Tumble: The 35th Parallel

By Bob Triggs

Book Three in the Tumble series is a direct continuation of Book two, where the subsequent global outrage at the Golden Capricorn incident forces President Sinclair to disclose the tumble to the world.

Emergency services and utility staff stage a walkout after employers notify their workforce that payrolls could not be met because of the bank closures, and amid the ensuing chaos and rapidly collapsing infrastructure, anarchy spreads across the northern states. As violent and wanton acts of barbarism erupt in the city streets, Cobra’s team are preparing to evacuate New York. Chavez and Arnie negotiate an amnesty with rival gangs, who band together to form a rag-tag militia, while Linnet is tasked to commandeer a train at Pennsylvania Station. The intention is to travel south to the thirty-fifth parallel, where a confrontation with the US Army is inevitable if they are to achieve their ultimate goal—to cross into the twilight zone.

President Sinclair abandons the White House as enmity explodes in Washington, DC, and China tries to avert an incursion by the Russian and Mongolian armies, who have formed an alliance to invade the Asian nation.

Meanwhile, the massive winter storm that has blanketed Southern Argentina for ten days, moves out. Carlos Castelli, the country’s top meteorologist, is ordered to Puerto Madryn by President Hernandez to advise the military search and rescue parties on the weather conditions. The incredulous scene that awaits him on his arrival is beyond anything he could ever imagine.

The temperature in Australia is plummeting, and when they discover an extraordinary phenomenon advancing at a pertinacious pace towards the continent from Antarctica, Prime Minister Sydney Bishop appeals to Chairman Yuan Tien of China to admit thirteen million Australian refugees.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bob Triggs
• Release date: Mar 18, 2018
• ISBN: 9781370630264

Bob Triggs

Bob Triggs was born on the Falkland Islands in 1957. He developed a proclivity for writing when he was ten, but his aspirations were prorogued at eighteen after he moved to live in England. He resettled in London, where the sprawling, densely populated conurbations were a vast departure to the remote, sparsely inhabited, windswept archipelago in the South Atlantic, but he assimilated to city life with surprising ease. He worked in London for nearly two decades before moving to Los Angeles, where he has been living since 1994.The Andaman Event, which is inspired by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, is the exordium to the six-book Tumble series.

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Contents

Prolegomenon

Thursday, July 2, 2020

1: Langevin Block, Wellington Street, Ottawa, Canada; 1216h

2: CPC Central Headquarters, Zhongnanhai, Beijing; 1300h

3: Ash Court, Hempstead, Long Island, New York; 1407h

4: 97-20 57th Avenue, Corona, New York; 1456h

5: House of Commons, Westminster, London, United Kingdom; 1500h

6: E. 34th Street / Madison Avenue, Midtown Manhattan, New York; 1647h

7: Pennsylvania Station, 7th Avenue, Midtown Manhattan, New York; 2051h

8: E. 34th Street / Madison Avenue, Midtown Manhattan, New York; 2059h

9: Pennsylvania Station, 7th Avenue, Midtown Manhattan, New York; 2111h

10: The Rose Garden, the White House, Washington, DC; 2307h

11: 7th Avenue / West 34th Street, Midtown Manhattan, New York; 2347h

Friday, July 3, 2020

12: Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Third Judicial Distract, Alaska; 0227h

13: Belgrado 596, Santa Rosa, Buenos Aires, Argentina; 0559h

14: Ohio State Penitentiary, Youngstown, Ohio; 0638h

15: El Palomar Airport, Buenos Aires, Argentina; 0729h

16: Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Third Judicial Distract, Alaska; 0753h

