Trackers 3: The Storm (A Post-Apocalyptic EMP Thriller) Read online

  Contents

  Trackers 3: The Storm

  Copyright

  Books by Nicholas Sansbury Smith

  Acknowledgements

  Foreword

  Dedication

  Epigraph

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  About the Author

  Trackers 3: The Storm

  Copyright March 2017 by Nicholas Sansbury Smith

  All Rights Reserved

  Cover Design by Elizabeth Mackey

  Edited by Erin Elizabeth Long

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. All rights reserved. No part of this publication can be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without permission in writing from the author.

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  The Extinction Cycle Series (Offered by Orbit)

  Extinction Horizon

  Extinction Edge

  Extinction Age

  Extinction Evolution

  Extinction End

  Extinction Aftermath

  Extinction Lost (A Team Ghost Short Story)

  Extinction War (November, 2017)

  Trackers: A Post-Apocalyptic EMP Series

  Trackers 1

  Trackers 2: The Hunted

  Trackers 3: The Storm

  Trackers 4: The Damned (Coming early 2018. Click here to pre-order.)

  The Hell Divers Trilogy (Offered by Blackstone Publishing)

  Hell Divers 1

  Hell Divers 2: Ghosts

  Hell Divers 3: Deliverance (Coming 2018)

  The Orbs Series (Offered by Simon451/Simon and Schuster)

  Solar Storms (An Orbs Prequel)

  White Sands (An Orbs Prequel)

  Red Sands (An Orbs Prequel)

  Orbs

  Orbs II: Stranded

  Orbs III: Redemption

  Orbs IV: Exodus (Coming 2018)

  Many people have a hand in the creation of this story. I’m grateful for all their help, criticism, and time. I’d like to start with the people I wrote this book for‌—‌the readers. You are the reason I always try to write something fresh, and the reason I strive to always make each story better than‌—‌and different from‌—‌its predecessors. For those of you waiting on my other books, I thank you for your patience, and hope you enjoy the Trackers series.

  Before you dive in, here’s a little background on how this story came to be. In 2016 I was finishing up book five of the Extinction Cycle, and at that time, I thought Extinction End would be the “end” of the series. I decided to write a new type of story‌—‌a story without monsters, zombies, or aliens‌—‌about a different type of threat to our national security.

  Rewind ten years. I’m sitting at my desk as a planner with the State of Iowa. It was there that I learned a good deal about a terrifying weapon known as an electromagnetic pulse (EMP). During a meeting with several agencies, I was shocked to learn there wasn’t much being done to harden our utilities and critical facilities to protect against such a threat.

  A few years later, I started working for Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management. I had several duties as a project officer, but my primary focus was on protecting infrastructure and working on the state hazard mitigation plan. During my tenure, I helped multiple communities apply for grants to build safe rooms in their schools or municipal buildings to protect from tornadoes. A few years later, I started working on grants that strengthened and hardened power lines in rural communities.

  After several years of working in the disaster mitigation field, I learned of countless threats from natural disasters to manmade weapons, but the EMP, in my opinion, is the greatest of them all.

  That brings us to today. We’re living in tumultuous times, and our enemies are constantly looking for ways to harm us, both domestically and abroad. We already know that cyber security is a major concern for the United States. North Korea, China, and Russia have all been caught hacking into our systems. We also know other countries are experimenting with technology that can shut down portions of our grid. But imagine a weapon that could shut down our entire grid. The perfectly strategized EMP attack gives our enemies an opportunity to do just that.

  Before you start reading, I would like to take time to thank everyone that helped make this book a reality, starting with the Estes Park Police Department.

  In the spring of 2016, my fiancée and I spent a week in Estes Park, Colorado, a place I had visited many times growing up. I wanted to show her this gorgeous tourist town that borders Rocky Mountain National Park, and I decided it would also make a good setting for a portion of Trackers.

  The police department very graciously allowed me to tour their facilities and ride along with Officer Corey Richards. Department officers and staff explained police procedure for tracking lost people and their operations and response to natural disasters. Captain Eric Rose, who is in charge of the Emergency Operations Center, described what they went through in the flood of 2013, when Estes Park was quite literally cut off from surrounding communities.

  I’ve spent time with many law enforcement departments over my career in government, and I can tell you Estes Park has one of the finest and most professional staffs I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting. Thank you to every officer for serving Estes Park and assisting with Trackers. I hope you find I did your community justice.

  I’d also like to thank my literary agent, David Fugate, who has provided valuable feedback on each of my novels. The version you are reading today is much different than the manuscript I submitted, partly because of David’s excellent feedback.

