Read The Atlantis World (The Origin Mystery, Book 3) for Free Online

people to process the food?”
    “We’ve looked at that. That’s not why you’re here.”
    “Why am I here?”
    “I’m going to lay out all the pieces, Paul. Let you make an informed decision.”
    Decision about what? Paul wondered.
    North worked the keyboard again. A scan of a crumpled document appeared. “This is an Immari manifesto that’s been circulating. It predicts a coming collapse of humanity. A day of reckoning when a cataclysm will occur. It calls for all those who wish to see the human race survive to rally behind the Immari cause. It lays out a strategy. The first step is the seizure of the food supply—everything from large food processing plants to farms. Second: the power grid.”
    Paul began to ask, but North interrupted. “They’ve taken control of eighty percent of our coal reserves.”
    “Coal?”
    “It still produces over forty percent of American power. Without the coal, the power plants will go dark soon. Nuclear and hydro-electric plants will be online, but taking the coal facilities out will do us in.”
    Paul nodded. There had to be some viral or biological component. Power and food… he wasn’t here for that. “Is there a third step in the manifesto?”
    “Wait. The Immari promise that those loyal to their call will receive help—an attack on a scale the world has never seen. They promise the Orchid Alliance will be crushed in a single day and night of destruction.”
    “A nuclear attack?”
    “We don’t think so. Those locations are well-guarded. And it’s too obvious. It’s something outside the box. We have one clue. The satellites. Last night, we lost contact with every satellite controlled by the Orchid Alliance as well as the International Space Station. Private satellites are unresponsive as well. The first satellites entered the atmosphere this morning. The last of them will burn up and crash to the earth by nightfall.”
    “Someone shot them down?”
    “No. They were hacked. A very sophisticated virus got into the control software. We’re blind. The only reason to do that is if they’re ready to attack. The cataclysm, the Immari attack, whatever it is, begins soon.”
    “You think it might be biological? Another outbreak?”
    “It’s possible,” North said. “In truth, we have no idea. The president wants to be ready for anything.”
    One of North’s staff members entered the conference room. “Sir, we need you.”
    North left Paul alone to contemplate what he had seen. If the attack were biological, Paul would be the logical choice to lead the global response. He began mentally preparing himself. Scenarios flashed through his mind. His thoughts went to Natalie and Matthew. He would transfer them to Continuity—
    The door opened, and North walked in slowly. “It’s started.”

C HAPTER 7
    CDC Headquarters
Atlanta, Georgia
    Walking the halls of Continuity was bizarre for Paul. In this section of the CDC, he and the Continuity staff had managed a global pandemic that lasted eighty-one days and claimed the lives of almost two billion people. Eighty-one days of sleeping on the couch in his office, drinking coffee endlessly, shouting matches, breakdowns, and one final breakthrough.
    The faces walking the halls were different now: soldiers, DOD staff, and others Paul couldn’t identify.
    Secretary of Defense North was waiting for him in the main Continuity situation room. The glass doors parted and closed behind Paul, and the two men were alone. The screens that covered the far wall showed the same display they had when Paul had walked out fourteen days ago: casualty statistics from Orchid Districts around the world. They ranged from twenty to forty percent. All except one: Malta. Dr. Warner and her team had found the last piece of the cure there. It glowed green, the text “0% Casualty Rate” floating beside it.
    North took a seat at one of the rolling tables. “One of my teams just picked up Natalie and your nephew, Paul. They’ll be here