17: Bolick Street, Georgetown, South Carolina; 0806h

18: The Nora Hartley Center, Alamo, Nevada; 0832h

19: Junction of Routes 7/28, Ola, Yell County, Arkansas; 0904h

20: Over Puerto Madryn, Chubut Province, Argentina; 0937h

21: Linden, Cumberland County, North Carolina; 1027h

22: Ohio State Penitentiary, Youngstown, Ohio; 1149h

23: Junction of Route 7/28, Ola, Yell County, Arkansas; 1214h

24: Linden, Cumberland County, North Carolina; 1246h

25: Quarry Cove Recreation Area, Lake Nimrod, Plainview, Arkansas; 1307h

26: Aeropuerto El Tehuelche, Puerto Madryn, Chubut Province, Argentina; 1504h

27: CPC Central Headquarters, Zhongnanhai, Beijing; 1632h

28: Quarry Cove Recreation Area, Lake Nimrod, Plainview, Arkansas; 1727h

29: Parliament Hill, Capital Circle, Canberra, Australia; 1845h

30: Linden, Cumberland County, North Carolina; 2104h

Saturday, July 4, 2020

31: Linden, Cumberland County, North Carolina; 0147h

32: Senate Building, The Kremlin, Moscow, Russia: 0608h

33: Linden, Cumberland County, North Carolina; 0658h

34: Fayetteville PD, 467 Hay Street, Fayetteville, North Carolina; 0943h

35: Bolick Street, Georgetown, South Carolina; 1022h

36: Cape Fear River, Cumberland County, North Carolina; 1101h

37: West Hampstead Motors, Grafton Road, Kentish Town, London; 1216h

38: Linden, Cumberland County, North Carolina; 1326h

39: Bolick Street, Georgetown, South Carolina; 1417h

40: Gray's Creek, Fayetteville, Cumberland County, North Carolina; 1512h

41: Arkansas State Hospital, Little Rock, Pulaski County, Arkansas; 1609h

42: Gray's Creek, Fayetteville, Cumberland County, North Carolina; 1654h

43: Big Diomede Island, Chukotsky District, Bering Strait, Russia; 1748h

44: Gray's Creek, Fayetteville, Cumberland County, North Carolina; 1941h

Acknowledgments

Skip

Prolegomenon

The 35th Parallel is a direct continuation of the Tumble series. This recapitulation is intended to remind current readers of the characters and events in book two, so it is recommended that bibliophiles new to the series should read The Andaman Event and The Golden Capricorn first.

* * * * * * * *

Sunday, June 28, 2020

The home of Anita and Harvey Worrell is under surveillance by two assassins on the Homeland Security payroll because they suspect the couple of harboring Danny Walker, a technician accused by President Sinclair as the person responsible for the failing worldwide satellite networks. Harvey is eliminated in a high-speed freeway accident, while Walker survives a staged gas explosion that destroys the Worrell’s household.

Dr. Jack Bailey and his family are sequestered against their will at the Nora Hartley Center, a top-secret government research facility buried beneath a mountain in the Nevada desert. Sinclair needs him to provide daily updates on the tumble’s progress.

President Sinclair faces a difficult decision. Does he believe Dr. Bailey’s assessment that the planet is in the grip of its sixth mass extinction event, or does he dismiss the professor’s dire warning as fallacious? In spite of his cynicism, he establishes a plan aimed at saving Americans if the tumble turns out to be real, but conceals it under the semblance of preventing a non-existent terrorist attack. According to Dr. Bailey, a narrow latitudinal band around the earth, which he has named the twilight zone, will be the only region left on the entire planet where conditions necessary to support human life are likely to subsist. It crosses the North American continent between Central Mexico and the southern Honduran border. The astrophysicist forewarns that the temperature north of the twenty-seventh latitude will exceed the boundaries of human endurance by the end of July, and advises the president that he has three days at best before everyone on the planet discovers what is happening. A worldwide panic is likely to ensue as an exodus of more than seven billion people scramble to reach the safety of the twilight zone, and with seventy-five percent of his military resources engaged in warzones in Korea and Iran, it will be impossible to invade a sovereign nation and secure a victory in less than three weeks. President Sinclair’s only shot is deception, and he gathers a small group of counselors together.

Thelma Carpenter left her iPhone GPS tracker on when she went to bed on Saturday, and she is perplexed to find that it has supposedly moved twenty-six miles overnight. She designs a computer model to replicate the movements of the weather, GPS, and television satellites, but the sequence doesn’t perform to expectation when she integrates the data into the program, and believing she’s made an error in her computations, she recalculates the function codes. Thelma’s suspicion that Sinclair is hiding information from the public deepens when the TV news reports that a fleet of twenty-five long-range commercial airliners and fifteen C17 military transporters are leaving Atlanta and Los Angeles for an unknown destination every two hours.

