The White Death

by Rafferty, Daniel

  “Which means they have now become an imminent threat to the safety of the United States,” said Kilmoran.

  “I agree,” said Richards. “And it’s not often the Secretary of State and I agree on anything at all.”

  “How much danger are we in?”

  “Our military assets in the Pacific Ocean are formidable, I grant,” said Richards, standing up to pace.

  Thomas put on his reading glasses, lifting a memo.

  “We have seven carrier groups, thousands of fighters, and over 100 warships standing between us and Japan. How the hell can you and Jacqui believe Japan is now an imminent threat to our safety?” said Thomas. “Explain that to me, now.”

  He threw the memo back down on his desk.

  “Because Japan is not North Korea,” said Richards, in contrasting calm. “We’re not dealing with a country fifty years behind the times. It won’t be a shooting spree across the Pacific. They have twelve advanced destroyers and three cruisers that could pose a threat to our carrier fleets. If you’re looking for my assurance that I will not allow one Japanese citizen to step on our soil, I can’t give you that.”

  “And if one is a carrier?” said Kilmoran.

  “Jacqui, I don’t need to be continually reminded about that,” said Thomas. “According to Section 51, there could be half a million carriers out there.”

  “Put simply, Mr. President, preventative measures may have to be taken if Japanese infection occurs. We can no longer afford to react to events,” said Richards.

  “Exactly,” agreed Jacqui. She’d have put it more diplomatically, but Richards was certainly no politician. “If we don’t take action, we’ll face that exodus.”

  “The United States, sir,” said Kramer, “is seen as the last beacon of salvation across the world, except for Britain, but the Japanese aren’t going to travel that far. Besides that, we can’t evacuate the island anyway. We have nowhere to put 100 million people.”

  “We don’t even have the resources to isolate Japan,” said Jacqui. “Our military is fully utilized.”

  “It’s actually at breaking point,” added Richards. “I need that point stressed. We have no surplus forces anywhere in the world. There is nothing to spare.”

  Thomas knew that. Every military asset at their disposal had been called into action.

  “What are you proposing?” he asked his staff.

  “Sorry to interrupt again, sir,” said Gail, “but I have the British prime minister on the line. He says it’s urgent.”

  “Wait outside, please,” said Thomas to Richards and the others. He lifted the receiver, wondering what had William in such a flurry.

  “William,” said Thomas. “What’s wrong?”

  “Japan,” said William.

  The British prime minister sounded old and tired. If it were anyone else, Thomas would fear for the survivability of the British government. With William, though, he knew the country had its best chance.

  “We’re just discussing that now. We haven’t decided on anything yet.”

  “You might want to, and quick,” said William. “MI6 reports a disturbance in the Akita region of Japan.”

  “Why is that region significant?” asked Thomas. He poured some tea.

  “Akita holds one of the Japanese decontamination centers for people rescued from China. We’re expecting him to report in any minute now with more intel, but with all this carrier business, it could all be about to go to shit down there. That region has over two million people.”

  “You’re thinking infection?” said Thomas. “Really? We’ve intel saying the Japanese government is starting to fracture. Could just be a local uprising.”

  “Or it could be infection.”

  “And both or neither,” said Thomas. “ETA on the intel?”

  “Any minute now. How’s things over there?”

  Thomas listened as the British leader discussed economic woes with him, but in truth he didn’t pay much attention. His thoughts ventured to much darker, more serious matters of state. He knew infection was all but certain now. If Japan fell, at least one carrier would make it to mainland America. That would then be game over, and the Council, in his mind, would have won. Thomas ended the call abruptly, calling the team back in.

  “The Brits think Japan has an infection outbreak. They’re sending us over a video.”

  “I’ll have it brought in,” said George.

  “What’s our contingency plan for an infection outbreak in Japan?” said Thomas as everyone surrounded his desk.

  “We don’t have one,” said Kilmoran abruptly. “We didn’t have one for the Japanese government falling apart. Having one for infection is laughable.”

  “Then what the fuck do we have?” roared Thomas, hitting the desk. Everything rattled.

  “Nothing,” shouted Richards. He began his usual pace, trying to regain some composure. “We have nothing. That island is overpopulated—it’s a hotbed for infection. This is not another New York. It can’t be contained.”

  “And 100 million people are about to go crazy,” said Kramer.

  “Scrambling off that island,” said Kilmoran.

  “General, have our Navy and Air Force prepare to intercept and destroy anything that leaves Japan,” said Thomas.

  “That is an act of war,” said Kramer.

  Thomas ignored her, ordering Richards to carry out his orders.

  “I have it,” said George, coming in. He uploaded the video to the main screen.

  They all watched in silence. There was no sound with the video, but it wasn’t needed. Taken from a rooftop view, the unsteady footage showed dozens of humans climbing and jumping over a military fence that protected an installation.

  “They’re escaping,” said Kramer.

  “They’re infected workers from that quarantine installation,” said Houston. “We have it confirmed, Mr. President. Japan has suffered a viral outbreak. Eugenics Virus.”

