I have nothing that sounds witty to put in here, so I’ll skip that bit and just move on to the actual story, shall I?
We open in Camp David, where the President headed at the end of the last section. He’s meeting with his closest advisers. One of them, who informed the President of the rebellion, says that at least a few of the President’s staff and the Secret Service are rebels. It’s here that we actually get some broad information on said rebels. According to reports, there are between five and six million of them in the US, ready to move out whenever ordered.
Here, we have several problems already. First and foremost, just how has this organization remained hidden for so long? Let’s imagine that you had an organization of, say, a million men. We could, perhaps, keep such a large group hidden at first; organize them like militia movements and small gatherings, a dozen people or so per cell. It’d be a logistical nightmare to organize that many, but I’ll just assume it’s doable. Now, we need to imagine that somehow, not a single one of those men has had a change of heart, or is a government spy, or something along those lines. Next, we need to ask how this force is apparently so well-trained. That would require massive coordination, with hundreds of trained instructors moving from cell to cell across the nation, training them full time. These men would probably be Army. Next, we must somehow imagine that they hid their weapons training from the government, also assuming that all of these people were fully trained by the time the gun ban went down (if only to avoid further headaches). In addition, each cell would probably be told to stockpile everything they could years in advance if possible.
Now, multiply these difficulties by five or six. I find it almost impossible that the Rebs have been so well-hidden for so long. Even assuming that they have people in high command, or near it, short of corrupting the entire American government and intelligence service (in which case, why overthrow it?), there’s really no way they could keep themselves from being discovered for so long.
But let’s just accept the problems that hiding even a portion of this rebellion would face don’t apply to the Rebels. Willing suspension of disbelief and all that. So, back to the story.
The President is informed that, yes, some of the military is working with the Rebs, but emphasizes that they are not traitorous, just misinformed and fed bits and pieces of fact. Does this serve any purpose other than to emphasize that the military Rebs aren’t truly turning their backs on their country? No, and shame on anyone who thought so. Oh, and for some reason, China is going to declare war on Russia. Why? Because Rebel agents, posing as Soviets, will assassinate the Chinese Premier and every member of his party. Because, you know, there's no POSSIBLE way that the Chinese could POSSIBLY figure out the plot and/or save their own leader. I mean, come on, they're just Chinamen; what could they POSSIBLY be competent at? After that, a missile will be fired from a stealth sub off the coast of Russia aimed at China, again by the Rebs. The Chinese will think the Russians fired it, and this will start a nuclear war between them. Which will eventually involve the US, because hey, those stupid Commies'll take us down with them if they can.
The President’s men decide against, you know, warning anyone, because the Russians, being nothing more than stupid, drunken Russkies, would automatically decide that since it’s an American ship, with Americans on it and American missiles, that the Americans are automatically trying to kill them. If so, why would they inform them? And, again assuming that the Chinese are incompetents, couldn’t they warn the Chinese, save their Premier, preempt the whole chain of events? Nope. Apparently, it’s “too late”. So, WW3 is the only answer, and almost all of the President’s men agree that it’s useless to try to stop it.
Some more plot exposition…turns out that the sub is armed with *dum dum dum* Thunderstrike missiles, the most deadly missiles ever created! Will they be important in any situation after they’re used to start WW3? No. Again, shame on any of you who actually thought along those lines. So, the President orders that the remaining missiles (stored in California) be counted, then prepped for launch. Yay.
After this monumentally dull section (which I assume was supposed to be dramatic, but any efforts to make it so just fall flat), we get the standard cut-out to show what all the normal people are doing just before it all goes down. Washington socialites are socializing, your average nuclear family is going to sleep, and Raines is listening to classical music and getting drunk. “Then the first missile was fired.” And the world goes berserk.
So, World War 3. Fought not only with nukes, but also with germ warheads. So, just how does Ben Raines survive this? He gets stung by a swarm of yellow jackets.
Yeah. A man survived the worst war in recorded history, where germ warheads capable of destroying all life within a certain radius of their impact site, because for some reason he didn't notice that a swarm of yellow jackets built a nest over his back door, which he used, and then he gets stung several times. Turns out he’s terribly allergic to any wasp or bee sting. He crawls into his den, falls to the floor, and “slips into unconsciousness”.
You all know what’s coming next, so let’s start bitching, shall we? If he’s so “terribly allergic” and he’s stung in so many places, including just under his left eye and just behind his right ear, why isn’t the dude dead? According to the text, after having been injected by what is probably a deadly amount of venom for him, he collapses to the floor, unconscious. He’s not getting any emergency help, he’s not even trying to heal himself. Why is this man not dead? Because he’s Johnstone’s Author Avatar, and he can’t possibly die.
So, do we hear how he somehow managed to survive? Nope; we get back to a summary of WW3. The US doesn’t catch many nukes, but it DOES get a few. Washington is obliterated. Thankfully, all the nukes are “clean”, meaning that there isn’t much nuclear fallout. Way to cop out, Johnstone. Anyway, it turns out that most of the missiles hitting the US were germ warheads, which, as mentioned above, could kill everything within a certain number of miles, after which the bacteria somehow die out completely. He gives you a long list of the targets, but the problem is, he doesn’t even try to make you properly horrified. The narrator talks like he’s reading a grocery list, not discussing the deaths of millions.
It’s also here that we’re introduced to one of Johnstone’s constant problems: continuity. A character will make a statement that is ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN…and then, next book, it’s immediately contradicted. Here, he claims that New York City is completely gone. However, a dozen or so books in the future, we have an entire story arc about taking NYC.
So, continuing the grocery-list of WW3, we list the many, many international cities destroyed, most of them cities nobody would truly bother with. Why is it integral, for instance, to nuke Mexico City?
Ah well, we’re done here, thank God. This whole thing is already starting to wear on me. Did my already shaky quality deteriorate even further, or is it just me?
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