John Miller was pacing the bunker nervously. The Code Blue team had swept the island and were now searching Plattsburgh for any Red Tide terrorist survivors. Any moment they would have additional backup arriving. The problem was that he hadn't received any word of finding the leader of the Red Tide. Han Xin was nowhere to be found.

Many Code Blue soldiers had been rerouted to Fort Tilden as Qi Lian had requested. John and general Howard had tried to video call her numerous times but were unable to reach her. They were unsure of the reason why. Had she lost or damaged her watch? Was she dead? What was the loud noise they had heard? At the moment they had far more questions than answers.

John took a swig of his fourth beer. At this point he was starting to feel a buzz. What the hell was he supposed to do after this emotional roller coaster he had been on? John was sure the American people would understand his reasons for drinking too much at this point in time.

John had thought this moment would be a celebration, instead it was yet more disappointment. These past few days had been full of that. John and his team had been outmaneuvered throughout this entire process, even with Qi Lian's help. Han apparently was just too good. And now at this point there was nothing standing between Han and the nuclear winter he wished to create.

At that moment a call came in from Matt Turner. John couldn't stomach talking with Matt at this moment, so he just muted it. He and his crew were busy anyway, trying to work out the blueprints of the bomb shelter in Fort Tilden. Perhaps that was where Han would hide out. They weren't sure though, because Qi Lian didn't explain anything.

Maybe Qi Lian wanted herself and the Code Blue troops to survive in that shelter? Then another thing crossed John's mind. What if Qi Lian wanted to kill the Code Blue soldiers? What if she was just a terrorist planted by Han Xin and this was the final part of the plan?

Emma had managed to plant that seed of doubt in John. And the thing was, Emma was right. They needed to proceed with caution. Qi Lian could still be the enemy. Perhaps she had everyone fooled, including Clayton.

"General, we need to have the soldiers proceed with caution upon heading to Fort Tilden. We have to assume for the moment that Qi Lian is actually not helping us at all." John said quietly to general Howard.

"I will pass on the orders sir. But I think our men and women can handle whatever situation arises, with all due respect." General Howard replied.

"Handle whatever situation general? Hogwash, we still haven't captured or killed Han Xin have we? They haven't been handling the situation." John said brusquely.

"Sir I don't thi..." General Howard started.

"I know general, I am sorry I lost my temper. I know the Code Blue soldiers have been doing an excellent job. And I am well aware that we have a complete lack of intelligence on this group. I am just frustrated at the events of the last few days." John replied.

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"Understandably so sir. But I have full confidence in Code Blue. If Qi Lian is a mole we will root her out." General Howard confidently stated.

"If I could only share your optimism general, I would likely feel much better right now." John responded.

Now John walked toward the rest of his staff, who were huddled together. John had instructed them to come up with a plan that included all possible outcomes. Including nuclear winter.

John had no clue how large Han Xin's head start had been, but it was possible that it was large enough that he was firing nukes at this very moment. John was bracing for such an alert. Now his team was too.

"If nuclear war really starts, we need to get our soldiers to safety as soon as possible. We will need them after the nuclear winter." Emma said to the group.

"Need them for what exactly? Do you really think the world will just come out of nuclear war the same as it was before. All bets are off in that situation. Not that I am against saving troops, but civilians should be equally important in our discussions on this matter." Rosa explained.

"Rosa is right, we need to start thinking about the safety of our citizens too, not just the military. How soon can I be on air?" John asked.

"I can have you on in 5 minutes John." James Coffman replied.

James was John's young press secretary. John looked closely at him for a moment. James was dressed in a nice suit and tie, his dark hair was perfectly smoothed back, not a single hair out of place. James stood just under 6 feet tall and was slender. He looked slick and well rested, and handsome. John looked like crap and he knew it.

"Perhaps you should go on the air in my place." John said.

"Sir the American public are going to want to hear directly from you, not from me." James replied.

"Fine, let us get the ball rolling on this. Now is the time for the American people to panic. We need them to find shelter wherever they can, before it is too late." John ordered.

James walked away with purpose. He had to rush to get this whole thing setup.

"I think this is the absolute worse moment of my life. I have to go on and tell 420 million Americans that they might die today, so seek shelter. This is absolutely horrendous." John said out loud in the direction of his staff.

"Sir perhaps we can hold off a little longer?" Mateo asked.

"No, we have been lying to the American people for long enough. This is the least we can do." John replied.

"Sir, sir hold on a minute you are going to want to hear this. I just received word from our NSA hacking team..." General Howard started, before being tapped on the shoulder.

"Oh, sorry to switch before finishing my thought sir, but it appears that our Code Blue soldier, Jeffrey, has found out where the Red Tide soldiers are hiding. It is in Fort Tilden! That must be why Qi Lian wanted us to get there." General Howard said.

"Switch me to that camera please." John asked the technician.

John and his team watched on the big screen. It was quite dark, so they had a hard time seeing what was visible to Jeffrey. Then they saw the door open and a couple of people entering, undoubtedly these were the Red Tide terrorists. The door then closed behind them leaving everything dark again.

"What is the ETA on our backup arriving?" John wondered.

"Sir it is about 5 minutes." General Howard responded.

"Let's hope they don't fire the weapons yet." John said.

"Sir that reminds me..." General Howard began.

"Wait what the hell is that noise?" John asked.

They could see in the camera some Red Tide terrorists open the door to the bunker and then quickly slam it shut.