Washington State Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, Camp Murray Washington, November 27, 1000 Hrs (1700Z)

Samantha was still sitting at her desk when the phone rang. She picked it up.

"Operations Desk, Samantha speaking." She said. She listened for a few moments. "I'm sorry, she's not available at the moment, can I take your name and number?" The person on the phone provided the information, and Samantha wrote it down. "Ok, Mr. Dunlevey, I will pass the info along." Samantha hung up the phone and placed the note on Michelle’s keyboard. She went back to pursing the data that was in WebEOC so that she was fully caught up on what had happened and what the plans were. She saw that the data, including the list of spare supplies that ESF 3 had collated was available to her. Given her new position, she had access to everything that had been entered into the system. She got a message from her mom, ‘Can you have Michelle call me when she gets a few, please?” Given the professional nature of where they were, the way the message was phrased made sense. Samantha responded to her mom “Sure thing, she’s in a meeting with the Governor and the Region 10 director.”

Department of Homeland Security, Washington DC, November 27, 1330 Hrs (1730Z)

“Hey Rachel,” the FBI agent at the ESF 13 desk said.

“Yeah?” Rachel said, looking of at the agent.

“You should come and see this” Charles Watkins said. Rachel walked over to the ESF 13 desk and looked at the monitors.

“Triangulate the location of the sending phone. whatever means necessary. This is a matter of National Security.” Rachel said. “JIC! We need a urgent NTAS. I’ll get the primary wording to you momentarily.”

Iowa Department of Emergency Management, Windsor Heights, Iowa, November 27, 1145 Hrs (1745Z)

“Hey Addison,” a man named Frank had said. She had drawn a diagram of the room and who sat where.

“Yeah, Frank?” Addison said, glancing at the man that had hollered at her.

“NTAS Bulletin,” He said, his voice was shaky, there was something about this bulletin. “It just came through, do you want me to read it out loud or bring it up to you?”

“Read it out loud,” Addison said. “and then make sure it gets entered into Veoci.” She was still learning her way around the Veoci software. The good thing was that all of this software really acted similar, but the way that things were done was different.

“Uh,” Frank said into the microphone, his voice amplified through the speakers in the room. “The Bulletin states that they expect The Dawn Patrol to act within 24 hours. It appears that they managed to intercept information from some high ranking person in the terrorist organization.”

Washington State Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, Camp Murray Washington, November 27, 1052 (1752Z)

“Hey, Michelle,” Ashley said, poking her head out of the JIC.

“Yeah?” Michelle glanced toward the JIC.

“Can you come here really quick?” Ashley asked. 

“Yeah,” Michelle stood and walked off the platform and into the JIC. Samantha, in her capacity as her mom’s assistant paid attention to where her mom went. Michelle walked into the very bright JIC. She blinked a few times.  Most of the lights in the EOC proper were off so that the screens in the front of the room were visible. The JIC was like the watch office and had all of the lights on. Michelle walked up to Ashley’s desk and Ashley simply handed her a piece of paper. Michelle read the information on the sheet of paper and looked at Ashley. 

“Yeah,” Ashley said… “It just came in, and so far, I’m the only one who has seen it…”

“Thank you.” Michelle said, and left the room.  She walked up to her desk, paper in hand, and hit the button on the microphone. “Can I get all department heads and deputies in Room 110A in ten minutes. That would be 1100.  Again, all department heads in 110A in 10 minutes at 1100 Hrs.” Michelle handed the paper to Samantha. “Can you go make 50 copies of this?”

“Yep,” Samantha replied, slowly standing and grabbing her cane. She worked her way off the platform and over to one of the copiers and made copies.  A few moments later she was back on the platform and sat the original and the copies in between the two workspaces. “What is the plan if this happens tomorrow while I’m at my appointment, that will take Mom and I out of the action until we can make it back in here.”

"Then we figure it out. We've handled stuff with the two of you out before." Michelle said, glancing at Samantha. "I have an idea…" She glanced round the room. "Hey Dave, can you come up here really quick?" Samantha watched as someone got up from the ESF 2 desk and walked over to the platform, climbing the steps and walking over to Michelle.

"Yes, Ma'am?" He asked, glancing at Samantha. Luckily, Samantha had laid the copies of the bulletin face down on the desk.

"Can you get me two radios from the cache, both handheld?" Michelle asked.

"The old VHF system or the new system?" He asked.

"The new system," Michelle took a sip of her tea. "The two people that are going to be getting them are here in King County, but they may need to use them elsewhere in the state."

"Yes, Ma'am," Dave said. "Am I signing them out to you or the people that will be receiving them?"

"To me, please," Michelle said, emptying her tea.

"I'll have them to you following the meeting at 1100." Dave said.

"Thank you," Michelle said, watching him go. "I'm going to go make some tea, if you want to head into 110 and start getting things ready for me."

"Sure can," Samantha replied, standing and using her cane to stabilize herself. "Can you make me a cup of tea too, please? I'm starting to get the mid-morning sleepies." This was another thing that they were constantly fighting against: fatigue. Even though Samantha was 16, she needed a nap around lunchtime in order to be able to make it through the day at school. Even a nap was no guarentee that she would be able to make it through the day and she had fallen asleep in more than one class.

"Sure thing," Michelle stood. "You going to need a nap today or are you going to make it?"

"I guess we're gonna find out…" Samantha said. "I feel ok right now. Could you function if I were to go take a nap?"

"I did before you became my assistant. I think I could handle it for an hour or two." Michelle smiled and wandered toward the cafeteria.

End

Glossary In this book, there are a lot of terms that the reader may, or may not be familiar with. This glossary has been provided to help the reader decipher the jargon in this book. ESF: Emergency Support Function ESF 1: Transportation ESF 2, Communications: Communication ESF 3: Public Works and Engineering ESF 4: Firefighting ESF 5: Information and Planning ESF 6: Mass Care, Emergency Assistance, Temporary Housing, and Human Services ESF 7: Logistics ESF 8: Public Health and Medical Services ESF 9: Search and Rescue ESF 10: Oil and Hazardous Materials Response ESF 11: Agriculture and Natural Resources ESF 12: Energy ESF 13: Public Safety and Security ESF 14: Cross-Sector Business and Infrastructure ESF 15: External Affairs

EOC: Emergences Operations Center SEOC: State Emergency Operations Center DHS: Department of Homeland Security STACC: Statewide Terrorism Analysis and Crime Center Ops room: Operations Room NTAS: National Terrorism Advisory System NEST: Nuclear Emergency Search Team AIC: Assistant Incident Commander PIO: Public Information Officer