Read Online Cthulhu Attacks!: Book 1: The Fear by Sean Hoade - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Sean Hoade
Tags: Science-Fiction, Literature & Fiction, Horror, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Genre Fiction, post apocalyptic
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explosion in history. It was a bit more than 50 megatons. It ripped stone roofs off houses in villages 100 miles away and disrupted radio broadcasts all over the world for almost an hour.”
The President and most of the military chiefs and advisors in the room nodded soberly at this information, some of them already knowing the details of the famous test and some, like the President, only learning them now. Hampton broke the silence: “Roofs off of houses in the Russian steppes. Static on radios. Lots of heat and destruction over what, a hundred-mile radius?”
The Admiral said, “Give or take a few.”
She nodded again. “What about beyond that? Anybody get, I don’t know, nosebleeds five thousand miles away? Any mass deaths from aneurysms?”
“No,” he said. “I was merely putting it forth in the spirit of our brainstorming session.”
“Very good—exactly what we need to make brainstorming a success, actually. Some of these ideas will peter out when we try to expand on them. Some will appear stronger the more we discuss them,” the President said, obviously using language she had used in her (some grumbled to themselves) hippie-dippie Montessori teaching days. “So every idea is a good one, Mister Secretary. Thank you for the contribution.”
Since the Secretary of Homeland Security had—second only to the Vice President—most strongly supported the “terrorist” angle, the President asked her, “Teresa, what could possibly be the point of this kind of attack by terrorist groups?”
Secretary Farr was ready for the question, but perhaps not as sure-footed in her answer as the Admiral had been. “The point of terror attacks may not be to kill the most people,” she said, knowing that this was a fact of which everyone in the room was familiar, but she had to add the corollary: “As their name implies, their actions are made to induce terror among whomever they are targeting. Make them paranoid and willing to give away their own freedoms in exchange for security. I know it may seem a bit ironic—”
“‘Those who give up liberty for security deserve neither,’” interjected the chair of the House Armed Services Committee. “Abraham Lincoln said that.”
The President said, “Actually, it was Benjamin Franklin who said, ‘Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.’”
The congressman wanted to say, Actually, you can go fuck yourself .
Secretary Farr ignored the evil eye that the congressman was trying to sear the President with and continued, “I know it may seem a bit ironic that the head of the Department of Homeland Security is talking about terrorists causing a public overreaction and freedoms being curtailed in the name of security, but an event of this magnitude calls for clear-eyed analysis.”
“Agreed,” the President said. “So why would terrorists do this? Causing panic and loss of freedoms was the aim of 9/11, of the 7/7 London underground attack. Of car bombs that kill a hundred people at most. What’s the point of killing 400 million people, for God’s sake?”
“It would be to achieve the same ends, but on a much bigger scale, of course. I mean, I could see the Palestinians doing this to force the Israelis into giving back the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, maybe the Chechens, something global like that.”
“Then why wouldn’t they try to strike their enemies directly? Because their weapon was too powerful?”
“That’s a possibility,” Farr said, but didn’t sound convinced herself. “However, Madam President, Admiral, General … no terrorist could even in theory possess this powerful of a weapon. Heck, no nation has this kind of weapon. We certainly don’t. I can’t see twenty allegedly oppressed ethnic minority group members having the resources to even take down another skyscraper anywhere in the world, let alone to somehow create an explosion millions of times stronger
The President and most of the military chiefs and advisors in the room nodded soberly at this information, some of them already knowing the details of the famous test and some, like the President, only learning them now. Hampton broke the silence: “Roofs off of houses in the Russian steppes. Static on radios. Lots of heat and destruction over what, a hundred-mile radius?”
The Admiral said, “Give or take a few.”
She nodded again. “What about beyond that? Anybody get, I don’t know, nosebleeds five thousand miles away? Any mass deaths from aneurysms?”
“No,” he said. “I was merely putting it forth in the spirit of our brainstorming session.”
“Very good—exactly what we need to make brainstorming a success, actually. Some of these ideas will peter out when we try to expand on them. Some will appear stronger the more we discuss them,” the President said, obviously using language she had used in her (some grumbled to themselves) hippie-dippie Montessori teaching days. “So every idea is a good one, Mister Secretary. Thank you for the contribution.”
Since the Secretary of Homeland Security had—second only to the Vice President—most strongly supported the “terrorist” angle, the President asked her, “Teresa, what could possibly be the point of this kind of attack by terrorist groups?”
Secretary Farr was ready for the question, but perhaps not as sure-footed in her answer as the Admiral had been. “The point of terror attacks may not be to kill the most people,” she said, knowing that this was a fact of which everyone in the room was familiar, but she had to add the corollary: “As their name implies, their actions are made to induce terror among whomever they are targeting. Make them paranoid and willing to give away their own freedoms in exchange for security. I know it may seem a bit ironic—”
“‘Those who give up liberty for security deserve neither,’” interjected the chair of the House Armed Services Committee. “Abraham Lincoln said that.”
The President said, “Actually, it was Benjamin Franklin who said, ‘Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.’”
The congressman wanted to say, Actually, you can go fuck yourself .
Secretary Farr ignored the evil eye that the congressman was trying to sear the President with and continued, “I know it may seem a bit ironic that the head of the Department of Homeland Security is talking about terrorists causing a public overreaction and freedoms being curtailed in the name of security, but an event of this magnitude calls for clear-eyed analysis.”
“Agreed,” the President said. “So why would terrorists do this? Causing panic and loss of freedoms was the aim of 9/11, of the 7/7 London underground attack. Of car bombs that kill a hundred people at most. What’s the point of killing 400 million people, for God’s sake?”
“It would be to achieve the same ends, but on a much bigger scale, of course. I mean, I could see the Palestinians doing this to force the Israelis into giving back the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, maybe the Chechens, something global like that.”
“Then why wouldn’t they try to strike their enemies directly? Because their weapon was too powerful?”
“That’s a possibility,” Farr said, but didn’t sound convinced herself. “However, Madam President, Admiral, General … no terrorist could even in theory possess this powerful of a weapon. Heck, no nation has this kind of weapon. We certainly don’t. I can’t see twenty allegedly oppressed ethnic minority group members having the resources to even take down another skyscraper anywhere in the world, let alone to somehow create an explosion millions of times stronger
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