Norcross arrived at St. Elizabeth’s in a well-scrubbed biohazard Hummer, not a limo, and in a suit without a tie, “like a guy who is here to work,” Heather commented to Lenny.
The room was buzzing; when he smiled at them and said, “Thank you all for being here,” people applauded reflexively.
“Here’s my first news for you all. I’ve spent a couple of hours reviewing this operation. Plainly you’re the key to everything we’re doing. I know I said some ambiguous things about the Department of the Future on the campaign trail, but honestly, I can’t see any reason to break up a winning team at this point. By the same token, Homeland Security’s task force here has done exceptional work, and the many liaisons from other Federal departments have as well. So first off, good job, and I want you to keep doing what you’re doing.
“But there’s one big change I do have to make. I have become uncomfortably aware that there is a real possibility of a new and different kind of nuclear weapon, one we probably could not have detected even before Daybreak, which we are completely powerless to detect now, and which might be pre-emplaced anywhere the enemy could reach—the pure fusion bomb. Of course, if they do have pure fusion bombs, Washington would be Daybreak’s first and foremost likely target, and I can only guess why they have not yet hit us with it.
“Therefore, I am scattering all critical Federal operations away from Washington, to secure areas where it is less likely that there are pre-emplaced nuclear weapons, and where there are enough local resources to support the relocated Federal offices. All of that is bureaucratese for
everybody’s going to military bases in the boondocks.
“I’m ordering you to move immediately—and by immediately, I mean the people who’ve been bunking here or can gather up their families fast enough will move this afternoon—to Fort Benning, Georgia. For those of you who don’t know, because the people at Benning were on their toes and worked ceaselessly, they’ve managed to keep a few transport planes running. Right now ground crews are burning scrapwood on the runways at Reagan National, and following up with caustic soda, and a boiling-water rinse; hopefully it will be as biote-free as they can make it just at the time the planes land, turn around, pick all of you up, and take off again—
that fast
, if we can do it, to minimize exposure time on the ground.
“I want all of you in a place that is unlikely to be destroyed; we can’t lose one of our most useful nerve centers. And the odds of our enemy—if there is one—having sneaked a weapon onto the home base of several of our elite units is much smaller than their chances of having concealed one in an open civilian city like Washington.”
He waited out the chaotic upsurge of chatter.
“Make sure you take every scrap of paper with anything important on it, and all your paper books and maps and so on. Those communication gadgets you’ve jury-rigged too, of course.
“Priority for personnel is this: First regular Federal personnel without families in the area. Then the volunteer assistants, who’ve been doing such great work here, the ones without local family first. Then families of Federal personnel from the area; then families of assistants from the area. Everyone boards at Reagan National in five hours, at four thirty. We expect most of you to walk so that the biohazard-capable vehicles can be used to move books and papers.”
“Sir?” Graham Weisbrod asked.
“Dr. Weisbrod. I don’t know if I told you officially that I de-fired you this morning, but if you’re asking, then, yes, I want you to go on this.”
“That wasn’t my question, sir. I was just going to ask why we’re not relocating the whole Federal government to secure bases. I can understand why you might send us in the first wave, but it doesn’t sound like you’re going to move yourself.”
“Excellent question.” Norcross sat down on the desk behind him and looked around. “This is an issue on which I’ve overridden many of my advisors. Here’s why I’m staying put, and so is Congress, at least for the foreseeable future.
“One, we need to have plenty of people near one of our most precious resources—the paper archive of the Library of Congress. We’ve got no way to move it before next spring at the earliest, it’s essential that we not lose all that knowledge, and it’s essential that we don’t just preserve it but use it. You realize that somewhere in there, on paper, is how to make pretty much every gadget and chemical that civilization needs? Including the ones that can be biote-resistant and nanoswarm-resistant? I’ve already got a dozen guys on their way here from JPL who will be sifting through early rocketry material, because we’ll need to be able to get things into orbit again sometime in the next few years; my science advisor tells me that it will be a lot easier to harden tube electronics against nanoswarm, and there are literally
miles
of shelves about tube electronics in there.