Monday, June 29, 2020

World leaders look on, first with amusement, and then with outrage when long-standing international treaties are annulled by President Sinclair. He announces a two-hundred-mile territorial limit around the US coastline, and orders all shipping to exit within forty-eight hours with a warning that any foreign vessels or aircraft, whether commercial, military or private that enters or are still within the exclusion zone after the deadline passes, will be shot down or sunk. US allies are angered further when he orders the withdrawal of troops from the Israeli/Iranian and Korean warzones, NATO, and garrisons on three continents.

Russian president, Matvei Bazhenov, is mystified by Sinclair’s strange behavior, but he discounts the claim that a nuclear threat by terrorists is imminent. The American president’s actions indicate he is planning to strike Iran and North Korea with nuclear missiles, and he calls Lloyd with a stern warning.

Dr. Jack Bailey and Brad Bentley meet for the first time. The two men have a common dislike for Sinclair and quickly become firm friends.

The US Army begins to establish encampments beside major north-south bound highways along the thirty-fifth parallel under the guise of a military exercise.

President Sinclair shares certain information on the tumble to President Jose Gomez of Mexico but deliberately misleads him on the details by telling him that the northern boundary of the twilight zone will be along the thirty-fifth parallel. The Mexican leader agrees to an open border, and under the premise that the US will defend incursions from the north, he begins to move Mexico’s military resources to protect the south. He also extends their territorial waters to two hundred miles to match the declaration issued by the White House.

Ken Matthews is invited to join the mayor of Anchorage and the Alaskan governor on a helicopter trip out to the Kenai Peninsula. Prolific whale beaching has been reported, and he is astonished when he sees thousands of dead and dying mammals of various species stretched along the rocky shore. Before they leave, he is witness to a huge shoal of sockeye salmon leaping out of the water, and the culprit is suspected to be a chemical spill in the Gulf of Alaska.

Tuesday, June 30, 2020

Ken Matthews stops for breakfast high in the Talkeetna Mountains overlooking the Susitna basin when hundreds of thousands of white-fronted geese swarm up the valley. They are clearly in distress, which is when he makes a correlation between the geese, whales, and salmon—they rely on the planet’s magnetic field for navigation.

The Golden Capricorn, a Norwegian cruise ship with one thousand five hundred forty-eight passengers and crew on board is sailing through the Caribbean bound for the Grand Bahamas when eighty-one-year-old Eirik Aagard suffers a major heart attack. The ship’s doctor does not have the proper facilities to perform lifesaving surgery, so Captain Haakon Svenningsen radios the Miami coastguard to request a medivac helicopter. His call is intercepted by Captain Henry Thomas of the frigate, USS Robert G. Bradley, who astounds Haakon by refusing to send assistance, and orders the liner to exit the exclusion zone forthwith, or be sunk. The infuriated Norwegian ignores the caveat and sets a course for Miami.

President Sinclair is in a high-level meeting when he is informed that The Golden Capricorn has defied orders to exit the newly declared territorial waters, and an F-16 armed with sea-skimming missiles is scrambled with instructions to sink the vessel at ten hundred hours unless he receives an abort code. Sinclair is reminded there are still fourteen hours before the deadline expires, so he grants permission for the cruise ship to dock in Miami with orders to escort The Golden Capricorn out of the exclusion zone after the patient and immediate family have disembarked. Captain Svenningsen agrees to the terms.

A temporary failure with the military comms satellite prevents the abort code from reaching the F-16, and the pilot launches the missiles as per orders. When President Sinclair is told that the frigate jammed the ship’s communications prior to the attack, he decides to conceal the incident with a cold-hearted decision. There will be no survivors, and the USS Robert G. Bradley is ordered away from the scene. However, the president is unaware that Captain Svenningsen live-streamed audio and video of the intercept to his head office in Norway prior to the transmissions being blocked, and the Norwegian prime minister, Håvard Sivertsen, releases the recordings to the media. Odium for Sinclair spreads across Europe and around the world like wildfire.

