His mind sought for some way to stop whatever was happening out there—bombs, military action, some sort of poison, maybe, in the bay. Firmly, he suppressed the outburst of orders that clamored to be shouted. If ever there was a time for careful consideration, this was it.

He poured himself some water, took a drink, and formed what he hoped was a useful question. “They’re coming from some lair, a lair underground? Who said that?”

General Hollis said, “The device was never tracked anywhere but at low altitude. The creatures that appeared when it did came up out of the sewers. So, we assume the point of origin is underground.”

“Exactly how many people are dead out there, General?”

FEMA director Adam Stern, who had slipped in a few moments before, now opened a folder. “Based on floating-body densities, we believe that there are approximately two hundred thousand people in the bay at this time.”

“All dead?”

Stern nodded his gray, distinguished head. “I’m sorry.”

“First, we need to shoot that thing down.”

“Sir,” Hollis said, “as I was explaining, we tried.”

“What did you use? A Piper Cub? A deer rifle?”

“We deployed an F-22 out of Travis AFB. There are four stationed there.”

“So it attacked and it missed. Then what went wrong? Did it crash? Return to base for breakfast?”

“It fired a missile, which detonated inside the structure.”

“And?”

“There was no effect, so the pilot launched his whole flight. Again, detonations with no effect.”

“Well, try harder!” The president looked around the room. “Another thing. There is experience with this. Somebody knows something about it.”

“The rogue scientist—”

“Besides him! Somewhere in your rathole, Dick, there is some sonmabitch who has a handle on this.”

Dick Lamson had that look on his face that had given him away at the poker table in college. Big joke, a CIA director who was a dead giveaway at poker. He was smart, though, damn smart.

“Who is it, Dick? I want him here. Somebody said Turner. I heard Turner. If he’s insane, put him in a straitjacket and in jail. But please, fellas and gals, do it now!”

“We will find the appropriate party.”

The president looked from one of them to the other, trying to keep his eyes steady, fighting back the rage he felt. A huge, fine city had just been wrecked and two hundred thousand Americans were dead, and what in hell was going to happen next? It was appalling beyond words.

“It’s been a low-level issue,” Dick said. “It was very tightly contained … for security reasons.”

“Yeah, well, it’s a low-level issue that’s gotten kind of high level, people. I’m sitting here learning about it for the first time and I’ve been in this office for two years. Dick, what were you thinking?”

“Sir, plausible denial.”