The White House Jonghyun returned to was a buzzing hive of activity. Staffers were rushing from departments to departments, clacking away at their computers as the entire West Wing strived to make sense of what had happened just an hour ago.

Who was responsible? How many were injured? What were the casualties?

Those were some of the questions that had to be urgently answered, but no one seemed to be able to provide them. Jonghyun found himself into this tornado of frenzied action the moment he stepped across the threshold, swept away by a Tiffany who just so happened to be passing by the atrium as she returned from the statistics department. In her arms were a set of useless data, telling her how the The Arch was built, who was the architect and what were the responsible construction companies, but absolutely nothing about what she truly wanted to know – like the casualty rate of the bombing incident for one.

“Jonghyun!” she exclaimed in relief as she saw the familiar silhouette of her boss as he passed through the security checks, “Finally.”

“The traffic was terrible,” Jonghyun said as he quickly strode over to Tiffany’s side, taking over her stack of papers, “What’s in them? Anything about the incident you can tell me?”

“Useless data. The Stats department isn’t able to give us much; the most relevant information they could give was that The Arch was built in 1989, and that all public bridges have to submit their inspection data to WSDOT twice a year,” Tiffany frowned, “They referred us to the Bridges and Structures and the Highways and Local Programmes offices of WSDOT if we need more information on the inspections.”

“Get it, we need to confirm that the bridge was found up to NBIS’s standards before the bombing occurred. Can’t have the media reporting that part of the reason Arch collapsed is due to its failing superstructure,” Jonghyun instructed shortly while turning around a corner, “What about the bombing itself? I assume the Stats department is as unhelpful as they always have been, but how about CIA? Any suspects? Tentative casualty rate?”

“CIA is unwilling to provide us with any figures now because it is too early to tell,” Tiffany pushed open a door as the two entered the corridor, “Kibum has been practically running the pressroom using data gleaned from CNN.”

“He is cool about that?” Jonghyun arched a disbelieving eyebrow.

“No, he has been shouting at Jessica for the past 30minutes, and Jessica has been shooting him evil looks for the same amount of time,” Tiffany said in a harried voice, “Also, Jonghyun, Minho has been calling in. He needs your help postponing the Presidential gala. Do you want me to call the Events office?”

“No, get Mir to do it,” Jonghyun shook his head, finally reaching the quiet of his office, away from the buzz of the West Wing, “I need you working with me now, managing this disaster. Get me a line to Washington’s civil defense departments.”

“Alright,” Tiffany said, “Oh, and Seungho needs the next available moment you have. Senior staffer meeting.”

“Tell him to set it up.”

“Ok.”

It was only when Tiffany had finally left the office that Jonghyun realized he had left Onew behind in the atrium unknowingly. A twinge of guilti hit him then (he had not even thanked Onew for the ride!), but Jonghyun brushed it off easily enough. For now, the nation needed him; his full attention must be on the Arch bombing.

Complicated friendships could be dealt with later.

-

“This is the latest set of data the Washington Civil Defense Force has provided us with,” Seungho indicated his head at the folders Taeyeon were passing around, “It’s not the exact numbers, but it’s a good approximation.”

The senior staffer meeting started the moment Jonghyun entered the chief of staff’s office. Without even greeting Jonghyun, Taeyeon ushered the man into the room where the rest of the staffers were waiting, holding in her arms 5 sets of brown folders still warm to the touch. They were fresh off the printers, having arrived at her desk 3 minutes ago. And it was this set of latest information Taeyeon was passing around now.

“There are still some difficult rescues ongoing though,” Kibum flipped open his file, pen at the ready to circle any salient numbers.

“Yes,” Hyori answered even as she scanned through the new information, “So expect the death and serious injury count to increase. But the mild injuries number should be relatively stable now.”

Seungho nodded his agreement, “The State department has also estimated the damage to be in excess of $250 million, in the range of 280 to 300 million, and classified the attack to be a VBIED bombing.”

“VBIED…” Jonghyun trailed off questioningly.

“Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosive Device,” Seungho clarified, before tapping at the folder, “You will find all the information aggregated in here, as well as details like what colour is the car. CIA is having some trouble identifying the make, but they believe it should be a Toyota judging by the recent forensic reports. Something about the engine structure being an indicator.”

“Do we have any data on the bombers though?” Kibum asked sharply, “The press has been pressuring me all day for a name, but I don’t have anything.”

“It’s still under investigation,” Seungho said, “CIA believes it may be another attack by some Islamic fundamentalist groups, but they aren’t sure which organization is behind it.”

“No terrorist group is stepping up to claim credit?” Hyori sounded surprised.

“No,” Seungho said, “Things have been quiet so far, and there aren’t any sudden flurry of activities from the international underground networks the CIA are able to spot. They do believe that it was a suicide bombing though, and that only 1 person was in the car when the bomb went off.”

