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Back Heart of the Sun
Chapters (56)
  1. Cover
  2. Praise for the novels of Mia Sheridan
  3. About the Author
  4. NOTE TO READERS
  5. Dedication
  6. prologue
  7. chapter one
  8. chapter two
  9. chapter three
  10. chapter four
  11. chapter five
  12. chapter six
  13. chapter seven
  14. chapter eight
  15. chapter nine
  16. chapter ten
  17. chapter eleven
  18. chapter twelve
  19. chapter thirteen
  20. chapter fourteen
  21. chapter fifteen
  22. chapter sixteen
  23. chapter seventeen
  24. chapter eighteen
  25. chapter nineteen
  26. chapter twenty
  27. chapter twenty-one
  28. chapter twenty-two
  29. chapter twenty-three
  30. chapter twenty-four
  31. chapter twenty-five
  32. chapter twenty-six
  33. chapter twenty-seven
  34. chapter twenty-eight
  35. chapter twenty-nine
  36. chapter thirty
  37. chapter thirty-one
  38. chapter thirty-two
  39. chapter thirty-three
  40. chapter thirty-four
  41. chapter thirty-five
  42. chapter thirty-six
  43. chapter thirty-seven
  44. chapter thirty-eight
  45. chapter thirty-nine
  46. chapter forty
  47. chapter forty-one
  48. chapter forty-two
  49. chapter forty-three
  50. chapter forty-four
  51. chapter forty-five
  52. chapter forty-six
  53. chapter forty-seven
  54. chapter forty-eight
  55. epilogue
  56. acknowledgments

He glanced over at Tuck. “You realize we might be at war, right?”

“I’d considered it,” he murmured.

I leaned forward as Charlie mumbled something about a comet. “You did?” I asked. “You think we’re at war? Why?”

“I didn’t say I think we’re at war,” Tuck said. “I said I’d considered it.”

“It’s worth considering,” Leonard said as he avoided a car sitting in the middle of the road. “The government done war-gamed this. You wanna know the quickest and easiest way to take over a country? You set off an EMP, right? A real big one high up in the sky using a couple nukes. That high up, they don’t affect humans but what they do is shut down the entire grid. Whole country goes dark. Even the majority of generators get knocked out. No gas. No water. Eventually, no food. The attackers simply wait for the majority to die and then they move in and finish the job.”

“An EMP. An electromagnetic pulse, right?” Tuck asked.

“Another man we talked to mentioned an EMP as well,” I said, worry making my skin feel itchy. But Leonard had to be exaggerating about the rest of it, right? He was clearly more than a little kooky.

“Yup. It’s a wave of energy that knocks out grids and other electronics. Musta been powerful as hell, because I’d never heard vehicles would be affected, but here we are.” He gave a small laugh and patted Bridget’s steering wheel affectionately. He looked over at Tuck. “The thing about warfare like that? It’s not bloody. No one has to look a person in the eye and pull a trigger or drop a bomb that means instant death. All you do is launch a missile from some ship out in the sea, straight up into the sky. There’s a certain distance from a crime like that, you know? Even though it’s one of mass extinction. Because the blast doesn’t hurt anyone, it’s too far away for that. It’s the aftermath that does the damage.”

“You think that’s what happened?” Tuck asked. “That’s your theory?”

“No idea. Like I said, I’m gonna wait this one out at the lake. Do some ice fishin’. See what’s what. If you’re smart, you’ll do the same.”

Tuck glanced back at me. “Our people are farther away than that,” he murmured.