Swenson glowered. “And it’s gonna take nuking Dallas to kill them?”

“It’s going to take a lot more than that,” Eric snarled, turning away for a moment. “After the blast clears, we have units ready to come in and clean the rubble out.”

“You think any of them are gonna live through a blast like that?”

“I can almost guarantee it.”

Swenson shook his head. “Nothing’s that tough.”

“Ranger, in 1945 a man survived being at ground zero Japan . . . both times,” Eric said. “Nuclear weapons aren’t magical brooms to sweep the enemy away, especially not an enemy like this. Even one survivor is too damned many.”

The ranger snorted, clearly unconvinced, but that didn’t bother Eric. He wasn’t here to convince one man. He was here to get as many people out of the city as he could.

“This is what you’re going to do,” Eric said flatly. “Contact every group you can, then tell them to spread the word. Anyone still in Dallas is to get out today. Minimum safe distance is twenty miles, but they’d be happier at fifty.”

“They’re really going to nuke Dallas, Captain?”

Eric turned to look at the man who had spoken, shaking his head. “You don’t get it, son. They’re nuking everywhere.”

“Jesus Christ,” Swenson swore, not even bothering to keep his voice down. “It can’t be that bad. Nothing can be that bad!”

“You never saw what these things have done to other planets, Ranger. I have,” Eric said, “It’s worse than that. Now do what I told you, damn it. Every minute you waste is a minute someone could be using to get clear!”

They stood, clearly looking to Swenson for instructions, and Eric began to get a sense of just what had been going on in Dallas over the last month. If he had to bet, he’d say that Swenson probably took over at a bad time. Whatever happened, that man was the person the Guardsmen were looking to, and that meant that he had to convince him.

“Look, Ranger,” he said, trying now to sound earnest, “there’re no reinforcements coming. These things hit the entire planet. Everything we’ve got is tied up somewhere else. Those things are going to eat your city . . .”

He sighed, and continued. “They tried to eat my ship, Ranger. My command, my Odyssey. Her hull was in pieces, the habitat modules scattered around New York, she’d never fly again . . . but those things swarmed her and tried to eat her. You know what I did?”

Swenson didn’t say anything, so Eric went on determinedly.