Nia felt completely exhausted. It felt as though an entire week had passed in just the last few hours. She leaned her head on her father's shoulder, feeling the need to be close to him.

Nia loved her father deeply and looked up to him. When people asked her what she wanted to be when she grew up she always told them an NSA analyst (since her father had forbidden her from becoming a field agent). Many she told had no clue what an NSA analyst did, but Nia knew from her father. Of course many of the things he did were a mystery to her, as he was not allowed to share them, but he did explain to her the various aspects of his job and the jobs of others around him.

The one thing that Nia hated about her father's job was that he was gone constantly. She missed him whenever he left. She knew that Clayton's job was difficult and stressful, but he always managed to be kind and warm with her. Of course he was quite strict, but always loving, giving her hugs at every opening.

Nia felt her father's strong arm wrap around her as she lay against him. Somehow, even in this crazy and scary situation, this brought her a great deal of comfort. Nia felt completely at ease.

One thing that Nia had not done was travel, she had almost never been outside of the Maryland/DC/Virginia area. As the car moved along the scenery changed, many of the tall buildings had disappeared and things were quickly growing more rural. In the distance Nia could see a farm with cows running around in the field, heading for a hay bale that had been broken apart for them by a farmer.

Nia had frankly lost all sense of time to this point, how many hours they had been driving she hadn't the slightest clue. But she did finally notice a big sign on the side of the road that said Lake George exit 21. Her group was heading North on I87, but to where she did not know.

"Where are we going? To Canada? Nia asked, desperate to break the long silence that had befallen this fateful trip.

"Well, nearly to Canada, we are going to Plattsburgh." Qi Lian answered.

"Plattsburgh huh? I haven't been there in 20 years." Darnell offered up.

"Pops, you have been to Plattsburgh?" Clayton asked.

"Yes don't you remember that trip your mother and I took?"

"Oh yeah, I remember now. I have never been to Plattsburgh myself, what is so special there?" Clayton asked.

"A backup plan." Qi Wei responded.

"What do you mean a backup plan?" Clayton asked.

"It is hard to explain without giving you the whole stor..." Qi Wei began.

"They deserve to know Qi Wei." Qi Lian said.

"OK, well you see we know precisely what the Red Tide soldiers are planning. Their leader, Han Xin, hatched this plan a few days before we escaped. You see Han Xin is the type of person who craves power. We recognized this and made the mistake of allowing him to assume a leadership role in Red Tide. The military officers in the program had originally wanted to place one of us in the leadership position but we declined. We thought this would satisfy Han Xin, but it did not. For a short time he was happy, he couldn't believe we had stepped aside to allow him to lead. At first he was a good leader too, but then his need to accumulate more power took over." Qi Wei explained.

"He became consumed with gaining more power. He began making more and more demands of the military. To keep him satisfied the military gave in to his demands. Even this did not satisfy Han Xin. Han decided that it was he who should be giving the orders, not the military. We were superior to the other soldiers and he felt we were superior to the generals. We had bitter arguments with Han in private, we told him that when we had allowed him to assume his leadership role this was not something we had imagined. He wanted to essentially perform a military coup, and take control of the Chinese military for himself." Qi Lian continued.

"But unfortunately his thinking didn't stop there. Han Xin kept us out of several secret meetings, even though we were his top lieutenants. We started to get suspicious, and we managed to recruit a member of his inner circle to be a spy for us. Eventually we found out that he was planning something horrible. Han Xin has decided that we are simply superior to all humans, and thus a new world order must arise, with Red Tide soldiers at the top of the pecking order." Qi Wei explained.

"And so Han Xin decided that we need to eliminate the majority of the "inferior" humans. He plans to conduct nuclear war to wipe out as many humans as possible, and then we will arise as the primary group and reproduce." Qi Lian stated.

"Wait, reproduce? You can reproduce?" Clayton asked.

"Of course, we are still human and the military saw this as an additional benefit. More future soldiers, without having to continuously produce "batch's every 10 years." Qi Lian answered.

"Nuclear war?" Darnell asked astonished.

"Yes." Qi Wei responded.

"So what is this backup plan then?" Nia asked.

"Many years ago Plattsburgh used to have a military installation. In fact during the cold war it was considered one of the primary targets of the Russian military. And so the military built fallout shelters in the heart of Plattsburgh to account for such a scenario. So we must ensure that at least some people can be saved. This will be a place where we can make a base of operations." Qi Lian explained.

"So we are running away from the action, like cowards!" Clayton exclaimed angrily.

"Clayton we have no choice, we cannot perform a direct assault on 5,000 Red Tide soldiers. That would accomplish nothing, we would be dead nearly as soon as we started. But we know how Han Xin operates. He will not begin the nuclear attack until he is sure we are dead. We represent too much risk to him." Qi Lian said in a calm manner.

It frustrated Clayton that Qi Lian was so calm.

"Can you just think of the devastation for a moment? How can you be so sure, you are willing to bet billions of lives on this?" Clayton asked.

"What choice do we have Clayton?" Qi Wei asked, getting uncomfortably close to Clayton's face.

"If we die, what hope will humanity have then?" Qi Lian asked.

Clayton grunted in frustration. But he remained silent because he knew he did not have the answer.

"I am positive that Han Xin will track us down. We must prepare here for when he arrives. And we will need a lot of help. We will need you, Clayton, to gather as many useful locals as you can, I do not think they will respond kindly to Chinese teenagers trying to order them around. You have a more gentle way about you." Qi Lian said.

"What is your plan, supposing Han Xin does give chase to us?" Clayton asked.

"Han Xin is arrogant. He will come with a small group. We plan to draw them into a trap, and kill them all, with the exception of Han Xin. Han is also a coward at heart, we plan to use him as leverage to end the attack." Qi Wei explained.

"How are they going to pull off this attack?" Clayton asked, feeling a tinge of hopelessness.

"They are going to use the Chinese, Russian and American nuclear weapons and aim them at every major population center on earth." Qi Lian said in a matter of fact tone.

"Oh joy!" Clayton exclaimed.