm bells came next. "Five human custodial staff were just found dead in the Meeting Hall!" blared the intercom. "And a disassembled Stone-Coat has been discovered in a Meeting Hall custodial storage space."
"I want cause of death and positive ID on all of them!" barked out Stephens in reply.
"Already determined," said the intercom. "It was poisonous gas that killed the custodians; luckily the gas had already been dissipated to harmless levels by the ventilation system before the bodies were discovered by others."
"My God!" said Ricket. "If the UN had been in session the death toll could have been thousands, including nearly two-hundred lead ambassadors and much of their staff! Thank God I listened to the President and cancelled operations! But how could a poison gas have been brought into this facility?"
"It had to have been brought in by an insider that visited the Meeting Hall!" said Stephens.
"Guards, custodians, and the ambassadors and their staff," said Ricket. "Except for the dead custodians and the disassembled Stone-Coat, all of them are now in the Box."
"A murderer that can break apart a Stone-Coat is now in the Box?" said Stephens.
"There is a discrepancy in the Stone-Coat count," announced a staff member. "There should be only two Stone-Coats in the Facility but we have one disassembled and two in the Box for a total of three. Apparently two gained access as the Assistant Swedish Ambassador."
"One has to be a fake," said Stephens. "I bet that the disassembled one is the real ambassador!"
"My God!" exclaimed Ricket. "And the fake ambassador is in the Box?"
"Also radiation readings in the Meeting Hall are quite a bit higher than expected," staff reported.
"The disassembled Stone-Coat had radioactive insides," noted Stephens.
"Even after accounting for that the readings are much higher than expected," said the reporting staff member.
Without warning the floor suddenly heaved and shook for several seconds, accompanied by an ear-numbing sound deeper than thunder. Two of the staff members present fell to their knees, but looked more embarrassed than hurt. Sensors showed that the thirty story office building above them swayed, while pictures and other wall hangings fell crashing to the floor. But in seconds it was all over except for shouts and sirens.
"Status?" demanded Stephens, as his eyes swept the room where more than a dozen dedicated but nervous looking security men and women sat wearing communications equipment that covered many eyes and ears.
One of his lieutenants responded. "No communications remain with the Box. Sensor input analysis concludes that a very large explosion occurred in the Box itself. All elevators and stairways are blocked by tons of concrete and steel. Even with Stone-Coat help it may take weeks to recover bodies."
"All hundred and ninety-eight folks in the Box are dead?" Ricket asked. "Is that what you're saying?"
"With ninety-nine percent certitude," confirmed the lieutenant. "Should we begin next-of-kin notifications and news reports?"
"Negative," said Stephens. "Not until we know that this event is completely over. When is the USA military due?"
"The full Army unit ETA is one hour," staff responded.
"That's unsat!" said Stephens. "They should have been here before now! They'll be only in time to do a body count!"
"They were hacked too!" staff noted.
"What do City sensors say about radiation levels in our area?" asked Stephens.
"They don't say," said staff. "City visual and radioactivity sensors were co-located. They all got wiped out by the drones. Our
own Facility radiation sensors were apparently hacked and disabled."
"Then how was the report of raised radiation levels in the Hall possible?" Stephens asked.
"A responder was carrying an old fashioned Geiger counter that wasn't tied into our automated security systems," said the lieutenant. "Thus it couldn't be disabled through hacking."
"Sever our internal systems from the outside world and reboot them using old archival software, and break out the old-time analog radios," ordered Stephens. "We can't trust anything digital that has outside connections. We'll have to rely on human eyes and ears, and on old-time analog communications."
"Voices can be faked too," noted staff.
"True," said Stephens, "but we have to communicate somehow. We can also rely on quantum-encryption, but most staff members don't have the expensive new quantum units. Oh, and remind the NYPD and that that their radiation detectors in the area are down and recommend to them and the Army that they also use old fashioned analog radios and off-line Geiger counters."
"Analysis indicates that without the recent building reinforcement accomplished by Stone-Coats the entire main UN building would have collapsed from the bomb in the Box," said a lieutenant.
"My God!" Muttered Ricket.
"Are we expecting Stone-Coats?" the lieutenant abruptly asked, as he peered at his monitor. "The NYPD reports that thousands are on the march and many are coming in this direction."
"Shit!" said Stephens. "Are they good guys or bad?"