  “How long before we need to act?” said Thomas.

  “Now,” said Richards.

  “Right now,” agreed Kramer and Houston.

  “How?”

  Richards turned around slowly, his arms firmed held behind his back.

  “We kill the infection dead,” said Kramer.

  Vanessa was right, and for Thomas that was the hardest part. If he didn’t take action now, everything he had wrestled with and done would mean nothing. He’d killed his own countrymen in this war.

  “Japan must go,” said Richards.

  “Is it right for me to continue killing millions just to save ourselves? Who are we even trying to kid? Maybe we should just all go out together.”

  “I don’t understand,” said Richards.

  “I feel like a war criminal.”

  “We’re all guilty of that,” said Richards. “No one’s innocent now. No matter what way you look at this, Japan has become a threat to our national security. The South American countries are only respecting us at the minute because we’re doing the hard stuff.”

  “The moment we stop, they’ll start causing trouble.”

  “Yes,” said Richards. “And we really don’t need that now. Japan has to go.”

  “It has to go,” agreed Thomas. “Bring everyone back in.”

  “Sir, the Japanese are planning to bomb the military installation where infection occurred, but it’ll be too late,” said Kramer, leading them back in. “Japanese ministers are already telling their citizens to run to America.”

  “What? What about the Japanese prime minister?”

  “Not returning our calls,” said Kramer.

  “Madame Secretaries, what are your views on a total nuclear strike of Japan and her outlying islands?”

  “I made no secret of my hostility towa
rd the New York bombing,” said Kilmoran. “But if we can do that on our own, then I won’t fight you on this.”

  “So you’re in?” said Thomas.

  “Only if it’s a total strike,” said Kilmoran. “This needs to be done right, if we decide we’re going to do it at all.”

  “I agree,” said Kramer. “We haven’t come this far to stumble now.”

  “I have your agreement then,” said Thomas.

  They agreed, with Richards looking on.

  “Sir, the Secretary of the Environment is demanding to see you,” said Gail on the intercom.

  “Hold her off,” said Thomas. He wanted to get this finalized now, fearing his heart would win the war with his mind. It pulled him more toward the middle ground, to a dangerous wait-and-see policy. As if reading his thoughts, Richards stepped forward.

  “Mr. President, the last three world wars happened because politicians decided to wait and see. They allowed tyrants and dictators to cross their so-called red lines, time after time. Don’t make that mistake now, sir. We can’t save Japan, but we can save America.”

  “Out of my way,” shouted the Secretary for the Environment, Dr. Deanna Millar, as she sidestepped Gail and strode into the Oval Office.

  “Madame Secretary, I ordered you to wait outside,” said Thomas.

  “This can’t wait,” said Millar. Everyone stopped to stare. “Are you planning a nuclear attack?”

  “Yes,” said Thomas. “The last thing on my mind at the minute is climate change. Japan has fallen to infection.”

  He tapped his finger on the desk a few times, emphasizing his point.

  “Mr. President, you cannot,” said Millar. “I just had an emergency meeting with the NOAA.”

  “General, begin immediate…”

  “Listen,” shouted Millar. “If one more nuclear explosion goes off, it’ll push us into a nuclear winter.”

  “A what?” he asked. Richards’ head spun around so fast, Thomas thought his neck would snap.

  “The most recent nuclear explosions have caused the real problems,” said Millar. She unraveled a paper map of Asia and the Middle East. “Each red dot represents the point of a nuclear explosion within the past three days. Each city hit”—she pointed at Novokuznetsk, a Russian city on the border with China—“is now burning.”

  “Meaning what exactly?” said Thomas.

  “Nuclear firestorms, spewing millions of tons of soot into our atmosphere. It’s blocking out the sunlight, leading to a cooling effect, which will affect the whole planet. We won’t be able to grow crops, there’ll be food riots, bitter winters—a new ice age!” She took a deep breath. “If you launch a full-scale attack on Japan, you will push the planet downwards, with no brakes. We can’t survive a nuclear winter.”

  “Are we detecting cooling already?” asked Kramer.

  “Yes,” said Millar. “That’s what’s so frightening. We’ve ripped our atmosphere apart.”

  “How long would a nuclear winter last?” said Kramer. “If we can plan for it…”

  Thomas looked at Millar, who shrieked in disbelief.

  “Fifteen, maybe twenty years,” said Millar. “No government can plan for that in such a short amount of time. With everything else that has happened, no one will survive.”

  “So we decide between the virus or a nuclear winter,” said Kramer. “How can you pick between the two?”

  “This virus is the more immediate threat,” said Kilmoran. “Let’s drop the hopes for a moment here. We all know we’re on borrowed time as it is. The virus could breach our defenses any second now, and we can kiss the human race goodbye.”

  “You cannot launch those missiles,” said Millar.

  “And you can’t let Japan threaten our existence,” said Richards.

  Thomas wanted all of them to shut up. He’d been made very aware of the decision he faced.

