Believing the president to be dead, a US Navy admiral code-named "Harpoon" is given the assignment of locating a successor, who turns out to be the US Secretary of the Interior.

It is revealed that Baton Rouge, Seattle, Los Angeles, Colorado Springs, New Orleans, Phoenix, Raleigh, Honolulu and part of Washington, DC, have also been destroyed, and massive looting and panic has broken out in the remaining cities and towns across the country.

Harpoon urges Condor to turn the bombers around to see if the Soviets respond in kind as a way of signaling an intent to de-escalate, since communications are down and direct talks have not been possible since the explosions.

One of the few surviving SAC B-52 bombers headed to the Soviet Union, call sign "Polar Bear One," refuses the E-4B's orders and turns around.

It is then revealed that the president survived the crash of Marine One, and is still alive in a FEMA bunker outside Olney, Maryland.

Alice, an Air Force general, cannot issue direct orders to the Navy, and the President's identity codes conflict with Condor's.