Tsunami Wake: Post Apocalyptic Thriller (Calm Act Book 4)

by Ginger Booth

  “They are not,” Cam said. “Carbon dioxide and methane levels are rising.”

  “But their rate of rise,” Amiri insisted, “must be slowing?”

  “Not at this time,” Cam replied. “Amiri, we have a lot on our plates right now. Let’s stick to the here and now.”

  “For there may be no tomorrow,” Amiri said.

  Cam shot him a look. “There will be a tomorrow. And lots more after that. And we will continue to do the next right thing.”

  “You haven’t given up,” Amiri said.

  “Not at all,” Cam agreed. “I never will. No matter what comes, I will face it with the people entrusted to me. And I am speaking for Hudson Resco Raj. We will be here for you. I can promise you that.”

  “Let’s open it up,” Amiri said, still rattled. “Governor Fallon, of Connecticut?”

  “Thank you,” Fallon said. “Colonel Cameron, we have ever stricter climate guidelines. If we’re telling people that their sacrifices aren’t working, what’s to keep them willing to curb emissions and so on?”

  “Good question, Governor,” Cam allowed. “First, of course, we weren’t telling them. Until today. But secondly, I don’t agree that our efforts aren’t working. It’s a big world. We are stewards of a little corner of it. But our corner matters. We have healthy forests, increasing. We have – had – extensive marshes. We will replant them. These biomes draw down carbon from the atmosphere. Our agriculture is sustainable.

  “Our efforts add to the solution. We stopped adding to the problem. That matters.

  “But there are forces in play – natural forces – with immense momentum. The tundra are melting, and giving off greenhouse gases. Droughts like the Middle East and our Dust Bowl take huge areas out of photosynthesis. Instead the parched soils release carbon into the atmosphere. The rain forests were nearly destroyed. Most of the Earth’s landmass is not doing its share to draw carbon down.

  “Look, I like instant gratification as much as anyone. But it just isn’t available. Maybe whoever set off that tsunami thought they found a short cut. We’ll see.

  “In terms of willingness, well, we’re not giving anyone a choice,” Cam said. “Connecticut citizens can’t drive gas guzzlers, because we won’t give them the gasoline.”

  “You won’t budge on that policy,” Fallon said. “No more fossil fuels. Though we’ve lost what, three nuclear power installations.”

  “And we’ll lose two more,” Cam agreed. “Two more nuclear plants are now too close to sea level. No crisis – they’ll shut down calmly and in good order, over the next few weeks.”

  “So our current power shortage will get even worse,” Fallon prodded.

  “Our power czar is very busy right now,” Cam reminded him. “With nuclear plants in meltdown. If we cannot make it work, without those five nuclear plants, we will revisit. But yes, that’s the current plan. And in the short run, it will hurt. Then people adapt.”

  “What might make the Raj change its mind?” Fallon pressed. “What would be sufficient evidence that the lack of power, didn’t work? It’s already causing hardship.”

  “Agricultural production,” Cam replied thoughtfully. “Combat readiness. Safe drinking water, purification and pumping systems, sewage treatment. Food processing and safe storage. We can’t afford food spoilage. Key industries. Those are a few examples. Demonstrate that Connecticut needs more power to meet those priorities, and I’d say you had a strong case. I’m sure Lieutenant Colonel Mora would be happy to help you develop those arguments, Governor Fallon. The lead Resco of Connecticut.”

  “Thank you, colonel,” Fallon acknowledged thoughtfully.

  “Mayor Peggy Lanford of Cambridge Massachusetts,” Amiri invited the next panelist.

  “Colonel, I’m sure you’ll understand, here around Boston and Narragansett, we’re watching Jersey with deep concern,” Mayor Lanford said.

  I doubted most people in Narragansett were paying any attention to Jersey. Cam let it pass.

  “Do you anticipate using these concentration camp measures here in New England?”

  “OK, several things,” Cam replied, hand out in a stop gesture. “In Jersey, we have refugee camps, and communities under lockdown. Do not call them concentration camps. You do your people no service, ma’am, with inflammatory language.”

  “Refugee camps,” Mayor Lanford conceded. “Still.”

