And then it stopped.
The fiery eyes dulled.
It was dead.
“Jesus Christ,” Garrett muttered.
Carolyn turned toward him. “Are you praying, or just amazed?”
“I think a little of both.”
“It’s nasty stuff.” She paused. “But, there’s worse out there, believe it or not.”
“Unfortunately, I believe you.”
Lieutenant Ewing was watching a medical readout panel right next to the chamber’s entrance. All the needles and dials had stopped moving. “All biometric functions have ceased.”
“Is it dead?” Garrett asked.
“We’ll have to wait and see,” Carolyn answered.
The first B-52 lumbered off the runway at Hill AFB, Utah. Ex-Soviet chemical weapons filled its cavernous bomb bay and hung from its wing pylons. It was immediately followed by four other BUFFs heading toward their preplanned targets in the heartland of the United States of America.
The president had given the order.
CHAPTER 41
“How much longer are we going to wait?”
“I’m not too sure, Garrett,” Carolyn answered. She glanced at Josh Ewing, and he shook his head. Still no readings from inside the chamber. “It looks like the soman did the job, but I want to wait a little longer before we call it a success.”
“If it was going to come back to life, shouldn’t we be seeing something on the monitors?” General Rammes was getting impatient.
“This is a new species, sir, one we know very little about. It’s in this thing’s genetic code — because of Gemini — to adapt to anything harmful. We don’t know how long the process takes. If we had monitoring equipment connected to the creature’s body, we could tell what was going on inside, but we’re limited to the biometric sensors in the room. They can pick up a heart rate, breathing, some electrical activity, but not much else. We can’t be entirely sure the thing is stone-cold dead by looking at the monitors.”
“So when do we decide it is dead?” Rammes asked.
“The soman has been evacuated from the room. The environmental controls were set to purge it from the chamber at a rate comparable to how the agent would disperse in an open area. It’s been gone for about… fifteen minutes now. I want to wait a little longer.”
CHAPTER 42
“The president ordered the attack? I thought he wanted a briefing before he made any sort of decision!”
“I know, I know. He just ordered it about an hour ago.” Tank knew what he was going to hear next.
“Doesn’t he understand how many citizens we’re going to lose if he drops that crap where the things are right now? We’ll lose thousands of innocent people who’re trying to escape from those things!”
“He knows, Hugo. He knows.”
“We’ve got to convince him to let the conventional forces try to stop them, maybe until morning. It’ll give us more time to get more people out of harm’s way and—”
“The BUFFs have already launched, Hugo. They’re in the air.”
“Jesus. Is he hitting each of the ground waves?”
“Yes. Five B-52s, each heading toward a different wave.”
“The things are in Lincoln right now. Everyone is going to die, Tank. People are still trying to get out.”
“I know. The president’s decision is final, Hugo. He made that quite clear.”
“Does the vice president know?”
“I have to assume she does. He’s kept her informed on every single decision he’s made. I’m sure he consulted her.”
“Why the quick decision?”
“You’re asking the wrong person.”
CHAPTER 43
“Mr. President, this is Jessie.”
“Yes, Jessie.” As he spoke to her on his secure phone in his situation room, Andrew could still smell her perfume on his skin.
“General Stone informs me the first B-52 will reach its target area in the next thirty minutes, sir.”
The first target area was Lincoln. He knew there were still many of his fellow citizens on the ground. He also knew he’d signed their death warrants as soon as he’d ordered the strike, but it had to be done. She’d convinced him of that. No matter how horrible it was, it had to be done now, before events spiraled out of control. “Thank you, Jessie. Keep me informed.”
“One more thing, sir. The vice president wishes to speak to you.”
“Go ahead and put her through.”
“Yes, sir.” She paused. “Andrew?”
“Yes?”
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.”
“I’ll put her through now.”
The president hung up his secure phone and waited for Allison Perez’s face to appear on the plasma screen in front of him.
When her face did appear, she looked confused. And a little angry.
“Mr. President.”
“Hello, Allison.”
“You ordered the chemical strike?”
“Yes.”
“I understood you wanted a briefing on casualties prior to ordering—”
“There’s no more time for briefings, Allison. The things have to be stopped right now. It doesn’t make any difference whether or not I saw the numbers. People are going to die. Innocent people. I fully understand that.”
“We don’t even know if the soman will kill these things yet. If it doesn’t work, we will—”
“—suffer a nuclear holocaust on our own soil, Allison. That was my only other option, wasn’t it? You heard exactly what I heard: conventional weapons will not be able to stop these things. And they’re spreading, Allison, they’re spreading.”
“Mr. President, may I speak freely?”
“We’re not in the military anymore, Allison. You don’t have to ask my permission. I expect you to speak your mind. You know that.”
“I also know, sir, that making a decision like this is your prerogative, and yours alone, as commander in chief. However, I do not appreciate being kept out of the loop.”
Her statement surprised him. “How in the hell have I kept you out of the loop? You’ve been a part of every single briefing I’ve received on these things!”
“I’m your vice president. I should hear about important decisions from you, sir, not as secondhand information passed to me by the national security advisor. Especially when it’s a decision like this, with thousands of lives at stake. I’m suddenly being held at arm’s length, Mr. President, and that’s not where I belong.”
“I had a decision to make, Allison, and I made it. You’re correct when you say it’s my prerogative as commander in chief to make decisions like this. It’s my call. If I feel a threat to the national security — no, the survival of the United States — warrants my immediate action, then I will take it, regardless of whether or not I’ve been properly briefed or whether or not I’ve called you personally.”
“I understand that sir, but—”
“No, I don’t think you do. We’re facing a situation that no one has ever had to deal with before. No one! Our country is being eaten alive and we haven’t been able to stop it. We have to take quick action — and if I deem necessary, drastic action — to stop it. If this chemical attack doesn’t work, I’ve only got one option left. One option, Madame Vice President.”
There was a moment of silence in the situation room as the two top leaders of the United States stared at each other through electronic eyes, seeing faces on the screen that neither had seen before.
“Then, Mr. President, let us both pray that this option works.”