“Is CIA willing to be quoted on that?” Kibum said, “I need to throw the press some bones; we can’t make it seem like CNN knows more than us.”

“CIA won’t be happy about it,” Seungho furrowed his brows as he considered, “But go ahead and do it, Kibum. Make sure to emphasise that it’s only a suspicion though, and not concrete findings.”

“It has already been 3 hours,” Minho murmured on the side, “But everything is still murky.”

“It has only been 3 hours, Minho,” Hyori replied, “Of course everything is murky.”

Jonghyun nodded distractedly at what Hyori said, flipping through his own set of papers. His face paled as he read the ‘persons affected’ section, noting that the death and injuries count had increased astronomically from the preliminary numbers reported on CNN.

“39 people dead, 131 injured,” Jonghyun read off the paper, aghast.

"Some died on the way to the hospital," Minho said in a colourless voice.

Seungho nodded grimly, “ And it was the rush hour, Jonghyun. The bridge was packed with people trying to get from one end of Washington to another.”

“Packed with people who were trying to get home for dinner,” Minho repeated softly, “People who were only wanted to get back home to their families and warm meals.”

Jonghyun grimaced at what Minho said as the room fell quiet at the implication of his words. People had died, for no rhyme or reason other than the fact they were American.

“It was a terrorist attack,” Kibum said finally, as if that explained everything.

“But we are letting them get away with this,” Minho raised his eyes and looked straight at Kibum.

“We aren’t,” Kibum replied, unaffected by his intense glare, “We have always tried our best to combat terrorism.”

“No,” Minho said, “We haven’t. Terrorism is sheltered, encouraged even, in some Middle Eastern countries. It’s almost laughable how Iraq does so little to hide the fact they are harbouring and tolerating terrorists on their lands, but still we are doing nothing about it.”

“What do you expect us to do, Minho?” Kibum said, “Carpet bomb Iraq?”

“There are satellite pictures of their training camps.”

“And violate Iraq’s sovereignty while we are at it?” Kibum raised his eyebrow, “Don’t be ridiculous, Minho.”

“Iraq is hardly a sovereign nation; it’s ruled by a corrupt, militant dictator,” Minho’s words began gaining heat.

“Whom we are supplying AK52 and SEK981-S to.”

“And that’s the issue,” Minho said bitterly, “I don’t even understand why do we continue fraternizing with illegitimate governments when we are supposedly advocating for global democracy.”

“We aren’t advocating for global democracy, Minho,” Seungho swooped in to stop the argument before it got too far, “Watch your phrasing. We are here to further universal suffrage, and democracy just happens to be the way to do it.” He paused, and continued, “And enough about this issue, foreign relations aren’t in your portfolio, Minho. Don’t overreach. Get back to dealing with the domestic effects of the bombing.”

At having his point cut off prematurely, Minho fell into a dark mood. His expression turned brooding as he leaned against the wall in Seungho’s office, a lanky, dissatisfied shadow. The conversation continued without his input, the originally subdued mood becoming even more overcast.

Minho had always acted as the conscience of the group, the one who was always more concerned about the human aspect, rather than politics. Sometimes, Jonghyun wondered why did Minho even join this dog-eat-dog world when his personality clearly did not fit in. But at other trying times, Jonghyun was awfully glad that Minho was here after all, because without him acting as a moral compass, he was sure that this administration would have lost sight of its goal, stumbling into a pithole of depersonaliastion and bureaucratization.

Jonghyun did not say anything, but he angled his body slightly, trying to include Minho in the circle of conversation.

“So,” Kibum started tersely when it was obvious Minho had no intentions to reply, “A terrorist group—“

He was cut off by sharp raps to the door, to which Seungho called out a ‘come in’. Taeyeon entered, passing a piece of paper with a stick-on note attached to Seungho.

Seungho read it easily enough, his frown deepening.

“What is it, Seungho?” Jonghyun ventured.

Seungho sighed, pulling at his tie, a sure sign of tiredness from a man whose concern with etiquette was infamous. “Things just got messier,” he said.

“What?” Hyori prompted.

“Tom Perrier was the suicide bomber we are looking for. Aged 35, worked at a music store downtown, with no prior criminal record,” Seungho said. He amended, “Until now, of course.”

“That doesn’t sound like a Muslim name,” Kibum astutely noted.

“Because he isn’t Muslim,” Seungho replied. He sighed heavily before he continued, “Our bomber is a White American male, born and bred in the beautiful state of stars.” The sarcasm did not go pass unnoticed.

The senior staffers took a moment to digest the new information then. While they might be enlightened men and woman who were some of the most intelligent people in the states, stereotypes were hard to eradicate. Too often had the word ‘terrorist’ been linked to bearded, brown-skinned men with headdresses, that it became difficult to reconcile the idea of a terrorist with a typical white male.

