The Last Crusade (10 page)

“Sorry Madam President, we can’t do that.”

The 300 kt bomb that explodes in Moscow causes a fireball that reaches three-quarters of a kilometer, the thermal pulse reaches 6.3 Kilometers from ground zero. Millions die in the flash of nuclear fire. The world’s media report the destruction of Moscow. Never before has the world witnessed the level of destruction and suffering in real time. Satellites show the mushroom cloud swallow up central Moscow. People are shocked at the destruction and suffering. Russian News reminds the world of the twenty million killed in the Great Patriotic War. They demand vengeance against the Americans, which is already on the way over the North Pole.

The 300 kt bomb across from the Freedom Tower explodes taking down most of the television networks, the headquarters of ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox are atomized in a flash. Only CNN with its headquarters in Atlanta survives. Two-hundred fifty thousand are killed in the initial blast, an additional seventy-five thousand die in the ensuing panic, riots, and fires which burn out of control for four days. Multi-car and truck accidents in the Tunnels connecting New York and New Jersey close the tunnels for three days. The Holland Tunnel is damaged from the Wall Street explosion. An Iranian shop owner in Jersey City sees the mushroom cloud rise over lower Manhattan. He loads his delivery truck with a homemade bomb, he washes himself, wraps himself in a white robe before driving his truck to the center of the upper deck of the George Washington Bridge where he detonates the bomb, destroying the eastbound lanes of the bridge. The bomb also weakens the support wires closing the GW Bridge. New York City is cut off from outside help.

The average family in New York City only has two days of food in their apartments, the city needs resupply every four days. With it cut off and the drifting fallout, no deliveries are made for two weeks. Panic, riots and fires spread across the city killing hundreds of thousands. The Mayor is missing, the Governor declares a State of Emergency, he places over fifty calls to the White House asking for help, none are returned. The New York State Governor, orders the National Guard to enter the city and restore order, they are fired on by gangs as soon as they step foot in the city. The gangs claim the city as their own; they’ve already divided it up among themselves.

The Pope appears in the window overlooking St. Peters Square. He spreads his arms, starting to speak about peace when the nuclear bomb around the corner explodes. Cameras focused on the Pope are burned out, the mushroom cloud rises into the air killing any chance of peace.

In a nuclear flash, two thousand years of Christen history and the Holy See disappear.  The Christian world is shocked; hundreds of millions fall to their knees crying for the loss of the Holy Pope. Trillions of dollars of art and historical monuments are lost in the Vatican’s loss. Handwritten scrolls from the time of Jesus are lost.

The ‘talking heads’ scream about the damage to the climate the nuclear explosions will cause, other so-called experts can’t decide if the nuclear weapons will cause nuclear winter or add enough CO2, which will quicken Global Warming. So called experts verbally fight each other, sometimes getting into fist fights on the air. Thankfully most of the nuclear explosions weren’t high enough to cause large scale EMP damage. Since most of the weapons exploded over military bases, most of the population in both America and Russia survived the brief nuclear exchange.

Sadness sweeps across the Catholic world. The remaining fifty-six Catholic Cardinals quickly hold a conference call to convene a papal conclave to discuss the appointment of a new Pope. They quickly agree not to wait the normal fifteen days after the death of a Pope to elect a replacement. There are some Cardinals who say there shouldn’t be a papal conclave until the body of the dead Pope is discovered. Cardinal Donald Wuerl, the Archbishop of Washington, explains that a nuclear explosion that close to the Holy See would atomize the Pope, there wouldn’t be any way to locate the body since nobody would be left from the explosion. Plus, ground zero may be so radioactive that no one would be able to survive there for a hundred or more years. He asks,

“Should we remain leaderless for one hundred or more years? What if it’s two hundred years before anyone can enter the Holy See? Our people need a new Pope in these dangerous times. I say we hold the conclave as soon as possible.”

The Cardinals agree to take a vote; the result of the vote is fifty-three votes pro holding a conclave. They agree to hold it someplace safe.

Cardinal Wuerl asks, “Is anyplace safe today?”

The debate is quick, an agreement is reached to hold the conclave outside of Europe and America. They finally agree on holding the meeting in Guatemala City, the capital of Guatemala in two days. The fifty-six remaining Cardinals make their arrangements to travel to Guatemala.

Before the Cardinals announce their vote, the bomb at the base of the Eiffel Tower explodes, the flash blinds tens of thousands who look at the light, brighter than the sun. People can’t stop themselves from turning their heads towards the light. Even looking for an instant, results in their retinas being flash burned, leaving them permanently blind. The fireball destroys everything in a circle 230 meters from ground zero. The weapon is very small compared to those in the American and Russian inventory. The thermal pulse turns everything to ash in a circle 1.68Km surrounding ground zero. The lucky ones die instantly, they don’t feel a thing, one moment they are alive, the next they’re gone. They are gone before the nerve impulses can travel to their brains. Before the fireball dissipates, riots and fighting consume most of France. Given the size of the weapon and the lack of an airplane or missile, most people assume they’ve been struck with a terrorist weapon. Muslims are pulled out of their homes and beaten to death. Muslim areas in French cities are set on fire; Fire Departments are blocked from entering the burning areas.

Twenty minutes after the horror of the Paris bomb, a 22 kt explosion destroys the center of Berlin. The fireball is 270 meters across, nothing lives under the fireball, no buildings stand under the mushroom cloud. People two kilometers away are burned by the thermal pulse, homes four kilometers away are heavily damaged. The second bomb shocked tens of millions of angry people, they flood into the streets of Europe looking for Muslims to take their revenge on.

