The Trojan Horse Read Online Free Page A

before they were invited to the speech that there would be no time for questions, but that hadn’t stopped any of the more obnoxious reporters.  There were no answers from the President; instead, the next speakers waited for the hubbub to die down before they started to reassure the country – and indeed the world – that there was no danger.  Shaking her head, Jayne settled back in her chair and produced her palmtop from her handbag.  She’d have a preliminary blog message up within the next thirty minutes, with her comments and insights on the President’s speech for her followers.  One thing stuck in her mind.  The President had seemed pretty certain that the aliens came in peace. 
     
    She smiled, recalling the thrill of the chase.  Was there a reason for his certainty?
     
    ***
    Back in the offices that made up the heart of the federal government, the President looked a great deal less certain and reassured.  Toby presented him with a cup of hot coffee and watched while he sipped it gratefully.  The President worked far harder than anyone outside the Cabinet and his aides understood and anything Toby could do to lessen the stress, he would.  He really needed sleep, but that wasn't likely to come.  It wasn’t a coincidence that almost every modern President saw their hair turn grey while in office.
     
    “We had almost total media saturation,” Toby said, once the President had taken his seat and placed his elbows on the desk.  The vast array of military and civilian advisors and subordinates had their orders.  In a way, there was nothing for the President to do, but worry about the future.  “Ninety percent of the public will have watched your speech.”
     
    “Good,” the President said.  It was very rare to interrupt the non-news channels on television, let alone try to st ream a single message onto all of the entertainment channels on the internet.  That, if nothing else, would ensure that the President’s speech was watched, if not always believed.  Toby’s father, he thought, wouldn't be reassured at all.  He and his friends had been preparing for the collapse of government and society for years.  “How are we standing on the economic front?”
     
    Toby made a show of consulting his secure palmtop, although he’d already memorised the last update from the Treasury Department.  “The New York Stock Exchange is looking shaky, but the experts believe that it will remain fairly stable for the next few days, barring a sudden change in the global situation,” he said.  “There’s been increased demand for stock in corporations that manufacture weapons, bomb shelters and camping gear – public demand has gone off the scale.  I think that we will see increased absenteeism at work for the next week, but as long as there is no sudden change it’s quite likely that everything will return to normal fairly soon.  And the holiday trade has seen a massive spike in activity.  Everyone who can rent a place to live outside the cities is doing precisely that, Mr. President.”
     
    “A great many people are nervous,” the President said.  “Do you think that I reassured them today?”
     
    “I believe so,” Toby said.  There was no way to know for sure.  The world was still reeling from the concept of aliens visiting the Earth.  Everyone had seen movies, TV serials and even novels detailing a thousand different alien plans to conquer the Earth.  Independence Day had seen massive flying saucers floating over cities and burning them to the ground; others, like Invasion of the Body-Snatchers , had shown a more subtle form of invasion.  There were far fewer movies centred around peaceful alien contact – and many of them, like The Day the Earth Stood Still , had implied that evil forces within the government or military would seek to harm the alien visitors.  “I think the sense of distance is lending some enchantment.  It would be a different story if the aliens were hovering