Thelma is frustrated with the computer animation. She can’t trace the defective function code causing her model to show that the globe is moving out of alignment with the satellites.

Russian astrophysicist, Dr. Boris Medvedev, informs President Bazhenov that the earth’s axis is shifting, and gives him a scenario that duplicates the one Dr. Bailey delivered to Sinclair.

Lloyd receives a scathing call from Håvard Sivertsen, and the angry exchange culminates in the termination of diplomatic ties with Norway. It is followed by a call from President Bazhenov, who tells him he knows about the tumble. The Russian suggests they should cooperate and find a way to reverse the impending catastrophe before it is too late, but Lloyd has a deep distrust for him. He reluctantly agrees to work together in the hope that he will not make the news public for another day or two.

Wednesday, July 1, 2020

A night of violence results in the horrendous and barbaric deaths of the ambassador and diplomatic staff at the American embassy in Oslo, while more than one million angry people descend on the embassies and consulate generals across the globe. In Hamburg and Berlin, the mobs enact the ‘eye-for-an-eye’ rule and deliver the heads of one thousand five hundred forty-eight slaughtered Americans impaled on a pole to the Scandinavian embassies.

Cobra explains to Byron that Thelma believes Sinclair is concealing information the American people should know, and she fears something disastrous is about to befall the planet. He has scheduled a meeting with some friends to discuss a contingency in the event of a crisis, and he invites Byron to participate.

Impromptu demonstrations erupt across the United States, and law enforcement agencies in Washington, DC refuse to dispatch riot police when an estimated crowd of three-and-a-half million marches on 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue from six different directions. The perimeter fence is electrified when the recusants turn violent, and a detachment of marines is flown in to defend the White House with teargas, rubber bullets, and beanbags. They are driven back by a fleet of helicopters that drop thousands of ‘jellybeans’—an oval-shaped capsule made of light plastic and filled with CS gas that activates on impact.

Calls for the protesters to regroup and march again after sundown go out on social media, and a civil coup d'état is promoted by businesses and organizations. Gas masks and protective equipment sponsored by corporate and business interests are distributed to the frontline activists, and when General Morgan tells him that they don’t have the resources to contain the new threat, President Sinclair orders the implementation of the border along the thirty-fifth parallel and publicizes the tumble in an all-sources broadcast. His proclamation has a sobering effect on the nation, and the anticipated demonstration did not materialize.

One hour later, credit card corporations announce the provisional deferment of all services without notice and with immediate effect.

Thursday, July 2, 2020

The temporary suspension of credit card usage becomes permanent at oh eight hundred hours. Jeffrey Burnham, who is the CEO of City Investment Banks—the largest financial institution in the country—announces that their branches will not open for business until further notice. ATMs are withdrawn from service, and online banking facilities are shut down. Within minutes, all banks have followed the CIB’s lead, and it results in the strangulation of business-to-business credit flow, while regular customers are denied access to their checking and savings accounts. Sinclair denounces the action as gratuitous and makes a public appeal on television and radio for the banks to reopen.

Burnham demands to be flown with his family to the twilight zone, and he declares he will not authorize the banks to resume business until they are in Los Angeles. Sinclair is incensed that one man has the power to hold the nation hostage, but when the Federal Bank reports the transfer of half a billion dollars from the CIB headquarters to a private account in Los Angeles owned by Jeffrey Burnham, he hatches a suitable retaliatory response fit for a crook.

The construction site where Cobra is employed grinds to a halt. The creditors are forced to defer funding for fuel, materials, and payrolls because of the closures, and Byron leaves with Cobra when the site foreman sends an angry crew home. With no cell phone service, Cobra calls Thelma by landline and asks her to get in touch with everyone and tell them the meeting scheduled for later that day is moved up.

Byron stops at a gas station to refuel his Ford Ranger. Transactions are cash-only, but he is enraged when the attendant tries to charge him an astronomical twenty-five dollars per gallon.

