The Shift: Book II of the Wildfire Saga Read Online Free

Vice President. "Everyone in this room knows the Chinese have a close alliance with North Korea.   It would be no different than if someone decided to invade Canada.   China will be obligated to attack whoever attacks North Korea.   The fact that they haven't done so already—even after we launched those B-2s against Pyongyang—shows the strength of our diplomatic ties with Beijing."
    "Bullshit!" said the Chairman.   "The Chinese are nothing more than well-funded, cultured, terrorists.   The only thing they recognize is brute force.   Right now, we are showing neither."
    "Mr. President," said the Chief of Staff of the Navy, a gaunt, bird-like Vice Admiral James Price.   "We only have sporadic contact with most of the Navy.   The loss of our satellite communications has been all but crippling.   I can't guarantee how effective our surface warfare units will be if we enter into a long-term engagement with China.   North Korea we can handle, but…"
    "Oh hell,"   sighed Gen. Vidua.   "Not you, too?"
    “Look,” shot back Adm. Price, “we don’t have secure comms with the fleet—if we sent them in half-cocked now, we could risk losing more than just our naval strength.   Without the Fleet, we’ve got no close-in protection for the west coast…”
    Barron glanced at Jayne as the Chiefs of Staff devolved into a shouting match over whether or not to strike back at North Korea.   She replied with an infinitesimal shrug of her shoulders.   Even she wasn’t perfect when it came to selecting Cabinet officials, it seemed.   Some part of the President was actually glad for that.
    "John, you think I like this situation?"   asked Adm. Price.   He spoke in a quiet voice but it carried unmistakable authority.
    "Gentlemen, please!" intervened the Director of Health and Human Services, Sharon Mills. the high-pitched voice of the head of the Department of Health and Human Services.   "Mr. President," she said, "no one will disagree that the North Korean presence represents a grave threat to the national security of the United States.   Their position with China makes this whole situation all the more dangerous.   However, we can't lose track of this flu—"
    "Oh, come off it, Sharon!”   said the Chairman.   "This flu drama has been blown out of proportion.   From what I can tell, it doesn't seem to be any more deadly than the seasonal flu we see every year."
    "That's not accurate, General and you know it!"
    "All right people, settle down.   Before I was… Before I took ill," the President said,   "I was under the impression that while serious, the mystery flu wasn’t exactly apocalyptic.   It seemed like an awful lot of people caught it and got sick, but when you looked at the numbers, it was only the people who’d had no exposure to the Great Pandemic who’ve died."
    "Mr. President," said the image of the National Security Advisor, Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, Maricella Sosa.   Her face looked pinched and pale, a dramatic departure from normal.   "Americans are dying!   They’re dying in greater numbers than they have since the Great Pandemic.   Yes, it appears that the people who are most affected are those with no immunity to that particular strain—"
    "And how many people is that, Maricella?   Hell, damn near the entire world got sick ten years ago!" snapped the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs.
    "Since this crisis began, we have lost over a thousand Americans!" Assistant Sosa snapped back.   "We lose around 30,000 people a year to the seasonal flu.   Over a thousand deaths in one week is way above normal.   I don't know about you, General, but I don't consider losing that many Americans to a bio-weapon attack to be so inconsequential!"
    The President was aghast.   A thousand!   "All right, everyone calm down.   Where are we getting these numbers, Maricella?”
    The National Security Advisor shuffled her papers.   "We're relying mostly on self-reporting from the