by Walker, Jon
Leo Madison answers Chris, his voice sounding stressed, “I know. Just stay in position and keep quiet. Don’t do anything until you get the signal, and don’t disturb me, ok?”
Chris is literally bouncing with excitement and adrenaline. “Sorry, Uncle. Can do.”
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As the convoy enters the main gate to the Aeronautics compound, the lights and sirens go off. Without stopping the Public Safety agents drive up to the end of the runway closest to the hangars. There the Aeronautics officials are waiting for them.
On the tarmac Catherine Moore and Jack Moore are standing rod straight in their perfectly pressed black and gold uniforms. Surrounding them are a dozen uniformed ground crewmembers, medics, and assistants. There are also six guards with their hands on their weapons around the leaders of the Aeronautics department and two snipers positioned on top of the two closest hangars.
The convoy slowly drives towards the Aeronautics group and at the last minute curves right to make a tight circle. The vehicles move in a well practiced pattern to form a defensive shape around the armored truck. As soon as all the vehicles come to a stop, the agents get off their motorcycles and out of the cars. Half take positions directly facing Aeronautics while the others watch their defensive perimeter.
Anthony Chan is the last agent out of his car. He walks out slowly and methodically towards the other two councilmembers, stopping three meters away from the rest of his group. The whole time his right hand rests on the grip of his pistol.
Catherine Moore says loudly, “We are all set. I hope everything is in order on your side, Councilmember Chan?”
Anthony Chan answers with only a nod as he smacks his teeth.
The next 21 minutes are spent in tense silence, the two sides staring at each other. The handoff procedure, which is normally an awkward formality and a game of posturing, has taken on a much graver tone given the unique situation.
Finally, the first sight of the shuttle breaks the tension as one of the Aeronautic ground crewmembers looks up from a tablet and loudly calls out, “Shuttle is in sight and inbound. ETA three minutes.”
Most of the people gathered on the runway turn to the sky to watch the shuttle slowly and gracefully glide towards them on its wings. The vehicle touches down, takes two small bounces and slowly loses velocity. It finally comes to its final stop ten meters from the two groups. As soon as it does, the medics and ground crew start moving to take care of their respective duties.
After twenty seconds the cockpit door pops open, and a smiling but clearly weak Ella steps out. She looks at her mother, giving her a thumbs up as two medics rush to help her come down the stairs. It causes Catherine’s stern expression to briefly give way to a proud smile.
Anthony loudly fakes three coughs to get Catherine’s attention. As soon as she glares back at him, Anthony gestures over to the cargo hold, “After you.”
As tradition dictates, the head of Aeronautics and a top representative from the Public Health Department walk together to be the first two to open the cargo hold. Once they are right next to it, Catherine triggers the large flap to lift up. In front of the slabs and ingots of other refined metals is the large cobalt safe. Catherine puts her face in front of it for an iris scan and then steps aside for Anthony to do the same. As soon as Anthony brings his face close to it, the safe makes an audible click.
Catherine then swings the large door open and removes the heavy box with both hands, presenting it to Anthony ceremonially. Anthony is in the middle of opening the box when one of his men says loudly in a rather confused tone, “What is that?”
Anthony spins around to see a garbage truck emerge from behind the corner of one of the buildings roughly 70 meters away, heading straight for them. Up until now, the old garbage truck and the very pale man with thinning curly hair driving it had been mostly ignored by everyone, as he slowly collected the morning trash around the compound. Even the two guards that let the garbage truck through the compound's side gate earlier that morning didn’t think much of it. They were explicitly told to be on the look out for potentially armed individuals, and when they checked the truck, all it contained was stuff that looked and smelled a lot like garage.
It takes Anthony only a split second to realize something is wrong and spring into action. He quickly snactches the box out of the hands of a still-stunned Catherine and turns to run toward the armored truck. While taking his first stride, Anthony hears several of his men fire their rifles. “Stop that -- ” Anthony starts to yell out, but he doesn’t get a chance to complete his command.
