One Second After (After #1)

by William R. Forstchen

“EMP. Electromagnetic Pulse. It’s the by-product of a nuclear detonation.”

“Picture an EMP as something like a lightning bolt striking your electrical line or phone line during a thunderstorm,” John said between quick sips of his coffee. “Boom, and everything electronic in your house is fried, especially delicate stuff with microcircuitry in it. That bolt is maybe packing thousands of amps, the microchip in your computer runs on hundredths of an amp. It just cooks it off.” Kate said nothing, giving him a moment to wolf down one of the eggs and a piece of bacon before continuing.

“Back in the 1940s, when we started firing off atomic bombs to test them, this pulse wave was first noticed. Not much back then with those primitive weapons, but it was there. And here’s the key thing: there were no solid-state electronics back in the 1940s, everything was still vacuum tubes, so it was rare for the small pulses set off by

those first bombs to damag...

“We finally figured out that when you set off a nuke in space, that’s when the EMP effect really kicks in, as the energy burst hits the upper atmosphere. It becomes like a pebble triggering an avalanche, the electrical disturbances ma...

“Sun Tzu,” Charlie said. John looked at him and smiled. “The enemy will never attack you where you are strongest. … He will attack where you are weakest. If you do not know your weakest point, be certain, your enemy will,” Charlie said.