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No 911. In nuclear command bunkers across the country, contact with the president has been lost. He is presumed to have been separated from the core parachute group, in flight.

Inside Site R, the underground command centre in Pennsylvania, the secretary of defence and vice- chairman of the Joint Chiefs have been desperately trying to reach their Russian counterparts. Do they tell the Russians that they have lost contact with their president? That he is missing, presumed dead?

As the debate continues, they finally reach an officer from the Russian General Staff. ‘The U.S. is under nuclear attack,’ they say, adding that it’s imperative that Russia refrains from any military action until the two nuclear-armed adversaries can get their two presidents on the phone.

But the Russian officer sees things differently. ‘Your president should have called us by now,’ he says and the line goes dead.

42 MINUTES AFTER LAUNCH

No oNe has heard from the U.S. president because when the nuclear bomb hit the Pentagon, Marine one experienced a system failure from the electromagnetic pulse and began to crash. The CAT operator tandemjumped the president out of the open door of the aircraft in an attempt to save his life.

The two men landed violently in a forested area. The agent is dead, his neck broken.

The president was cushioned by the agent’s body. There’s a deep gash on his forehead. His left arm and right leg are fractured. He is helpless and desperate. Will anyone find him before he bleeds out?

43 MINUTES AFTER LAUNCH

THe Russian president is furious. The U.S. president has not reached out to him yet.

Prone to paranoia, the Russian president now believes that Russia is being targeted for a decapitation strike. Faced with what he believes are hundreds of nuclear warheads bearing down on Russian soil — launched by the opportunistic Americans in a pre-emptive sneak attack — the Russian president chooses to launch a nuclear counterattack at the United States.

one thousand ICBMs are now headed for America.

49 MINUTES 30 SECONDS AFTER LAUNCH

THe secretary of defence is sworn in as Commander in Chief. early-warning satellite systems show an onslaught of incoming Russian missiles.

The now acting president vocalises a crisis ofconscience debate. Just because hundreds of millions of innocent Americans are about to die, maybe the other half of humanity — full of so many other innocents — need not die, too. His suggestion is dismissed.

In nuclear war there is no such thing as capitulation, no such thing as surrender.

55 MINUTES AFTER LAUNCH

THRee hundred miles over the United States, North Korea detonates a high-altitude SupereMP weapon.

An electromagnetic pulse weapon does not harm people, animals or plants, but it does destroy major parts of all three of America’s electrical grids.

The computer-based, humaninterfaced control system architecture known as SCADA [Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition] goes down, creating an instant, out-of-control nightmare. Subway, freight and passenger trains collide or crash. Planes lose wing and tail control and plummet to the ground.

oil and gas pipelines rupture and explode. Sewage spills out everywhere. Dams burst, causing mass flooding.

There will be no more fresh water, no sanitation. No phone calls, no lights, no fuel, no working hospital equipment.

People everywhere begin to flee on foot.

57 MINUTES AFTER LAUNCH

RUSSIAN nuclear warheads begin to rain down on the U.S., Targets across europe are hit at the same time. Air bases across the continent are obliterated, and capital cities including London are hit with nuclear warheads. Millions of people die, and scores of civilisation’s masterpieces, from Stonehenge to the Colosseum, Notre Dame and the Parthenon, are destroyed.

72 MINUTES AFTER LAUNCH

ACRoSS the U.S., europe, and the Korean peninsula, hundreds of millions of people are dead and dying, while hundreds of military aircraft fly aimlessly in the air until they run out of fuel. The last of the nuclear-armed submarines move stealthily out at sea, patrolling in circles until the crews run out of food. on land, survivors hide out in bunkers until they dare go outside, or run out of air.

The few survivors who eventually emerge from these bunkers will face what the Cold War Russian leader Nikita Khrushchev foresaw.

In the event of a nuclear war, he said: ‘The survivors will envy the dead.’

AdApted from Nuclear War, by Annie Jacobsen (transworld publishers, £20). to order a copy for £18 (valid to April 20, 2024; UK p&p free on orders over £25), go to mailshop.co.uk/books or call 020 3176 2937.