Beverly continued to look at Pike for a few moments longer, then shook her head in disgust, a knowing smile planted on her plump face. She took another bite of doughnut and harrumphed, blowing out crumbs.
“What?” asked Pike, feeling the anger growing, and resentment. These people didn’t want to hear reality. He knew this wasn’t fake news.
“If you don’t pull your head out of your ass, you’re gonna get fired. Oh, and for your information, you are going to freak out your clients with those stupid books. Smarten up, Pike, get with the program and the real world. That shit is just a bunch of fake news and fairytales,” she said, and scooted back to her desk.
Pike watched her go, turned back, and stared at his computer. Frustration choked him. These people lived in a bubble. They had no clue how the rest of the world felt about America. Instead of red and white stripes on the flag, it should be a red and white bullseye.
CHAPTER TWO
Pike put his long legs up on the coffee table and balanced his laptop on them. Finally, in the privacy of his studio apartment, he could look up anything he could find on POSEIDON. He thought back to earlier in the day. How could Johnny and Bev be so ignorant? He could feel his face grow hot at the remembered contempt they’d shown him. Something was going to happen. Of that he was certain. But they didn’t want to know or hear about it.
He was already overwhelmed by the information he’d found so far. Dr. Rhy had written a book, POSEIDON: Russia's Death Torpedo. He quickly ordered a copy from Amazon and hit the early delivery selection: he wanted the book as fast as he could get his hands on it.
He went on to Facebook to see if Margo had come back on or seen his message. She had, but it only said to call her. He felt around on the couch, lifting pillows to locate his phone. It had been a while since he’d heard her voice.
“Hey Pike, how’re you doing?” Margo said. Her sweet southern voice sounded wonderful, all the way from Missouri.
Pike felt his heart slam into his chest and his mouth widened into a smile, heat suffusing his face. He didn’t have to look into a mirror to know his face was beet red. It always went that color when he heard her voice. She was the most wonderful person in the world. He sighed happily. “I’m good. How have you been?” He raked his free hand through his long dark hair nervously; he had taken it out of its neat ponytail after work, and it just touched the back of his collar.
“I can’t complain, until now. What did you think about the article?” she asked.
“It scared the hell out of me. I’m less than three miles from the Atlantic Ocean here. A halfway decent hurricane can kick our ass here, you know that. How many times over the past years have we had to evacuate?” He laughed nervously, looking around the cluttered room. I really need to clean this place. He raked his hand through his hair again, his foot jiggling nervously. And it wasn’t from the articles.
“You should be. I really think this is the real deal, Pike. Orlov has always been a dickweed, and we both know Russia is spoiling for a fight. The fact that they brag about it, it’s like rubbing our noses in it. Who has the biggest and most badass weapons.”
“But the President’s meeting Orlov next week,” Pike said, confused. He pulled at a thread on his shirt, unraveling it. “And Orlov met with former President George Bush up in Maine a few years back. I thought we had good relations with Russia. They even offered to help with North Korea some months back. I mean, I know we have our differences, but really, I thought we’re about equally matched. It would surely be crazy and reckless for Russia to do something like this”
“True. I think it’s a smokescreen, though. It might be all for show, Pike. It’s like propaganda: Oh, we get along so well, we sit in each other’s presence, we respect each other’s country, and so on. You know how the President met with Kim Jung Shithead? Well, do you think that little nutbag will stop making his bombs?” Margo asked.
“No, I guess not,” Pike said, sighing.
It was so good to hear her voice. He didn’t care what the conversation was; just listening to her filled his heart with joy, the lyrical sound of her voice.
“What?” he asked, coming back from his romantic thoughts. She’d been talking while he’d been distracted.
“I said that Orlov is a tyrannical, power hungry jerk, and wants to be top dog. He doesn’t give three shits about his own people. What makes you think he’d give a good goddamn about Americans? He doesn’t. We’re all expendable so long as he gets what he wants, and that is world domination, pure and simple. He wants to rule the world, and now he has a weapon to use on us. And when he does, all he has to do is hint at using it on others and they’ll all come into line and under his control.”
Once more Pike felt the tingle of fear cascade through his body. It wasn’t what she said so much as the fact that he knew these were the games governments played. Who had the most might, the most armament? It had been played out over and over since time began and governments ruled.
“But wouldn’t we retaliate? Wouldn’t we just bomb the hell out of them? With our weapons, couldn’t we just wipe them off the map?" he asked, repeating Johnny’s logic. He also knew that doing so would kill themselves as well. A no-win situation.
“No, Pike,” she said, “because these things are artificially intelligent nuclear weapons. They only need to be launched in secret, far away from us. The Russians could launch them simultaneously, and with their stealth technology, whether in water or the air, we’d never know it until it was too late. They could double-whammy us. That’s what I’d do.”
“What d’you mean?” Pike asked, though he thought he already knew the answer. He was hoping against hope that it wasn’t what he was thinking. It was a scary thought.
“Look, I’m not saying Orlov is going to launch these things now. I’m not saying he’ll do it in two or three years. But one day he will. I’m damn sure of that. And when he does, bend over and kiss your ass goodbye. All he has to do is build up an arsenal. The ones he sends will hit on each coast, making those dead zones. Then explode a few in the upper atmosphere and Bob’s your uncle. A massive EMP wipes out technology across the board, us, Canada, Mexico, and probably a lot of South America,” she said.
Pike scrubbed his face once more. She was making too much sense. He grunted.
“We’d be in the stone age. There would be massive die-off instantly from the blasts and subsequent fallout. You’ll have planes falling from the sky, food shortages, hospitals useless.... You name it, Pike, we’ll be in a world of hurt. Not to mention anyone who lives along the coast. And again, whoever didn’t get toasted in the first blast could end up dying from radiation sickness.”
Pike swallowed. That small alarm bell he’d heard earlier was starting to get louder. He could feel the sweat popping out on his face and he wiped at it. He brought his hand up in front of his face. It was shaking badly, and all of a sudden he was breathing fast, near panic. He had the sudden urge to cry, to lie on the floor and throw a full and all-out temper tantrum.
He took a deep breath to gather his sanity. “So, what do we do, Margo? The guys in my office just laughed their asses off at me. If it comes today or in five or ten years, I’m screwed three ways to Sunday.” He slumped down low into the curve of the couch. Looking at his shirt, he noticed it had the start of a large rip in it. He wondered how it had got there.