It's a blistering day on the plains of Colorado, and Gen. Ed Eber-hart strides into his brand-new "situa-tional awareness center" at Northern Command. Eberhart may be the most powerful man in America nobody has really heard of: he's in charge of military deployments against domestic terror. A frisson of activity fills the room. In seconds every soldier is either standing or halfway out of his computer console. Eberhart's staff doesn't get to see him much: in the nine months since Northcom was created, he's been to dozens of states, visiting National Guard and Coast Guard bases, local fire, police and paramedic units, even Rotary Clubs―forging the loose network that might respond to a domestic terror attack. Eberhart waves his team back to their places. The duty officer is at his side. "Everything quiet?" Eberhart asks amiably, eying the array of flat computer screens on the front wall. "Anything new down in Arizona?" "Nothing new on the fires right now, sir. We're monitoring a suspicious package found on a New York subway." Eberhart nods, his ruddy face inscrutable. He gives no orders. There isn't anything he can do.
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