Some tall order, he thought solemnly. Yet he had too for the sake of the country. He would have to persuade the armed guard that it was imperative that he section the incumbent President.
Surely, they could see that the President had become unbalanced, they could worry about the subpoena later, or maybe they could think of a way of impeaching him, either way they would have to worry about the niceties of their actions later. He had to act; the President had totally lost it, having proposed the annihilation of Florida.
He had never heard such nonsense in all his born days. Mental health was no laughing matter, and should certainly not be in doubt in the ruler of the free world.
He marched briskly back to the Oval Office when to his consternation he found the door locked. “What the…?” Quinn Martell said in alarm. He tried the door again. Definitely locked. He heard shouting and turned to the uniformed guard, “Unlock this door, immediately!”
“Negative,” gulped the young guard. “My orders are clear. Guard you and nothing else.”
The shouting got louder. “Listen to them, that’s Vice-Admiral Reed in there. Who has the most experience in defending our nation, him or that preppy nobody?” he pleaded, as the guard stared straight ahead, as trained, and ignored him. “Use your initiative.”
“No can do, sir. Now step away.”
23:44 PM
Sophie gently steering the spluttering, disabled airboat along the Intracoastal Waterway. The boat limped along, as the propellers malfunctioned after removing most of the general’s face. She shuddered as she remembered his howls of agony as the blades turned his face into hamburger.
Sophie heaved the carcass over the side of the airboat and was surprised how quickly the alligators were upon the corpse devouring it. She glanced at Luke who’d sunk into semi-consciousness. He’d lost an enormous amount of blood, she had stopped the flow for the moment. The bullet had passed right through his shoulder, so no permanent damage there, she thought.
She cut the throttle and glided the airboat up to the embankment outside the Good Samaritan’s hospital, on Sandbank Island. My gosh, she thought, back to where we started. She came to a halt almost at the spot where the river ambulances would dock, then dashed inside the deserted hospital, grabbed a gurney and helped Luke onto it.
23:45 PM
The President entered the Oval Office in a manic mood once again. His appearance unkempt, his hair disheveled, and he had large sweat patches under his arms. His face turned puce. “What have you done to me? He raged.
“I… I d— don’t know what you mean?” stammered the vice-admiral.
“You and that quack, Martell, you’ve given me something haven’t you.” He grinned, baring his teeth, and pointed in Reed’s face. “I’m on to your little game.”
Vice-Admiral Reed worried for the President’s sanity, this latest bout of paranoia was too much, and as soon as Quinn got back to the office, they would have to act. “Mister President, we don’t have time for this—”
“Damn well right we don’t. That’s why we’re going to launch Plan Z. You and I, right here, right now.”
“Are you out of your mind?” the vice-admiral asked incredulous.
“You know what Plan Z involved. It’s going to happen, mister, with or without your help.”
“Never.”
“It’s been ratified by the Joint Chiefs of Staff.”
“I don’t care,” said the vice-admiral. “I cannot, in all good conscience be responsible for this madness.”
“It’s not your responsibility — it’s mine. I’ve made an executive decision and that’s final. Now, put your goddamn palm-print on the plate!” he ordered, opening the briefcase containing the nuclear missile launch-codes.
“Not in a million years,” Reed replied.
“You put your goddamned palm-print on the screen now, or I’ll cut your hand clean off and put it on there.”
“You cannot launch a nuclear strike upon your own country, please think again. It’s insane.”
“We’ll bomb the state back to the Stone Age. We have to make sure that’s it’s uninhabitable. It’s the only sane option we have.”
“It’ll make Florida uninhabitable for a hundred years.”
“That’s what we want,” said Hamilton trying to appeal to the man through logic. “We kill every living thing, then logically we kill the bubonic plague’s host, and it’ll die with them. AND it’ll stop the illegal immigrants from wanting to enter the country through Florida; surely even they wouldn’t be dumb enough to venture into a radioactive area.”
“No!” Reed said.
23:46 PM
At the Good Samaritan Hospital Sophie gave Luke a blood transfusion by flashlight. She had Luke strapped to the gurney and drew more blood for a regular check. The prognosis was good from the gunshot at least. She compared before and after blood samples at a makeshift laboratory, and gained puzzling results. She was mystified. “That’s curious…,” she said to herself. “…Surely not…”
If correct, she may have accidentally stumbled upon the cure!
Incredible as it may seem — it had happened before — the discovery of penicillin had been by accident. She told herself to calm down, and thought she should do another test to confirm her theory.
She heard the roar of distant jets and peered from the hospital window and her mouth dropped open; the sky was full of military aircraft heading north and a shiver ran down her spine, knowing that the retreat was not good and had an ominous feeling. Something awful was about to occur. She rushed back to her experiments knowing that the potential outcome of the tests could result in the most important discovery in history.
She prayed to God that she was correct.
23:47 PM
Submariner Pete Williams coughed and tried to breath in the thin, fetid air. Slow, deep even breaths he told himself. If the lack of air wasn’t enough, there was also the intolerable heat. He did not know which would get him first, lack of oxygen or heatstroke. Well, whichever got him first it would not be before he made a pre-emptive strike.
Fuck the retaliation only rule of a nuclear launch. He knew the enemies of the United States were behind the contagion and if he were to die then he would damn well make sure he would take them with him. He needed the captain’s computer, and with a great deal of difficulty, he sat at the desk, and prepared to send the Rag-Heads or Ruskies back to the dark ages. He paused for a moment doubting his motives. The enemy would see the launch and would respond in kind. The US had always calculated on six or seven nuclear bombs getting through and resigned themselves to the loss of several major cities, New York, Washington and Chicago to name a few, should he be the instigator of such mass murder? Would anyone ever know it had been him, and would anyone even care?
He had fed the launch codes into the captain’s laptop, on the outside it looked like an innocuous briefcase, but on the inside it held unimaginable power and destruction. Everything was prepared, he only had to push the button. His vision became blurred and his breathing erratic, the panic rising in him. He made himself calm, and regulated his breathing. He flipped back the plastic safety cover and his finger hovered over the button….
23:49 PM
Sophie entered Quinn Martell’s cellular telephone number into the army satellite-phone they’d taken from the soldier on the barge. He answered quickly, but sounded out of breath. “It’s me, Sophia Garcia.”
“My God, you’re alive!” Quinn’s heart swelled at the news, and he felt himself grinning for the first time in ages. The shouting inside the Oval Office grew so loud that he had to cover his ear to be able to hear her. He nodded to the uniformed guard to open the door and saw that the young guard’s resolve waned; he took out a key and turned it over in his hand, trying to make the right decision.