By the time everyone turns up for the meeting, Cobra already has a plan. He appoints Jacko as the vice coordinator, and tasks two street gang leaders, Arnie and Chavez, to negotiate an amnesty with other gangs. Three army veterans, Scooter Adams, Gary, and Trevor are his military strategists, and their knowledge and experience will be valuable once they reach the border. In addition, Christopher is the medic, and Hacker Jones is an expert in communications. The key to their success lies with Linnet, an Amtrak engineer, and he is apprehensive when he is assigned to commandeer a train to take everyone to the thirty-fifth parallel. Cobra’s intention is to leave on Saturday, but Thelma is concerned at how fast the situation is deteriorating in the city, and it becomes patently clear that if they don’t get out of New York today, they probably never will.

The White House press secretary appears on television and names Jeffrey Burnham as the person responsible for the bank closures. He details the businessman’s attempt to blackmail the nation while embezzling half a billion dollars from customer accounts. An image of Burnham, the make, model, and registration plate of his car, and his home address is broadcast—and then the press secretary announces he wouldn’t be afforded police protection, and any 9-1-1 calls from Burnham would not be prioritized.

Jacko wants to go after him, and while Cobra is reluctant at first, he relents when Byron suggests that half a billion dollars will come in useful once they get into the twilight zone.

The story continues ….

Chapter 1

Langevin Block

Wellington Street, Ottawa, Canada

Coordinates: 45° 25' 24.6 N, 75° 41' 50.6 W

Thursday, July 2, 2020, 1216h

The fifty-eight-year-old Canadian Prime Minister, the Right Honorable Michael Davies, flicks absently at the top right corner of a document with his forefinger as he reads. A bitter resentment for the US president is burning in his chest, yet in spite of Sinclair’s advanced knowledge of the tumble, his precautions and reassurances haven’t been sufficient to avert a drastic intensification of social discontent. He admits that no one could have predicted the irresponsible behavior of the financial corporations, who are primarily to blame for the turmoil now spreading across the northern United States, and worldwide anarchy is inevitable. He needs to heed the mistakes and miscalculations made by the White House, because one wrong decision could be disastrous for the thirty-eight million Canadians who have their eyes turned to him for guidance.

The pathway to the twilight zone is complicated by a militarized border at the thirty-fifth parallel, which means he’ll have to come up with an ingenious scheme if he wants to avoid a massacre. There is a high probability that the millions of Americans trapped in the north will surge south, overwhelm the US defenses by sheer numbers, and open up a migratory route, but because there’s no guarantee that the situation will develop in his favor, it’s imperative to have a secondary plan in place.

His thoughts are interrupted by a light rap on the door, and the tall gaunt figure of George St. Laurent walks into the room. His features are haggard and lined, and a childhood injury to the lower cervical spine between the shoulder blades has left him with a permanent hunch. He also has an enlarged larynx, which makes a quiet conversation with him impossible.

The fifty-five-year-old minister slumps into a chair, pulls a handkerchief from a pocket, and begins wiping at the perspiration on his forehead and the sides of his face. "Be Jesus, it’s hot!"

Michael nods in agreement. The air conditioning for the entire block failed two days earlier because maintenance neglected to keep up with the service schedule, and now he’s forced to extract what little comfort is possible from the fans strategically placed around his office.

Have you read McTavish’s report? George asks.

Michael raises the document in his hand. I’m looking at it now, and I’m afraid it doesn’t do anything to appease my anxiety.

"Forget it. Whatever you get on paper is outdated by the time you see it. Christ, even a telephone notification is archaic before you hang up."

George’s dark mien connotes his frustration at their inability to slow the erosion of the country’s infrastructure, and the prime minister wonders if previous mass extinctions happened this fast. Then he remembers that the dinosaurs had no warning. I hope you’re exaggerating.

Don’t blink, will you, George says sarcastically. Worldwide communications are down, and the Internet is close to collapse. We still have cable access to servers on the North and South American continents, but it’s just a matter of time before we lose those too. We’re going to be isolated from the wide blue yonder, and there isn’t a damn thing we can do about it.

I need to call Henry and find out how the financial markets are doing.

I can give you the answer. Foreign exchange was suspended and stock trading ceased thirty minutes ago. The situation south of the border applied an unsustainable strain on our economy and he needed to take immediate action before it crumbled completely.