Suddenly the garbage truck, Anthony Chan, Catherine Moore, the convoy, the shuttle, and basically everything else within a half kilometer radius simply ceases to be.
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In the Palace
Director Lee yells out, “What the hell just happened?” while looking at the now mostly blank screens. Every window he had open containing a different feed from the convoy went dead at the exact same moment. Now all of them are flashing the same message: “Unable to connect.” The cobalt hand off had been going perfectly just a second ago. Then suddenly there was yelling, a bright flash, and then nothing.
The director simply stares at the screens in complete shock, unable to comprehend what just happened. For a few seconds he tries to restart the system, hoping the problem is on his end until he hears what sounds almost like a loud, distant clap of thunder. Lee runs over to the window. He is only able to get a quick glance of the giant cloud of smoke covering the far side of the harbor before experiencing an almost identical problem himself.
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At Leo Madison’s home
At the same time, Leo Madison is watching all the exact same feeds from the convoy and coincidentally has the exact same response. “What the hell was that?”
A furious and frightened Leo Madison stares at his set up, not knowing what to do. He had taken a big gamble, and now something has gone very wrong. He has lost all the feeds from the convoy, and without that data there is no way to make the plan work.
At least the windows with feeds from his teams are still working, so Leo Madison starts contacting them individually, hoping to see if they can somehow still salvage the operation.
As soon as he opens the connection with his nephew, he hears Chris yelling, “This is not good! This is not good!”
Leo Madison says authoritatively, “Do you still have a connection with the convoy, Chris?”
Chris starts to answer, “No, man. Something seriously messed up….” Madison can’t hear the last part over the loud rumble as he watches the feed from Chris’s helmet camera start shaking.
Chris is now running. “It feels like this place is coming down. We are getting out of here, Uncle.”
Madison starts to protest, “You need to stay in position…” but once he sees that his nephew has cut off his comm he yells, “You worthless bastard!”
Immediately, Madison switches to the commander of his plainclothes team. He tries to ask “Do you…” but is immediately cut off by the stammering of his commander, “It is gone. It is just gone, Councilman.”
Madison asks, “What are you talking about? Did you lose sight of the con--” A loud explosion from the commander's feed cuts off Madison mid-question. The commander turns around, and his camera shows a giant fire coming from the Public Health Department complex. For a moment neither of them says anything as they watch the main tower of the complex collapse. Once it's down the commander turns to point himself towards the Aeronautics compound. Madison can see it is obscured by a giant ball of smoke. Several smaller balls of smoke can be seen throughout the city. The commander says in shock, “It is gone. It is all gone.”
Mouth agape, Madison is humbled by the level of destruction he is seeing. Previously he was scared about the possibility of the plan failing or getting caught, but that is nothing compared to how truly terrified he is at this moment. This is unimaginable.
Madison sits there wondering who could possibly do someth
ing like this. When the answer comes to him, his terror transforms into a blind rage. Madison immediately calls John Snider.
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On a hill overlooking Ararat
John Snider carefully chose this vantage point from which to watch his plan unfold, since from here it is possible to see all the important sites. He knew coming out here to witness the event personally was an unnecessary risk, but John simply couldn’t help himself. His excuse to the others is that this new era requires a bold, visible statement, but deep down he just really wants to see the show first hand. After so many years of working towards it, he feels he has earned it.
On the hillside with John is Jarod Wu, Susan Martinez and four of his most trusted men. All of them are armed with a jerry-rigged double-barrel shotgun -- weapons his tunnel dwellers have been building for him in secret. John knows these gunpowder based guns are almost comically primitive, but they are still effective. Susan makes sure the camera on the tablet is running when the first explosion goes off.
