“Uh… all six tries only missed by a smidgen,” Scott said, red-faced.
Harvey, who hadn’t slept in three days, pushed Davey aside without regard for presidential dignity and shouted, “You’re the idiot! You think those two systems are there to play around with? The TMD software alone runs to nearly two hundred million lines of code!”
An advisor came over and handed Davey a printout. “This is from Mr. Yagüe. It’s the latest agenda for the Antarctic Talks.”
The children from US High Command stood silently at the edge of the giant crater with a warhead from the other side of the world down at the bottom. Davey was quiet for a moment, and then said, “We have to seize the absolute advantage in the games before negotiations begin.”
Vaughn said, “That’s impossible. The games are practically finished.”
“You know it’s possible. You’re just unwilling to take up that line of thought,” Davey said, jerking around to fix a stare on the secretary of state.
“Surely you don’t mean the new game?”
“That’s right. The new game. That’s exactly it. We should have started earlier!” Scott answered for Davey.
“There’s no way of knowing where it’ll take the Antarctic Games,” Vaughn said. He looked off in the distance, and the depths of his eyes reflected the white light of dawn on the horizon.
“You love to complicate the simplest things in order to show off your knowledge. Even an idiot can see that the new game will give us an absolute advantage throughout the continent, in one stroke. It’ll totally clear up the direction of the games.” Davey took the printout the advisor had just delivered and waved it in Vaughn’s face. “As clear-cut as this memo. There’s nothing that’s unknown about it!”
Vaughn reached out and took the paper from Davey’s hands. “You think this paper is cut-and-dry?”
Davey gave him a puzzled stare, and then looked at the paper. “Of course.”
With his withered hands, Vaughn folded the paper in half, and said, “That’s once.” Then he folded it again. “That’s twice.” Again. “Three times…. Now, Mr. President, do you find this clear-cut? Something easy and predictable?”
“Of course.”
“Well then, I dare you to fold it thirty-five times.” Vaughn held up the thrice-folded printout.
“I don’t get it.”
“Answer me. Do you dare?”
“Why wouldn’t I?” Davey went to take the paper from him, but Vaughn caught his hand. At the cold, clammy touch, he felt like a snake was crawling across his back.
“Mr. President, you’re speaking as the supreme decision maker, and every one of your decisions will make history. Think it over again. Do you really dare?”
Davey stared at him in utter confusion.
“You have one last chance. Before you make your decision, wouldn’t you like to predict the outcome, just like you’ve predicted the outcome of the new game?”
“The outcome? The outcome of folding a piece of paper in half thirty-five times? Don’t make me laugh,” Scott said derisively.
“For example, how thick will that folded paper get?”
“Around as thick as a Bible, I’d guess,” Davey said.
Vaughn shook his head.
“Around knee-high,” Harvey said.
Again, Vaughn shook his head.
“As high as the command center?”
Vaughn shook his head.
“You don’t mean it’d be as high as the Pentagon?” Scott said mockingly.
“This sheet of paper is around zero point one millimeters thick. Calculating with that value, after thirty-five folds, it would be 6,871,950 meters thick, or around 6,872 kilometers. That’s roughly the radius of the Earth.”
“What? For just thirty-five times? You’ve got to be joking!” Scott said loudly.
“He’s right,” Davey said. He was no dummy, and had quickly made the connection to the Indian legend of the king and the chessboard.
Vaughn tucked the folded paper into Davey’s shirt pocket. Looking around at the dumbstruck young commanders, he said slowly, “Never be too optimistic about your own judgment, particularly when it comes to the course of history.”
Davey bowed his head and dejectedly accepted his loss. Then he said, “I admit that our minds are simpler than yours. If everyone had a mind like yours, the world would be a really scary place. Still, we can’t be certain of success, nor can we be certain of failure. Why not give it a try? We want to! There’s no way we can be stopped!”
“Mr. President,” Vaughn said coldly. “That is your right. I’ve said all I need to.”
In the first rays of dawn over the Antarctic wilderness, the Supernova Era advanced into the most dangerous place in its young history.
A THOUSAND SUNS
Before the start of their ICBM match with the American children, the Chinese children secretly moved their command center. They loaded all personnel and communications equipment into fourteen helicopters and flew forty-odd kilometers inland. Here the geography was somewhat different from the coast, and featured conical hills where the snow hadn’t entirely melted. The command center was set up in tents backed up against one hill, fronting on a broad plain in the direction of the base.
“Second Artillery Corps Command called to ask what we should load into the warhead,” Lü Gang said to Huahua.
“Hmmm… how about tanghulu?”
Then the children scanned the sky near the coast through binoculars, and a young advisor wearing an earpiece provided them with a general direction, using data transmitted to him by the distant radar warning center about the approaching American ICBM.
“Heads up. They say it’s getting close. Heading 135, inclination 42. Just over there. You should be able to see it now!”
The early-morning Antarctic sky was a deep, dark blue, and scattered stars were still visible, but it seemed blacker than it had during the long night owing to the greatly diminished southern lights. A point of light stood out against the dark blue, moving rapidly but slower than a shooting star. It had a short fiery tail visible through binoculars, caused by air friction during reentry. Then the light disappeared, and nothing was visible in the blue heavens, whether by naked eye or through binoculars, as if it had melted into the infinite darkness. But the children knew that the missile’s warhead had entered the atmosphere and was following a precise, gravity-guided trajectory toward its target.
“Good. It’s target is the base. Or more precisely, the command center!” called the advisor with the earpiece.
“What’ll be in the warhead this time?”
“Maybe Barbie dolls.”
The Antarctic dawn was suddenly bright as midday.
“A supernova!” exclaimed one child in fear.
This was a familiar sight to the children, one they knew in their bones. Indeed, it closely resembled a supernova blast, and the blinding light threw the land and hillside into sudden, sharp clarity. But this time, rather than turning blue, the sky turned deep purple. The light came from the direction of the ocean, and when the children looked toward it, they saw the new sun hanging over the horizon. Unlike the supernova, this sun was a ball larger than the actual sun and so fierce they could feel its heat on their faces.
Realizing what had happened, Lü Gang shouted, “Don’t look at it. It’ll hurt your eyes!”
They all shut their eyes, but the intensifying glare penetrated their eyelids and remained painfully bright, making them feel like they had fallen into an ocean of radiance. They clapped their hands to their eyes, but the light pierced the gaps between their fingers. They stayed in that position until the world darkened again, and then carefully removed their hands. It took their burnt-out eyes some time to readjust.