from trying to see inside. Because of this, they could handle the nuclear bomb with relative impunity.
Sepehr watched intently as a team of four white-suited, gloved, booted and helmeted men cycled through the airlock and into the room where the nose cone and the device both sat after being cleaned repeatedly, to make sure every part was functioning at optimum capability. They had already attached the altitude timer to the bomb, and, with one man at each corner, they transferred the device into the custom-designed space inside the cone. The team leader ran one final series of tests on it, then turned and gave a thumbs-up to the men in the observation room.
“All that remains is to reattach the cone to the rocket, and the final countdown to launch can begin.” Sepehr turned to see Joseph walking toward him. “The cone is also lead lined to prevent any radiation leakage or detection, as well as to defeat any attempt to hack into the rocket’s guidance system.”
“How will you control its flight, then?” Sepehr asked.
“We have a tight-beam laser guidance system that will transmit any course corrections within one-ten- thousandth of a second, guaranteeing that, if we wanted to, we could put this missile down within one yard of its intended target.”
“Truly, my friend, you have thought of everything.
While I know that Allah favors our mission, it will also come to pass because of your foresight and planning.”
“Allah has seen fit to guide my hand to this place and time. I am only doing as he would have me do for the glory of Islam. I thought you might want to see our various flight plans, perhaps review the primary and secondary ones and the estimated coverage,” Joseph said.
“That would be excellent indeed, but I want to see the cone’s transfer. Now that we are this close to achieving our goal, I am concerned, even with all of your safeguards in place, that something will go wrong at the last moment,”
Sepehr said.
“A prudent concern—a wise man is never hasty in accomplishing his ultimate goals.”
They both watched as the men loaded the cone into another container, also lead lined, loaded it onto a cart, and wheeled it through the airlock to the loading dock. There they would use a truck to move it back to the rocket, where a crane would lift it to be reattached to the body.
Once it was away, Sepehr followed Joseph into the main workroom, which was still abuzz with activity. The anti-septic smell irritated his nose for several breaths until he got used to the odor. Joseph led him over to one of the plasma screens displaying a map of the United States.
“Watch this simulation of our primary flight plan. I think you will be very pleased with the estimated results,”
Joseph said. He went to a keyboard and hit several keys.
On the screen, a small green dot launched from El Paso and arced into the air, soaring up over the Eastern United States, passing over the Mississippi and soaring higher over the Appalachian Mountains. In the corner, a small timer counted the passing seconds. A minute passed, then two. Sepehr realized he was holding his breath, and let it out with a soft whoosh.
The missile reached the apogee of its trajectory, 130 miles above the eastern half of America. Instead of diving down to explode in a city, it detonated in a bright blast of heat and light. A small yellow circle expanded out from the initial burst point, perhaps three inches in all directions.
“That is the initial blast and heat effects, which will be negligible once it reaches the ground. The radiation may have some effect in the atmosphere, but will be dispersed by the prevailing winds rather quickly.”
“And the true damage—” Sepehr’s words trailed off as a red sphere grew from what had been the missile, expand-ing out much farther than the original blast radius to en-compass the entire eastern half of the United States, enveloping New York, Boston, Washington, D.C., as far west as Chicago, as far south as Miami and New Orleans, and everything in between.
“Our preliminary casualty estimate is three hundred thousand to five hundred thousand people in the first hour, then tens of thousands more in riots and crime once people realize what has happened. No doubt the National Guard will be mobilized, but they are already weakened by America’s involvement in overseas conflicts, and perhaps some units will even join the mobs. The government will attempt to declare martial law, but with no way to communicate their orders, it will be paralyzed, and the chaos that will result as fires rage with no power, no water pressure, no lights…it will be glorious.”
Sepehr simply nodded, staring at the red circle that rep-resented the electromagnetic pulse that would blanket the entire half of the nation, including a large portion of Canada. The disruptive pulse would short out electronics and communications circuitry in millions of devices across the country, from toasters to airplanes. He imagined the carnage as hundreds of fully loaded jumbo jets fell out of the sky all over the land, crashing into buildings and suburbs in orange-red fireballs. He allowed himself to dream of the Capitol Building going up in flames as a 767 plowed into the dome, collapsing the entire structure.
Cities would grind to a halt as the electrical grid shut down, snarling whatever traffic hadn’t already stalled.
Thousands of people would be trapped in skyscrapers, crushing each other in the stairwells as they struggled to escape the innocuous workplaces that had suddenly turned into lightless, stifling prisons. As Joseph had said, the infrastructure would collapse almost immediately, with police and fire units not only unable go to where the crimes and accidents would be, but also unable to communicate with each other. Civilization would grind to a complete halt, with hundreds of thousands dying in the violence and looting that followed, and a huge exodus of refugees streaming west over the Mississippi, choking the nearby cities that would be inundated with the seemingly endless stream of panicked people looking to escape to anywhere that still had power.
The one regret that Sepehr had was that he couldn’t get the entire country in one blast; the bomb they had simply wasn’t powerful enough. Therefore, America would eventually recover, but it would take time, and would never be the same again. And they would bear the scars for decades afterward.
“Are you all right, Sepehr?”
With a start, Sepehr realized that his mind had drifted off into the magnificent daydream of carnage and destruction that he was about to put into motion, a holy storm that would rain invisibly down on the United States, and truly wash away their decadent civilization. He turned to look at Joseph with a beatific smile on his face.
“It will be magnificent, Allah be praised.”
Joseph nodded. “Allah be praised.”
“You’ve been pretty quiet these last few miles.” Nate looked over at Tracy, who seemed lost in thought. “What’s on your mind?”
They had left the city several miles back, and were now skirting the edge of the U.S.-Mexico border, sometimes marked with pickets, sometimes with an eight-foot-high steel barrier, sometimes not even marked at all. Once the houses and buildings of El Paso had faded from sight, all that surrounded them was the Chihuahuan Desert, with acres of parched scrubland dotted with various cacti, yucca plants and thin-limbed trees.
His voice seemed to startle her, and her deep brown eyes darted to his face, then looked away just as quickly. “Just taking it all in, I guess. My mother’s grandparents lived in Arizona for much of their life. I visited a few times when I was a child, but hadn’t been back since they passed away.
I guess I’d forgotten how beautiful it can be.”
“Don’t let it fool you. That desert’ll sap the water and life out of you faster than you’d think, and leave you a dried husk in the sand. Every year we find people trying to cross over that ran out of water or got lost, and the desert sucks everything out of ’em and leaves ’em deader than disco.
Not a pleasant way to go—from what I understand, as a person dehydrates, their brain basically starts to shrink from lack of fluids, until they go insane before finally dying.”
“Thanks for that wonderful image,” Tracy said.
“Just thought you’d like to know what people risk to get here.”
She regarded him with a curious look on her face. “You mean a slow, agonizing death as compared to being shot and killed quickly?”
“Didn’t say either one was a better way to go, just that some folks take the ultimate chance to make what they think is a new life for themselves.”
“Unless folks like you and I stop them,” Tracy said.
