Horace reached for the rolls. "I'd appreciate it if you didn't preach a sermon, Jesse, in place of a simple blessing. The food's begun to grow mold on it."
Scarlett giggled as she helped herself to an ear of corn. She gestured toward the tall brass candelabra in the center of the table, "We'd have lit the candles if we'd known ya'll were gonna' say mass," she told her brother.
"Don't start," Marianne warned. "This is going to be a nice family dinner." The meat platter was passed around the table.
"Well, I'm starting to get ready in case we have to do without electricity," Lance announced. "I buried two 1,000 gallon propane tanks today. Once they're filled, I'll have enough fuel to cook, heat the chalet, and have hot water for at least a year or so." He reached for the butter. "Got a propane generator coming to hook into the main with a transfer switch and run my lights, spark the propane furnace, run the well pump. We should make my place the family compound." He looked around the table to see how his idea was received. "The chalet will be totally self-sustaining."
"Has the whole world lost its mind?" Horace's face began to redden. "All this stuff about gloom and doom is just hype, son. Our government will be on this and if we go to war with North Korea we'll whip their pants off. They'll take care of it."
"Just who are 'they', Dad?" Jesse asked. "If you think it's the government, in 2015 the Pentagon spent $700 billion to take all the NORAD computer assets and squirreled them below Cheyenne Mountain underground to protect their stuff. I just got an email this morning from Newsmax saying that the former director of the CIA, James Woolsey, is warning that North Korea poses an immediate threat to the United States. He says Pyongyang can strike the U.S. mainland today using a nuclear device delivered via satellite. If detonated, such a device could kill as much as 90 percent of the U.S. population within one year. So, just who is the 'they' who's going to fix it? Certainly doesn't seem like it's our government."
"Well, Bill Gates will pull some rabbit out of the hat at the last minute, you just wait and see," Horace blustered.
Lance interjected, "Haven't you been reading the papers, watching TV? That's what lit a fire under me to prepare. They can't get it fixed in time--there is no quick fix!"
Jesse smiled. "Dad, you just don't understand the overwhelming extent of the problem. It's mainly centered in the microchips. There are billions of microchips embedded in the power grids all over the country...they're in the telephone connections...pressure reduction regulators in natural gas lines." He looked around the table.." Every generator has microchips which will fry with an EMP. Think of it....all hospitals have generators, people are buying generators thinking to protect their homes if the power does go down. But that is not a solution! The microchips frying will render the generators impotent! No newer car will run so you can't 'bug out'. Unless someone can take the covers off the generators and Faraday Cage those microchips with copper prior to attack nothing will run."
"Do I hear you saying we won't be able to get groceries if truck engines have microchips, son?"
Jesse pushed his empty plate away and reached for the coffee. "That's a weighty and very intelligent question, Mom. Let's think it through. Even if we find some engineer able to manufacture and install the copper protective Faraday cages for the chips in generators, plus electronics in cars and trucks, it will only put a temporary Band-Aid on the problem. At some point in time, Mother, our ability to refine the gasoline without electricity will cease all transportation ."
"I see," she said gravely, hoping Horace had taken note that their son had said it was an 'intelligent question'."
"Well, the government just won't let this happen, that's all there is to it!" Horace told the family.
"You can wrap yourself in the American flag, Dad, but don't count on the government coming up with an answer. Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, the IRS are all going up in smoke."
"Social Security?" The discussion suddenly turned a corner and hit Horace in the wallet.
His father's eyes widened behind the thick glasses. He pursed his lips tightly.
"Dad," it was the first time Lee had spoken, "you need to get hard copies of your bank records and call the Social Security office."
"I just can't believe this," Horace sputtered. He reached for Marianne's hand under the table.
"We could live very comfortably on my stock dividends if we had to. I have a pretty significant portfolio built up."
Lee shifted in her chair and leaned slightly forward. She was thirty-five years old, but looked like a teenager--her appearance was a surprise to many customers in her capacity as Senior Vice President of a bank. Her hazel eyes, which occasionally chameleoned to green, now appeared solemn. "I don't know if I've told you or not, but I'm the Operations Officer for the bank. That also makes me the Compliance Officer, directly under the supervision of the Federal auditors."
Where's she going with this? Horace wondered. It wasn't often his daughter-in-law interjected much into any kind of discussion between him and his son.
She pushed her plate to the side. "Believe me, the government is worried about this big time! All the banks, savings and loans, and credit unions are scurrying to get their computers protected and their generators' microchips encased in copper protection. We've got to protect our branches' resources also."
"See, I told you," Horace interrupted. He wagged a finger toward both Jesse and Lance.
"But wait, Dad," she smiled. "Let's say the banks get compliant, and then the power and telephone lines go down--we can't operate. Our compliance is only as good as the utilities' compliance that serves us."
"I'm pulling my money out way ahead of all this." Lance reached for another ear of corn. He ate restaurant fast food most of the time, and took full advantage of his mother's cooking whenever the chance presented itself.
"It's just that kind of thinking that'll cause a run on the banks," Jesse told his younger brother.
"Run on the banks?" Horace eyes dominated his entire face behind the thick glasses which seemed to magnify them anyway.
"I don't mean to spook you, Dad," Lee's tone was gentle, "but it could happen. We're being told to prepare for it. It's possible that if the power and telephones go down the Federal Reserve could close us down until there's a correction."
Scarlett played with her food, pushing it around the plate, "Oh, ya'll are positively giving me the vapors with all this doom and gloom talk." There was a slight lifting of some of the tension in the room as Scarlett's declaration brought laughter.
Lee shook her head slightly from side-to-side; the silver dolphin earrings danced lightly.
"There's a very good possibility this could happen. It's not hype, Dad. As the one on the point for compliance, I have to check our power suppliers--telephone communication suppliers. They're nowhere near compliance. Won't be ready for any kind of attack."
"Haven't you been watching any of the House and Senate hearings on TV?" Lance asked them. "They've been holding hearings on MSNBC with the power companies...they're admitting they're not ready...won't be. The telephone company majors aren't ready...won't be." He finally pushed back his plate. "Super meal, Mom." He threw her a kiss across the table. Leaning back in his chair, he continued, "It was after watching those Senate hearings that I started preparing."
"So again what about grocery stores?" Marianne looked around the table. "Will they have food?"
Jesse patted her hand. "I think we need to prepare for that too. Trucking companies communicate with their drivers by computer. If there's no power, there's no way to pump diesel except with a hand pump. No fuel--no trucks--no trucks no food. Grocery stores have approximately three days worth of food on their shelves.