It still didn’t make sense later that day—even when the soldiers started dying in massive, horrendous numbers.

The ones directly under the airbursts were first, complaining of headaches that increased in intensity quickly, eventually causing loss of eyesight and loss of equilibrium. Hours later, they were coughing up blood. By the time they were able to get off work later that day, they were usually unable to take themselves to the infirmary. Many of them died in their beds or in their living rooms, surrounded by their puzzled comrades and worried corpsmen. The ones that were as far as one mile away from the bursts didn’t start having symptoms until the next day, but their fate was the same—crushing headaches leading to blindness, loss of balance eventually leading to incapacitation, and sudden loss of blood leading to hemorrhage and death within eight hours.

The soldiers in bunkers and even chemical weapon-resistant shelters were not spared—even those in underground storage areas and shielded command centers could not escape. Eventually the deadly neutron and gamma radiation from the sixty-four neutron bombs detonated over Salimah, unrestricted by the uranium outer shell as in regular fission weapons, claimed over twelve thousand lives . ..

. .. without harming one piece of oil-drilling equipment, spilling one drop of crude oil, or ruining one piece of precious military hardware.

CHAPTER 9

NAVAL AMPHIBIOUS BASE CORONADO,
 CORONADO, CALIFORNIA
 DAYS LATER

Patrick detested running, but it was the only aerobic exercise he cared for, and he knew he’d probably blow up like a “bunker-buster” bomb if he didn’t do it. When he was in town he usually jogged the short distance from his condo on Coronado Island, across the bay from San Diego, to the base gym at the Naval Amphibious Base Coronado. This time, however, he had Bradley with him, so he drove. It took longer to go down to the garage, strap Bradley in, and pull out onto busy Silver Strand Highway than it did to get to the base.

Going to the gym was one of the few things he liked to do alone, just for himself—but not anymore. It was another of the little changes he had to make in his life, with Wendy gone.