Jonghyun could already imagine the subsequent panic. Terror was no longer easily recognizable. It had progressed so that a suicide bomber could be the nice, young white woman who was staying next to you. She could be planting petunias and making pizzas as she plotted the death of everything you held dear.

Kibum said slowly, “Are you telling me that the quintessential American just became our bomber?”

“Yes, Kibum.”

“.”

“Watch your mouth in the White House.”

Kibum shrugged his apology, before moving on easily, over the realization in the snap of a finger. “Cleared for press release?” he asked, “Or do we want to keep it under wraps till things become relatively stabilized?”

“Release the information,” Seungho ordered, “Perrier was not a lone wolf. It’s believed that he had accomplices, all of whom are still very much well and alive.”

“How many?” Hyori said.

“Up to 4, but no less than 1,” Seungho looked back to his slip of information, “We have identified an accomplice and his name is Harry Muller. White, male, office drone, had a past record of disorderly behaviour while in his teens. Is now aged 29 according to our records. He has abandoned his home, and we do not have him on our radar.”

“So we are roping in the rest of the America into our manhunt?” Jonghyun said.

“We are flashing his mugshot and warning all civilians to stay away from him,” Seungho said, “We don’t want any hostage situations on our hands.”

“Right,” Jonghyun made a note on his folder, duly corrected.

Seungho looked around the room, scanning to see if anyone had any more input to add or questions to ask.

When no one gave any indications of wanting to speak, Seungho stood up with an air of finalty, “Alright guys, class dismissed. And Kibum, I want Muller’s face staring at me across all channels in the next 10 minutes.”

“It will be done,” Kibum nodded his head, before moving out of the office, back to his department where the information could be dispersed to the media outlets. His steps were controlled and quick; he was aware of what he needed to do and had the confidence he could pull it off.

“Jonghyun, Hyori, I need the 2 of you working on a speech to this terrorist attack,” Seungho spoke the other 2 senior staffers next, “Condemn the attack, but reassure the citizens that justice would be done. Do not panic is the key message. The president is going to have a short 10 minutes broadcast tonight, and a 30 minutes public broadcast tomorrow’s morning. I want the tonight’s speech to be on my desk in the next hour.”

Jonghyun and Hyori received their allocated tasks with grim determination. An hour was not a lot of time to work with, but it must be done and would be done. The administration needed their skill at that time, and they would not fail it.

Jonghyun left the room, the opening lines of the speech already in his head.

However, it was hijacked by the sound of Seungho’s voice as he addressed Minho, the sole senior staffer who was left in the office at that point of time.

“Minho,” Seungho’s voice was quieter. Jonghyun didn’t know whether it was because of the closing door or that Seungho had really dropped his volume a notch, “Right now, the president needs you to restore order to Washington, and not striding the moral high ground. Transportation has been severely crippled, and the stock markets are crashing. The administration needs to project an image of confidence and we cannot have you beleaguering that we are soft on crime.”

“That’s not what I was saying—“ Minho’s reply was cut off as the door finally closed.

Jonghyun wished he could have been back in the office, giving Minho a supportive look. But Hyori was already outlining the structure of the speech to him, and Jonghyun had a looming deadline.

He had to focus on the crisis at hand.

Hello guys, sorry for the long wait! :) And if things seem dry to you, I apologise, but it's time for this fic to live up to its name and start having some governing going on. I won't forget the strained jongyu relationship, but the relations side would not be a focus this time round, but will be advanced simultaneously as this crisis management occurs.

And just some additional information for you guys: 

Bombing (VBIED): Vehicle-Borne Improvised Explosive Devices (VBIED) use explosives to weaponize 
cars, trucks and even motorcycles; in assassinations aimed at killing a specific individual(s) and in attacks 
designed to achieve mass destruction to people and property. These can be either set to detonate 
remotely or by some type of trigger.

Property – If a large-scale attack was to occur in a highly populated city or on a critical infrastructure in 
Washington State, the expected damage would likely be in excess of $1 billion. Note: This is based on a 
‘worst case scenario’, where an IED is involved. A more likely case scenario would be an active shooter, 
in which less than $1 million of damages would occur. The actual dollar amount incurred in any terror 
event is completely dependent upon the terrorists’ motivation or desired outcome, tactic used, specific 
location, and weapon type. 

Basically, the Arch (an imagined bridge) is the property that is said to have been bombed in this fic. I imagine it to be a rather important superstrucutre in this case, serving as a vital cog in the city's infrastructure, which would result in huge disruptions not only in terms of transportation, but also economical and social in nature. The impact of the bombing would be explained in further detail in subsequent chapters.