Michael is irked. Damn, am I now the last one to know what’s going on?

Don’t take it out on him, George says. I only found out because, regrettably, I chose the wrong moment to stop by his office. He’s bouncing off the walls like a lizard on meth.

The Minister of Industry isn’t one for dramatics or to overemphasize an issue, which makes his words even more bothersome, and Michael pauses to cogitate. For someone who tried to keep the tumble a big secret, he sure screwed up.

George gazes at Michael with a puzzled look on his face. Who?

Sinclair.

"Oh, him! His eyes are burning with contempt. He’s lost control and I rather suspect the country will degenerate into a cesspool of insurrection before day’s end. I can’t say I feel any empathy for the guy after what he did, though."

Let’s not rejoice on Sinclair’s failure lest his fate will this way roameth, Michael remarks in a philosophical tone.

I’m just saying. He appeared to have a reasonable grip until the financial institutions pulled off that disgraceful stunt. It’s triggered outrageous price hikes on consumer goods and forced millions to walk away from their jobs because they won’t be getting paid—including staff at the emergency response centers.

Michael gets to his feet, walks over to a window overlooking Wellington Street, and stares across at Parliament Hill on the opposite side in silence.

How do you intend to stop the same thing from happening here? George asks.

The prime minister loosens his necktie and opens the top button on his shirt. The collar is soaked with sweat, his underwear is sticking to his skin, and the heat is draining his energy. He heaves a long, drawn-out sigh and walks back to the desk. I need to call Henry Noble, he says, turning the speaker on before punching an extension number into the telephone keypad. The agitation in the finance minister’s tone is noticeable when he answers with a snappy ‘yes.’

This is Michael, and George is here with me. He tells me you’ve suspended foreign trading.

I apologize for not informing you sooner, but things went crazy over here. McTavish is with me, and we decided to evaluate our options before I called you.

What are the alternatives?

Well—I’ve isolated the Canadian dollar, but it isn’t going to keep consumer prices stable without some kind of intervention.

Put the speakers on so we can all confer.

There is a brief pause. Done.

Good afternoon, Stanley.

Is it? the sixty-four-year-old Minister of Justice answers in a disgruntled voice.

Habitual human greeting, Michael replies. Henry, I’m trying to avoid the same fiasco that’s happening in the US, so it’s vital that the banks and other financial institutions remain open.

I’ve spoken to the CEO of Canada’s banking association and he’s reassured me that they do not intend to close their doors. Their customers have full access to their accounts, but since he can’t navigate the card suspensions, he’s trying to introduce an initiative for a credit circulation in an effort to prevent businesses from closing. I’m waiting for him to call me back with the details. He’s also extended branch hours to ease the influx, so it is clear he’s doing everything possible to avert a disaster, but I don’t think it’ll be enough to maintain economic stability.

Michael is relieved by the bank’s endeavor to shore up public confidence, and he ponders for a moment before addressing the justice minister. Stanley, I want an immediate mandatory price freeze on food and baby products with severe penalties for noncompliance.

You can’t do that without a—

I know. I have to declare a state of emergency first, which is going to happen at the top of the hour, but in the meantime, you can still make sure the memos are ready to distribute as soon as I make the announcement.

Aren’t you going to include oil and petroleum products? Stanley asks.

Yes … you’ll draft a second directive exclusive to petrol, diesel and motor oil. I want the pump price reduced to fifty cents a liter, and for now, a weekly ration of seventy-five liters per vehicle will be imposed with exemptions for public transportation and delivery industries.

The minister laughs aloud. "And just how do you propose to enforce that?"

The base refinery costs are to be frozen at the same rate as of eight o’clock this morning. It will prevent price gouging by the oil corporations, and the government will subsidize the disparity between retail and wholesale values. You can’t get any fairer than that.

Henry is quick to protest. Michael, that’ll empty our coffers in no time.

What difference will it make? the prime minister replies. It’s taxpayer money, and there won’t be a homeland left in a week or two, so you tell me what’s best? Thirty-eight million dead Canadians and a vault full of cash, or use it to avert a civil disturbance while we wait for the yanks to slaughter each other? We’ll let them do our job for us, and then we’ll move south to the twilight zone together as a nation. He sighs. We’re sinking, Henry, and it’s better to go down with pride rather than dishonor.

