"The Law."' Clara smiled thinly. "Right now, I'm more scared than I ever was on the boat. I don't even know all the people's names yet."

"Let's get started," Arthur said. They traversed the curved hallway. The hatch at the opposite end opened and they saw a cluster of anxious faces. The smell of fear drifted out.

Chapter 70

70

Irwin Schwartz stepped into the White House situation room and nearly bumped into the First Lady. She backed away with a nervous nod, her hands trembling, and he entered. Everyone's nerves had been frazzled since the evacuation the night before and the rapid return of the President to the Capital. No one had slept for more than an hour or two since.

The President stood with Otto Lehrman before the high-resolution data screens mounted on the wood paneling covering the concrete walls. The screens were on and showed maps of different portions of the Northern Hemisphere, Mercator projection, with red spots marking vanished cities. "Come on in, Irwin," Crockerman said. "We have some new material from the Puzzle Palace." He seemed almost cheerful.

Irwin turned to the First Lady. "Are you here to stay?" he asked bluntly. He respected the woman, but did not like her much.

"The President specially requested my presence," she said. "He feels we should be united."

"Obviously, you agree with him."

"I agree with him," she said.

Never in United States history had a First Lady de-serted her husband when he was under fire; Mrs. Crockerman knew this, and it must have taken some courage to return. Still, Schwartz had himself given long hours of thought to resigning from the administration; he could not judge her too harshly.

He held out his hand. She accepted and they shook firmly. "Welcome back aboard," he said.

"We have photos about twenty minutes old from a Diamond Apple," Lehrman said. "Technicians are putting them on the screens any minute." Diamond Apples were reconnaissance satellites launched in the early 1990s. The National Reconnaissance Office was very zealous with Diamond Apple pictures. Usually, they would have been reserved for the eyes of the President and Secretary of Defense only; that Schwartz was seeing them indicated something extraordinary was in store.

"Here they are," Lehrman said as the screens blanked.

Crockerman apparently had been told what to expect. Lines of glowing white rimmed in red and blue-green laced across a midnight-black background. "You know," Crockerman said softly, standing back from the screens, "I was right after all. Goddammit, Irwin, I was right, and I was wrong at the same time. How do you figure that?"

Schwartz stared at the glowing lines, not making any sense of them until a grid and labels came up with the display. This was the North Atlantic; the lines were trenches, midocean ridges and faults.

"The white," Lehrman said, "is heat residue from thermonuclear explosions. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, maybe tens of thousands—all along the Earth's deep-ocean seams and wrinkles."