Von Neumann’s War

Ret Ball: Welcome friends across the country and those across the world who can still hear us through the wonders of the World Wide Web. I know that we have lost contact with most of Europe and our prayers go out for those folks and for the rest of humanity. Although there are phone lines still working in this country, they’re mostly overwhelmed with emergency services. If you can manage to call in, we will take your calls. Also, now we’re set up for the real-time online audio chatting as well as using instant messaging. So we’re still on live with you and can still hear from you. God bless us all and let’s get to the Truth Nationwide! Caller one is talking to us online from New York City. Go ahead, Mike, you are on the Truth Nationwide…

Chapter 17

“Mr. President, this is Dr. Carolyn Mayer from the National Security Agency’s ELINT branch. She has compiled some information that we thought you would want to see,” Vicki Johnson said as she introduced the forty-three year old blonde analyst to the President and the secretary of defense.

The two men had been in the War Room looking over possible defensive and offensive strategies in the event the probes made it to the U.S. That would happen soon enough as far as anybody could tell, but with no recon on the situation in Europe nobody had a clue how bad the situation was. There were no orbital platforms and it appeared that the aliens were enforcing a no-fly zone over most of the Atlantic and eastern Eurasia. The Americas still had air travel below thirty thousand feet — nobody had tried to go higher. Naval boundaries seemed to be about the same. Anything traveling eastward past about the forty-five degree latitude line was never heard from again.

The President looked up at the NSA and the pleasingly plump lady she had brought with her. He always found the diversity of individuals who came together in times of crisis to be intriguing. This young lady could have been a model for an oversized-women’s clothing store, not a black-program analyst.

“Nice to meet you Dr. Mayer. This is Secretary Stensby.” He motioned to the secretary of defense. “What is this all about, Vicki?”

“Dr. Mayer,” the NSA motioned for the analyst to begin.

“Uh, right. Here, Mr. President,” Carolyn said. She pulled out her laptop and toggled to a map of Europe. “Here is where the probes have gotten to.”

The map of Europe was a standard map package with an overlay of red growing on it. The red blotch covered all of Western Europe and even had spread to Iceland. On the eastern side of the region the red covered parts of Russia all the way from Rostov in the south to St. Petersburg in the north. Stockholm and Helsinki were red also. Due south, all of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and parts of Saudi Arabia were red.

“How do you know this, Dr. Mayer? We’ve been trying to get recon for weeks with no luck. About all we can discern is the no-fly zone.” The SecDef shrugged his shoulders in disbelief.

“Right. Well, you see, before all of this it was my job to track Al Qaeda operatives using electronic intercepts. Most of that has been using Ferret satellites, but I specialized in Internet communications. I spent the better part of the last four years finding and geolocating every Internet hub and router and every webcam in existence around the world. Oh, I only made a drop in the bucket, but I made a pretty good map of the world and had several known routers and webcams per region.” Dr. Mayer paused for a second and toggled some keys on her laptop.

“I see, so how does this help us now?” The President looked over at the painting on the wall behind his desk in the War Room. He missed the Oval Office. He missed being above ground and he hated all this hiding and waiting.

“Ah yes, it’s actually kind of simple, Mr. President. This map of red is a map of lost Internet routers, hubs, power grid stations, phone hubs, webcams, etc., all compiled into one graphic. I’ve even got several images from many of the webcams before they failed. Here.” Carolyn turned the laptop back around for them to see.

“What is that?” the SecDef asked.

The President nodded.

“It looks like a battleship aground.”