A new chapter! Great!
“We need to keep the Chinese in the loop about this. If they were to think Beijing had been nuked…”
Not just China... what about other dangerous countries who have nuclear weapons? Iran, North Korea, India, Pakistan and so on...
Lois felt herself beginning to relax. “So you won’t launch bombers…”
“We launched bombers from Germany fifteen minutes ago,” the man said. “That gives us thirty minutes to come up with another solution.”
German and Swiss governments are going to love that... Just for your information: we have a decision of our Constitutional Court that the government is not allowed to shoot a hijacked plane, because of the innocent victims. There was a lot of discussion about this, but the main consent is: it´s OK that way. In spite of 9/11. I don´t know how the rules are for attacking in an European country. I don´t think, the U.S. can send some bombers somewhere on its own without consulting the governments.
“Are you sure Superman can’t be contacted?”
“The Chinese have been alerted,” the man next to her said. “They’ll tell him when he next sees them.”
“He doesn’t have to see them,” Lois said.
They stared at her uncomprehendingly. She began to lay out her plan.
Did they all forget their `comic times´?
:rolleyes:
Piers had a momentary vision of himself jumping up and wrestling the rifle away from the man facing them, then spraying the others arrayed around the room like some sort of an American action hero.
He didn’t move.
You got this perfectly. Real life is not a Hollywood action movie, and it´s different when there is a real gun in front of your face.
“We don’t need to monitor any experiments. Just turn the thing on and keep it running.”
“You’d destroy the entire world…why?” Lars’ voice faded in and out.
But if there is no real danger in their opinion - why do they do it? And just WHAT and WHO are these terrorists? Al Kaida? Some kind of FARC or green fanatics? You don´t tell it in this chapter, I hope this is still coming. I have an idea what they could be, but I won´t anticipate you.
“Neither the Swiss or the French are cooperating,” one man reported, looking harried. “We tried going directly to the power companies, and they refuse to believe us. We’re trying to go through diplomatic channels now.”
Lois grimaced. She supposed it would have been difficult for the French government to convince a private power company to cut off power to New York City, but this was frustrating.
Wasn’t there some sort of red phone to cut through this sort of bureaucracy?
There HAS to be a red phone in every (or nearly every) presidential office in the world, especially since 9/11. And the power companies would react very quickly, if they had Nicolas Sarkozy or Angela Merkel on the phone. It´s the same thing as in US movies: the phone rings, someone takes it, and then all you hear is: "Yes, Mr. President". Sorry, I couldn´t resist, I love these kind of movie scenes!
One of the analysts looked up from his computer screen. “There was a spike in power usage from both grids starting fifteen minutes ago.”
It took twenty minutes for the machine to power up.
“How far are the bombers?”
“They are still ten minutes away.” The analyst looked harried.
Uh oh.
