“Abort the attack, and we’ll sit down and talk about solutions—”

“Solutions?” Grozny pushes closer to the camera. “What good are economic solutions, when your country continues to engage itself in policies of war?”

“The United States has been supporting the Russian Federation for two decades,” Borgia yells back. “The reason your people are starving has more to do with the corruption in your own government than any policy—”

The president swallows the bile rising in his throat. This is getting us nowhere. He signals to one of the MPs on duty. “Your sidearm, Sergeant. Give it to me.”

Mailer pushes Borgia aside, standing alone before the video-comm, his face chalky white.

“President Grozny. General Xiliang, listen to me. In less than one minute, our ICBMs and SLBMs will self-destruct. That will give you less than two minutes to follow suit. If you do not, then my secretary of state will order an all-out nuclear strike on your two countries with every last ICBM and SLBM in our arsenal. We will wipe your nations from the map as surely as you will ours. Gentlemen, for the world’s sake, I beg of you, let us regain our senses in this moment of insanity. Just as I mourn the death of my own family, so do I mourn your own losses, but as I stated earlier, the United States is not responsible for those fusion detonations. Show the world you have the courage to stop this madness. Give us a chance to reveal the real enemy.”

The president takes a deep breath.

“I know what I’ve told you is hard to believe. So that you’ll know that I have no ulterior motives, I offer you this.”

President Mark Richard Mailer raises the .45-caliber weapon to his own temple and fires.

Beneath the Kukulcan Pyramid,
Chichén Itza

Michael Gabriel’s consciousness is rising …

Rising directly above the square roof of the Kukulcan pyramid, jumping higher as the lush green Yucatan jungle kisses the blue waters of the Gulf …

A smooth leap into the stratosphere and the entire peninsula comes into view. Another leap—and the Western Hemisphere drops below, the sphere of the Earth appearing in his mind’s window.

The utter silence of space …

Moving away faster now, Earth becoming a blue marble as the moon slingshots by. A quantum leap, and Earth disappears, replaced by the brightness of a yellow star, the entire solar system coming into view.

Time and space surging by at an unfathomable speed, Mick glimpsing the nine planets racing around the Sun in staggered orbits …

Another quantum leap, and the Sun becomes a pinprick of light, a single star among an ocean of stars.

Light-speed—the stars soaring by, dropping away faster and faster now, as luminescent clouds of interstellar gas and dust appear in his mind’s eye.