Chapter 1: State of the Union Address

                                    

                                              


                          
2030 – East of the Mississippi River
                          
            President Isabel Perez used her right hand to slip on low-heeled pumps while keeping her eyes on the personal comm unit on her left wrist. She had already memorized most of her first State of the Union address, yet she wanted to be word-perfect when the Videobook broadcast began in 30 minutes. As President of the United States she didn't bother with a Twitterverse earpiece – she had aides who monitored the Twitterverse, and she had been careful since assuming the Presidency to avoid internecine Twitterverse skirmishes.
                          
            Admiral John MacIntosh, the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had advised her to emphasize in her address the security measures the U.S. now employed to keep terrorists and other subversives out of the U.S. These included a vast governmental online surveillance system that was of major concern to many civil liberty groups. Yet Homeland Security, the FBI, the CIA and other U.S. government security institutions argued that continuing this surveillance system was the best protection for the survival of the U.S. against enemies within and without. In this State of the Union address she would be asking Congress to approve the largest-ever budget for the surveillance system.
                          
            A year ago she had become the first female and the first Latina President of the United States. The diversity proponents couldn't have been more pleased. And then the nightmare had begun only 24 hours after she had been sworn in on January 20, 2029. The confusion of that next day would never leave her.
                          
            She had been called to the situation room, where she found assembled representatives from the major government agencies responsible for the U.S.'s overall security – many of these she hadn't yet met with individually. Then Admiral MacIntosh had told her the news.
                          
            "We've lost contact with all U.S. states west of the Mississippi River except for Hawaii and Alaska."
                          
            It had taken a moment for her to understand what the admiral's words could possibly mean. Then the questions had flowed.
                          
            "You mean that you can't call or comm anyone?"
                          
            Someone handed her a cup of tea. Brandy might have been better she remembered thinking. The admiral shook his head. "I mean there's nothing – it's as if the entire land mass has disappeared."
                          
            She glanced up at the Videobook projection of the communication network for the country. The entire land mass west of the Mississippi River showed black. She'd been the FAA Administrator before running for President. Her first thoughts were for the planes flying over that land mass – she asked if they had been grounded as they had after the 9/11 attack? 
                          
            "We have no idea," the admiral said. "Our control towers east of the Mississippi lost all contact with planes west of the Mississippi. It's as if a black hole is there."
                          
            Now the questions in her mind fought for dominance. With what should she be most concerned?
                          
            "Is this a cybersecurity attack by the Russians or the Chinese or by any others?" she said.
                          
            The admiral yielded to Cynthia Tobin, director of the CIA. "We don't think that someone has simply caused our communication lines to disappear," she said. "We think – strange as it may sound – that there is nothing."
                          
            President Perez gasped. "You mean that huge area has been totally destroyed? Have you sent up planes to see?"
                          
            The CIA director nodded to the admiral for him to resume. "Without air traffic control over that area," he said, "we can't risk sending any planes."