After only about five minutes of everyone waiting with bated breath, it finally happens. Even from this distance, the giant fireball and rapidly growing cloud is amazing to behold. John understood the math, but up until now he has never seen more than a thimblefull-sized test sample of his gunpowder lit off. Nothing could have prepared him for what three and a half tons of black powder can really do. It is both frighteningly beautiful and beautifully frightening. It is not just a massive explosion John is witnessing, it is the transformation of the entire world. A cleansing fire has finally come.
Right after the ground-shaking boom of the first explosion hits them, the palace is suddenly cloaked in fire and crumbling into its own black cloud. Scattered through the city, other smaller explosions go off around roughly the same time. Each new explosion is heard a few seconds after they see it. All of them take in the scene in awestruck silence.
The water garden fad among the connected made it remarkably easy to bury large amounts of gunpowder around their mansions and important buildings. Where there weren’t new gardens under construction, they instead mined the sewer lines from underneath. John hated to destroy his beloved infrastructure, but it couldn’t be helped.
Susan is the first to break the silence, “Mr. Snider. Leo Madison is calling.”
John answers her, “That is quicker than I expected. Let's put him through.”
Susan hands John the tablet, and he pushes the talk button. As soon as he does, a very red-faced Leo Madison appears on the screen. He seems shocked that John is answering directly.
Madison growls, trying to sound authoritative, but his tone betrays his confusion and fear, “How… How could you, John?”
John calmly answers, “You would be amazed at just how much saltpeter you can make from the piss and shit of a whole city with enough time. You end up with literally tons of the stuff.”
Madison yells at him through the screen, “That is not what I meant, you fool. You just blew up all of the cobalt! You blew up the main hospital! You doomed us. You doomed everyone. Are you insane?!”
John shakes his head slightly while answering, “No, Leo. I simply changed the rules. There is another place to get B-12, and right now only I know where it is.”
Madison's eyes go wide as he answers, “This is still madness. I’m not going to…”
John cuts him off with an amused tone, “I would think carefully about what you are about to say if I were you. I kept you alive for now because you showed me respect and you possess the knowledge, skills, and necessary resources I think are valuable. But no one is irreplaceable.”
Madison starts to respond, but John stops him. “I think you should take a moment to cool down and think about how things have really changed before we speak again. I have something more important to do right now, but we will talk later.” John then immediately ends the call and ignores Madison’s attempt to call him back.
John turns to his two closest advisors and says, “Do we think it is time for the message?”
Jarod Wu answers, “I would think so.”
John nods and gets into position with his back to the city. Susan positions the tablet to record him, and Jarod holds up the handwritten cue cards for John to read. Once they're set, she points her finger to signal John to begin.
“I’m John Snider, formerly the head of the sanitation bureau. I would ask that you all try to remain calm. What you just witnessed was the destruction of the directorate at my hand. No longer will it control us and exploit us. The leadership has been removed. Most importantly, the Public Health Department now no longer has a supply of cobalt or the means to get more. Worry not, though. I and I alone currently know of an alternative source. My people will see to it that everyone receives enough vitamins to survive.
If you are a member of one of the departments, I request that you peacefully turn over your weapons and your equipment, and cooperate with us to help build a better world. If you do, you will be treated fairly. I you don’t, you will suffer the same fate as your leaders just did. I want to avoid any more bloodshed.
To everyone else, I ask that you stay in your homes, remain calm and wait for further instructions. Today is the beginning of a new and better era.”
That is Susan’s cue to stop filming. With the camera turned off John asks, “How was that?”
Jarod answers, “Well done, sir. Calm and authoritative.”
John says, “Good, send it out to everyone right away. Now let's get to some place more secure for the next step.”
About the Author
Jon Walker is a graduate of Wesleyan University and a lifelong fan of science fiction who is currently living in Portland, OR. He previously worked as a senior policy analyst and reporter for the website Firedoglake and now works as a freelance writer. His first published book was a non-fiction futurist policy work, After Legalization: Understanding the Future of Marijuana Policy. Jon also writes about futurism and science fiction at the blog PendingHorizon.com. To subscribe to his email list click here.