The President is Missing

Despondent, the president thinks back to when his plane was shot down while he was serving on a military mission in Iraq. He tried to play dead. This memory gives him an idea: Since the Dark Ages virus operates by attacking and overwriting active files, he wonders if they can trick it.

President Duncan explains his plan: mark every active file as deleted so that when the “virus activates. It doesn’t do anything, because it sees no active file to overwrite” (385). One problem is that no one knows what the virus will do at that point. While many of the cybersecurity experts are skeptical, others suggest that it is worth trying.

On a test computer, one of the computer experts marks all the files as deleted; he then activates the virus by attempting to delete it. The virus does not overwrite any files because it cannot detect any active files. They ponder what to do: Deleting the virus a second time, now that it has scanned for active files, could permanently delete it, but it might reactivate it.

They decide to attempt deleting it; this seems to be effective. Then, they reactivate all the other files on the computer. The method seems to work, and the team immediately begins to conduct the same procedure on the server where the real virus is located. Meanwhile, President Duncan is confused that no one has confessed to being the leak.

The president receives word that his team has unlocked a second phone found in the van where Nina was shot.

Bach waits impatiently for her target, wondering why nothing has happened.

As the cybersecurity team moves into the highly sensitive attempt to dismantle the virus, the Russian, Israeli, and German leaders leave, accompanied by their teams.

Bach is frustrated because her target has not emerged from the cabin. She accepts that she will have to enter the cabin.

Work begins to mark the files on the server as deleted. Meanwhile, President Duncan learns that Nina’s phone contains a text-message conversation between her and the source of the White House leak. He reviews the texts. On Friday, May 4, Nina sent multiple texts to the leak source; Nina referenced the “peekaboo” virus. Initially, the contact did not respond. The next day, Saturday, May 5, the contact responded to Nina: Nina confirmed that she was able to stop the virus. The contact explained that they couldn’t work with Nina because they were afraid of it coming to light that they did nothing when Nina first contacted them. They were also concerned by the negative blowback that Duncan was receiving after calling Suliman Cindoruk. On Sunday, May 6, the contact reached out to Nina and suggested that she travel to Paris, where she would be able to get in contact with the president’s daughter.

Bach’s back-up team approaches by car and by boat, preparing to assist her in carrying out a violent attack. The team approaching by boat opens fire on Secret Service agents.

President Duncan continues to read the text-message conversation. The contact assured Nina that the president would offer her amnesty in exchange for her help in deactivating the virus. However, in order for the president to agree to meet with Nina and take her seriously, he would need to have compelling evidence that Nina truly knew about the virus. The contact provided Nina with the code, “Dark Ages.”

Duncan is told that his team is ready to activate the virus and see how it responds to the disabled files. However, they warn him that doing so could possibly trigger other viruses and that there is no guarantee that the real virus will respond the same as their simulation.

Just before the team begins, Duncan’s security aids receive word of the security breach. They hurry Duncan into a room that they can lock down, but he insists that the cyber team come with him to continue their work. After they enter the secured room, they hear gunfire outside.

While the security forces are distracted by the gunfight with the team on the boat, the team in the van approaches the cabin. Bach climbs down from the tree and hides near the cabin.

From their secure room, President Duncan and Alex watch the response to the intruders: An attack helicopter fires on and destroys the approaching van and the attacking boat. The team activates the virus, but it doesn’t behave like the simulation. Although the files have been marked as deleted, it overwrites them. The virus also triggers a command that begins the process of shutting down all other servers.

Suliman arrives in Croatia and receives a signal that the virus has activated. He is filled with satisfaction that his plan has worked.

As panic breaks out, Duncan tries to figure out the next steps. However, everyone is stunned when the virus suddenly stops overwriting files.

Bach feels increasingly panicked as she learns that both of her teams have been wiped out by the attack helicopter. She slips into the cabin alone via a window.

The team realizes that Nina created the virus in a specific way: After an initial activation and overwriting some files to demonstrate its capability, the virus suspends itself. There is a pause period of 30 minutes, during which the virus is inactive. During that window, a password can be entered to stop it. If the password is not entered before the end of the 30-minute window, the virus becomes active again and continues its destruction.

The team explains that the window of time is too short for sophisticated attempts to decode the password. They will have to guess. Augie has no idea what the password could be. They begin attempting various words that Nina might have used.

Bach begins to move through the cabin but quickly realizes that it has been surrounded outside and that special-forces agents are hurrying toward her. There is also a camera that is trained on her. She begins to accept that she is about to die, feeling grief for her unborn child.

From their secure room, Alex and President Duncan watch the video feed of Bach; they confirm that “she knows she’s cornered” (435). Alex is insistent that Duncan still has to leave the cabin in case Bach is carrying explosives. Duncan is taken from the cabin with heavy security and boards his helicopter; Devin (a member of the cybersecurity team) accompanies him and continues to enter possible passwords for the virus.

The Marines storm into the room and seize Bach but take her alive, on the president’s orders.

Once Bach has been taken into custody, the helicopter lands. President Duncan is anxious to read the rest of the texts between Nina and the leak source in case there is any information about a possible password there.

The president calls Carolyn Brock and tells her to gather the inner circle together and get them on a conference call with him. He tells her that Vice President Brandt is the source of the leak but to make sure that she is included on the call. Duncan is now back on his private helicopter, traveling toward the White House.

