Free One Second After by William R. Forstchen Page A

prophecies. OK?”
    â€œSure, my man,” and Jim gave him a friendly salute.
    John walked into Mayor Kate Lindsey’s office and she looked up from behind her desk, bleary-eyed. They were old friends. Kate and Mary had grown up together.
    â€œYou look beat, Kate.”
    â€œI am. Never should have run for a third term. Damn thankless job at the best of times, and now this. Did Tom tell you that someone came down from the nursing home? They’ve got three dead up there.”
    â€œYeah, I heard.”
    â€œOne of them was the Wilson boy.”
    John sighed and shook his head. The boy had been a freshman at the college. Car accident three years ago, the usual story, a drunk who walked away from it, had left the boy in a vegetative state, kept alive by a respirator, his parents clinging to hope. . . . Well, that was finished.
    â€œI thought the law required all nursing homes to have emergency generation. Those folks up there are going to be facing one helluva lawsuit,” Kate snapped.
    â€œWhat about the highway?” John asked. “Any problems there? I had a bit of a confrontation with a drunk last night.”
    â€œI got four drunks in the lockup right now,” Tom said. “Your boy’s most likely one of them. You want to press charges or anything?”
    â€œNaw, no bother.”
    â€œSomeone came riding in on a bike a few hours ago from the North Fork, said a trailer burned there and old Granny Thomas burned to death in it.”
    â€œDamn,” John whispered.
    Kate looked out the window and then back to John.
    â€œSo why are your car and Jim’s running?”
    John looked around for a chair and sat down without being asked, then handed over the report he had pulled down from his shelf the night before and tossed it on Kate’s desk.
    â€œSomething from my war college days.”
    â€œ ‘Potentials of Asymmetrical Strikes on the Continental United States,’ ” Kate read the cover.
    â€œSome of us working at the war college put it together for a series oflectures. No one listened, of course, other than the officers taking our classes. I kept a copy as a reference. What you want is chapter four on EMP.”
    â€œEMP,” Charlie said quietly. “Exactly what I thought when I saw all the stalled cars on the highway. Glad you came in, in fact was hoping you might know something.”
    â€œAll right, not to sound like the dumb female in the crowd here,” Kate said sharply, “but what the hell are you guys talking about?”
    John couldn’t resist looking over at Tom.
    â€œHeard of it, but don’t really remember. Are you saying this is some sort of terrorist thing?”
    John nodded.
    â€œEMP. Electromagnetic Pulse. It’s the by-product of a nuclear detonation.”
    â€œWe’ve been nuked?” Kate asked, obviously startled.
    â€œI think so.”
    â€œJesus Christ, what about fallout? We got to start moving on that right now.”
    John shook his head.
    â€œGive me a minute, Kate. This gets a little complex. When you got some time, read the article; that will explain it better.”
    â€œJohn, have we been nuked? Is this a war?”
    â€œKate, I don’t know. I know as much as you do at the moment as to what is going on outside of right here, in Black Mountain, but that alone tells me a lot.”
    â€œHow so?”
    John took a deep breath and looked at the Styrofoam cup on her table, the paper plate covered with crumbs.
    â€œLook, guys, I hate to ask this. I’m starved and could use a little more caffeine.”
    No one moved for a second. Kate made it a point to remain firmly in her chair, not budging an inch.
    â€œWe got a pot boiling out back,” Charlie said, and left the room and came back a minute later with a cup of coffee, black the way John always liked it, and, amazingly, some bacon and eggs.
    â€œPicture an EMP as something like a lightning bolt striking