The Home Secretary of the United Kingdom declares martial law, he orders the skies and border of the UK closed. He orders all known Muslim trouble makers to be arrested. The Prime Minister approves a dusk to dawn curfew. The rioting and killing aren't stopped by the curfew. The fires in London can be seen from space.

Shortly after the Berlin bomb explodes, the two weapons parked a block apart in Tel Aviv explode, leveling the city and igniting boats five kilometers in the Mediterranean. Israel, already on alert, places the entire country on a war footing. Israel has always stated the use of a WMD against Israel will be met by the same.

The truck headed to Haifa is able to be disarmed before it explodes saving tens of thousands.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cries as he and the Defense Minister enter their codes to release Israel’s nuclear weapons. Within moments, Israel’s nuclear-armed missiles rise from their hardened silos. Gray smoke tails follow them from their silos as they race to their targets. Netanyahu ordered a strike on the Caliphate’s cities. Following the missile launch, Israeli F16s take off, each is carrying four air-to-air missiles and four nuclear weapons. As the F16s are taking off, Israel’s early warning radars report hundreds of missiles rising towards Israel. Air raid alarms sound through the small country. Her anti-missile system automatically tracks the incoming missiles; they begin firing anti-missile missiles at the incoming missiles. Israel has a multi-tiered missile defense. First, her radars and sensors track and plot the incoming missiles, any that are projected to fall in harmless areas are ignored, those that will most likely land on military bases and cities are targeted for an interception. The longest ranged missiles are David’s Slings, if these miss, the next tier is Arrow anti-missiles if the incoming missiles manage to get through the first two tiers, the Iron Dome launches missiles to intercept the incoming warheads. Israel has also installed mobile phalanx 20mm radar controlled guns as a last ditch effort. Israel’s system is fully automated. Once engaged, the computers track and assign priority to the incoming missiles. Netanyahu watched the “game” on a large monitor in his shelter. The incoming missiles are marked as red triangles; the outgoing anti-missiles are shown as green Vs intercepting them. He watched the number of red triangles decrease as his missiles intercepted the incoming missiles. Netanyahu’s concern is the number of red triangles keeps growing while the inventory of green interceptors is limited.

The Caliphate’s fighters rise to meet the Israeli planes. Lacking an anti-missile shield they can’t stop the Jewish missiles which have targeted the capitals and military bases in Syria, Iraq, Iran and Saudi Arabia. The missiles don’t know the bases are empty, the troops and equipment were already moved to shelters before the first weapon exploded in Moscow. All of the Israeli missiles reach and explode over their targets. Each missile carried either one or three nuclear warheads. The capital cities in the Caliphate flash out of existence, millions of people die before they knew they were at war.

The Caliphate Air Force pilots are shocked to find the Israeli war planes being escorted by Egyptian fighters, doubling the number of targets they have to try to shoot down. Fifty Egyptian fighters snuck into Israeli bases, they stayed out of sight in hardened shelters. When the bombers take off to strike their targets, the Egyptian fighters fly close to the Israeli fighters so the Caliphate’s radar only sees one plane, not two. The Israeli nuclear weapons explode over the Caliphate, generating overlapping EMP, which degrades the Caliphate’s radar’s performance, most of her radars and radios are knocked off the air, leaving huge holes for the Israeli attackers to fly through.

@@@@@

In a bunker buried three hundred feet under a mountain in Syria the Caliphate ruling council claps and chants praises to Allah watching the destruction of Allah’s enemies. They jump with joy when the bombs in Israel and the Vatican explode. Ali Muhammad Tanvir is as happy as his friends when the doors in the command center burst open, surprising them. The Caliphate’s senior staff look up at the interruption.

“Your Holiness, the Jews have launched missiles and bombers, we assume each is armed with nuclear weapons. We need to move you to safety.”

“My loyal troops, there won’t be time for me to move if the Jews launched rockets at us. We don’t think they know where this command center is, if they do, I’m sure Allah will protect me. I’m fulfilling Allah’s goals. Our faith will keep us safe from the dirty Jews. Sit, have something to eat, relax. There’s nothing we can do. Everything is now in Allah’s hands. Who do you trust more than Allah?”

“No one your Highness. We have faith in Allah.”

“Then sit and share our joy in striking this blow for Allah.”

“Holiness, what of the people in the cities the Jews struck?”             

“What happens to them? My son, you know the answer to your own question. They will dine this day with Allah. They will know paradise and happiness unlike they could have imagined.”

“Thank you, your Holiness. We’re sorry for briefly breaking faith, we will pray for forgiveness.”

“I’m sure Allah understands. Remember to keep your heart pure so you can hear the almighty.”

“Thank you your Holiness.”

Chapter 7

Ali Muhammad Tanvir holds on to his chair as the bunker rocks from the close nuclear explosion. Concrete dust crumbles from the ceiling; everyone coughs from the thick dust in the air.

“What’s the damage report?”

“The bunker is undamaged. However, Damascus, Tehran, Baghdad, Riyadh, Kuwait City, Doha, Beirut, Amman, and Tripoli are being destroyed by the Little Satan’s nuclear missiles. Your Holiness, millions of our people are dying. Our great capitals are disappearing. Millions of our people are dying.”

“My son, they are in paradise with Allah. Allah will care for them and ensure that one hundred infidels die for each of the holy who lost their life today. Worry not, Allah won’t allow them to be forgotten. We are truly blessed, we have entered the end times, surely the Mahdi will soon arrive on his white steed to lead us to victory. We will take our instructions from him since he will be a personal messenger from Allah. We saved most of our troops by placing them in shelters.”

Ali Muhammad Tanvir is interrupted by a messenger who runs into the conference room screaming,