Her voice seemed unnaturally loud in the quiet of the Oval Office. “It’s time, Mr. President. It’s time to use all resources at your disposal to eliminate this threat.”
“Get me General Metzger. Right now.”
“Andrew, I just told you I talked to—”
“Jessie, I need to speak with him now, please.” The voice was forceful, yet still clouded by the drug-induced connection he had with the woman standing before him.
He was a strong man, she knew. Probably the strongest man she’d ever tried to control. It wasn’t surprising he would maintain some of the character traits that brought him to the presidency in the first place. They would be hard to undermine completely. But, they could still be controlled. Enough. “I’ll connect him immediately.” She reached for the secure phone on the president’s desk and asked the person on the other end to immediately connect her to General Metzger in the NMCC. It was a good sign that the president had not simply picked up the phone and done it himself — he needed her to do it. For him.
“Metzger here.”
“General, this is the national security advisor. The president wishes to speak to you. Stand by.” She pushed a button on the phone and returned the handset to its cradle. “It’s on speakerphone, sir.”
He didn’t object.
“Thad, this is the president. I understand you’ve located the bird casings.”
“Yes, sir. Their locations have been mapped in all three cities.”
“And the ground waves?”
“They repeated their digging from yesterday morning. However, they are barely under the surface this time. Some of the casings are even visible, poking out of the ground. These locations are also completely mapped. Unlike the birds, the ground waves are somewhat more spread out and harder to—”
“Destroy with a single weapon, General?”
General Metzger paused, suddenly uncomfortable with the president’s tone of voice. “Yes, sir. It would take two, maybe three weapons to destroy each of the ground waves.”
“And the birds, General? Can they be destroyed with a single weapon targeted against each of the cities?”
“Yes, sir. We’ve run their locations through numerous nuclear blast simulations. Completely eradicated them each and every time.”
“And have you run the ground wave locations through the same simulations using multiple weapons?”
“Yes, sir. Similar results.”
“What are the effects, General? What are the long-term consequences?”
“Well, sir, that depends on the timing of the attack.”
“Explain.”
“If we strike now, we’ll lose significantly more people to the immediate blast effects. I’ve heard that the evacuations are ongoing, but moving slowly.”
“So, you’re suggesting we strike later, after letting the evacuations proceed for the rest of the day?”
“No, sir. That’s your suggestion, not mine. I can’t make that call.”
“Then what is your suggestion, General?”
“Strike now.”
“Now? When we’ll lose so many more people?”
“Sir, we don’t know when these things are going to emerge. They’ve done it at night, but what if they mutate into something that’s not as sensitive to the light anymore? What if they can move freely during the daylight? We already know they’ve adapted to soman gas — something that initially looked as if it would kill them. What’s to say with all certainty that they aren’t adapting to sunlight right now while they’re safely tucked away in their cocoons?”
A slight grin spread across Jessie’s face. The general had made a convincing argument for the immediate use of nuclear weapons, and it had obviously had an impact on the president’s foggy thought process.
“You have a point, General. I hadn’t thought of that possibility.”
“It’s something we have to take into account, sir. We don’t know what’s going to happen next, but we know what we can do now to stop this thing once and for all.”
“He’s right, Andrew. If they adapt to sunlight and emerge in the next few hours, they’ll spread incredibly fast — especially the birds. If they double in number — as they’ve done already — we won’t be able to stop them.”
The president didn’t seem to mind that his chairman of the Joint Chiefs had just heard Jessie call him by his first name.
“General, I want the three cities infested by the bird casings hit before sundown. I’ll authorize the use of nuclear weapons to do this. Single weapon, each city. The evacuations will continue throughout the day to allow as many people as possible to get out of the immediate area. You will use the smallest weapon possible to mitigate collateral effects.”
“Yes, sir. And the ground waves?”
“You will use conventional weapons to strike them — use everything we’ve got. If they’re just below the surface, we should be able to destroy them. Bomb the living hell out of them, Thad.”
“Sir, I respectfully suggest you consider the use of nuc—”
“No! Not yet. If the birds survive, there’s no way to stop them. I don’t think there’s any other option other than to use nuclear weapons against those cities. The ground waves are different. We may have to use nuclear weapons against them in the end, but not right now. And we won’t need to as long as you throw everything we have against them.” The president paused. “Do you understand my orders, General?”
“Yes, sir. I understand you want to use conventional weapons against the fixed locations of the ground waves. I also understand you are authorizing the use of nuclear weapons to destroy the fixed locations of the bird casings in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Oklahoma City, and Little Rock.”
“That’s correct, General.”
“Sir, I need to confirm that you are authorizing the use of nuclear weapons. Please authenticate.”
The old days of the “nuclear football” were long gone. A new system was now in place. Quicker. More reliable.
The president pushed a button on the side of his desk, revealing a sliding panel. It made a slight whirring noise as it slid out from under the thick, polished mahogany of his historic desk. The president placed his hand on a black panel. A small needle pierced the president’s palm, drawing a tiny amount of blood for an almost instantaneous DNA analysis. “This is the president of the United States. I am authorizing the use of nuclear weapons.” He pulled a small laminated card from his wallet. “Authenticate Romeo, Bravo, six, six, three, five, Delta, Sierra, two. Day code one, one, Kilo, Echo. Code word eagle. Final release is on my authority as president of the United States of America.”
In the bowels of the NMCC, General Metzger had also placed his hand on a matching panel, which analyzed his DNA as he repeated the president’s instructions. “This is the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. I have received orders from the president of the United States authorizing the use of nuclear weapons. Authenticate Romeo, Bravo, six, six, three, five, Delta, Sierra, two. Day code one, one, Kilo, Echo. Code word eagle. Final release is on his authority as president of the United States of America.”
A few seconds passed as a supersecret computer located hundreds of miles away, deep underground, in a hardened complex below the shifting silt of the Mississippi River analyzed the data it had just received. A green light shone steady on each of the panels — one in the NMCC, the other in the Oval Office.