Augie and Duncan connect to a conference call with his inner circle of eight most trusted advisors. He explains that they now have less than five minutes to input the password, or the virus will begin overwriting files again. They desperately try every suggestion they can think of. At the last moment, Carolyn suggests an alternative spelling for Sokhumi (the city in Georgia where Nina grew up); this turns out to be the correct password, and the virus is disabled.

President Duncan and his team receive confirmation that the virus has been stopped on all other servers as well. The password will be widely shared so that anyone can disable it if they need to. As they approach the White House, Duncan receives confirmation that the phone from which the texts were sent to Nina has been found in Vice President Brandt’s office. This seems to confirm that she was the source of the leak.

Suliman is in a small safehouse in Croatia, awaiting transfer. He is stunned and confused when he receives word that the virus has been disabled.

President Duncan arrives at the White House and rushes to spend a few moments with his daughter before returning to the unfolding situation.

The president thanks Carolyn for solving the password. He asks for her advice as to what to do with Vice President Brandt, explaining that, based on what he learned from the text messages, Brandt “was just the intermediary. […] This wasn’t some plot she cooked up” (459). However, he is confused by one thing: By giving Nina the “Dark Ages” code, Brandt ensured that Duncan knew he had a traitor in his inner circle. He gives Carolyn the transcript of messages between Nina and the leak and asks her to read them.

Carolyn notes that the transcripts end on Sunday and that there must be more messages. The president gives her a transcript showing messages from Monday, May 7. Nina had arrived in Paris and expressed her frustration that she had not yet received the crucial code word. The contact expressed her hesitation about whether to trust Nina and refused to share the code word unless Nina offered information about how to stop the virus. Eventually, Nina revealed the password to stop the virus (“Sukhumi”), and in exchange, the contact gives her the code “Dark Ages.”

Carolyn expresses shock that Vice President Brandt knew the password to stop the virus all along. She also pieces together that, based on when Duncan read the text messages, he also learned the password prior to the seemingly tense final countdown. Duncan confirms this: “I already knew the keyword. Devin had already typed it in. The crisis was already over” (464). He returns to why Brandt would have risked sharing the code word with Nina, knowing that it would throw suspicion onto the inner circle. He speculates that Brandt must have wanted Duncan to feel betrayed by his close advisors.

President Duncan accuses Carolyn of being the traitor. He believes that she saw an opportunity when Nina reached out to her: give Nina the code word, make it look like Vice President Brandt leaked it, and earn loyalty and respect by seeming to heroically uncover the password to stop the virus at the last second. Once Brandt was removed from office for treason, Carolyn would assume her position.

Duncan pretended to be unaware of the password to see who would reveal it, and he confirmed that Carolyn was the traitor. He begins the process to have Carolyn formally arrested.

Carolyn desperately begins negotiating. She tells President Duncan that she will drag Vice President Brandt for all of her secrets and that if both she and Brandt are revealed to have been traitors, it will have a negative impact on Duncan’s reputation.

President Duncan coldly insists that Carolyn is going to publicly plead guilty to her crimes. He reveals that she betrayed Nina and is responsible for her death. Based on the text messages, Nina told Carolyn about her plan to rendezvous with Augie and Duncan at the baseball stadium; if the three of them had met up, Nina would have given Duncan the virus password herself, and Carolyn would have lost her opportunity to pose as a hero by solving the password. Knowing that Nina would be in the van outside the stadium, Carolyn betrayed this information to Suliman, who arranged to have Nina killed. Crushed, Carolyn accepts her arrest.

At the safe house in Croatia, Suliman reads news headlines and realizes with panic that the virus has been halted. He realizes that the people who were awaiting confirmation of the virus’s success are going to kill him now that they know it has failed. He desperately tries to flee but is shot and killed.

President Duncan meets with Vice President Brandt. He tells her that he knows she didn’t leak the code word. She admits that she did go to an illicit meeting with Speaker Rhodes but ultimately refused to round up the votes to have Duncan impeached, which Rhodes wanted her to do. They discuss whether she should resign, and Duncan tells her to remain in office.

Bach is questioned. She explains that she will reveal the details of dozens of high-profile political assassinations in which she has been involved. In exchange, she wants her daughter to be born in the US and adopted by her brother. She also wants her personal financial assets to be transferred to her daughter to ensure that her child will have a secure future.

The president thanks Augie for his help and suggests that Augie can stay in the US if he wants. Augie seems open to this idea.

President Duncan speaks with the king of Saudi Arabia, who confirms that a splinter group of the Saudi royal family attempted a coup. They aspired to a world in which the US is no longer a global superpower and paid the Sons of Jihad to disrupt the American infrastructure. They also paid Bach to kill Nina and Augie after they defected from the organization.

The president meets with the Russian ambassador; drawing on confessions from the Saudi royals and information from Bach, he has information that the Russians also provided funds to Suliman and the Sons of Jihad. He expels the Russian ambassador and tells him that sanctions are planned against Russia for its role in the plot.

President Duncan learns that Rhodes has canceled the committee hearing. He wants Duncan to address Congress the following day.

The president prepares to address Congress.

In his address, the president explains the virus and the role played by the Russians and the Saudi royals, and he also praises Nina and Augie. He explains that Speaker Rhodes attempted to collude with Vice President Brandt and deplores how partisanship is weakening American politics. He pleads for greater national unity.

After the address, President Duncan is widely praised and able to initiate some important policies. He also finally receives the medical treatment he needed, and his health improves. Carolyn is likely facing life imprisonment. Reflecting on the future, Duncan feels relieved and hopeful.