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“Marie, what’s happening?” Gill’s voice had now gone up an octave. “What was that noise?”

“I’m trying to get the cabinets open. Hold on.”

“Eleven minutes!”

Marie started to pull the ring of keys out, and scanned the area.
There!
Sticking out of a trash bin. A flat bar of rusted iron. Perfect. She snatched it from the bin and pried the two cabinets open.

“Okay, Ben, I have the cabinets open. Now what?”

“Is there a yellow pole nearby?”

Marie looked around. It was hanging on the back of the first cabinet. “Yes, I see it.”

“Nine minutes!”

“Good. There should be four big switches in each cabinet. On the left cabinet, all the switches have green lights over them, and on the right one, they have red lights.”

“Yes. Good, Ben, things are looking up.”

“Okay, you’re going to turn off the switches on the left and turn on the ones on the right.”

Marie reached for the switches.

“But not by hand,” Ben shouted.

Marie jerked her hand back.

“Eight minutes!”

Ben continued. “Use the yellow, Fiberglass pole to switch off the first one, and wait until the light changes from green to red then switch on the corresponding switch in the right cabinet. Got it?”

Marie followed the instructions, but the light didn’t change to red.

“The light isn’t changing.”

“Don’t worry, it will, just give it time.”

“We don’t have a lot of time, Ben.” The light was still green. “What will happen if we don’t get this done, and we don’t flip the shut-down switch?”

“Seven minutes!” Mike sounded like he enjoyed his role.

“You’ll see a beautiful purple flame shoot out of the top of the cabinets. If that happens, run like hell, because a big explosion will come next.”

“The first light still hasn’t turned red—wait, there it goes.” Marie took the pole and switched on the first switch in the right cabinet. That was easy. She switched off the next in the left, and the light turned red. “Okay, Ben, this is going to work.”

It didn’t work. The light on the last switch refused to turn red.

“Fifty-nine! Fifty-eight! Fifty-seven!”

“Ben, the last light isn’t going red.” Marie put the yellow pole on the last switch on the right. “Can I switch the last one to ‘on’ anyway?”

“No, no, no!”

Marie held the pole and looked over to the shut-off switch, estimating how long it would take her to get there. She figured ten seconds. “Ben, I’m going to have to hit the shut-off.”

“That’s okay, Marie. You gave it your best shot. As long as there’s no explosion, we’re all good.”

“Fourteen! Thirteen! Twelve! Eleven! No, Nine!”

Marie dropped the pole and sprinted toward the shut-off. She tripped on some debris but caught herself. She got to the main switch with three seconds to go. She flipped it to off and flopped to the gravel on her butt. Just like in the movies. Phew!

Mike called out “Two! One! Zero!”

A beautiful purple flame shot out of the top of the low-head cabinets. “No, no, no. Mike, run!”

He charged out into the yard, picked up his diminutive great-grandmother and carried her like a football, racing down the hill. Marie bounced as if draped over a rodeo bull.
Man, this, oof, kid, oof, is strong.
Oof. Oof.

They were fifty yards from the Algashie River power generation facility when they heard the boom. They looked back to see an orange fireball engulf the yard.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

June 12, 2018

The sun had just risen over the surrounding mountains, and a crisp wind blew Charli’s hair around. She walked out to the whining F15, holding her helmet and not holding her breath. The loose-fitting flight suit made it hard to pretend she was a real kick-ass fighter pilot because she had to gather up the fabric around her stomach and hold it up as she walked. Didn’t matter. Despite the seriousness of the world situation, and the friends she’d lost, this was fun. The pilot informed her that this was not a joyride, but she batted her eyelashes and got him to promise to throw in a barrel roll and a few high speed turns.

Two hours and one upchuck later she walked into the late Renata Perez’s living room.
What a beautiful view.
The furnishings were modern, and the room was spotless. Jake stood by the picture window nursing a whiskey, Mexico City spread out below. He barely acknowledged her presence.

“Mr. Corby. Jake. We need you.” She walked to the window and looked at the mountains in the distance.

“How did you find me?”

“That’s not important.”

“It is to me. I’m looking for reasons to say no and go back to my old life, and I have a feeling that what you did would be a pretty good reason.”

“Your old life probably doesn’t exist, and all life on Earth may be threatened unless we figure out what is going on. You are good at that.” She looked at him, but he continued to stare out the window.

“You’ve got lots of people who are good at that. How could you possibly need me?”

“You’ve been through a lot, and I appreciate your grief over losing your friends.”

Jake scoffed. “How can you—”

“I’ve lost loved ones, too. We all have.”

Jake turned and looked at her for the first time. “I’m sorry. You’re right.”

After a pause, he continued. “Do you know why I stopped working and dropped out?”

“Yes, I’ve seen your file.”

“Tell me what it says.”

“There was a mix-up, and your wife was killed as a result.” Charli slipped a lock of hair behind her ear.

Jake laughed. Charli waited.

“They left some stuff out. There was a ‘strategic leak’ of information that the NSA had obtained through a wiretap of my home phone.” He paused. “The leak may have been authorized by Hallstrom. They leaked more than they were supposed to, and as a result, Mary was kidnapped, tortured, and killed. Tortured. She was six months pregnant. It would have been our first child. It would have been a girl.” Jake was shaking and had to put his drink down.

“I’m sorry, Jake.” She hugged him. Just like that. She didn’t think about it, she just did it. It felt inappropriate and right at the same time. He stiffened for second. He started to push her away. Then he relaxed. They held it for a long time. Nothing sexual, just comforting.

