Dark Tomorrow (Lisa Tanchik) by Reece Hirsch

Author:Reece Hirsch [Hirsch, Reece]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-05-11T16:00:00+00:00

26

Emma Glass drove her Mercedes down the Russett, Maryland, Main Street on her way to CyberCom/NSA headquarters in the midafternoon. She was listening to the New York Times podcast The Daily, playing through the car’s speakers via her phone’s Bluetooth connection. Her thoughts were on the latest series of cascading crises that she was dealing with as the cyberattack continued into its fifth day. The Times was reporting that day on how the climate of fear and uncertainty was impacting the financial markets, and how the media was reflecting, and perhaps ratcheting up, the nation’s collective anxiety level.

The dulcet tones of the host were interrupted when the podcast abruptly stopped playing. Emma pressed play on her phone, but nothing happened. There must be a problem with the Bluetooth connection.

She switched over to talk radio and drove on past coffee shops and convenience stores.

The screen on the dash that displayed the radio station call letters briefly went blank, as if experiencing some sort of short circuit, and then came back online. This was the same screen used by the car’s navigation system, which she didn’t need because she could drive the route from her house to CyberCom headquarters in her sleep.

Once again the car’s display screen went black after a white electrical flash of static.

When the screen came back this time, it bore a message:

You’ve been owned, Emma Glass. Please brace for impact.

She tapped the brake with her foot, but there was no resistance. It was a sick, empty feeling, like testing your footing at the edge of a cliff and finding only air.

Her pulse raced as she eyed the speedometer. The car was doing thirty-five miles per hour, but was accelerating.

She began flashing her headlights at oncoming cars to warn them. Some drivers flashed their lights back in reply. Some stared at her in consternation as they passed. One driver flipped her off.

A thirty-five-miles-per-hour crash was probably survivable. At fifty or sixty miles per hour, it might not be.

She noticed a tiny amber light on the dash that read: “Driver Side Airbag Not Activated.” She felt like slamming the steering wheel in frustration, but there was no time for wasted movement.

She needed to slow the car’s momentum by any means necessary.

Emma tested the steering wheel, but it was barely responsive. There was a row of parked cars on the street, so she put all her strength into turning the wheel. The Mercedes swerved a bit, grazing one of the parked cars with a grinding shriek of metal on metal and the smack of a driver’s-side mirror being knocked off.

The car slowed a bit, but not enough.

She tried the demolition derby maneuver again, and the brutal impact shivered through the steering wheel and into her forearms.

The car’s momentum had slowed slightly.

She saw a light post fifty yards ahead and tried to turn the Mercedes toward it.

In her mind, two phrases kept repeating as the collision neared, and she put her arms up in front of her face to attempt to do the job that the airbag would not:

This is survivable.

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