“Did you receive any cash payments?” Ken asked.
Andropov glanced around.
“It’s okay,” Honi said. “We’re not the IRS. We just need to understand how the system worked.”
“Every major advance I made was rewarded with a cash bonus,” Andropov said. “Substantial sums. I believe the university also received cash bonuses. Nobody said anything, of course, but I believe everybody knew it was off the books.”
“And the money that went into the university funding account?” Ken asked.
“I don’t know the details,” Andropov said. “But I was led to believe the funds were grants from various corporations. You know, tax write-offs, that sort of thing.”
“I have the database loaded from the disc you brought, Ken,” Brett said. “Precious metals are represented by the color gold on the display.”
“Same flow as the money,” Honi said.
“But restricted to the financial organizations,” Jake said.
A large red strobe light started flashing from the ceiling and an ear-piercing alarm of some kind sounded. “Full stop” came over the PA system. “Emergency backup in progress. Everything will shut down automatically in three minutes.”
“What’s going on?” Jake asked.
“Something serious,” Honi said. “First time this has happened since I’ve been here.”
“What do we do?” Jake asked.
“Full stop means stop using everything. No computers, no phones, no radios and especially no elevators,” Honi replied.
“The whole building is going to shut down?” Jake asked incredulously.
“Yes,” Honi replied. “Don’t try to go anywhere. Just stay right where you are!”
“Automatic shut down in two minutes and thirty seconds.” came over the PA.
Jake looked around. “There has to be something we can do.”
Honi shook her head. “Emergency backup is an automated process. We have to wait until it’s complete.”
Jake paced nervously up and down the aisle. The countdown continued and changed to individual numbers with ten seconds left. At zero, all of the computers, screens and displays went dark.
“Now what?” Jake asked.
Almost in response, the voice on the PA answered, “Initiate EMP Protocol.”
Jake looked at Honi. This was the first time he had seen anything approaching panic on her face. Every employee in the room began yanking cords out and dropping them on the floor.
“Electro-Magnetic Pulse?” Jake asked. “Like in the weapon?”
“Yes,” Honi said. “Hurry, we don’t have much time!”
“Doesn’t cutting the power break all of the connections to the grid?” Jake asked.
“No,” Brett said, as he yanked cords from their receptacles. “It’s the ground wires. They remain connected.”
“Unplug everything!” Honi shouted. Jake, Ken and Andropov jumped into activity. There were thousands of connections within the building, including several hundred in area 4 alone. “Come on,” Honi shouted. “Faster!”
“Building power down in twenty seconds.” came over the PA.
“Jake, next cubical over!” Honi shouted. “Ken, that one over there!”
Andropov ran to another empty cubical and started unplugging every cable.
“Unplug the phones!” Honi shouted. “Unplug everything — now!”
“Are we under attack?” Jake asked.
“Yes,” she shouted. “We have to protect as much equipment as we can!”
Jake and other people scrambled from one cubical to another, under desks, behind file cabinets, unplugging every cord they could find.
Then, when the voice counting down on the PA system reached zero, the room went black.
“Everyone sit where you are,” Honi shouted. “Do not attempt to move.”
Jake moved his hands around, locating the cubical wall. He waved a hand in front of him as he worked his way into the aisle and back to where he last heard Honi’s voice. When he got there he whispered, “Honi?”
“What did I say?” she whispered back. “Don’t move around.”
“Do you think the nuclear bomb caused this? I mean, if it was high up in the atmosphere, it would cause an EMP,” Jake whispered.
“If it did,” she whispered back. “We wouldn’t have had any warning. Whatever is happening came with some warning.”
“Why are you whispering?” Brett asked.
No one answered.
“Good point,” Jake finally said in his normal voice.
That seemed to trigger conversations all over the room. People turned on the light function on their cell phones and began collecting in a group centered around Honi. A few minutes later, the stairwell door opened and a person entered the room carrying a flashlight.
“I’ve got some flashlights and some news,” Sebastian Pettigrew said as he walked over to the group.
“So what happened?” Honi asked.
“Major solar storm,” Pettigrew said. “They were in the middle of shutting the grid down when it hit. By then, it was too late to save everything. Unlike a severe weather storm that knocks down trees and powerlines, this kind of storm burns out electrical generators and transformers and melts wires. We shut down when the initial warning went out, just to be safe. Turned out to be a good thing.”
“How long is this supposed to last?” Honi asked.
“The initial warning said 12 to 24 hours, so we’re going to be here a while. We’ve been advised to stay inside the building — possible radiation hazard from solar particles bombarding the atmosphere. The cafeteria will be open in an hour — sandwiches and cold drinks. No electricity to warm anything up, though.”
“What about the water supply?” Honi asked. “Isn’t that powered by electricity?”
“Mostly,” Pettigrew replied. “But we do have water towers. Just conserve as best as you can.”
“Okay,” Honi said. “We’ll be up in an hour.”
Pettigrew handed out several flashlights and left.
“Why did we have to unplug everything?” Jake asked.
“I can help answer that,” Andropov said. “The electrical grid uses the mineralized water under the soil as a common conductor for almost every electrical circuit. It’s a lot cheaper than running extra wires. When we have a large storm on the sun, such as this one, a huge amount of charged particles, ejected from the sun, swarm the magnetic field around the earth. The magnetic flux lines of the magnetosphere separate the charged particles into positive and negative, one going to the North Magnetic Pole and the other to the South. As these charged particles flood into the earth at the poles, massive electric current flows take place in the mineralized water underground in nature’s attempt to neutralize the electrical forces between the poles.
“That water, unfortunately, is part of the electrical grid, and every ground wire on every electrical device connects to it. That massive current flow also travels through the wires on the grid, destroying transformers and melting wires because of the gigantic surge of electrical energy. The flow continues as long as the charged particles are flowing into the North and South Magnetic Poles.”
“So 12 to 24 hours of these huge electrical flows in the ground?” Jake asked.
“Yes,” Andropov replied. “If an electrical device isn’t plugged in, the flow can’t affect it. That’s why we unplugged everything. When the charged particle flow stops, we can plug everything back in and resume our work.”
“How do we know what actually happens,” Jake asked. “Has this happened before?”
“Yes,” Andropov explained. “The Carrington event, September first and second, 1859. Fortunately, at that time the only system of extended wires was the telegraph, which experienced electrical overloads, and the occasional fire caused by electrical arcing.”
“So how bad is the damage from this storm going to be?” Jake asked.