Believing the president to be dead, a US Navy admiral codenamed "Harpoon" is given the assignment of locating a successor, who turns out to be the US Secretary of the Interior. He is sworn in and given the codename "Condor." Harpoon's Boeing E-4B becomes the American military's new command center. It is revealed that Baton Rouge; Seattle; Los Angeles; Colorado Springs, New Orleans; Phoenix; Raleigh; Honolulu; and Washington, DC, have also been destroyed, and massive social disorder and rioting have broken out in the remaining cities across the country. It is briefly mentioned that Europe remained neutral during the conflict, but that India and Israel have declared war on Pakistan.