8-Last Desperate Attempt

The President was still looking for a way out of this. The Echidnas were the only obstacles; them and that strange creature, Chaos. As Richards racked his brain for a solution, he remembered one. How could he have overlooked it all this time? Commander Grey had told him himself...

But would it work? He now knew Grey had lead the Alliance for quite some time...had he planned them to betray the US all along, only pretending there was a method of emergency destruction? Richards remembered the day Grey had escaped from America, with so many GUA soldiers with him...had he perhaps stolen the device, or else destroyed the instructions? It was desperate, but once the Echidnas were out of the way they could start working on a way to kill Chaos, and once he was out of the way...

He ordered his assistants to find the instructions. Some looked on computers, some looked through files, some searched what had once been the GUA's laboratory. Finally, the instruction manual was found.

Destruction of the Echidnas

First, go to a code panel and give your access code.

To destroy one Echidna, type 90210 and then its serial number.

To destroy one squad of Echidnas, type 902310 and then the squad number.

To destroy all Echidnas, press 9027894562.

Richards was exhilarated. There was a code panel right there on his desk. He needed to shove this into their faces before they died. So, he requested a video session with Libertor. In Detwelf, Libertor saw who was calling and accepted.

"What is it now, Mr. President?"

"I would just like to let you know that you are about to die. I have at my disposal a..."

"...a code that will ignite explosives in each and every one of our brains, killing us instantly."

The President showed his surprise. "How did you know?"

"I know because I know the original Echidna Commander Grey showed to you. He left the room before Grey told you about the bombs, but the scientists did give him excellent hearing, and before you type the code, know this: before we reached DC, we came to a town with closed hospital. Closed, but not quite empty. We had some animals who had some knowledge of medical procedures put us to sleep so Chaos could reach into our brains and pull out the explosives through our eye sockets. We then carried the individual bombs to DC, where we strapped them together and buried them under the White House. Are you now prepared to push the button?"

Richards, who had been dialing the code, looked straight into Libertor's eyes, and Libertor stared straight back.

"I don't believe you," he said before pressing the final button. Outside his office door, several people screamed. The bomb had not been big enough to engulf the White House in fire, but it seemed the bomb's sudden disappearance had caused the part of the building it was under to collapse in order to fill the hole. The entire House slanted toward the center, and Richards stumbled before regaining his balance. Other, less coordinated people fell to the center where they were crushed under falling desks and cabinets.

Richards looked in horror at Libertor, who said, "Truce?"

Richards nodded, too stunned to speak.

"As I thought. You have the Alliance to worry about after all, Mr. President."

The screen went dark. Richards sighed, hearing the sound of sirens outside.