Shattered Stone: Book 4 in the Thrilling Post-Apocalyptic Survival Series: (Heaven's Fist - Book 4) by Justin Bell & Mike Kraus

Author:Justin Bell & Mike Kraus [Bell, Justin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Muonic Press Inc
Published: 2018-10-11T16:00:00+00:00

***

Now.

Saturday, July 11th.

Washington, DC.

Far away from the chaos and violence at the front door of the White House, the unlit, narrow room concealed three men pressed shoulder to shoulder, moving throughout various racks of equipment. Several blocks away from the infamous Pennsylvania Avenue, one of many of CrossComm’s teams worked within a wiring closet at a local Internet Service Provider, a CrossComm subsidiary which had gone dark shortly after the satellite detonation and following Kessler Syndrome event.

“It’s getting downright nasty out there,” one of them said softly, bending low and moving a cable from one port to another.

“You don’t know the half of it.”

The engineers all turned to see a pair of well-dressed men push their way into the small wiring closet, both of them far too immaculate to be crawling through the dusty corners of Washington’s landline telecommunications infrastructure. Just because so many of these services had been moved to orbit in recent years didn’t mean the landlines were suddenly gone and cleaned up. Copper and fiber still ran roughshod throughout all major cities in the United States, and several minor ones.

“And you are?” one of the engineers asked, tilting his head toward the men.

“You don’t need to know,” he replied. “We’ve been talking with Elliot Cross and he’s made us a few promises that we’re trying to ensure that he keeps.”

“Look, guys,” a second technician said, “we’re small potatoes, okay? We don’t have any control over what Mr. Cross says. Heck, I’ve been working for CrossComm for twelve years and I’ve never met the guy. We’re just trying to do our jobs.”

“Don’t let us stop you,” the second man said.

The engineer shook his head and turned back to the wiring rack, closing in with the other two, working with the cables. There was a singular laptop flipped open, with a small stack of others on the floor, though none of them were turned on. In fact, in the entire closet full of network equipment not a single power or status light shone.

“This building has generator power,” one of the well-dressed men said quietly. “In fact, a bulk of Washington is still on the main power grid. We’ve been lucky so far.”

One of the engineers nodded, but didn’t look back at him. “We know, we’re just getting as ready as possible before we flip the breaker. The power may be on, but it’s unreliable. Rooms in this building have been browning out all day. We’re using documentation and strategy first, then we figure we’ll fire up the power and check our work.”

The two men in suits looked at each other curiously.

“I think I’ve got it,” one of the engineers said, from down on the floor. “If our last network map is correct, we should be trunked into the router leading to the transoceanic pipeline.”

“That’s a big if,” a second engineer said.

One of the well-dressed men stretched to the opposite side wall, there the breaker box sat wide open, the metal, gray door swinging loose. He snapped over the breakers, and the lights in the room exploded on, flooding everyone in a sudden, hard, pale light.

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