The veranda was quiet and peaceful. The roof of the house provided comfortable shade, and the sun-drenched pine forest filled the air with the scent of pine needles and the occasional soft chirping of forest birds.
The scientist sat down in a rocking chair, rocked a couple of times as if gathering his thoughts, opened his laptop on his lap, and turned it on. A series of greenish numbers crawled across the dark screen, and an antediluvian text interface opened, consisting of intricate tables with letters and numbers. Anna took a chair standing next to the table and sat down nearby, watching with interest as the old man's thin fingers ran across the keyboard like spider legs, pressing combinations of keys known only to him.
"So, young lady... Can you give me the exact coordinates of our target's location?"
"Yes, of course. Here..." Anna showed the scientist the coordinates on the map on her smartwatch.
"Is it some kind of fortified structure? A laboratory? A data center?" the old man asked, without looking up from the screen.
"An old civil defense shelter... An underground server room." Twenty-five to thirty meters underground.
"Well, that's nothing. It won't protect it from a direct hit..." the scientist muttered, scratching his pointed beard, and quickly tapped the keys again.
"Excuse me, but what do you want to do?" the girl asked with growing excitement in her voice.
"For starters... Drop one warhead there. If that doesn't help, we can repeat it," replied the old man in such a casual, everyday tone, as if he were talking about feeding fish or casting a spinning rod while fishing.
"What?! What for the warhead?!"
"A thermonuclear one, of course..." replied the scientist with the same imperturbable calm, looking at the girl, "one hundred megatons."
"Unbelievable..."
"Nothing unbelievable. The rough pragmatists from G.A. believed from the very beginning that they could do without expensive launches. They told everyone it was a waste of money. They replaced satellites with plastic stratospheric balloons and high-altitude drones. But we, the older generation, have always been incorrigible romantics, we were obsessed with space... There," the old man pointed meaningfully at the sky, "hundreds of warheads are still flying around. The untapped potential of global war...
"But you can't just take it... and boom!
"Why not?" the scientist asked with childlike sincerity. "It's the most logical solution."
"This is the city center! Above the server room of a large shopping mall. Lots of people."
"If you want to minimize civilian casualties, I can plan the strike for a weekday. Early in the morning on a workday... Let's say, at six a.m."
"No! No one should get hurt!"
"Well, young lady..." The scientist stroked his beard thoughtfully again. "You're making this really hard."
Anna sighed heavily. When she set out here on Saturday morning, she could not have imagined that she would be drawn into such dangerous adventures. The only thing she hoped for now was that the old man would turn out to be a simple eccentric who had lost his mind and was passing off his strange fantasies as gospel truth. But with every glance at him, this saving thought became more and more naive...
"Were psychopaths like this once entrusted with the security of entire countries and continents?" Anna thought, looking at the old man. "No wonder humanity almost destroyed itself with a big nuclear fuck-up. Now that's a real thirst for destruction..."
Meanwhile, the scientist muttered something under his breath, calculating something in his mind. Then he abruptly got up from his seat, leaving his laptop on the table, and unexpectedly disappeared into the house with a brisk gait. He said something sharp to his wife. He returned, holding a notebook and pencil in his hands, and began to make some calculations on the go. He sat down, immersed in writing formulas and numbers. He jumped up again, crossed the veranda several times with quick steps, and finally plopped back into the rocking chair.
"Well, young lady!" the scientist said proudly, with the look and tone of a jubilant victor, "I have found the solution to your problem.
"I hope we don't have to blow anything up this time?
"We will definitely blow something up! And not just once!" the scientist squealed hysterically. "We'll use all the nuclear missile potential we have! We'll initiate an early explosion in the stratosphere. A whole series of high-altitude nuclear explosions! Oh, it will be a magnificent sight! The sky will shine like daytime over half the planet... or even the whole planet! The gamma radiation will be absorbed by the atmosphere, and Compton scattering will release an electromagnetic pulse so powerful that it will burn all electronics, from smartphones to supercomputers.
"What about people?" the girl asked timidly. "What will happen to people?"
"They won't be harmed," replied the old man, instantly calming down, with a slight sadness in his voice. "If the explosion is initiated late at night, no one will even notice it. There will be no shock wave, no radiation contamination... It will set you back about seventy years in development. You will have to do a lot of things with your own hands again. Many jobs will appear... Maybe someone will even come here to fish... Progress will not stop, but you will have a little more time to think about where you are directing it.
"I guess that's a good thing..."
"Well, that's great!" The scientist quickly tapped away at his military laptop again, then suddenly closed the lid and handed the device to Anna. "Here you go, miss. Take it, sign for it..."
"Why?"
"I've entered all the parameters and codes to launch the demolition program. All you have to do is press a couple of buttons. I think you can handle it..."
"Maybe... Wouldn't it be better if you did it?" the girl asked the scientist hesitantly, carefully taking the infernal device in her hands.
"I'm sorry, young lady, but I sleep at night. At my age, it's necessary to take care of my nerves, avoid stress, and stick to a routine," he replied with a smile. "Besides, this is no longer my war, but yours."
"I understand..."
"I recommend you choose that high hill over there. The view from there will be simply amazing! Just protect your eyes... By the way, you can keep the terminal. After all, it will become useless.
With that, the old man sighed heavily and, shuffling his feet slightly, went into the house, leaving Anna alone on the terrace.