"Empty? The empty bomb?" Tyrone said skeptically. "Since when does NSA design bombs?"
"Listen," said Scott trying to get Ty's attention away from the
TV. "Have you ever heard of C-Cubed, or C3?"
"No." He stared at the San Francisco defense being crushed.
"Command, Control and Communications It's a special government program to deal with nuclear warfare."
"Pleasant thought," said Tyrone.
"Yeah, well, one result of a nuclear blast is a terrific release of electromagnetic energy. Enough to blow out communications and power lines for miles. That's one reason that silos are hardened - to keep the communications lines open to permit the President or whoever's still alive to shoot back."
"Like I said," Tyrone shuddered, "pleasant thought." He stopped suddenly at turned to Scott. "So it was a baby nuke?"
"No, it was EMP-T," Scott said in such a way to annoy Ty. "Electro Magnetic Pulse Transformer." The confusion on Tyrone's face was clear. "Ok, it's actually pretty simple. You know what interference sounds like on the radio or looks like on a TV?"
"Sure. My cell phone snaps, crackles and pops all of the time."
"Exactly. Noise is simply electromagnetic energy that interferes with the signal. Right?" Scott waited for Tyrone to respond that he understood so far.