“Listen to me, West. How can the Russians cause an electromagnetic storm all over the country, simultaneously?”
“Easy…” West’s voice cracked and he began coughing. “Water… for God’s sake, Peter…”
Thorpe grabbed a covered container with a spout and held it to West’s lips.
West sipped slowly, then looked up at Thorpe. “I can’t go on. Can’t think. My muscles are going into contraction… sores on my back and buttocks… painful… ”
“I’ll have Eva massage you with oil, front and back. Nice treat. Now go on.”
“No. I have to stretch… I have to move, for God’s sake. To scratch. The itching is driving me insane.”
Thorpe replied, “I gave you Atarax — an anti-itching drug—”
“I’m suffering…”
Thorpe put down the water cup and glanced at the analyzers. “Where do you itch?”
West’s face reddened. “My genitals… all over…”
“Oh, well, that’s where I draw the line. I’ll get Eva—”
“No. Please, Peter. Just let me sit up one minute… I answered your questions… ”
Thorpe glanced at his watch. “All right, that will be quicker than getting her.” He unfastened West’s chest strap, leaving his leg strap secured.
West tried to move, but it took several tries before he could get up into a sitting position. “Oh… God… Thank you… Peter…”
“Think nothing of it. Now, how can an EMP storm be produced that would blanket the whole country?”
West was flexing his muscles, then began to scratch himself.
“West! Talk!” Thorpe reached for the transformer.
West looked at him. “You can’t do that. I’m not secured to the table. My back might arch and break.”
“Not if I give you a mild one. Enough to knock you back on the goddamned table. Answer my question.”
West stared at the alligator clips clamped to his scrotum. “Okay… a low-yield nuclear weapon… exploded about three hundred miles above Omaha… There would be no radiation or destructive effects on the ground… Just a flash of light… but within milliseconds, electromagnetic pulses would begin to destroy every piece of electronics from coast to coast.”
Thorpe looked at him. “Is this a theory or reality?”
“Reality. It’s called the Compton effect. Gamma rays from a nuclear blast high in the atmosphere interact with Compton electrons and produce EMP… The effect produces a hundred times more voltage than a lightning bolt — but it’s invisible and silent, and it covers the entire country, from coast to coast. It happened in the Pacific during the last atmospheric testing before the test-ban treaty over twenty years ago… But electronics in those days were primitive… mostly vacuum tubes, which are very resistant to EMP… also there was not much out there to pick up the EMP… but in Hawaii, eight hundred miles away, street lights went out… radios and televisions went out… Today, nearly all circuitry is based on silicon chips… These are easily destroyed by EMP… ”
Thorpe said, “But I don’t see how the Russians could deliver even a small warhead three hundred miles above Omaha without the President’s finger pulling the nuclear trigger.”
West rubbed his forehead. “They must have a way… ”
“I can’t imagine… ” He looked at West. “But you know what it is. And you’re going to tell me—”
West suddenly reached out and pulled the electric clips away. Thorpe lunged at him instinctively and grabbed at his hand. West, still holding the clips, clasped Thorpe’s hand in his own, the two clips pressed between their joined palms. West yanked Thorpe’s hand toward him, causing the gurney to roll sideways a few feet. West lunged out with his free hand and turned the transformer dial.
A surge of electricity passed through both their bodies. Both men screamed and Thorpe tried to break West’s grip, but their hand muscles tightened in electrical contraction. They both shook and bounced in grotesque spasms.
Finally, Thorpe’s flailing arm hit the wires and ripped the alligator clips from between their pressed palms.
West fell back on the table, his body twitching. Thorpe slumped to the floor, tried to stand, then fell on his face. Both men lay quivering and moaning.
West took several long, deep breaths, then by sheer force of will made his muscles respond to the signals from his brain. He rose into a sitting position again, slowly, like a corpse with rigor mortis. After what seemed like a long time, his arms reached out and his torso bent forward. His shaking hands rested on the buckle of his leg strap. His fingers began to respond and he worked the belt loose.
West could hear Thorpe whimpering on the floor, and every few seconds he heard a crackling electrical sound as the swinging alligator clips came into contact with each other.
West knew somewhere in his stunned mind that he had to work fast, but everything seemed to be moving in slow motion. The room looked very dim, but he knew that was a result of the shock to his optic nerves. His heart beat heavily, slowly. There seemed to be no fluids left in him; his eyes were dry, his mouth felt like paste, his skin like dust.
Slowly, West pulled his legs, then his feet, loose from the straps. He ripped out the IV tubes and pulled the polygraph electrodes from his chest and forehead. With one painful motion he slid the catheter from his penis, then reached under his buttocks, finding that the anal tube had already come lose. He heard Thorpe mumbling obscenities from the floor. West found his own voice and said, “You… you… filthy… you unspeakable horror.”
West slowly swung his legs over the side of the gurney and looked down. Thorpe was struggling to his feet and had gotten into a kneeling position. Both men stared at each other. West could see that Thorpe’s bladder had released. West said, “What you did to me…”
Thorpe made a deep animal-like sound.
West slid down from the gurney and planted his bare feet on the cold floor.
Thorpe, still kneeling, reached his shaking hand into his jacket and began drawing out his revolver.
West dropped to his knees, took hold of the swinging wires, and thrust them out, touching the two live clips to Thorpe’s face.
Thorpe let out a piercing scream and toppled backward, his hands to his face, the revolver lying on the floor between him and West. West crawled toward the revolver.
Suddenly the door of the garret burst open and Eva stood silhouetted in the lighted doorway. She let out a loud bellow, like an enraged animal, and charged across the room.
West glanced up as his hand fumbled for the gun. His eyes focused on something above Eva’s head. Then he recognized the blurry whirling of a whip.
37
The two horsemen were less than fifty yards off now, heading straight toward them on the path, and closing fast. Abrams said, “Spread out. Wide.”
Abrams veered off to his left and moved along the rise that bordered the Shore Parkway. Katherine went to her right, almost down to the water’s edge. Abrams thought that some aspects of military logic did not undergo much change, especially infantry tactics that were an extension of basic survival instincts and common sense. The horsemen would now either have to deploy and give themselves away prematurely, or keep driving straight through, putting themselves at a disadvantage in terms of who had the better field of fire.