Other than videos on the internet he didn’t hear much about the troubles over in Egypt for the rest of the week. Like most people he didn’t have the time to spend worrying about the troubles of people living across the ocean. When he did happen to glance at the news most of it focused on how the politicians were arguing over banning all travel to and from Egypt. Especially since it appeared some sort of biological weapon was in play. No one wanted to be responsible for that mess showing up on the shores of the good old USA.
They were sitting down for dinner on Saturday when the topic reared its head back up. LeBron was late to the table and when Bart sent Yue to get him, she found him in the loft upstairs staring at the TV.
“It’s gotten worse.” LeBron said staring at the news. Yue glanced at the screen seeing yet another overhead shot of large crowds of people rioting in a run-down looking city in the desert.
“What’s gotten a lot worse? Is this that Egypt thing?” Yue asked. She was still wearing the striped shirt she’d worn for her first shift at IHOP. The name tag on the shirt indicating she was in training.
“It’s spreading. This is a city in the Sudan. They were showing scenes from Tel Aviv and the Gaza Strip earlier.” LeBron said.
“Ok. Come eat and we can watch the news later and see what’s up. There’s always some kind of scary stuff going on over there. You know how the news is.” Yue said reaching over to turn off the TV. They headed downstairs to join the family for dinner. Yue instantly putting the news out of her mind while LeBron kept turning everything he’d seen so far over and over in his head.
At the dinner table LeBron couldn’t help bringing up everything he’d seen on the news and asking what everyone else thought about it. He was frustrated that everyone seemed to be a million times more interested in how much Yue had liked slinging pancakes around all day. Finally getting the hint that talking about people killing each other may not be the best dinner topic he sulkily gulped down his food. Once he was done, he sat there impatiently waiting for them to finish so he could flip on the TV and show them all what he was trying to tell them.
After dinner he was doing the dishes with Drew when Yue yelled out from the living room that there was something they should come see. Putting down the dishes they were working on Drew and LeBron walked over to see what was up. Yue and their parents were all sitting around on the large sectional watching some HGTV show about fixing up houses. One of the fifty shows like that that came on daily.
“You think that’s about the Egypt stuff?” Yue asked LeBron pointing at the message scrolling across the bottom of the screen. It said the President would be addressing the nation and had a countdown timer showing about twenty minutes left. LeBron nodded and started to sit down.
“Dishes.” Nancy said without even turning her neck to look back at them.
LeBron and Drew hurried back into the kitchen to wrap up the dishes. Knocking them out in record time they rejoined the family out on the couch with five minutes to spare according to the scrolling timer.
“I don’t ever remember seeing a news update on this channel.” Yue commented.
“Normally they just have them on the main channels.” Bart agreed. He sounded vaguely concerned. His years in the special forces back before he settled into a career in law enforcement coming back to him. He knew an announcement like this from the President frequently meant that somewhere in the world operators were either walking away from a mission or getting into position to carry one out. Not that the world would necessarily ever know what’d been done.
They all grew silent as the countdown ended and a message came on saying the President would be addressing the nation momentarily. Drew was wondering if he had time to go grab a soda from the fridge when the President suddenly materialized sitting at his desk in the oval office. The man didn’t look healthy. No amount of makeup could conceal the fact that he was completely exhausted. Sleep deprived or not he had a job to do. It wasn’t like just anybody could read a speech off a teleprompter after all.
“My fellow Americans. By now many of you have no doubt seen the news broadcasts and videos on social media channels showing the conditions in Northern Africa and the Middle East. A contagion has infected large numbers of people causing subsequent rioting. We have investigators in the region seeking to learn more and have already offered our services via the UN to assist with peacekeeping efforts.” The President paused theatrically. More than likely the teleprompter had <Pause Theatrically> displayed on it. After an acceptable number of seconds, he continued.
“I have issued orders that flights and any other form of travel to and from the affected regions be immediately halted. Our embassies are assisting US citizens abroad who may be impacted by this travel ban. We will be setting up processes and procedures to enable
