He leans closer to the laptop.
Adam tapes a bandage across my shoulder while I zoom the map outward.
The western United States fills the screen.
Infrastructure nodes blink like warning lights.
Russ walks over.
“Well that looks bad.”
“It’s getting worse.”
I open the cascade projection model.
The system calculates automatically.
Predictive simulations run in the background.
Each one mapping how failures will spread across infrastructure networks.
Power.
Traffic.
Communications.
Emergency response.
The simulation finishes.
A new projection appears.
My stomach drops.
“Oh no.”
Boone hears it instantly.
“What?”
I rotate the laptop so everyone can see.
A red circle expands across the map.
Moving southwest.
Russ squints.
“Where’s that headed?”
Adam answers first.
“Southern California.”
The system zooms automatically.
The circle tightens.
