CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN

Kate stared, transfixed at what she was seeing, at what it represented. Such evil was difficult to comprehend.

Jack gestured toward the computer screen with the container he was holding. “Like I said before. You can’t save the world.”

“I believe you,” she said under her breath, still unable to look away from the sight.

“This is a partial glimpse of the formation of what may be an extinction-level nesting event,” Jack said.

“People go on social media all the time to express hate.” He gestured again at the screen. “Here, in the darknet, you can see that same kind of hate and envy put into action. Mankind has never before had such a perfect vehicle for spreading evil.

“Think we live in enlightened, civilized times? This is a real-time depiction of the Huns coming over the barricades.”

Kate looked from the screen to Jack. “So how does all of this become an extinction-level nesting event?”

Jack picked with his fork at the food in the container he was holding. “Remember how I told you that appeasement was a mechanism to counter the aggressive nature of others? We promised the North Koreans food—booty—if they wouldn’t develop nuclear weapons. They developed nuclear weapons anyway.

“The result of appeasement is a rogue nation willing to use a missile to explode a nuclear weapon in the atmosphere over the West Coast. The electromagnetic pulse would wipe out most of our electrical and technological infrastructure, effectively sending us back to preindustrial times.

“In the insanely deluded notion that defending ourselves was immoral, we long ago denounced missile defense systems. So now we’re naked to an attack from a country as small and backward as North Korea. They have the potential to destroy the United States and start a world war. All because we allowed a nesting event to take hold.

“In a deal with the devil we let Iran have nuclear weapons. This, after making that same mistake with North Korea.

“Their leaders have told us in every way possible that they intend to wipe Israel off the map and that we are the great Satan and they will destroy us. To appease them, we gave them nukes.

“China and Russia don’t really want to get into a nuclear war because they know they, too, would die.

“Iran likewise knows that nuking Israel will start a catastrophic nuclear world war. But they think their purpose on earth is to start an end-times war. They may decide to die in such a war. We gave them the means.

“So, if you’re Israel, and you know that Iran has vowed to kill you, and they have for years been sending rockets into your country and continually carrying out terrorist attacks killing innocent women and children to prove that they mean what they say, what do you do? Does the killer DNA in you decide that you need to kill Iran first? After all, that is the purpose of that genetic killer configuration: survival.

“Once nuclear weapons are used, there is no stopping it. Every country is going to feel they have to strike. Do you know the result of such an event?”

“Nuclear winter,” Kate said.

Jack nodded. “An extinction-level event.”

Kate studied his face. He looked down into the container, stabbing something with his fork. He had spent years in the Middle East. He had worked with the Mossad. She wondered how much he knew. Whatever he knew, his expression didn’t betray it.

“Is that what you think will happen? Nuclear war as the final result of man’s murderous genetic nature?”

He finally looked up into her eyes. “Actually, no.”

Kate was surprised. “No? But you said that this nesting period was an extinction-level event.”

Jack chewed for a moment and then gestured to the computer screen with his fork. “There’s your extinction-level event, right there.”

“I don’t follow.”

“Nukes mean that everyone dies. Sure, there are people crazy enough to do it, but what did I say about our genetic code?”

Kate frowned. “You mean that murder is hardwired into us?”

“Right. Murder. Not suicide. Murder. The purpose of murder is to be the survivor, to have all the spoils from killing.”

Kate looked at the computer screen. “So then how does this fit? How is this an extinction-level nesting event?”

Jack waited until she looked back at him. “Not nuclear winter. Cyber winter.”

“Cyber winter? I’m not sure I follow.”

“Everyone around the world is preparing for cyber warfare. It’s not merely countries like China and Russia preparing cyber attacks, it’s North Korea and all of the Islamic world. Terrorists are preparing to unleash a new kind of terror. Hacktivists, lusting for anarchy, want to bring down Western civilization. The thing they all have in common is that they all want to be the ones left alive.

“Military hacking all over the world is staffed by massive organizations, larger than any nuclear program. They’ve been hard at work, planting routines in everything electronic.

“It’s like nuclear war in that once it starts, life as we know it will cease to exist. The power grid will be wiped out in the first microsecond. No electricity. Not anywhere. Elevators will stop. Traffic lights will go out. Streetlights will go dark. Refrigeration shuts down. Gas stations won’t work. ATMs won’t work. Cell service? Nonexistent. Landlines will be out. TV, radio? Gone. Stock exchanges will be fried. Banking will disintegrate under the load of attacks unleashed against them. Trillions of dollars will evaporate into cyberspace.

“Air-traffic control will be wiped out. Hacked aircraft systems will fail. Planes will fall out of the sky like leaves dropping. Those crashing into cities will start massive fires. Hacked water systems will shut down. Pressure will fall. Without any form of communication, any fire and rescue will only be able to respond by seeing the fires, but they will have no water pressure to fight those fires.

“Hospitals will lose power. Their backup generator systems have already been hacked and once the attack begins, all of their equipment will go dead.

“Dams? All the sluice gates will open wide and in the darkness everything below the dams will be swept away.

“Police dispatch? Gone.

“How long do you think before the looting starts? One night? Two nights? The fires they start will burn for weeks.

“There will be complete disruption of transportation, including food supplies. How long before all the store shelves are looted and empty?

“The world we know will be gone. The night will be dead silent except for the sound of gunfire from roving gangs who will own the streets.

“Policing will be crippled and evaporate in short order. Criminals and gangs will be the new warlords. The strongest will be in charge. Those who kill anyone in their way will be the new rulers. Men resisting the criminals and gangs will be slaughtered. Rape will be an epidemic. Women will become property. Slavery will be back in full force.

“Killers and thugs will be in their element. Good people will be out of theirs.

“With chaos running rampant and communications a thing of the past, there will be no civil authority left to restore any systems. A good many of the people who knew how to make things work will not survive long. All the systems that our lives depend on will likely never be brought back to life. Just like Rome falling, in an instant, our way of life will be gone. Our knowledge lost.

“Foreign hackers in China, or Russia, or Iran, or some hacktivist haven will be grinning ear to ear.

“That’s cyber winter.

“Right now, all over the world, there are vast numbers of people working to bring this about. Hack routines are already in place and ready to be launched with a keystroke. Unlike a nuclear attack, this kind of attack would destroy us and leave them intact.

“If Iran were ever to nuke Israel, we would likely turn the Mideast to glass. What will Russia do? What will China do? Do bombs start going in every direction, trying to kill before being killed? In that scenario life on earth would end.

“That’s what everyone expects. That has been our fear for half a century, way back to ‘duck and cover.’ That has been the stuff of countless movies and books.

“It’s mankind’s collective bogeyman.

“That’s what everyone expects.

“That’s why it will never happen.”

Jack gestured at the computer screen again.

“There is the extinction-level nesting event in process. Look at it—it respects no boundaries. It’s everywhere. The globe is its nest.”