"And vitals?" Carter insisted, knowing it was ugly. In the answer, he heard the same terror and anxiety he felt in his own stomach.
"We have reports of massive abandonment of posts already. Media stations in France and China are on it. Daycares, schools, hospitals, radar and traffic towers, police stations, utility plants; it's all going to shut down. They'll have nothing to depend on, no way to survive after the first few months." The Deputy's voice lowered. "The Draft convoys started out half an hour ago. Waves of refugees in the hundreds have been spotted hitting towns ahead of the trucks. Some of those places are attempting to barricade themselves in. The men will follow orders."
The President winced. He'd been briefed, but he hadn't really thought they would do this to their own...
"Carter."
It was the first time the Deputy Chief of Staff had ever called him by his first name and to do it here, in this hallowed place, was such a transgression of protocol that it got his full attention. This was the strategy that smarter men than he had agreed upon, and after, when it was time to come back up, he would still be in charge. The US Presidency was not allowed to change hands during a time of war unless there was a death.
"We're using the rest of our arsenal? Retaliating, even though we caused it?"
Ben motioned for one of the impatient, heavily armed agents to grab the tapes and hidden microphone from the desk. "It's all under way."
Carter's dark finger pushed the button, not asking how that was possible without his approval. He'd learned a lot about leadership in the last few years and one of the biggest was that you didn't ask questions unless you could take the answers. Stomach churning, voice stunned, he began.
"My fellow Americans, this is your President, Carter Heins, and I have grave news. Let me start by asking each of you to care for and comfort each other in this time of crisis, and we'll get through it. Together," he lied, ignoring the man waving at him to skip what didn't matter; just tell his people that the entire world was about to change violently and forever.
"At 10:28 this morning, a terrorist was able to gain access to our nuclear arsenal by hacking into the system and introducing an unknown virus that shut down our firewalls and allowed NORAD's computers to be breached. As a result, control of over half of our defensive warheads were compromised. The terrorists immediately initiated multiple launches and the warheads are not responding to specific abort codes. Ten minutes ago, these stolen weapons began reaching their targets, and other countries have retaliated, thinking we've declared War." the President paused, couldn't believe he was saying this, and heard a silent country holding its breath, listening, looking for comfort that he couldn't give.