  Cam shook his head, still annoyed. “There are refugee camps right now in Narragansett, ma’am. With hundreds of thousands of people in them. And they’re damned glad of the housing. It’s cold out there, and they lost their homes. Are we clear?” he demanded.

  “Understood, sir,” the mayor conceded with a sulk.

  Cam relented slightly. “We’ll do what’s necessary to institute and maintain order. If Cambridge would benefit from a lockdown, maybe we’ll use a lockdown. I don’t know. Are there are looters and rapists preying on their neighbors in Cambridge? Then count on it. We will stop that, whatever it takes. Next?”

  “I wanted to follow up,” Amiri hazarded. “I know there are a lot of survivalist communities in New England, colonel.”

  “Oh, I love survivalists,” Cam assured him. “Why, does that surprise you? Preppers, freedom fighters. Gotta love ’em. We have a lot in common. We love things that go boom.” Cam laughed.

  “When I talk to survivalists, we have a frank exchange of views regarding their territory. And they’re required to pay Hudson taxes. I’ve got their perimeter covered, offer extra food security, and they’re required to pay for it. Local taxes are their own business. I’m fine with that. They usually have some military talent. I encourage them to get active with the militia.

  “What they can’t do is harass the neighbors, or I’ll shut them down hard. But they’re free to live and let live. Oh, and the religious enclaves. I do require all preachers to attend regulatory training. That can get entertaining. I hauled a preacher off to training in handcuffs once. Also, members must be free to leave their enclaves. No slavery.”

  Amiri looked amused and appalled. “Is this general policy, or your own approach?”

  “Both,” Cam replied. “But there’s leeway for other Rescos to have their own style, sure. The distinction I want to make in this context, is that especially in the Boston-Prov area? Survivalist enclaves are among the strongest communities.” Cam addressed the camera. “Hudson’s got no beef with you, survivalists. We’d improve your security. There’s a little red tape. Light taxes. Free preacher seminar, transportation provided. No biggie.”

  “I believe that’s a significant change in policy,” Amiri said. “For New England.”

  Cam shrugged. “Colonel MacLaren is touring New England now, assessing, conferring with General Link and local Rescos. We’ll see what they recommend. Did we have any more questions on climate change?”

  A brief flurry of exchanges followed, nothing I didn’t already know, but eye-opening for the audience.

  “We need to wrap up,” Amiri said. “Any closing thoughts, Colonel Cameron?”

  “Yes, thanks,” Cam said. “A key takeaway, is to understand why there will be no witch-hunts. The thing is, this sea level rise would have happened anyway. We expected it. Did they make a mistake, blowing up the South Pole? Sure.” He laughed. “Yeah, that was some miscalculation. A warning would have been nice. That’s the reason we’ll follow up.

  “But sea level rose because of global warming. Global temperature is rising fastest at the poles. That WAIS ice sheet was going to fail, and soon. This was an expected, planned-for event. Even water reaching twenty feet above sea level? Expected. OK, we anticipated a storm surge, not a tsunami. A storm surge gives us time to evacuate. The tsunami did not.

  “The important thing is to keep on doing the next right thing. Secure order. Secure our food supply. We’d all love to believe we could do something today, and guarantee our safety for the rest of our lives. But the truth is, we need to continually adapt. The world is changing. It will keep changing.
And with each change, we need to secure order. And secure our food supply.

  “And the good news is, we’re succeeding. Make no mistake, in a world of pain, Hudson won the lottery. We have good land, strong ecosystems, some of the best weather in the world. We have great people, a sustainable population level, and terrific leadership. We will get through this. We’re among the most fortunate people alive.”

  Cam’s face glowed with energy, confidence and sincerity. “It’s great to be a Hudson with you. Thank you. Good night.”

  The light blinked off on the main camera. Cam’s eyes instantly drooped, and he fell asleep, as though he’d channeled his prodigious courage and charisma out onto the video recording, there to spread out among the citizens and voters of Hudson, leaving nothing behind.

  “How does he do that?” Amiri asked rhetorically, shaking his head in admiration.

