molecules, most buildings were heavily damaged. The windows of tall buildings had been blown out, and first responders would find the contents of the upper floors of these buildings scattered on the streets below, along with the people who had been inside.
Those out in the open within this five mile radius had experienced third-degree burns from the initial fireball, while those inside close to windows had been shredded by the flying glass and bullet-like pieces of debris. It was a scene of unimaginable horror, but this was only the beginning. Within thirty miles of the blast, a lethal dose of radiation had been delivered through the air. Death would occur within hours to most of those within this area.
The wind on this night was blowing north at seventeen miles per hour. The massive amount of dirt and debris that had lifted up into the grayish purple-tinged mushroom cloud now began to follow the wind for hundreds of miles before gradually falling back to earth. This material was also lethally radioactive, and death would soon visit entire families up to ninety miles away within two to fourteen days.
Farther away, about one hundred sixty miles from where the bomb had exploded, people would experience extensive internal damage to their digestive tracts and white blood cells, with the resulting loss of hair and unexplained cancers that would ravage them and their children in the years to come.
It would be ten years before the levels of radioactivity in these areas would again be considered safe, but for now, a large part of the country had been rendered an unlivable graveyard. America’s worst nightmare had just occurred.
Chapter 26
Snorkeling over the reef in the clear water of the Mediterranean coastline, John and Ariella were spearing fish for lunch. They had been in the water for almost an hour when Ariella swam up next to John and pointed to her divers watch. Reluctantly, they headed for the shore until their feet touched sand and they struggled through the surf up onto the beach. Ariella smiled as she held up a string of good-sized snapper. Camp ran up to John and sniffed at his single, small mackerel, before running off to chase an errant crab scurrying across a sugar-white sand dune.
Their morning fishing expedition over, the two headed across the weathered boardwalk toward the villa and joined the others at the poolside bar.
“Nice fish, John,” Daniel said.
“I probably should have thrown it back.” He cast a glance at Ariella. “Now she’s going to force me to eat it.”
“That’s right,” Ariella said. “That’s the rule around here. If you keep it, you eat it.”
“Maybe Camp would like it,” Nava said, winking at Alon.
On cue, Camp’s new crab friend pinched him on the nose. The little dog yelped and raced through the dunes to the safety of his human friends. “I think he’s had enough seafood for today,” John said.
Everyone was talking and teasing John about his miniature fish while an American news channel provided background noise. The newscasters were going on about the discovery of a large oil field in Israel when the red banner of a news bulletin flashed across the screen. With the events of the night before still fresh in their minds, everyone wondered if something else had occurred in the desert and turned their attention to the flat screen TV over the bar.
One of the television journalists held his hand to his earpiece and turned to his stunned-looking female co- anchor. His face took on a pale, vacant look. He paused for a moment; he seemed to be having trouble collecting himself before he looked directly into the camera and took a deep breath before speaking. “Ladies and gentlemen, we have just received news of an unbelievable nature. If this bulletin can be confirmed, our worst national nightmare has been realized. We’re hearing just now that a nuclear explosion has occurred in an American city, totally vaporizing an area within a mile of the blast and devastating an area for five miles around that. The city is Houston, Texas.”
Everyone by the pool stopped what they were doing and stared at the TV screen in total disbelief. It was one of those moments when, years later, people would recall exactly where they were when they heard the news. The television journalists were silent for a moment, not knowing what to say next or if professional decorum had rules for their emotions at a moment like this.
The female newswoman tried to compose herself before continuing. “We’ve just learned that apparently, sometime around 1:00 AM Central Standard Time, a small fishing boat entered the Houston ship channel from the Gulf of Mexico. Shortly thereafter, those onboard detonated what is believed to be a nuclear bomb in the center of one of the largest petrochemical industrial areas in the world. The scene was captured on tape by security cameras just before the blast. Authorities say it is an obvious attempt to knock out some of the country’s largest refineries and cripple the economy, with the added benefit of taking the lives of as many Americans as possible in the process.”
Daniel slammed his orange juice down on the bar. “It’s 9/11 all over again.”
“No, it’s much worse,” Nava said. “Now the bastards have nuclear weapons.”
Ariella leaned close to John as tears began to flow, mixing with the drying saltwater of the sea on her tanned face. Her mother had been an American, and she had distant relatives who lived in Texas. Returning from their walk through the fields, Leo and Lev joined the others in front of the TV just in time to see the first pictures from Houston spring to life on the screen. Before their eyes was a scene of unbelievable horror.
News of the attack spread throughout the villa prompting Moshe to put the compound on the highest alert. The Israelis had played out this scenario in their hearts and minds many times over the years since the attacks of September 11. They had hypothesized that, if one city was attacked anywhere in the Christian or Jewish world, it could be the beginning of a coordinated series of detonations in other cities around the globe.
Some of the brightest minds in think tanks on both sides of the Atlantic had run the numbers, and the laws of probability and supply and demand won every time. Since the old USSR had collapsed, several nuclear weapons had gone missing, and people with a lot of money could buy anything. The laws of probability, plus the laws of supply and demand, equaled nuclear weapons in the hands of terrorists.
Tel Aviv was less than twenty miles from the villa and was a highly prized target of terrorists. Jerusalem was officially considered off the list for now, since the Dome of the Rock and the El-Aqsa Mosque, two of the most holy sites in Islam, were located on the Haram esh-Sharif in the old section of the city. But times were strange and getting stranger, and even though many believed the holy city was probably safe from attack, the radicals were seized by a fervor resembling mental illness, and therefore, theoretically, everything was on the table.
The staff switched the channel to CNN, where they were already interviewing government officials. Security consultants were blaming the explosion on radical Islamic terrorists, or RITs, the acronym used by many in the intelligence community to identify this newest enemy to world peace.
“No surprise there,” Alon said when he heard the latest bit of news.
The TV networks were pulling out all the stops and using every resource available. Unnamed sources within the CIA and NSA were quoted as saying that they had already gathered enough evidence to begin building a case against those who had attacked America.
Everyone at the villa watched the reaction from around the world as the global community joined in the rising tide of sorrow and fear beginning to circle the world. Leo was struck by the timing. When God brought forth his bounty, such as the oil and water now washing over the desert, Satan seemed to strike back with yet another depraved assault against humanity.
While everyone sat frozen in front of TV screens throughout the villa, Daniel was about to make a discovery that would remove any doubt from their minds.
Chapter 27
Daniel liked to work alone. Possessed with a brilliant mind, he was totally absorbed in his work on the Bible
