It seemed like any other moment. But this one was different.

At this moment, simultaneous launches of ICBMs from three continents (still aimed at the former Soviet Union) had been triggered. Jim couldn’t see any of this from the underground bunker.

He had stumbled into the bunker quite by accident. An old grate broke through on his hiking path, resulting in a scary slide down a vent into the room.

In the dark, he felt around for some sort of light switch on a wall. Instead, he bumped in to the “EMERG POWER ” button, and even though this bunker had been unoccupied for over two decades, everything flickered to life.

Everything, including the fire-control computers, which had been left in diagnostic mode by the last occupants, part of the secret “continuity of government” program. This would normally have not been a problem, but over the years, the “diagnostic test activate” code had been replaced with the “doomsday scenario 14” code in the long distance protocol.

And now Jim had just activated WW III .