Chapter 53
Time seemed to stop as Parvati dove towards Harry, Ron, and Hermione. Harry's wand was aimed at Parvati's heart, and a faint green light was forming on its tip. Harry's face was locked in a snarl.
"Allahu akbar." whispered Parvati, and pressed the button.
An electrical signal sped down the wire and to the fifteen pounds of C4 strapped to her chest.
Parvati Patil and the three humans nearby ceased to exist.
"She just fuckin' suicide bombed Harry Potter and his entourage!" screamed Ziad.
"Yeah, I have eyes too!" shouted Shlomi.
Padma had sunk to her knees and was staring at the bit of scorched earth and bits of flesh where her sister used to be. A single tear ran down her cheek.
Ziad checked his watch.
"Guys, we have about a minute before the nukes go off. We need to bail the fuck out."
Shlomi nodded.
"True." He turned to Padma. "We need to go," he said gently. "Come on."
He gently lifted her up and supported her as they walked over to where Ziad was making a portkey.
Shlomi reached out to touch the portkey. His finger connected.
YANK-ZOOM
Lord Voldemort approached the hollow, wand held loosely by his side. A platoon of Death Eaters followed a few meters behind, wands held ready for a possible ambush.
Lord Voldemort entered the hollow.
Potter was not there.
Voldemort chuckled.
"Potter, oh Potter. You think you can ambush me? No, you are as doomed as ever."
Then he noticed the pile of metal cannisters.
A device with numbers was attached to the nearest one.
The numbers were getting smaller.
"Hmmm..."
3...
"Interesting, Potter. What do you have planned?"
2...
"Where are you?"
1...
"I will fi-"
LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM
The last SWAT cop fell to the ground, dead. Colonel Venter and the two remaining commandos stepped from the door of the pub, which had become a scene from a horror movie. Dozens of bodies were strewn across the floor and blood covered the walls.
The three South Africans moved into the street where a handful of low-level, unarmed police officers stared in horror at the blood-covered apparitions that approached them.
"That's for the Boer Wars, you bastards!" yelled Colonel Venter.
He grabbed a set of car keys from one unresisting officer and the three commandos piled in and screeched away down the road.
HUZHOU, PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA
General Zhao Guojun screamed in fury.
"THOSE MUSLIM BASTARDS! THEY. WILL. BURN."
The General stumbled out of his temporary office and into the hallway, which teemed with frantically busy officers and soldiers trying to organize a hastily organized and disastrous war. The General pulled his pistol from its holster as he approached a heavy door with two armed guards,
"Open the door." he whispered.
The two soldiers glanced at each other.
"Sir, our orders were to keep it locked." said the less-career oriented of the two.
The General grinned manically. He shot that soldier, then aimed the pistol at the other.
"Orders can be disobeyed, sometimes." said that soldier. He quickly opened the door.
The General slowly entered the room. A large suitcase sat on a table in the center. The General opened the suitcase, which revealed a sort of controller with just one big red button.
He pressed the button.
At that moment, a staff officer approached the door, saw what the General was doing. His face went white.
"Sir... Uh, sir... We haven't re-routed the targets for the missiles yet, sir..."
General Guojun slowly turned around.
"What?" he whispered.
The staff officer shifted uneasily. He nervously smoothed his uniform.
"Er... The button you just pressed... It launched our nuclear missiles..."
"Yes?"
"And, ah, sir... The target destinations were for our old enemies."
"And?"
"Pakistan was our ally until just a short while ago... So the missiles you just launched are aimed at Russia, Taiwan, India, and the United States. Sir."
General Guojun seemed to awake from a trance.
"Oh."
"Yes sir... And the United States, at least, will be launching its own counterstrike within five minutes, if our calculations regarding their detection capabilities are correct. You've destroyed us, sir. You've destroyed everything."
WASHINGTON D.C., UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
President Bill Clinton stared at the screen in disbelief.
"Why?" he whispered. "What did we do?"
He turned to the group of generals and politicians behind him. His jaw set.
"Launch the retaliatory strike. God help us all."
THE SKY OVER RUSSIA
A Chinese missile streaked across the sky towards its target.
It broke through the clouds above a vast metropolis.
The missile neared the sky above the center of the city.
And, as quickly as it had entered the sky, it left the sky.
Moscow burned.
REMOTE SENSING STATION, NORTH OF MOSCOW
The computer triple-checked its calculations. There was no error. Suddenly, several more sensors were tripped in other cities- St. Petersburg, Volgograd, Murmansk, and more.
The data was clear. Russia was under nuclear attack.
The computer waited the programmed five minutes for human imput.
No human input occurred.
The computer tripped the Dead Hand. Across Russia, missile silos opened.
The missiles were launched.
LONDON, THE UNITED KINGDOM
Ziad and company popped into the street outside the pub.
More armed police had arrived, too late to fight the now-gone commandos, but in time to surround the newly arrived group.
"Put your hands in the air!" screamed one of the police officers.
Ziad slowly raised his hands, wand clutched tightly. As he did so, he glanced up.
A thin streak of light was growing slightly larger.
One of the police officers noticed it.
"What the bloody hell is that?" he said.
Shlomi stared.
"Well... Looks like we're all fucked. It's been nice knowing you all." he said.
The light had gotten far closer.
"Is that what I think it is?" asked Ziad. "A Russian missile?"
"I'd bet my life on it... not that it's going to last much longer." replied Shlomi.
Ziad glanced around the ground. A plan was quickly forming.
"On the count of three, grab that dead guy," he whispered to Shlomi and Padma.
Padma glanced at the dead guy in question. Then she looked at Shlomi, five feet away.
"It's too far for you to turn it into a portkey!" she said.
"I can try. Three..." said Ziad.
"What if you don't make it here in time?" said Shlomi.
The missile was getting alarmingly close, now.
"Two..."
The police officers seemed to have realized what the streak of light was as well and were slowly backing away.
"One."
Padma and Shlomi dropped to their knees and grabbed the dead guy.
Ziad dropped his arm and shouted, "PORTUS!"
The missile exploded, bathing London in a pure white flame.