A long silence follows before the finance minister speaks again. "Well, if you put it that way …"

I want those bills drafted and on my desk for signing in thirty minutes, Michael says, and he disconnects the phone.

George stares at him with a solemn expression on his face. How much time do you think we’ll be able to buy before survival becomes a greater priority than the price of food and oil?

It’s a short-term bribe to maintain law and order. I know it’s unlikely to endure, but the prospects will improve if we don’t allow the greedy corporations to swindle our citizens.

Why would they try to rip people off? I mean, the Canadian dollar will have no value once the migration begins.

The corporate mindset is unfathomable, Michael replies dismissively. They prey like vultures on tragedies and disasters without remorse.

George dabs at the perspiration on his forehead with a soaked handkerchief. "Phew! This heat has sapped my strength. He holds the hanky over the trashcan and wrings it out. I need to carry a damn beach towel around. The people on Ellesmere Island have my sympathies for sure."

The remark startles the prime minister. Why? What’s happening up there?

You haven’t heard? They hit a new high of forty-two centigrade at eleven o’clock this morning.

Michael purses his lips for a few moments in quiet contemplation. It is an extraordinary temperature for a locality where three degrees or higher is considered a heatwave. I’m going to issue an order to move the people in the Northern Territories closer to the US border.

Do you want me to marshal the Mounties to facilitate the evacuation?

No, I’ll do it, Michael replies. I want you to go over to Parliament Hill and assist Stanley.

The minister gets to his feet and ambles toward the door. "Christ, I hope Henry’s office is cooler than it is over here."

Chapter 2

CPC Central Headquarters

Zhongnanhai, Beijing, China

Coordinates: 39° 54' 55.4 N, 116° 23' 04.3 E

Thursday, July 2, 2020, 1300h

Yuan Tien strides across the dark tiles of the Great Hall with a briefcase in one hand, and an aide opens the double arched doors on the far side, allowing him to walk unhindered into the conference room. The Standing Committee is present, and he gives permission for them to sit with a hand signal as he walks across to his seat at the head of the table. He pulls a video disc and a folder stuffed with documents from the case, snaps it closed, and then he glances around until his eyes lock with Mao Xiaoping.

I see by your expression that something troubles you, Yuan says in a soft voice.

Our attempt to identify the source of the Chameleon virus is being hindered by an unusual outage with communications.

Ah, yes, that was one of two tasks you were supposed to accomplish by today, the chairman replies. When was the last time you heard from our stateside spooks?

Two days ago. The head of security hesitates. As for Kim Jong Un—

Yuan raises a hand and stops him in mid-sentence. Yes, he’s resurfaced in Pyongyang after the Americans pulled out. However, neither of these issues are a priority on the agenda today.

"Does anyone know why Sinclair withdrew the US forces?" Chiang asks.

The chairman’s response is sharp. Do you?

Zhu breaks the brief but awkward silence that follows. "I received a disturbing intelligence report that the Russian and Mongolian armies began moving en masse to our Northern border early yesterday, and hundreds of military aircraft from the north, west and central sectors of Russia have been moved to airbases in the south. He hesitates. It’s clear that Bazhenov has formed some kind of alliance with the Mongolians, and if I didn’t know better, I’d say he has an ambitious plan to invade our country."

Yes, we need to brace for an attack, Yuan replies brusquely. Due to the unscheduled communication blackout, news of the tumble hasn’t reached China yet, and Yuan holds the video disc up in one hand. This is a recording of a television broadcast made by the American president last night. It was sent to me this morning with the compliments of Matvei Bazhenov.

Chiang makes a speculative comment. I’d say his benevolence isn’t without purpose. It is general knowledge that the relationship between the Chinese and Russian leaders soured over China’s suspected involvement and support for Kim Jong Un. Yuan’s slow condemnation of the unprovoked missile attacks on South Korea, Japan, and Guam thirty months earlier drew a lot of criticism, and when he did, it was an unconvincing denunciation.