  Next up is my editor, Erin Elizabeth Long. She has had a hand in every book I’ve written thus far. I won’t lie‌—‌Trackers was a challenge for both of us, and Erin really encouraged me to continue pushing until I got the story right. Thanks, E. I appreciate you more than you know.

  I also had a great group of beta readers that helped bring this story to life. You all know who you are. Thanks again for your assistance.

  Trackers is more than just a post-apocalyptic thriller about the aftermath of an attack on American soil. It’s meant to be a mystery as much as it is a thriller. There are a lot of EMP stories out there, but I wanted to write one that included new themes and incorporated elements of Cherokee and Sioux folk stories, which I encountered when obtaining a degree in American Indian Studies.

  This story, like many works of fiction, will require some suspension of belief, but hopefully not as much as my other science fiction stories. Any errors in this book rest solely with me, as the author is always the gatekeeper of the work.

  In an interview several years ago, I was asked why I write. My response was that while my stories are meant to entertain, they are also meant to be a warning. Trackers could be a true story, and I hope our government continues to prepare and protect us from suc
h a threat.

  Much has happened on the North Korean peninsula since Trackers was first published in early 2017. The North Korean People’s Army has fired multiple ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan, conducted several nuclear weapon tests, paraded two new intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), and even threatened thermonuclear war.

  These frightening developments have ended the debate over whether or not the North Koreans have nuclear weapons, but it’s still not clear if they can actually deliver them by ICBMs. There are other ways to attack an enemy with nuclear weapons, however, and I explore one of them as a novelist in the Trackers series.

  I don’t know the best way to approach the North Korean threat, but one thing is certain‌—‌if something isn’t done soon, the stability of the entire world could be at risk.

  During my visit in 2016, Captain Eric Rose of the Estes Park Police Department told me that he wasn’t sure he was ready for a post-apocalyptic Estes Park. I’m not either, but only time will tell if the Trackers saga remains fiction.

  With that said, I hope you enjoy the read, and as always, feel free to reach out to me on social media if you have questions or comments.

  Best wishes,

  Nicholas Sansbury Smith

  Dr. Arthur Bradley

  Author of Disaster Preparedness for EMP Attacks and Solar Storms and The Survivalist.

  When used conventionally, a nuclear warhead could destroy a city and cover the surrounding region in deadly radiation. Horrible to be sure, but at least it would be localized. When detonated in the atmosphere at the right altitude, however, that same warhead could generate an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) that would cause almost unimaginable harm to our nation.

  The most significant effect of such an attack would be damage to the nation’s electrical grid. Due to the interdependency of systems, the loss of electricity would result in a cascade of failures promulgating through every major infrastructure, including telecommunications, financial, petroleum and natural gas, transportation, food, water, emergency services, space operations, and government. Businesses, including banks, grocery stores, restaurants, and gas stations, would all close. Critical services such as the distribution of water, fuel, and food would fail. Emergency services, including hospitals, police, and fire departments, would perhaps remain operable a little longer using generators and backup systems, but they too would collapse due to limited fuel distribution, as well as the loss of key personnel abandoning their posts.

  In addition to the collapse of national infrastructures, an EMP could cause widespread damage to transportation systems, such as aircraft, automobiles, trucks, and boats, as well as supervisory control and data acquisition hardware used in telecommunications, fuel processing, and water purification systems. Such an attack could also damage in-space satellites and significantly hamper the government’s ability to provide a unified emergency response or even maintain civil order. Finally, many personal electronics could also be damaged, including our beloved computers and cell phones, as well as important health monitoring devices.

  With the collapse of infrastructures, loss of commerce, and widespread damage to property, an EMP attack would introduce terrible financial ruin on the nation. Consider that it is estimated that even a modest 1-2 megaton warhead detonated over the Eastern Seaboard could cause in excess of a trillion ($1,000,000,000,000) dollars in damage.

  Testing done in the 1960s, such as Starfish Prime and the Soviet’s Test 184, provided some idea of the potential damage, but weapons have become even more powerful and our world more technologically susceptible. No one really knows with certainty the extent of the damage that would be felt, but expert predictions range from catastrophic to apocalyptic. What is universally agreed upon is that the EMP attack allows for an almost unimaginable amount of damage to be done with nothing more than a single nuclear warhead and a missile capable of deploying it to the right altitude. Given that there are more than 128,000 such warheads and 10,000 such missiles in existence, it seems prudent to better understand and prepare for this very real and present danger.

  What many do not know is that the U.S. has been openly threatened with an EMP strike by Russia, Iran, and North Korea. Leaderships of these countries have come to appreciate the truly asymmetric nature of such an attack. Consider that an EMP strike would be largely independent of weather, result in long-lasting infrastructure damage, and inflict a damage-to-cost ratio far greater than any conventional weapon, including a nuclear “dirty bomb.” Worse yet is that our enemies would not limit themselves to a single EMP strike. Rather, they would detonate several warheads, carefully timed and positioned across the nation to achieve maximum damage.