  “He’s a believer,” I said. I pulled Cam’s blankets up around his shoulders and tucked a pillow in to support his neck. I wondered whether I was a believer anymore, aside from believing in the people, Cam and Emmett and the Resco Raj.

  26

  Interesting fact: According to paleoclimate research, Antarctica and the Arctic have warmed twice as fast as the rest of the world in the last 20,000 years, since the height of the last Ice Age. If global temperature rises 1°, the poles warm by 2°. However, in November of 2016, the Arctic reached a whopping 36° warmer than normal, despite the polar winter night, when it received no sun. A cyclone the year before sent Arctic temperatures 50° above normal.

  “The Jersey specials were a qualified success,” I summarized to the Amenac–PR News steering committee by video-conference. “Eddie York put together the Jersey catch-up briefing, which got sky-high viewership, 60%.” We’d shown that program in Jersey only, on Tuesday, two days ago.

  “Was any of it true?” Dave inquired lightly.

  Eddie bristled. I invited him and Pam today, to present my proposal to the other directors, that the two of them jointly take over producing the PR nightly news.

  “It was all true,” Eddie insisted. “With spin. As requested.”

  Dave nodded with a casual smile. As I read it, Dave was rattling Eddie’s cage. I’d explained to Dave why I made Eddie produce that part, as a punishment for his debut night that ruined Emmett’s Valentine’s dance party. And as a way to gauge whether he was capable of producing quality propaganda.

  “Our interview with Cam,” I pressed on, “breaking open new ground from censorship, also got great penetration. About 50% in Hudson and New England, 60% in Penn – not sure why that happened – and 30% so far in greater Virginia and Carolina. Viewership is still straggling in, people watching after hearing about the program.”

  All our shows were served by Internet. People could watch whenever they wanted. The programs with the most impact tended to have a delayed viewership tail, due to word of mouth and Internet sharing. The Cam special was recorded Tuesday and aired Wednesday, the night after the Jersey special opened. By now, Thursday mid-day, we didn’t have the full picture of how many people would watch.

  “And as of today, Jersey is not yet back online with the rest of us,” I continued. “I asked Mangal to figure out how to tell whether our message worked or not. Mangal?”

  Mangal gave a highly technical spiel, often interrupted, on how his team interpreted Amenac board traffic and meshnet texts to measure public opinion and general morale. I busily took notes. There would be a quiz on methods, when I presented an impact summary to Pete Hoffman and the Raj.

  In a nutshell, online anger in Jersey diminished somewhat as a result of their briefing. They complained slightly less about their current conditions, talked more about the rest of Hudson, and essentially resented New England merging with Hudson. They were afraid Narragansett’s dire straights and political nonsense would distract from fixing Jersey’s dire straights. Which seemed fair enough. The following night’s broadcast with Cam didn’t make much difference in Jersey, according to Mangal’s disgruntlement scores. Which was good news. I was afraid Cam’s explanation would make them madder.

  The rest of Hudson and New England had a mixed bag of reactions to the Cam special. To Mangal’s dismay, morale was worsened by being more honest about climate change. People took advantage of the new, more relaxed censorship guidelines to complain, rant against the Raj, and spew an astonishing array of misinformation. They were also terrified about the coming agricultural season, and what the Raj might do to spread the pain around if our crops failed.

  Carlos, at Amenac HQ with Dave and Mangal, also took copious notes. Hell, I thought, Mangal and Dave would crucify me if the net result of my Cam special was to revoke the lightened censorship rules.

  Cam’s attempt to refocus attention away from witch-hunts, had the opposite effect. He’d directed public attention like a laser guidance system. People demanded we find and attack whoever set off the ‘South Pole Tsunami.’ They demanded revenge against the death angels in general, and a safe drug supply in particular. Outside the Apple zone, whose people worshiped the ground Emmett walked on, Emmett’s popularity was taking a nose dive. Net chatter demanded that he be investigated for ‘death angel ties.’

  The treatment of Jersey was fairly well-received in Hudson. People thought the Raj was doing its best in a bad situation, and were relieved at the crackdown. Hudson was sick and tired of Jersey insurgents. In contrast, people in New England cited Jersey as reason to oppose Hudson’s fascist takeover.

