Surrept by Taylor Andrews

from the president of the United States.
    The White House is completely surrounded. The layers of security vehicles and personnel is unprecedented.
    The Capitol building is evacuated and secured. The security details have relocated most all of the legislative leaders to a secret location in Virginia. Special Forces and National Guard troops surround the Pentagon.
    Inside the briefing room of the Homeland Security building, the Operation Pot Luck team has assembled and the room is quiet as Homeland Security Director Karen Satriano enters, her face is cold and expressionless as she sits down.
    She looks down as she speaks. "I just got off the phone with the White House, and we are all expected there this afternoon at fourteen-thirty hours to report and debrief the president on the largest attack in our history upon American soil." She looks around the room as if disgusted at them as well as herself. "Gentlemen, we knew this was coming and we were unable to stop it. We failed our country. We know we are faced with the task of not allowing this to happen ever again, and who knows, that could be occurring at this moment and we seemingly are helpless to defend against it." She stares at those gathered. "The events of the past three hours have proven that we are defenseless against such heinous attacks."
    Karen Satriano looks at the FBI's assistant director. "Kevin, I am going to ask one time; what exactly does the FBI have on these events that have spanned our entire country as of right now, and I mean all of it, for the record and on the record."
    Kevin Anderson holds a large file and opens it as he begins his debriefing. "The attacks occurred in concert in twenty-two United States cities and London, spanning from coast to coast at precisely oh-six-hundred hours eastern standard time. These attacks were well planned, and executed in unison. The attacks were designed to result in maximum fatalities. This attack targeted the prime commuter population nationwide. All of the attacks occurred within seventeen minutes of each other simultaneously, across the United States." He scans their faces.
    "It is our belief that the attackers all used the same weapons delivery systems now identified as a chemical gas release on all types of public commuter transportation, targeting the general public."
    "There are presently—as of eleven in the morning eastern standard time—five thousand two hundred twenty-three confirmed fatalities, eleven thousand seven hundred nine injuries and seventy-one percent of those are now to be considered critical. We are receiving data by the minute and the math is growing. We have six suspects confirmed dead due to their participation in these attacks, who had become victims of their own acts, and we suspect others could be presently hospitalized.
    "One suspect died in custody in New York city due to an oral consumption of granules that have been deemed to be a household drain cleaner, which he ingested at the point of apprehension, prior to being restrained. This incident occurred as the male suspect was taken into custody by transit authority officers while still in the field. We have two other suspects in custody, one in San Francisco, and the other in Philadelphia. The fatalities are sure to grow and our assessment is expected to increase by at least fifty percent by tomorrow this time."
    Kevin Anderson scans the quiet room again. "The preliminary findings on the source of the gas seemed to be manufactured easily through the mixture and combinations of household cleaning products used worldwide, that when combined, create a highly caustic and potentially lethal gas. The modus operandi for the attacks is identical in nature. The suspects entered each venue as commuters, and all detonated their devices or left them for detonation by timer, causing a calculated chemical reaction that witnesses all concur happened when the suspects walked away from their carry-on baggage and or parcels."
    "Included in these