“How did the rest of the world fare in this?” Representative Kiser asked.

“Stand by one. That’s not what I’ve been listening to. I’ll let Lieutenant Rallah address that. That’s been her focus.”

After sounds of movement—chair rollers and shuffling papers—a new voice emerged from the speakers. She sounded like a teenager. “Hello? This is Lieutenant Jane Rallah. I’ve been monitoring—or trying to monitor—SIGINT from Europe and Asia. It’s pretty much a mess out there. Nobody’s comms are working right, but we’ve picked up chatter. From what I can tell, Europe stayed pretty clean through this. We think England was hit hard, but word from the rest of the area—specifically France and Italy—is that they think they’re close to okay. They’re very concerned about the radiation plumes from Russia, which apparently took a big hit. China, too, we think.”

“What about the ’Stans?” Penn asked.

“It appears now that the Indians and Pakistanis kept their peckers in their pants, as my father used to say.” The lieutenant giggled nervously.

“Hey, if you can’t laugh in the face of a billion deaths, what’s the point of living?” Angela said.

Penn shot her an ugly look. “That was entirely uncalled for,” he scolded.

Lieutenant Rallah’s voice got small. “I’m sorry.”

“I wasn’t talking to you, Lieutenant. Tensions are running a little high here, too. Is there anything else?”

“No, sir, I don’t think so. But if you can figure out a way to get us out of this bunker, I, for one, would be happy to hear about it.”

Penn’s throat thickened. Those young people were looking at an inevitable slow death, and there was nothing anyone could do. “Godspeed to everyone there. Thank you for your service to the nation.”

“Wish we could have done more, Mr. Speaker. We’ll be back in touch if there are more developments.”

“I wish we could have done more, too,” Penn said. A glance up at Pete in the booth told him that their conversation was over. “Mr. Johnson!” he called.

“Here, Mr. Speaker.” Johnson hadn’t moved from the spot in the back of the chamber.

“Can you explain to me why junior officers on the other side of the country are able to tap into communications from Europe when we, here in a reinforced bunker in the Blue Ridge Mountains, cannot?”

“It’s only been a few hours, sir. I assure you—”

“Don’t assure me of anything, Mr. Johnson. Get me results. And change out this stage. It’s time we swear in the new president.”

Angela stood. “Mr. Speaker, I rise with a privileged motion to vacate the chair.”

Penn felt his mouth fall open a little. A motion to vacate was a motion to remove him from the Speakership.