"We have a total of forty-eight bombs exploded so far Prime Minister," said Sir James, "plus the one we stopped in Downing Street gates, making forty-nine in total."
"Do you think that's the lot?"
"I do Sir, all the bombs seem to have been timed for around eleven o'clock, that is from the timing of the suicide delivery bombs," explained Sir James, "and I think forty-nine is a significant number as it is seven times seven, significant to both the Jews and Islam." "So you are saying that the number is a signature number."
"Yes Prime Minister, I am," said Sir James, "can I suggest that we contact President Orwell immediately, I am getting a signal that bombs have gone off across Europe, all it seems at eleven o’clock local time. We can assume that the same will happen in the U.S., so we have about three and a half hours warning to give them."
"I agree, we'll do it now," Prime Minister Matthews immediately hit the soft button on his desk com that connected him directly with the President of the United States.
"Yes Fred, I am up and working, is there a problem," the President asked.
"You could say that James, at eleven o'clock this morning forty-nine bombs were detonated across the British Isles, forty-eight exploded, we have thousands of fatalities here and we have reason to believe that you may suffer the same fate at eleven your time. Hundreds of bombs were detonated across the E.U. also at eleven o'clock. By the way the one that didn't explode was meant for Downing Street."
"Glad they missed you, Fred, now you will excuse me, I guess I have a few executive orders to make," concluded President Orwell, “Thanks for the heads up, I'll speak to you later." The President broke the connection and picked up an old style white telephone and punched in a three digit number. "Al?" He asked, "This is FARMER, its happening, activate Code SHIELD, immediately, time of threat eleven-hundred hours today, God go with you."
Within minutes the general alarm sounded around the White House and every military and government building and installation across the United States. No sooner had the alarm started than four secret service agents entered the Oval Office and escorted the President to the control and command bunker deep below the building. Very much the same thing was happening in every government building, staffers were quickly evacuated and senior staff were transferred to bomb shelters, where communications lines had been installed. At military bases every aircraft was scrambled and placed in pre determined stacking patterns out of harm's way. Naval vessels were ordered to sea and at army bases officers and men were efficiently evacuated to areas designated as safe areas. The whole operation SHIELD took just two hours, in the hour or so that was left to the east coast time zone, specialist teams went in with detectors to locate the bombs.
Several bombs were found at Annapolis Naval Base and Edwards USAF Base, these were dropped into suppression wells drilled deep into the Earth's crust especially for such emergencies; no other bombs were found in time. In the first wave, the Eastern Time zone, forty-seven bombs detonated. Fortunately, thanks to the warning many lives were saved, unfortunately four- hundred and twelve lives were lost, most by heroic acts of trying to find the bombs until the last minute. The whole West Wing of the White House was lost together with a third of the Pentagon and severe damage to the Capitol Building; the Washington Monument was now a pile of rubble. As eleven o'clock came and went in the time-zones further west, less, and less bombs exploded, and more were found. In California only nine bombs detonated with zero loss of life. The President emerged from the bunker and ordered a re-establishment of the West Wing offices and services to the undamaged parts of the house and to other buildings that were unscathed.