  Author Nicholas Sansbury Smith understands how an attack could cripple the United States. I first spoke with him when he was working for Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management in the disaster preparedness field. He reached out when he was writing a science fiction story about solar storms with some questions about my book, Disaster Preparedness for EMP Attacks and Solar Storms. Since then, Nicholas has also spent a great deal of time researching EMPs.

  Trackers is a work of fiction, but many of the places in the story are real. Utilizing his background in emergency management and disaster mitigation, Nicholas has done an excellent job of describing a realistic geopolitical crisis that sets the stage for an EMP attack. The following story is a terrifying scenario in which brave men and women must adapt to a challenging new world‌—‌a world that we could see ourselves being thrust into. Part of me wishes Nicholas had continued writing purely science fiction stories about aliens and government designed bio-weapons, because Trackers is a novel that could become non-fiction.

  For my grandfather Angelo ‘Jake’ Angaran, my grandfather Marvin Smith, and all the other veterans of World War II that risked their lives to fight the Nazis. We will never forget your bravery and sacrifice.

  “The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.”

  — Sun Tzu

  SECRETARY OF DEFENSE Charlize Montgomery marched with an entourage of heavily armed soldiers down a well-lit concrete hallway. Both Charlize and Albert Randall, her security agent and closest ally, carried a military-issued M4 and wore a ballistic vest. The snug armor seemed to compress her pounding heart. Each step she took, it got tighter.

  “Execute,” one of the soldiers said.

  Two men slung their rifles over their backs, punched in codes on the security panel, and then stepped away from the door. The hydraulics clicked, the sound echoing in the narrow passage.

  Albert moved in front of Charlize and raised his M4. Taking a step to her left, Charlize strained to see if the helicopter had already landed on the island. Albert matched every step she took. He was no longer her shadow; he now walked by her side wherever she went. The soldiers gave an all clear, and Albert motioned for Charlize to follow him out onto the grass.

  A dark bowl dotted with stars hung over Cape Canaveral. She searched the darkness for any sign of the Sikorsky SH-60 Seahawk. The mid-September breeze, still humid, whipped the palm trees back and forth on the berms disguising the island. There was no sign of civilization in the distance, making it easy to spot a single red flashing dot on the horizon.

  Charlize stepped forward to see if it was the Seahawk. Although she was surrounded by a dozen soldiers, she still felt uneasy. Just miles away, American citizens were killing one another for cans of SpaghettiOs. Reports were also trickling in of civilians taking potshots at military choppers across the country.

  “Echo 1, incoming,” announced a muscular sergeant named Collins.

  Charlize watched the outline of the Seahawk approach with a breath held in her chest. The breeze rustled her short-cropped hair and stung her burned skin, but her eyes were clear. For the past twenty-four hours she’d sobbed and sobbed until she couldn’t cry anymore. It had been so long since she’d held her son, Ty, but in a few more minutes, he’d be here.

  Her joy was shadowed by guilt. This reunion h
ad come at a staggering cost. Dozens of soldiers had died to save her son, including her own brother.

  “Make way!” shouted Collins. He waved the other men back. The island, barely the size of two football fields, had no permanent tarmac. A few days earlier, Charlize had arrived by boat with a team of Navy SEALs from mainland Florida, but it was too dangerous to travel that route now. Anyone that saw the bird might follow them to the island and compromise the location of Constellation. It was imperative the new location for the recovery efforts in the United States and home of Central Command remain top-secret.

  The Navy pilots touched down on the grass. Several Marines hopped out and turned with their hands extended. Flashlights flickered on from the soldiers surrounding Charlize, and the beams flitted toward the troop hold.

  Charlize choked down a sob at the sight of Ty. He looked so small, so fragile.

  “Go, go, go!” shouted Collins. His team ran to support the newcomers. Charlize stepped forward, but Albert held her back.

  “Just hold on, ma’am,” he said calmly. “They’ll bring him to you.”

  A large Marine hopped onto the grass with Ty in his arms. Another Marine followed with Ty’s wheelchair.

  “Ty!” Charlize shouted. This time Albert didn’t try to hold her back. She limped forward, into the gusting rotor drafts.

  “Mom!” Ty yelled.

  Despite the pain of her injuries, she ran to meet her son. The Marine carrying Ty held him while the other unfolded the wheelchair. Charlize almost tripped, but Albert steadied her.

  Ty reached out for Charlize as the two Marines placed him gently in his chair. She bent down and hugged her son, gripping him as tightly as she dared.

  “Mom,” he said into her ear. “I didn’t think I was ever going to see you again.”