  “Oppose how?” Carlos asked.

  Mangal raised his hands briefly in defeat. “They’re not volunteering for arrest, Carlos,” he said. “We’re looking at web traffic. They use words. Like oppose, obstruct, resist, condemn, disapprove. Inciting a riot could be a death sentence. They know that. So they don’t say it. In public.”

  “So overall,” I said, “the Cam town hall special worsened morale. Everywhere?”

  Mangal considered this, head canted. “In Hudson, people approve of the Raj, and Cam confirmed their belief. In New England, people disapprove of the Raj, and Cam confirmed their belief. Jersey believes no one cares about them. And Cam confirmed their belief. On the bright side, in more educated, intellectual circles, people liked being told more of the truth. But the truth was discouraging.”

  “But it was the truth,” Eddie insisted. “It is the role of journalism to dig, and present the truth to the people. They’re right to be outraged. The facts were kept from them.”

  “But many of these facts weren’t kept from them,” Mangal pointed out. “Climate change facts were published before the Calm. The news didn’t dwell on them, but the facts were presented.”

  “Well, people didn’t think it was important then,” Eddie argued. “Now, obviously, it’s important. Climate change was just a theory then. Now, we can see those theories were right. A free press is essential to a democracy. We keep the government honest.”

  “We’re a martial law dictatorship,” I pointed out. “Not a democracy. Except at the local level. But Eddie is right, in that it’s good for the Raj to have to answer for what they’ve done. In theory.” I sounded less than convinced, because I wasn’t.

  “Emmett will be happy to hear you say so,” Carlos said, confirming my sad thoughts.

  Emmett was the one in the public cross-hairs at the moment. And he was under scrutiny for the wrong damned thing. Not that the right damned thing would be any better. His role in creating the Calm Act, and Rescos. What he tried and failed to do in North Jersey, to give that conurbation the same second chance at life and urban renewal that the Apple cities got. The thought of the public chiming in on any of it made me gag.

  “So how would you follow up now, Eddie?” Dave invited, oh so graciously.

  No, I didn’t imagine Eddie had time yet to get to know Dave. He probably took Dave’s suave exterior at face value.

  “Well, Mangal’s analysis clearly shows where the public interest lies,” Eddie said. “We should follow up with an investigative rep
ort on that death angel burial in Jersey. And ask the hard questions about ‘Floribama’ and the South Pole bombers! And Mangal, you skated over this lightly. But what I’m seeing on the nets, is that people want to know what the hell’s wrong with Ivan Link.” He nodded in gleeful satisfaction. “Yeah, those are our big stories.”

  Dave smiled at him. “And Pam? What do you think?”

  Pam looked like she’d rather be elsewhere right now. But she replied gamely, “Human interest stories. Get up close and personal. Life in the refugee tents in Narragansett. Towns coming to terms with new people in Jersey. And an in-depth with the agricultural extension offices. Probably the Connecticut and Upstate ag stations. They never closed down during the Calm, so they’re up to speed. I’d personally like followup on the Navy and Coast Guard status. Stories like that.”

  Eddie’s head started at a gentle shake, and by the end of Pam’s comments looked about to ratchet off his shoulders. “No, no,” he said condescendingly. “See, that’s exactly the sort of vapid pablum PR News brought us in to fix.” Good lord, he thought he was putting Pam in her place. “That’s puppy segments, not hard news.”

  The puppy segment dig hurt. The whole time I’d worked for UNC News, my biggest pet peeve was puppy segments. Pardon pun. After commercials, our evening news had about 20 minutes to present the day’s trauma and drama throughout the entire world. And they expended 5 or more of those minutes on a dog story, or a handicapped man in some flyover town who landed a job busing tables, or some similarly tiny-scale story. I used to watch those segments and wonder how it could be that the world held no events of the day of greater import. What had they left out, in favor of this particular puppy?

  “Pam’s ideas are not puppy segments,” Mangal interjected quietly, earning a hero’s smile from me. “A puppy segment is an irrelevant feel-good story. Pam suggested human interest stories, to deepen understanding of current events at a visceral level. And promote compassion. Willingness to pay the taxes we’ll need to repair these problems.”