“Aside from that, you realize we could potentially have thousands of books about all of the useful arts that we can reprint and distribute? How to navigate by the stars, how they used to survey for rail lines and canals before lasers and computers, all sorts of skills we’ll need for the next century, because, ladies and gentlemen, if nobody’s told you yet or you haven’t figured it out, undoing Daybreak will be a work of generations. Knowledge is power, and that power is
here
, and while it is, we need to be here.
“Then there’s the psychological side. Much as I’ve always criticized relying on Washington to solve our problems, the fact is, when things get really bad,
we do
. It should
not
look like the Federal government is running away.
“And the risks may be smaller than they appear. Pure fusion bombs require fast computers and high-powered lasers. Maybe the reason no bombs went off in Washington is that the nanoswarm ate them.
“For all those reasons, I’m willing to take the chance, and take my stand right here. You might say I’m betting my life on it.
“And no, you are not going to argue with me about this one today. You can argue with me sometime next spring, when I will visit Fort Benning. Meanwhile, I have nine other stops to make today, and you need to get packing.” He nodded and smiled as they applauded, and was out the door before anyone could raise any further dissent.
“Well,” Lenny said, “at least we get one more airplane ride before the end of the world.”
ABOUT FIVE HOURS LATER . WASHINGTON. DC . 4:30 P.M. EST. THURSDAY. NOVEMBER 7.
Chris Manckiewicz saw the plane taking off from Reagan National late in the afternoon and trotted over to the White House. In Norcross’s open administration, all he had to do was ask: DRET had gone to Fort Benning.
That night, at dinner, after people read their stories aloud and everyone voted and argued about what should go in at what length, just at the dessert course when people tended to miss Rusty the most, he said, “All right, new business—
big
new business. Let me lay this out for you. Our new president has sent one Cabinet Secretary, the NCCC, and his most-consulted, most-used, working-on-the-most-important-stuff group of advisors to one of the best-functioning surviving military bases. Does anyone besides me see what this probably implies?”
“Favors for his strong constituency down South,” George Parwin said, in his usual tone of dismissal.
“Not the way I read it, George. Will Norcross is not purely venal and he’s smart enough to know he can’t afford to be perceived that way. So I don’t believe he’d severely inconvenience himself by moving his key advisors out of easy range just to rake in graft or pick up votes in elections that might never be held. I think what he’s doing is sending a continuity team outside the city.”
“You mean he thinks he might lose
Washington
?”
“Put it together. He’s sending one guy in the line of presidential succession, the guy whose job would be to make sure that the succession goes in an orderly way, and the team of advisors behind our present policy—to one of the best-defended sites on the continent.”
“You read a lot of stuff into things,” Hayley said. “My turn for dishes, and my vote is we don’t change anything we’re doing.” She stood and gathered plates.
Man, I miss Rusty. I’d’ve made her see sense and she’d’ve made them see it, I just know that.
“Here’s what I was thinking. I think some of us should go down to that area to establish a new paper there. One linked to the
Advertiser-Gazette
, of course, and sharing stories, but I think they’ve just made Columbus, Georgia, an important city—”
“Where’s that?”
“It’s where Fort Benning is,” Chris said, trying not to think
you idiot
loudly enough to be heard, “and we need a bureau there, and that bureau should be self-supporting—meaning it puts out its own paper. So I was wondering if anyone wanted to volunteer?”
The stares at him were blank. “We’re barely weeks old, Chris,” Don Parmenter said. “We’re just getting people to read papers again. That just sounds to me like spreading ourselves too thin.”
Okay, Plan B.
“What if I were to turn my interest in the paper over to you all—we can figure out who gets what shares—and keep maybe five percent, not enough for control or to matter much, and then go set up my own paper down in Georgia? With some kind of guarantee that you’d pay me for any stories I sent you, that you used, and I could buy content from you? ”
“I think you’re re-inventing the AP.”
