Seeing other citizens answer the call to action filled her with confidence.
Two of the agents walked ahead onto the pier, then ducked into a forty-foot yacht. Once a luxury vessel, the military had since requisitioned it to transport troops and refugees. It had most recently found its way here from the Florida Keys, after transporting nearly fifty people to Galveston.
“All clear, ma’am,” one of the agents said as he returned to the top deck. “They’re all waiting for you below.”
One of the agents helped Ringgold up onto the vessel as gentle waves rocked it. Soprano followed. They then went down into the belly of the seacraft where a long wooden table was surrounded by a few chairs bolted to the deck on one half and a plush booth bench on the other.
At the table were General Cornelius, General Souza, LNO Festa, Captain Beckham, Master Sergeant Fitzpatrick, and Doctor Kate Lovato.
She drew strength from having these people join her in this boat today. They were advisers and confidantes, each adept and skilled in their vocations. But they were also her friends, the closest thing she had to family left in this world.
They stood as she descended the last steps toward them.
“Thank you all for being here this morning,” she said. “Please, have a seat.”
Soprano wedged his way into the cramped space to stand behind her.
“No matter what happens tomorrow, you have stood beside me through the worst times in American history, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart,” she said. “We’ve adapted and overcome challenges no one ever dreamed this country would face. And tomorrow might just be the strongest test yet… But I didn’t call you here to spout a bunch of inspirational platitudes.”
She looked at everyone in turn, again soaking in the confidence she drew from their presence.
“You all have been actively involved in the defenses of the base, and while I trust our allies from Canada and Mexico to help in that matter, what we have to discuss here must stay classified,” she continued. “A few of you have presented ideas that may improve our odds tomorrow. I want to explore these opportunities and see how we can support them. Dr. Lovato, please give us an update on your mission.”
“Madam President, my team has isolated the strain of anthrax bacteria from the grenade the Chimera scouts brought to Outpost Houston,” Kate said. “We produced enough to seed the Variant network with the bacteria. It’s not a complex bioweapon, but it’s effective. With it, if we choose our locations carefully, we estimate that we can infect over ninety percent of the Variant network and any masterminds or other beasts attached to it.”
“I take it that infection won’t completely destroy the network in time to stop tomorrow’s attack,” Ringgold said.
“I’m afraid not. However, if our teams deploy the weapon in time, they can destroy small parts of the network as the bacteria continues to breed and kill the webbing.”
“Will that help us?” Cornelius asked.
“It will at least cut off the front-line forces from communicating with their base during the battle,” Kate said. “The destruction will likely continue well after tomorrow, too.”
“That sounds promising,” Souza said. “How many teams would you need to carry out this task?”
“Sammy was able to provide projections for us.” Kate unfurled a map over the table, pointing to locations around the Houston area and beyond. “Even if we stick close to base, we estimate that we can achieve ninety percent coverage via bacterial spread if we attack these fifteen targets.”
“Fifteen teams?” Festa asked. “That’s a lot of manpower we won’t have on our walls. Can we use less?”
“I don’t think so,” Kate said. “But we can use small teams. Maybe three people at most. Just enough to ensure that at least half the teams inject their samples so we can succeed. Using fifteen small teams will ensure that even if one team is eliminated, we still have the other fourteen target locations in play.”
“Fifteen separate teams will also get the job done much faster than a handful of teams trying to travel between multiple targets,” Souza said.
“Exactly,” Kate said. “That means they can return to the walls as soon as they’re done, well before the attack commences. I know it will be dangerous out there tonight. With the New Gods preparing for a dawn attack, we don’t know what our teams will face. But we’ve got to do this if we have any hopes of destroying their network.”
“Can we launch the injections earlier?” Souza asked.
“My lab techs are packaging the bacteria and spores now into syringes that these teams can inject into the webbing sites we’ve identified. They’ll be ready to go by tonight, so we can launch these missions before the attack on Galveston commences. That still gives our teams time to return to base.”
“Also, from what Kate tells me, this network may reach all the way out to Los Alamos, where they suspect the Prophet may be,” Beckham said. “Thanks to Corrin, we confirmed that the Prophet’s headquarters is there. This could very well kill him.”
“I don’t see why we don’t just bomb them,” Souza said. “We have some bunker busters left.”
“We have, at best, circumstantial evidence from the science team and the word from a single Chimera,” Cornelius said. “You want to expend what little ordnance we have left on Los Alamos?”
“If it will kill the Prophet, yes,” Souza said.
“We don’t know that it will,” Cornelius said. “Los Alamos is an enormous facility. It’s going to take more than a few bunker busters to completely wipe it out, and if we miss, he escapes.”
“As much as I trust Dr. Lovato, our flyover of Los Alamos revealed nothing,” Festa said. “This might very well be a setup like Las Vegas. The Chimera scout could just as easily have been told to give false information after his capture.”
“This Prophet is not a dumb strategist,” Cornelius said. “I do think he could conceal his location if he
