Tumble: The Golden Capricorn
by Bob TriggsPublish: Apr 26, 2019Series: TumbleThriller Suspense Action & Adventure Science FictionBook Overview
A tech-savvy Thelma Carpenter suspects an association between the failing satellites, the extreme heatwave sweeping the Northern Hemisphere, and President Sinclair’s strange behavior, and when her quest for a connection uncovers some disturbing information, her boyfriend, Cobra, is skeptical. But he also knows not to underestimate her abilities. She is rarely wrong.=========================================================
THE GOLDEN CAPRICORN is the second book in the Tumble Series and a direct continuation of an ongoing saga. It is highly recommended that new bibliophiles read The Andaman Event first.
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Sinclair’s decision to repress the tumble from the world is aimed at saving American lives foremost; however, his strategies will hinge on the existence of a narrow, latitudinal band encircling the globe between the fourteenth and twenty-seventh parallels north of the equator. Dr. Bailey refers to it as the twilight zone—a region where the sun will move around in a constant circle with its lower rim resting forever on the horizon, neither sinking nor rising. He issues a caution that the environment outside of these boundaries will exceed human endurance.
Foreknowledge is his advantage, but the doctor warns he will have a maximum of three days—if he’s lucky—before the rest of the world discovers they’ve been earmarked for extinction. Other scientists will figure out where the human populace can survive in a matter of hours, which could trigger the biggest exodus in the planet’s history. He must be prepared to prevent the insurgence of 7.4 billion people trying to migrate into the twilight zone if humanity is to make it through to the other side.
Fragile ecosystems and biosphere networks are collapsing, and hundreds of thousands of plant, animal, insect, and marine species are being eradicated every day. The extreme tip of Florida and the Florida Keys is North America’s share of the twilight zone, but the doctor said it will be inundated beneath twenty feet of water by late September when the mountain glaciers and Arctic ice melt causes the sea level to rise. The president is not enthused by the doctor’s prognostication that the axis would shift at a steady rate of 0.2106° every twenty-four hours, and it will be another ten months before the earth would be in equilibrium with the solar system’s gravitational influences once again. Dr. Bailey expects the tumbling to stop when the obliquity of the ecliptic reaches 90.2° on May 3, 2021. The astrophysicist and his immediate family are sent to the Nora Hartley Center, a top-secret research facility buried beneath a mountain north of Las Vegas where he joins Brad Bentley in a high-tech laboratory. The two men become firm friends when they discover a common dislike for the president. The sequestration, in part, is to prevent the tumble from getting into the public domain before Sinclair is ready, but also, he can contact the doctor for advice at a moment’s notice.
Sinclair forms an Emergency Committee of cabinet members whose field of expertise would be beneficial with a focus on saving American lives but keeping it small and inclusive. He invites the top military commander, General Morgan, to be on the panel because he doesn’t consider the tumble to be a political issue but a domestic enemy threatening the safety of the citizens. The decorated officer is respected among his peers and subordinates alike, and he won’t contravene the code of ethics unless the necessity outweighs the cost.
The twilight zone is expected to start in Central Mexico and end at the southern Honduran border, but with seventy-five percent of their military resources engaged in war zones in the Korean and the Israel-Iran conflicts, only an egoist would attempt to invade five sovereign nations and hope to secure a victory in under three weeks. He needs the cooperation of the Mexican President but knows he won’t get it if they know the truth, so his only recourse is deception.
A cold reality hits hard when they realize that moving 360 million Americans into the twilight zone will be unconducive to their parallel goal to ensure that humanity survives the tumble and adapts to whatever conditions nature lays out going forward. Without foreign trading and imports, they will need to be resourceful and self-sufficient, which means there must be adequate agricultural land per capita. When all these factors are taken into consideration, Sinclair is disappointed when their calculations show they can only move sixty-four million Americans, which will double the existing population. He demands they find a way to accommodate 120 million. No one approves the abandonment of the remaining 240 million citizens to a slow, painful death, and constitutional rights are broached often in the heated debate. Sinclair appoints one of the cabinet members to explore an alternate opportunity to move citizens across the North Atlantic to Mauritania using every seaworthy vessel in the country. With the help of a yardstick, he draws a horizontal line across the country. Folks living south of this latitude will move to Central America.
American troops stationed at bases around the US are deployed on the pretext of a coordinated military training exercise interacting with local and federal civil agencies to combat terrorism. Units are dispatched to specific locations where they are instructed to set up camp and await further orders. Unbeknownst to each other, they are spread out along the 35th parallel from the east coast to the west, and most are close to a north-south highway. Sinclair orders the immediate recall of all combat forces and garrisoned units stationed overseas, who will be deployed to strengthen the temporary border along the 35th parallel as soon as they are back on American soil.
Twenty-six-year-old Thelma Carpenter, a brown-skinned, unemployed computer wizard, lives in an apartment in Corona, New York, with her laborer boyfriend, Cobra Dickens. She investigates suspicious behavior by governments, whether local, federal, or foreign, to satisfy her personal curiosity. Thelma is astute and has hacked several sensitive networks and slipped back out undetected, but she goes in only if the need necessitates. She left her iPhone GPS tracker switched on when she went to bed Saturday night, but when she gets up in the morning, she’s perplexed to see it’s moved twenty-six miles overnight. She designs a computer model to replicate the movements of the weather, GPS, and television satellites. A news report on the TV deepens her suspicion that Sinclair is hiding information from the public. A fleet of twenty-five, long-range commercial airliners, and fifteen C17 military transporters are departing Atlanta and Los Angeles for an unknown destination every two hours.