Charli said, “I would have dropped out if that had happened to me.”

“But …”

“But the world may be—no,
is
—under attack. Five billion people have been murdered. Not five thousand, not five million, five billion.”

Jake said nothing.

“I know you’ll do what’s right here. The short time we worked together, I was impressed with your integrity.”

“How did you find me? You still haven’t answered.” Jake continued looking at the mountains.

“Does it matter?”

“Yes. The fact that you’re not telling me means that it matters.”

Charli looked down. She considered lying—for the good of the world.
No!
“NSA had a wiretap on Renata Perez’s line.”

Jake turned and left the room.

* * *

Jake went into Sophia’s room after Charli had left. He sat in the chair by his goddaughter’s bed and watched her sleep. The walls were pink and covered with animal posters. Sophia held her stuffed dog, Perro, in a death grip. Her father had not survived the die-off, so Jake was now her guardian. That was fine with him.

When she woke up, she went to him and fastened herself to his neck. Valeria, Sophia’s nanny, brought in the note that Charli had left. It had instructions on where to meet her if he decided to fly to DC. It explained that he could bring Sophia and Valeria and that they could live in the White House. The US government would take care of all the details.

Jake sat quietly with Sophia. He took out his wallet and flipped it open to a picture of him goofing around with his wife at the top of a ski resort near Lake Tahoe. His favorite photo. He smiled, but his eyes filled with tears.

Mary had often told him, “You don’t have to save the world, you know.” But she was talking about little things. Like when Jake would talk to someone who’d left his car idling when running into Starbucks for a cup of coffee. He’d say, “You know, it’s no longer true that you use more gas by turning the motor off and then on again. Right now, you’re polluting the air but getting nothing for it. Zero miles per gallon—” That’s when Mary would pull him away by his sleeve and whisper, “Jake, Honey, you don’t have to save the world, you know.” She was right. Educating one person out of millions wouldn’t make any difference.

“See all those people in the drive-through line with their motors running?” she’d say. “You want to explain it to them, too? Then we can head over to McDonald's. This can be your new hobby, telling people to turn off their engines. Letting them know they shouldn’t leave their cars idling.”

Now Jake was being asked, quite literally, to save the world. Or help, anyway. What, did they think he was, some kind of expert on interstellar kooks?
Maybe if I explained to Cronkite that he shouldn’t keep his spaceship idling, he’d be so grateful that he’d leave us alone.
That “World’s Number One Problem-Solver” article was silly. Embarrassing.

He took a deep breath and made his decision. “Well, guess what, Mary? This time I really do have to try to help save the world. What do you think of that? Perhaps I’ve hidden in my cave long enough.”
But my first priority will be to save Sophia.

He looked down at Sophia’s dark hair. “What do you think, Sophia, should we go save the world?” She understood English but didn’t say anything. She hadn’t said a word since the kidnapping. She did squeeze his neck harder. He made an exaggerated choking noise, something that would normally have gotten squeals of laughter. Today? Nothing.

* * *

June 12, 2018

Jake walked up the air stairs into the US government’s Gulfstream jet, Sophia still attached to his neck. He looked back and smiled at Valeria and gasped when pain knifed from his shoulder to his neck. His gunshot wounds would would take some time to heal.
That’s okay.
The results were worth it.

Charli turned in her seat and smiled when they entered the cabin.

Jake smiled back. “Charli, you’ve met Valeria, Sophia’s nanny. She has graciously agreed to come with us to live in the White House so that she can watch Sophia when I’m busy. She speaks a little English.
Ella habla un poco Inglés.”

Valeria nodded with downcast eyes as Charli shook her hand.

“And this is my beautiful goddaughter, Sophia. She’s four years old and understands English well, from her time with me.”

“Nice to meet you, Sophia,” Charli said, but Sophia kept her head buried in Jake’s neck.

Charli continued. “You know, Sophia, someone told me that you like dogs.
Te gustan los perros.”
She looked at Valeria, who nodded. “And I happen to know there’s a big dog with thick, soft fur in the White House, and he loves kids.” At this point, Sophia whipped her head around to look at Charli but didn’t smile or nod. “His name is Boondoggle, and I know he will be happy to meet you. Of course, he might lick your face when he meets you, but maybe that will be okay.”

Jake looked at Charli and winked.
Bullseye! She’s good with kids.

Sophia let Jake strap her into her own seat during takeoff, but after that she was back on his neck. They watched the clouds together until her grip loosened and she fell asleep. He put her back in her seat and went over to sit next to Charli.

“You knew I’d come, didn’t you?” he said when she looked up from her briefing paper.

“Well, the planet’s under attack, and you are the world’s number one problem-solver.” She held up the USA Now article about Jake.

“Hey, I never said that.”

“I know. I said it.” Charli pointed to herself.

“You mean the news article said it.”

Charli just looked at him until he made the connection.

“Of course.” Jake hit his forehead with his palm. “You leaked that info to the press, essentially wrote that news article, so that they’d publish it, with my picture, and it would help you locate me.”

“I can neither confirm nor deny…”

Jake shook his head. “You have been a busy girl.”

“Jake, I’m in my thirties. I’m a little past being called a ‘girl.’”

“It’s just an expression. C’mon.”

“An expression of your opinion of women?” She raised her eyebrows.

“Yes, that’s right. I see all women as teenagers. Damn women’s-libbers!” He was smiling. “What a busy old lady you’ve been. Better?”

“Busy old crone. You could say it that way.”

“Yeah, ‘crone,’ good word. Such a command of the language. Maybe you should write news articles or something. Hey, wait a second …”