Clarkesworld Magazine Issue 228 by Neil Clarke

Author:Neil Clarke
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: magazine, science fiction, Science Fiction - Short Stories, Science Fiction And Fantasy, science fiction magazine, short fiction, short stories, short story
Publisher: Wyrm Publishing
Published: 2025-09-01T04:00:00+00:00

About the Author

With only a handful of stories, mostly for Asimov's, and a few well-received novels, Alexander Jablokov established himself as one of the most highly-regarded new writers of the '90s. His first novel, Carve The Sky, was released in 1991, and was followed by other successful novels such as A Deeper Sea, Nimbus, River of Dust, and Deepdrive, as well as a collection of his short-fiction, The Breath of Suspension. His most recent novel is Brain Thief.

The Fury of the Glowmen

David McGillveray

Before

Bina Bakar spent an introspective seven minutes alone in an elevator falling deep beneath Kuala Lumpur. When the doors finally opened, it was on to a white corridor exactly like the one she had left, except for the greeting party that awaited her. General Faiq bin Othman, her head of national security (technological branch), stood before two uniformed guards and a driverless electric golf cart.

“Good morning, General. All is ready?” Bina asked.

“Good morning, Prime Minister. All is ready.” He indicated the cart’s front seat and climbed into the one next to it.

“You’ve taken precautions since I last saw you, I see.” She lifted a manicured hand and almost touched the crisscross of red lines at his temple. “I’ve heard it’s painful to have it taken out.”

The general grimaced. “Bearable, ma’am.”

Bin Othman had been with her since her first term, and there was trust there, even the potential for friendship, if she had allowed herself such weaknesses. He was a handsome man in his early fifties, with a strong nose and dark, clever eyes, silver hair cut close to his skull. He’d made no attempt to disguise the scarring where his neural net had been removed, a repudiation of vanity Bina approved of. She herself remained unwired. Certain powerful sections of her base found the interfacing technology off-puttingly modern.

She touched his arm. “Let’s get this over with.”

Bina had been inside the facility several times previously, but the scale of it always surprised her. What went on behind the countless doors and down those darkened, branching corridors? Who waited in those rooms, or what? She could find out if she really wanted to but knew deniability was an asset.

She would be denying everything that happened here today. The situation in Asia was delicate, her authority precarious. Her rivals circled, as did the agents of other regional powers. In particular, she didn’t want to give the Chinese another excuse to extend their hegemony. Their embassy in KL already resembled a garrison.

The cart hummed, and the corridors went on and on, hypnotic in their uniformity. When one decides to do a thing, Bina reflected, reality had a habit of slowing down, of elongating the moment. It had not been easy to reach this point, but she had decided that they must turn away before it was too late. The Intelligence was just too dangerous.

At length, they halted by a door like all the others, with nothing to warn visitors of the monster that waited inside. Their security positioned themselves on either side while bin Othman entered a code into the lock and then swiped a fob across the reader.

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