The bewilderment of enemies and allies alike turns to outrage when Sinclair makes several astonishing and bizarre announcements, including the annulment of long-standing international treaties and implementing a two-hundred-mile territorial limit around the US coastline. All international shipping is ordered to exit within forty-eight hours with a warning that vessels not registered in the USA, and private, commercial, or military aircraft who enter, or are still within the exclusion zone after the deadline passes, will be shot down or sunk. US allies are further angered when they discover the abrupt withdrawal of troops from the Israeli-Iranian and the Korean war zones, NATO, and garrisons on three continents.
President Matvei Bazhenov demands more information when Russian intelligence networks report the Americans have stopped fighting two wars at the height of battle, and are boarding a fleet of aircraft at the main airports. When he learns the retractions are without the knowledge of the Korean president or Israel’s prime minister, he ties them to the satellite crisis of the past week. The withdrawal is giving more credence to a disturbing theory that’s getting harder to dismiss. His assumptions are escalated when spy satellites tracking the movements of the US Navy shows the entire fleet has been mobilized from every corner of the globe, and they are on headings consistent with either the east or west coasts of the US. Bazhenov calls Sinclair with an accusation and a severe warning.
Mother Nature throws a curve-ball when a temporary failure in a naval comms satellite prevents a critical abort mission code from reaching an F-16. The pilot had been expecting a cancellation, and when it never came, he said a prayer, locked on the target, and launches the missiles as per his orders. When Sinclair learns he has a major international incident on his hands, a clumsy attempt at a cover-up is a gross miscalculation, and it sparks off a night of nonpareil violence when his denial is exposed. Odium spreads across Europe and around the world at an extraordinary speed, and US Embassies and Consulate Generals across the globe saw the protests turn into frightening acts of barbarism.
Russian astrophysicist, Dr. Boris Medvedev, informs President Bazhenov that the earth’s axis is shifting, and gives him a scenario duplicating the one Dr. Bailey delivered to Sinclair. President Bazhenov calls Sinclair and tells him he knows about the tumble. The Russian suggests they should cooperate and find a way to reverse the impending catastrophe before it’s too late. Even though Sinclair has a deep distrust for him, he reluctantly agrees in the hope that Bazhenov won’t make the news public for another day or two.
The next morning, crowds numbering more than a half-million people congregate at six separate locations with the White House central to all points. In an unprecedented show of solidarity, buses, trains, and underground services are running extra services to bring in as many citizens as possible. They start marching from the various localities within minutes of each other, indicating some degree of coordination over social media platforms, and merge into a single multitude of three and a half million outside of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Law enforcement agencies felt it would be improper to expect their officers to risk their lives protecting a president who not only committed genocide but tried to cover it up too.
The recusants turn violent, and against constitutional law, a detachment of marines is flown in to defend the White House with teargas, rubber bullets, and bean bags. The perimeter fence is electrified, but the demonstrators find a way to neutralize the charge. But when some of the protesters began using live ammunition, a fleet of Chinooks move in and start dropping thousands of ‘jellybeans’—the first time use of an oval-shaped capsule made from light plastic and filled with CS gas that activates on impact. The thick clouds of gas push the protesters back, the Chinooks moving out with them. Calls for the demonstrators to regroup and march again after sundown go out on social media, and a civil coup d ‘état is promoted by businesses and organizations. They begin to distribute gas masks and protective equipment to the front-line activists, and even law enforcement agencies offered riot shields. When General Morgan tells him that they do not have the resources to contain the new threat, President Sinclair orders the implementation of the border along the thirty-fifth parallel and publicizes the tumble in an all-sources broadcast. His proclamation has a sobering effect on the nation, and the anticipated demonstration does not materialize.
One hour after the announcement, credit card corporations issued a temporary deferment of all services without notice and with immediate effect. However, the provisional suspension becomes permanent at eight o’clock the following morning. A shock announcement by Jeffrey Burnham, the CEO of City Investment Banks, the largest financial institution in the nation, throws the country into a tailspin. Burnham’s intentions are far more nefarious than it appears to the public, who are unaware they are being held as hostages. Jeffrey calls the White House and makes his demands clear. Sinclair declares him a terrorist without hesitation, and as per US policy, they do not negotiate with terrorists. Burnham has just proven himself to be an exceedingly powerful man – even with more power than the President himself. Sinclair outflanks the CEO and plays his move, but it will be several hours before Burnham meets Jacko, leader of the New York Harlequins biker gang, and second in command to Cobra’s team.
Restlessness is increasing across the nation, and prices are skyrocketing every ten to fifteen minutes—a direct result of Burnham’s attempted blackmail. Public contempt for Sinclair over the Golden Capricorn is too fresh for anyone to have confidence in his administration to resolve the situation, and tensions are high octane by early afternoon. Food costs were inflated beyond what anyone can afford, and in desperation, customers begin filling shopping carts with whatever they can grab off the shelf, push them through an empty checkout lane, and through the exit doors. Staff ran after the offenders, but while confronting the shoplifters in the parking lot, dozens of people hanging around outside pounce, and in seconds, the basket is emptied. By early evening, rioting is breaking out across the country, most starting in supermarkets and spreading out from there.
Thelma confirms that Sinclair lied when he told the nation that the twilight zone begins at the 35th parallel. Cobra invites ten friends to discuss a strategy to get across the new border between the north and south. Each person has something they can contribute to his plan either now or at some point during their journey. He nominates his best friend, Jacko—the leader of the New York Harlequins—as his second-in-command. The rest of the team consists of an Amtrak engineer, two rivaling gang leaders, a field doctor, an ex-marine, an ex-helicopter pilot, an explosives expert, a communications whiz-kid, and a work colleague.
Thelma monitors the news during the meeting. Cobra had wanted to evacuate the city on Saturday, but it’s Thursday afternoon, and it’s already getting dangerous outside. By the end of the meeting, he realizes that if they don’t get out of New York tonight, they may never get to leave at all.