  “Can anyone give me a third option?”

  No one replied. He didn’t seem to have much luck when asking that.

  “General,” said Thomas, “begin preparations for an immediate nuclear and conventional strike on Japan.”

  “I must advise against this,” said Richards.

  “Noted,” said Thomas. “Deanna, if I decide to launch a nuclear strike, the government is going to need some kind of plan for afterwards in case this nuclear winter does happen.”

  “We don’t have much.”

  “Then make some,” demanded Thomas. “That’s your job. Do it or quit.”

  She and Richards left, both on their cell phones with staff hurrying behind them.

  “Vanessa,” he said to his Secretary of State. He got up and walked to the window, wanting to stretch his legs as his office quieted down.

  “Tough day, sir,” she said.

  “What an understatement,” he replied. “What’s your advice?”

  Kramer stayed quiet until he turned to look at her.

  “If that virus breaches our borders, we’ll have lost everything,” she said. “A nuclear winter, we might survive. The virus, we can’t.”

  “So hit them,” said Thomas.

  “Yes,” she replied. “Hit them now. Let history be our judge.”

  Thomas took a deep breath.

  “May our children forgive us.”

  She left, taking to her phone, and Thomas stood stoically for a moment, considering the events of the past few days. Sighing, he picked up his phone and placed a call.

  “George.”

  “Yes, Mr. President?”

  “I am planning to address the nation in the next two hours, but before that happens I want Bloodworth and Hashcroft arrested.”

  “Arrested?”

  Thomas considered his words carefully. “I want her silenced.”

  “We can do that,” said Houston. “It’ll cause a firestorm, but we’ll make it happen.”

  “Do whatever you need to. Your goal is to maintain order. Everything else for you is secondary now.”

  A half hour passed, and Thomas had gone to the Red Room to escape the Oval Office for just a few minutes. It was almost impossible to hear his own thoughts now, and it was easier to come here than order everyone out of his own office. The Red Room was stunningly old-fashioned, exuding an elegance and grace from an era that had long since passed. Warm high back chairs, red and gold in color, welcomed him.

  He opened the memo Gail had handed him on his way there. It was from Peter Roberts. His tired eyes strained to read the fine print. Roberts was begging him for more time to find a cure—don’t kill millions of people if they can be saved. Thomas reread the memo before folding it up.

  Someone knocked at the door, and each tap felt like a blow to his head.

  “Sir…”

  Even Gail looked nervous now. To anyone else, he could hide the strain, but she would never fall for it. She knew he was very close to breaking.

  He looked up at her.

  “It’s General Richards.” She handed him a phone, then left.

  “General,” said Thomas. He had switched back into president mode.

  “We have seventeen civilian aircraft departing Tokyo with a destination of our West Coast. Permission to engage?”

  “Have we told them to turn around?”

  “They aren’t listening,” said Richards.

  “Then permission granted,” said Thomas, holding the memo tighter.

  He had taken the first steps already to war with Japan. Those commercial airliners were heading to America for safety. Little did they know American warplanes were racing out to meet them.

  He scrunched up the memo from Peter, letting it fall to the floor.

  “You have your answer, Dr. Roberts.”

  Chapter 56

  Claire B
loodworth stood tall and defiant behind a podium worthy of a president. She addressed the 50,000-strong crowd in Los Angeles with gusto and fury. The rain and wind hadn’t deterred a public on the brink of anarchy. It was near midnight on Saturday, the massive floodlights of the supersized stadium doing nothing to pull people from the dark deep mood of rebellion.

  “Local police tried to stop our rally tonight,” she thundered to the crowd, arms waving. “But we stopped them. We walked past their barricades and we showed our government we do not fear them.”

  The crowd cheered and clapped.

  “Our country is failing!” she shouted. “We are even launching nuclear attacks on our own people now. Anyone who thinks war hasn’t reached our shores is stupid. Millions of Americans died in one single attack, authorized by our own president.”

  “Revolution,” shouted a protestor from the front line.

  “He’s right,” she said, cameras showing him on the projector screens. “Our government is corrupt, rotting away at the center. Only revolution can save our race.”

  People stamped their feet, held hands, shouted, and clapped some more. The energy was reaching fever pitch. She peeled her soaked hair from her face, catching a breath.

  “Hashcroft and his supporters would have every sick and disabled person rounded up and executed. We can’t let that happen. The revolution begins here.”

  Roars of approval made their way up to the podium, and she knew the crowd was feasting from the palm of her hand.

  “We must first march on City Hall and demand the resignation of our Republican mayor. Once people see us taking a stand, they’ll join us!”

  As she ranted on to a crowd that treated every word she said as sacred, FBI agents lurked in the shadows, waiting for their opportunity to pounce.

  “March to City Hall,” ordered Bloodworth. “We can let nothing stop us now.”

  Just as she prepared her final saber-rattling words, combat helicopters and jets roared past them and into the distance. Soon enough, the sound of gunfire and explosions came from a nearby military training base.