Fiction and Other Unusual Creations
January 2012
From Headhunter
A Work in Progress...
Another shock wave hit, this one so large it rolled through the building and shook it like a thirty-story steel and glass whip, and immediately after a throaty boom fired through the air outside so intensely the windows flexed.
“Whoa,” said Senator Brillstein after a whistle. “Heard that one clear over here.”
“There’s only one facility that close to here that doesn’t have people in it… oh, shit, Mark. How serious is this?”
“Um… we kinda nuked Jiaoao Dejianshe this morning.”
Ray’s mouth went dry. “For real?”
“Serves ‘em right for building such a large automated complex. We played by the rules, though: the latest low-yield, clean nukes we had in the arsenal. No people hurt.”
“Still… that had to cost ‘em a shitload of money.”
“Enough that they want all three Pacific states now.” Brillstein gave a caustic bark of laughter. “’Cept Alaska, of course—there may still be a lot of oil but it’s freakin’ cold up there. Joint Chiefs took the risk—and the President gave the nod, of course—because this may be the upper hand we were looking for.”
“Upper hand? Then why in the hell are there Chinese soldiers in Seattle?”
“They’re throwing all they have at us, Ray. They can’t make ‘em as fast as our units are killing theirs, and the Joint Chiefs are telling us we’ve got six divisions massed up on the other side of Snoqualmie Pass, ready to rock ‘n roll as soon as they get too committed to make a retreat.”
“Lovely. I might as well go home, then...except traffic’ll be a bazillion times worse now.”
“I feel for ya, Ray, I truly do. I understand if you don’t get that bridge built right away; with what this war’s gonna cost, I won’t be able to toss much near-term pork in your direction. It’ll be good news for the folks on the other side of the sound, though. The guys in Bremerton will probably get all-new digs.”
“Yeah.” Another explosion, this one less intense than the prior one, judded through the office, barely noticed. “Well, enjoy the peace and quiet back east, huh?”
“With all the yammering in the Capitol right now, I’d almost prefer the explosions.”
“Alright, Mark. I might call back when all this is… hold on a sec.”
“What is it?”
Ray looked at the receiver, then at the three visitors that now stood in the doorway to his office. “Uh, can I help you?”
He could trace his ancestry back to China on his dad’s side, and only to San Francisco in the 1800’s on his mom’s. The man that stood in the doorway was not Asian-American. And the military units that flanked him were clearly not the good guys.
“I’ll have to call you back. I appear to have a Chinese—”
With a quiet whisper of servos and the crunch of polymer feet on his carpet, one of the soldiers covered the ten feet between them so quick he might have teleported there. It snatched the receiver from his hand and set it on the cradle in an unnervingly quick, fluid motion.
“Whoa,” said Senator Brillstein after a whistle. “Heard that one clear over here.”
“There’s only one facility that close to here that doesn’t have people in it… oh, shit, Mark. How serious is this?”
“Um… we kinda nuked Jiaoao Dejianshe this morning.”
Ray’s mouth went dry. “For real?”
“Serves ‘em right for building such a large automated complex. We played by the rules, though: the latest low-yield, clean nukes we had in the arsenal. No people hurt.”
“Still… that had to cost ‘em a shitload of money.”
“Enough that they want all three Pacific states now.” Brillstein gave a caustic bark of laughter. “’Cept Alaska, of course—there may still be a lot of oil but it’s freakin’ cold up there. Joint Chiefs took the risk—and the President gave the nod, of course—because this may be the upper hand we were looking for.”
“Upper hand? Then why in the hell are there Chinese soldiers in Seattle?”
“They’re throwing all they have at us, Ray. They can’t make ‘em as fast as our units are killing theirs, and the Joint Chiefs are telling us we’ve got six divisions massed up on the other side of Snoqualmie Pass, ready to rock ‘n roll as soon as they get too committed to make a retreat.”
“Lovely. I might as well go home, then...except traffic’ll be a bazillion times worse now.”
“I feel for ya, Ray, I truly do. I understand if you don’t get that bridge built right away; with what this war’s gonna cost, I won’t be able to toss much near-term pork in your direction. It’ll be good news for the folks on the other side of the sound, though. The guys in Bremerton will probably get all-new digs.”
“Yeah.” Another explosion, this one less intense than the prior one, judded through the office, barely noticed. “Well, enjoy the peace and quiet back east, huh?”
“With all the yammering in the Capitol right now, I’d almost prefer the explosions.”
“Alright, Mark. I might call back when all this is… hold on a sec.”
“What is it?”
Ray looked at the receiver, then at the three visitors that now stood in the doorway to his office. “Uh, can I help you?”
He could trace his ancestry back to China on his dad’s side, and only to San Francisco in the 1800’s on his mom’s. The man that stood in the doorway was not Asian-American. And the military units that flanked him were clearly not the good guys.
“I’ll have to call you back. I appear to have a Chinese—”
With a quiet whisper of servos and the crunch of polymer feet on his carpet, one of the soldiers covered the ten feet between them so quick he might have teleported there. It snatched the receiver from his hand and set it on the cradle in an unnervingly quick, fluid motion.
