The Gathering Storm (Surviving the Fall 2)

Dr. Evans looks over his glasses at the President, then glances at the rest of the people crowded around the laptop, all of whom are staring at him. “Sir, Damocles was designed as a learning weapon. It targets for maximum destruction in all areas. Economic destruction certainly counts. The oil platforms are likely its first test of the effects of physical destruction combined with economic destruction.”

“Christ.” The President looks at the laptop again. “How bad is this going to get before we have some sort of countermeasure?”

“I’m working as quickly as I can, sir. The sooner we get on the ground and I can confer with my colleagues the sooner we can see if it’s even possible to create a countermeasure.”

“’Possible to create?’ Are you telling me we might not be able to fight this thing?”

Dr. Evans puts down his pencil and shakes his head. “Mr. President, what I’m telling you is that you unleashed a superweapon. It has

no safeguards. It has no backdoors. It has no magic button that we can press to shut it down. Creating a countermeasure before Damocles decides to start killing people isn’t likely to happen.”

“Assure me again, General.” The President looks at a man seated to his left. “Are the nukes safe?”

“They were air-gapped within minutes of receiving word that Damocles was breached, sir. The only connection into the bunkers is through land-line telephone. Those are isolated and the codes have already been updated.”

Dr. Evans shakes his head and laughs. “You think changing codes is enough? If there aren’t human beings involved in every single step of the chain, face to face, then Damocles can squeeze into the middle.”

Silence—aside from the noise of the television broadcast—persists for nearly a full minute before the President responds. “General, make it happen.”

“Sir! Our first and second strike capabilities will be crippled beyond belief!”

“I don’t give a flying fuck, General.” The President stands up from his seat. “We are not going to be the ones who let this thing launch a nuke. Not happening.” The President turns to an aide as he leaves the room and barks at her. “I need the British Prime Minister on a secure line as soon as we touch down. After that I want the Chinese PM and the Russian President on a conference call. Maybe the two of them will start bitching at each other again after I break the news to them.”

The President leaves the room and the sound of the news broadcast once again reigns. All except for Dr. Evans are glued to the screen, watching the dramatic events unfold before them in real time. Dr. Evans, though, sits alone with a pencil and paper as he scribbles out line after line of ideas, theories and code to test once he is on the ground.

Hope is fading fast, though not all rays have been extinguished. Not yet.

Chapter 16

The Strip

Las Vegas, NV

“No wonder he said to stay away.” Rick sat at a table inside a nearby restaurant on the Strip that had suffered only minor damage. Behind the glass windows and only partially shattered door the air was easier to breathe and he was able to focus enough to try and come up with a plan.

“Can’t we just go across?”

“I think we’ll have to. It looks like the fires are all up and down the road. If we try and go around it could take several hours, depending on how far they’ve spread.”

“Why didn’t we see all of this before we got there?”

Rick shrugged. “The wind’s been changing all day, keeping the smoke mostly away from us. With so many tall buildings between us and the road I’m not all that surprised. Still, I wish we had known.”

“It can’t be that bad on the other side of the road. It’s not all that bad on this side.”

Rick shook his head. “It looks like the eastern side took the brunt of whatever tore this place up. The fires are a lot bigger over there than they are here.” He sighed and stood up and pressed his nose up against the window. “I think our best bet is to head between those two buildings, right over there. There’s a gap in the burned out cars on the highway right in front of that median, then we can climb over that truck and get in between those buildings. We’ll just have to hope that the fires back behind those buildings have died down enough to make it easy to get through.”

“All right. Let’s do it.”

Rick raised an eyebrow and looked over at Jane. She, like he, was covered in soot and her face was black except around her lips where she had been gulping water ever since they came into the restaurant. She had been going strong since they started off earlier that morning and Rick was starting to worry about her ability to last much longer in the heat and smoke.

“Are you sure? You passed out yesterday from heatstroke. We might need to rest here for a while, at least until the sun goes down a bit.”

“I’d rather get through all of this first, then take a break on the other side.”

Rick nodded. “Fair enough. Let’s check around in the back and see if we can put some makeshift masks together first. Might help with the smoke and dust.”

Ten minutes later both Rick and Jane had found an apron, soaked it with water and cut it off so that they could tie it around their head and have it cover their mouth and nose without impeding their movement. After confirming one last time that Jane was feeling up to moving out, Rick opened the door to the restaurant and headed out into the street.