Magis and the staff walked and talked, Woods appeared at the door of the office, a cold face blocked there, no one dared to go outside, and when everyone guessed what was going on, he spoke: "Walter." ”

A man with a suitcase walked out, his left hand handcuffed to the suitcase, Magis recognized him, Walter Barreham, a nuclear weapons expert, a member of the National Security Council, and the box with the coder was not an ordinary suitcase, but the start button for mastering the nation's nuclear weapons, commonly known as the black box.

He walked up to the vice president, "What do you command?"

"I demand a full takeover of the country's nuclear arsenal. ”

Wu Zi's words stunned everyone, this is clearly seizing power.

"No one has the right to use nuclear weapons except the president. Walter replied.

Maggis's gaze turned to Woods, as vice president, he should be well aware of his authority, but what was the matter with that confident expression?

"I'm going to use the national emergency regulations. Woods said.

Walter replied: "You don't have the authority to take over the nuclear weapons button if the president is able to perform his functions." ”

Woods' head tilted to the left, "Apparently he can't perform his duties." ”

Everyone leaned out the door and saw George fainting in the hallway.

"President. "All the staff came up to check on the president, and someone called the medical officer.

Seeing that the president was unconscious, Walter asked Woods, "What happened to Mr. President?"

"Sudden dizziness, which is mostly caused by frequent nightlife, is caused by insufficient blood supply to the brain. ”

He spoke eloquently, but Magis noticed that George had a fist-sized lump on his chin.

The situation has changed, and Walter reassesses the current situation, and the secretary of defense has been missing for a long time, and I am afraid that it has become more than lucky, and the president, as the sole controller of nuclear weapons, is in a coma. According to the safety code, the task of commanding the country's thousands of nuclear bombs naturally fell on this vice president.

Walter takes Woods to an uninhabited secret room and makes him swear an oath to the flag and allegiance to the United States or something. Finally, exercising the vice president's emergency procedure, he opened a lockbox containing two keys and an envelope, and when Walter turned his back, he opened the envelope and wrote "Maria Greenhays" in English. ”

It sounds like the name of a certain nightclub dancer, but it fits George's style.

Wu Zi took a silver key, opened the handcuffs of Walter's suitcase, waited for him to step aside and turned his back, typed the English letters of the envelope into the cipher, click, and the suitcase opened automatically.

It is a piece of silver metal, there is a lock hole in the center, and then it is replaced by an electronic key, inserted into the hole and twisted, beep, the metal plate automatically separates, revealing the machine inside, and a round button with a red light appears in front of you.

This is the nuclear button, as long as you press it, thousands of nuclear bombs in the United States will be automatically unlocked, the core of the president's supreme power. When he took over as vice president, he also participated in the simulated nuclear activation button exercise, but it was just a prop, and now he is facing a real nuclear activation device.

After one more look, he re-set the secret, dialed out the electronic key, locked the suitcase, and handcuffed it to Walter's left hand.

The two returned to the office, the secretary of state and the rest of his staff were already waiting, Woods walked up to Magis and whispered a few words, the technical director's eyes suddenly widened, nodded and walked out the door.

"As far as I know, the Russians have joined the artificial sun project twenty minutes ago, and the United States cannot afford to be left behind, and for the sake of the lives of tens of millions of people, I declare that I will immediately suspend all current work and devote myself to this project." ”

At 11 a.m. at China's Nuclear Fusion Research Center, an old man stood on a high platform, wearing a long white coat and his eyes under thick lenses, looking at the arched machine below, two metal pipes bent up from the ground converged on the machine, and wires were intertwined around the machine.

"Dr. Liu. ”

He looked back and saw a young woman in a long white coat standing behind him.

"Hanmei, what's the matter?"

"The central government has received an official reply from the U.S. government that they are willing to participate in the artificial sun project. ”

Dr. Liu's brows furrowed, "Really? Great, the United States has the most nuclear power plants, and with their help, the plan is in play." ”

"We need to be ready to connect to the grids of both sides. Hanmei followed behind him, talking as she walked.

"The two countries are connected by an undersea cable in Alagas, which transits through Russia and then into our country, and in order to accommodate this electricity, we have to use thickened wires to connect the machines. ”

"But I have a problem, Russia and the United States have always been at odds, and the submarine cable has never been put into use since it was laid, so it is unknown whether it can accommodate such a huge amount of electricity. ”

"So we had to do a test. ”

At the White House of the United States, at one o'clock in the afternoon, in the presidential office, Wu Zi glanced at the officials around him with their heads bowed, unable to sit and wait in their chairs, and got up alone and walked to the window, looking at the shadows of the trees by the street lamps.