“Well, it’s gone, and we’re a newspaper. Shortly to be two newspapers, with more to follow. We
need
an AP. It makes some sense, you know?”
“It does,” George conceded. “What worries me is that you’ll get a hundred miles south, realize how crazy you were, and come home and want your paper back.”
“Word of honor, I won’t do that. If I get a major attack of regret, I’m going to want to keep moving toward Georgia, anyway, because I’m sure not going to want to come back here and face you guys. You’re not the nice types who would give me my newspaper back and never say anything about it, you know?”
“You
bet
we’re not.”
That night’s production work was combined with a sort of farewell party. Chris had more to drink than he intended and gently fended off a couple of friendly offers from staffers who thought they might not mind a good-bye tumble with the ex-boss. He shook Parwin’s hand, and they drafted documents that everyone witnessed, and the next morning, for the first and only time, he was privileged to be the last one up; most of them were already out on assignment by the time he arose.
ABOUT THE SAME TIME. REAGAN NATIONAL AIRPORT. WASHINGTON. DC . 4:30 P.M. EST. THURSDAY. NOVEMBER 7.
Because she was with Lenny, Heather was able to hook a ride on a biohazard Hummer to Reagan National, and they had more time to go through the antiseptic scrubs and degaussing, and for Lenny and the technicians to figure out how they could kill any nanoswarm that might be on him without destroying internal electronics that kept him alive. Eventually Heather claimed a bench inside the transport, next to where Lenny tied down his wheelchair, and they napped and cuddled, holding hands and occasionally muttering “I love you,” or “I’m glad you’re here” at each other.
“Wake up, sleepyheads.”
Heather sat up; Arnie and Allie were there, with Graham, and Sherry, who was practically beaming. “Hey, you’re not getting rid of me that easily. You’re who I want to be when I grow up.”
“Oh, god, I don’t even know who
I’m
going to be when I grow up. So did they get all the volunteers and assistants onto the planes?”
“Yep,” Graham said. “And all the families for everyone. Tight squeeze, but we’re all making it. It’ll probably smell way too much like us by the time the flight is done, but we’ll all be there, and apparently the commanding general at Benning, Norm McIntyre, is some kind of old buddies with Cameron and going out of his way to make us welcome.”
Lenny stretched and yawned, then put his hand on Heather’s arm. “To tell you the truth, I’m probably a coward or something, but I’ll be just as glad to get away from DC. It does feel like living in a bull’s-eye, and I’m not convinced the serious rioting is over with.”
“Not to mention Benning has occasional electricity and better access to hot water,” Allie said. “And compared to DC, a lot less freezing our asses off this winter.”
They set their newly decontaminated gear down and packed in close, making room for the many other little knots and balls of coworkers, families, and whatever other ways people had assorted themselves for the trip.
Flying through the early night, they all took turns at looking out the window to see America by night, from the air, with only candle, bonfire, and lamp light. Probably fewer than a thousand people had ever seen such a thing; and very likely, not many more would, perhaps ever.
PART 3
ONE HUNDRED DAYS
BLASTULA
Every new life begins with division: the fertilized cell splits, and the split parts split, and the split parts split again, until there is a ball of identical cells, the blastula. In the beginning there is division.
The new world grew and divided and divided again. In the next two weeks, the electric power system collapsed completely as the nanoswarm destroyed components for the control systems; biotes ate insulation and shelter; and wrecked transportation, bandits, and riots kept anyone from reaching substations and power lines. As late as November 15th, perhaps one in twelve homes had electricity; nearly everyone listened to President Norcross’s Thanksgiving prayer broadcast on an unpowered crystal set, or using carefully hoarded batteries, by candle or lamplight.
By the last week in November, Detroit, Louisville, Buffalo, Kansas City, Jacksonville, Chattanooga, and Sacramento had all suffered catastrophic fires like the first ones in St. Paul, Boston, and Chicago, spreading for many blocks, with firefighters powerless. No one knew how many died; no one looked for bodies in the rubble.