“I’ll be honest with you all,” he said. “I’m flat out of ideas here.”

Burton Sinclair, of Oklahoma, raised his hand and was recognized. “Mr. Speaker, ladies and gentlemen of this Congress, I believe that we have not come close to understanding the enormity of this conflict. Beyond the devastation wrought by the bombs, the electromagnetic pulse has brought everything to a halt. Without electricity or the ability to create it, water pumps will stop. Fuel will be unavailable to make them run, anyway. Planes designed to protect us will be unable to do so. Satellites designed to track our enemies are as useless as if they had been blown out of space, which, for all we know, may have happened.

“The American people will perish without help, and it is our duty to find a way to provide that help to them.”

Latasha Washington was next to rise. “I think we can assume that the world’s entire financial structure has collapsed. Pieces of paper cannot feed your children. Perhaps people who live on farms will find ways to sustain themselves, and people in rural areas can always hunt, but for residents of urban areas—”

“The urban areas are all gone,” Penn said.

“Mr. Speaker, I was not done yet.”

“Well, maybe you should be,” he said. “I don’t mean to insult, but so far, all I’ve heard from the members of this body is just how awful everything is, and how truly desperate things are likely to become. Let’s stipulate to that. The world sucks and it’s going to suck for a while. Now let’s turn our attention to the ways we can unsuck it.”

“That’s impossible to do without information,” said Angela Fortnight. “Everything comes down to knowing what—”

The speakers popped overhead. “Excuse me, Mr. Speaker. Captain Brinks would like to address the assembled members.”

“By all means.”

Brinks started by clearing his throat, and then clearing it again. When he spoke, his voice wavered with emotion. “Mr. Speaker, we have received word, apparently official, that the president and vice president are both dead. The word I have here is that Air Force One and Air Force Two were both airborne when the strikes occurred, and neither survived.” Brinks paused to clear his throat again. “It was a very smart attack, sir. They concentrated on major population centers and military targets. Command and control centers were hit particularly hard. NORAD is gone, both in Colorado Springs and Cheyenne Mountain. CYBERCOM, STRATCOM, TRANSCOM, SOCOM, NORTHCOM and SOUTHCOM all took multiple hits. As far as we can tell, we’re pretty much a headless snake. Sir.”

“This is Minority Leader Fortnight. May I ask where your information is coming from?”

“Yes, ma’am, I guess there’s not a lot of harm in that now. We’ve tapped into chatter from elsewhere in the world. Exclusively on low-tech radios like shortwave and some citizens band.”