呤呤...... The ringing of the telephone pierced the ears, and everyone looked up at the short man Magis, who was digging into his trouser pocket, and an old-fashioned keycell phone appeared in his hand.

Seeing his forehead in a cold sweat, everyone guessed that something was wrong with the power supply plan. Due to the long-term abandonment of submarine cables, some places have been corroded by the sea, and the cables broke within two seconds of the power-on test.

Woods returned to his desk, "Isn't there another way to power them?"

Magis shook his head, "There is currently only one cable connecting North America and Asia. ”

"We are only now discovering that the two sides are not just separated by a Bailing Strait, but by the end of the world. Woods bent down and slammed his fist on the table.

Everyone lowered their heads again and remained silent.

"Maybe we can find someone to fix it. "It was a military chief of staff who spoke, with a round head and small eyes that always blinked at a fast pace.

Wu Zi sighed and said, "Who would go to the bottom of the sea to repair cables in this weather? All our nuclear submarines are frozen in the harbor, and none of them can be dispatched." ”

"We don't have to find someone to go there, there may already be someone on the other side of the channel. ”

"Who?"

"The U.S. Seventh Fleet, at the time of the incident, was on patrol duty in the nearby waters. The liaison staff officer spread out a nautical chart and pointed to a coordinate on the Bailing Strait, "This is where we lost contact with the fleet." ”

Magis looked closer, and the location was only five kilometers from the point where the cable broke, if there were survivors in the fleet, or if a small submersible could be used to reach the bottom of the sea.

"Who is the commander of the Seventh Fleet?" asked Woods.

Contact the staff officer replied: "General Bass Staff." ”

"It turned out to be him, a war maniac known as Mad Dog. When he was serving in the army, he had contact with him, and this man was full of thoughts about the invasion of the United States, and he also specially touted the military theory of preemptive strike, and included all countries, organizations, and individuals that might pose a threat to the United States in the scope of the US military. This idea was not passed in Congress because it was too crazy, but it established prestige for him in the army, and the nickname of Mad Dog spread.

Satellite telephones, wireless telegraphs, and the Seventh Fleet were not impossible, and everyone was still hopeless about their lives.

"Maybe there were survivors, but they were hiding in a place where they couldn't receive the telegram. Magis hypothetical.

"Is there a way to contact them?"

"Mobile phone. ”

Unfortunately, due to the personal information privacy regulations, the government does not have access to the phone numbers of the crew.

"Is there a government agency that might have this information?" Mr. Woods told the liaison officer, "and call the C.I.A. right away." "As an intelligence agency that spies on the world, they can even rummage through the trash cans on your doorstep, let alone personal information.

In the C.I.A. Intelligence Center, employees are working in front of computers, Patch is standing in a room full of monitors with pipes in his mouth, his eyes fixed on information from around the world.

"Sir, smoking is not allowed here. "A female clerk came up with a * on her chest to testify.

Patch glanced at her and replied, "You can't put out my cigarette." "This girl must be new here, and she hasn't even figured out the temperament of the chief, and now that the director of the CIA is missing, she may freeze to death at home or on a corner of the street, and the only person here is the chief in front of her.

The female staff member grabbed the water cup in one hand and poured it on the pipe, "Thank you for your cooperation." ”

Patch looked at the water on the pipe, and then at the back of the female clerk as she twisted her ass and walked away, her mouth open in disbelief.

At this time, the phone rang in his pocket, showing that it was X, a code name used only by important intelligence officers, and he listened, a smile on the corner of his mouth, "I see, it's so interesting." ”

He left the intelligence center, and in the hallway, the mobile phone rang again, it was the special number of the White House, "You want to ask for the contact number of the crew, of course, but please Mr. President speak to me personally." ”

"Lieutenant General Patch, I am the Vice President, and I am currently acting as President for the time being, please hand over the information. ”

"No, I have received accurate information that the President is currently under unlawful confinement, and I do not follow the orders of anyone but his old man, who is a Republican. ”

"Patch, the country is in danger, please stop playing political games. ”

"I'm sorry Vice President, I have the authority to do this, goodbye ......."

Patch was about to hang up the phone when he heard the other person say loudly, "Wait......" and the call came back to his ear.

"Patch, George's political career is over, and I'm the one with the best chance of reaching the pinnacle of power. ”

"Wu Zi, if you continue to talk nonsense, I will hang up immediately. Patch stopped in front of a trash can in the hallway, poured out the wet tobacco leaves, refilled them, lit them and smoked them.

"I know that the CIA Director is currently missing, and I am appointing you as the new Director. ”

Patch spat out a smoke ring into the ceiling, which gradually spread down the hallway, "Deal!"