Other Works by Amazon Charts Top 25 Author Bobby Akart
Epigraph
“Life on Earth is at the ever-increasing risk of being wiped by a disaster such as sudden global nuclear war ...”
~ Stephen Hawking, theoretical physicist
There are two problems with our species’ survival—nuclear war and environmental catastrophe, and we’re hurtling towards them. Knowingly.
~ Noam Chomsky, cognitive scientist
The leaders of the world face no greater task than that of avoiding nuclear war.
~ Robert F. Kennedy, American politician
Nothing conceived by the human mind except Heaven and nuclear winter is eternal.
~ Jeffrey Zeldman, American entrepreneur
I think I can, I think I can.
~ The Little Engine that Could
Prologue
Wednesday, October 30
Mount Weather Emergency Operations Center
Northern Virginia
Despite the dire circumstances America faced and the unusual conditions under which her government operated, the media from around the world continued to clamor for information. The nuclear detonations had succeeded in collapsing the power grid and associated critical infrastructure across most of America. Nonetheless, information was still being disseminated to her citizens via shortwave radio, satellite television broadcasts, and word of mouth.
President Carter Helton’s psychological condition had deteriorated in the initial period following the attacks. Over several days, with the assistance of the White House physician and his close friend Chief of Staff Harrison Chandler, he’d gradually regained control. For the first time since the nuclear warhead struck Washington, DC, he was going to address the nation and then take questions from the media.
His address was going to be like no other in American history. It would rank alongside George Washington’s Farewell Address in 1796 and Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address of 1863. Its tone and tenor were completely opposite of other national addresses like John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address of 1961 in which he said, “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.” Nor did President Helton call out the enemy like FDR did in his war message to Congress in 1941 following the attack on Pearl Harbor.
No. President Helton focused his efforts on controlling the American people.
In the press room of the Mount Weather Emergency Operations Center in Northern Virginia, the two dozen reporters who’d remained embedded with the Helton administration throughout the entire ordeal shifted uneasily in their seats. They’d been starved for information, receiving only what the president’s chief of staff allowed to be leaked to the press pool. This would be their first opportunity to see the president speak and to ask him questions.
The atmosphere was far different from a normal press briefing, where the television media reporters would be standing with their network cameras focused on their pre-address comments. They would be relaying to the viewing audience what they expected the president to say and what it meant. That was not the case on this occasion. There was only one camera that would be focused on the president. Network feeds were unnecessary, as there were no American news outlets capable of receiving them. The broadcast would be sent out via satellite to foreign news networks, who would then share it as circumstances allowed.
The administration’s staff tried to convey a sense of normalcy despite their harried looks off-camera. The stage for the address had been set. The Blue Goose, the nickname for the large blue podium adorned with the seal of the President of the United States, was an exact replica of the one likely destroyed in the nuclear detonation near the White House. It had remained perched atop a raised stage, awaiting a presidential address, since the moment they’d entered Mount Weather a week ago.
Flanking the podium to the president’s right as he spoke was the United States flag, a symbol of America’s historic journey from rebellion to exceptionalism. On the other side of the Blue Goose was the flag of the president, the presidential coat of arms on a dark blue background.
Suddenly, with little warning, Chandler announced the president would be coming out within sixty seconds. Any reporters milling about scrambled to take a seat. The muffled conversations of the attendees became an eerie hush as if an invisible hand had hit the mute button. At the start, the media was respectful, as most understood the gravity of this address.
A red light was illuminated on the sole, somewhat antiquated camera that sat in the center of the media seating. Its technology was a decade old but sufficient to broadcast to the U.S. military satellites in low-Earth orbit for further transmission around the globe.
If Peter Albright had been present, he would’ve been struck by the entourage who accompanied the president onto the stage. To be sure, the director of the nation’s Department of Homeland Security was to be expected. Most assumed the secretaries of transportation and energy, who oversaw the nation’s critical infrastructure, would be present. Perhaps the secretary of agriculture and her counterpart at the commerce department would be there to address the recovery effort.
But an audible gasp filled the room together with a smattering of whispers when the only people by the president’s side were his attorney general and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the highest-ranking and most senior military officer in the armed forces.
Many in the room speculated internally that the president was going to ask for a war declaration from Congress, hence the presence of the CJCS. But what would be the purpose of the nation’s top legal advisor being present? They would soon find out, as the president had just settled in behind the podium.
“My fellow Americans, these are unprecedented times. Starting with the unprovoked nuclear attack by Iran on Israel, through the use of nuclear weapons by North Korea on its neighbors and then on the United States, the world has been thrust into a global catastrophe like no other.
“By all counts, millions have perished as a result of the nuclear attacks, and now we face a climatic event that threatens the lives of billions more. It’s a catastrophe never faced by modern mankind,
