“That’s true, as much as I hate to admit it,” Kate said. “Since we can’t listen in on the network, there is no way to track him. If we bomb Los Alamos at the wrong time, when he’s away from the base, then we’ll lose him completely.”
“Not to mention the New Gods claim to have control of the First Fleet,” Cornelius said. “He might be on the First Fleet for all we know. Either way, they’ve now got more formidable firepower and we might very well need every last bit of airborne support and ordnance we have to fight against our own naval vessels.”
Ringgold felt sick at the thought, but she knew Cornelius was right.
“There’s one other thing that we haven’t even discussed,” she said. “According to the intel from the prisoner Chimera, there are hundreds of our people imprisoned there, and I’m not going to kill them on a hunch that the Prophet is there.”
Souza seemed to consider that. “Given the conversation, I suppose these bombs would be more impactful if the New Gods forced our hand and we needed to use them on the First Fleet.”
“Agreed,” Cornelius said. “Let’s focus on using our remaining ordnance to defend Galveston first. Then if we survive this battle, we can inventory what we have left and see if we can deploy it in an offensive move. But none of that really matters if we can’t defend this island.”
“You’re absolutely right,” Ringgold said. “Priority number one is keeping Galveston alive.”
“Madam President, I have an idea on how we can destroy Los Alamos without diverting too much of our defenses,” Beckham said.
“What’s that?” Ringgold asked.
“I’m recommending Ghost launch an attack on Los Alamos while the New Gods have their attention turned toward us. They won’t see it coming.”
“We already decided we can’t send an attack like last time,” Souza said. “There’s no way we can afford to send our best team to what could be a slaughter. We would need an army.”
“We have one,” Beckham said.
Ringgold stared at the Captain for a moment. “Explain, Reed.”
“As President Ringgold mentioned, we know there are hundreds of human prisoners in Los Alamos, many of which I’d guess by now are probably soldiers captured in Las Vegas.”
“No surprise,” Souza said. “They’ll be feeding on them, I’m sure.”
“Yes, but they also use many for hard labor,” Beckham said. “Just like how the collaborators try to convert humans to work for them, the New Gods have been culling our people for converts. They also perform experiments on them and turn them into Chimeras, which takes time.”
“Like Corrin,” Fitz confirmed. “He was once a free man, but was held against his will when they turned him into a Chimera.”
“Exactly like Corrin,” Beckham said. He turned toward Fitz. “You’ve seen Corrin in action. You trust him, right?”
“At this point, yes, I can say without hesitation, we can trust him.”
“There might be a hundred more Chimeras like Corrin, who don’t want to be a part of the New Gods, waiting in Los Alamos,” Beckham said. “They’re dry tinder, waiting for a spark.”
“If they’re half as angry and loyal as Corrin is, then that’ll be more than enough,” Fitz said.
“That’s why I’m recommending sending Ghost with Corrin into Los Alamos,” Beckham said. “Start an insurrection. The New Gods will have to fight us here in Texas while at the same time trying to put down an internal rebellion, all while anthrax is spreading through their networks.”
Ringgold’s thoughts turned toward her deceased friend and vice president, the final moments of his life playing across her mind.
“Anything we can do to send these evil abominations back into the pits of hell sounds good to me,” she said. “We must cause as much damage as possible with what few resources we have over the next twenty-four hours if humanity has any hope of survival.”
“We’re all about inflicting damage,” Fitz said with a half-smile.
“And Dr. Lovato, if I understand correctly, even if we lose the battle for Galveston, your bioweapon will continue to attack them,” Ringgold said.
“That’s right,” Kate said.
“We owe it to our allies in other countries to do this,” Ringgold said. “Even if we can’t stop the New Gods, perhaps this weapon will. We’ll rid the world of the monsters here that the United States inadvertently seeded the planet with. Then there will still be hope for humanity. And should we survive, we can resume talks of more aggressive offensive actions against a crippled enemy. Anyone opposed to this?”
Everyone shook their heads.
“Good,” Ringgold said. “As soon as we’re done here, General Cornelius and Captain Beckham, I’d like you to identify teams capable of delivering these anthrax doses to the Variant network.”
“Yes, Madam President,” they both replied.
“Look, I understand these strategies give us a chance, but they pull away much needed forces to protect the people here, innocent people,” Souza said. “I’m also concerned the New Gods might be planning to use biological weapons like anthrax since they had it on their Chimeras before. What’s to say they don’t also have more weapons like that they plan to use against us?”
“You’re absolutely right,” Ringgold said. “General Cornelius, do you still have your stock of gas masks available?”
“Yes,” Cornelius said. “I’ll distribute them among our troops. We’ll requisition everything else we can to help protect our men and women on the walls.”
“We can help the hospital and combat medics prepare standard issue chemical and biological warfare medications from the pharmacies,” Kate said.
“I can dig into our warehouses, too,” Cornelius said. “We inherited a great deal of the CDC’s Strategic National Stockpile years ago that might come in handy.”
“Good,” Ringgold said. “Lastly, I’ve confirmed both Canada and Mexico will finally send the reinforcements they originally promised after their respective generals