Yuan pushes the disc across the table to Jia. Put this in the DVD player. It’s been translated and subtitled already.

For the next one and a half hours, all eyes are glued to the television screen, and Yuan glances around at the unsettled expressions on their faces when President Sinclair leaves the podium and as the video fades to black. Well? Does anyone have something to say?

Chiang Yat-sen fidgets in his chair. How can we be sure he speaks the truth? It may only be an illusion brought on by the mental illness he’s purported to be suffering from?

It would be convenient if I could dismiss it as the rant of a lunatic—but I can’t, Yuan says, I appointed a scientist at Beijing University to corroborate the claim, and while he has verified that a shift of almost three degrees has taken place, he still needs at least another twelve hours to confirm whether it’s still changing.

The Standing Committee members glance nervously back and forth among each other, and Mao is the first to break the uneasy silence. And this is a good reason for the Russians and Mongolians to invade China?

"What do you think? Yuan asks. If the revelation of a safe zone between the fourteenth and thirty-fifth parallels is true, then we have the largest portion in the world. He pauses. Sinclair took action necessary to protect the interests of his country, and I applaud him for a brave but foolish effort in a society where so-called freedom of speech exists. For that reason alone, it was doomed to fail. Ignorance is a blissful condition and a prime example of why we shouldn’t acquaint the people of China to the tumble. He pulls a document from the folder. President Bazhenov is seeking permission to relocate Russian citizens into Chinese territory."

Why would he flex his military muscle before we’ve even responded? Sun asks.

The reality is—he has nowhere to go, Yuan says. He’s merely following a formal procedure even though he knows the request will be declined, and whatever way you look at it, they are going to die—invasion or not. What does he have to lose?

A war with Russia is something we shouldn’t relish, but I don’t see an ambassadorial path to avert one if we deny his application, Chiang asserts.

Yuan leans back and ruminates for a few seconds before speaking. "There is a possible solution, but it depends on where Bazhenov’s loyalties lie and I’ve invited him to Beijing to discuss an expedient alternative. He wanted to fly down today, but our military has orders to shoot down any foreign aircraft that enters our airspace and since I cannot guarantee his safety, he will travel to Dalanzadgad in Mongolia’s Ömnögovi province and take a special train from there."

Chiang protests in a strong voice. "We can’t become a sanctuary for millions of Russians."

The Chinese leader is imperturbable. I will offer permanent citizenship to Bazhenov and his wife as guests of the People’s Republic of China, but in exchange, he must withdraw his troops, military equipment, and air force out of Mongolia and away from our northern border.

Mao is cautious. Such an approval must come with a guarantee. You know how unpredictable he is, and I’m hesitant to believe that he’ll actually abandon his own people.

The chairman’s lips curl into a tiny smile. The crisis is about to reveal the man behind the impervious mask. Coward or hero … we shall see. He sits forward and shuffles through the documents again. I also received a formal application from Sydney Bishop. The Australian prime minister says his continent is due to become an extension of Antarctica, and he’s asking for our consent to resettle his citizens in the PRC.

Are we to take our longstanding relationship into consideration? Zhu asks.

No, Yuan replies. They won’t respect our laws, and they’ll only corrupt our people with western culture and values if we let them in. My response will be more couth, of course, and the relocation of one and a half billion Chinese people into the twilight zone is a predominant factor in our decision.

They’re not going to like the rejection, Chiang Yat-sen mutters.

Yuan shrugs dismissively. That isn’t my problem.

Sun Shikai frowns. Does that mean you intend to make the tumble public?

No, it will be counterproductive if we allow fear to excel. The communication failures have made the task easier, and while connections to internal servers are attainable to Internet users, external access has been revoked.

Then how will you get people to migrate south if the news is stymied?

The chairman emits a cold laugh. It isn’t conducive or practical to transfer whole prefectures into another province. A few peasants might be driven southward by the high temperatures, but most will die without knowing what’s going on. Look on it as natural depopulation. If any members of the Standing Committee disagree with Yuan’s dispassionate solution, no one opposes it.

Zhu is the first to speak. "What of the scientists at Beijing University whom you appointed to research