Forge a New Blade (The Laredo War Book 2) by Grant Peter

Author:Grant, Peter [Grant, Peter]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Publisher: Fynbos Press
Published: 2015-05-16T16:00:00+00:00

~ ~ ~

Khan rose from his desk as his aide ushered Gloria Aldred into his office. He walked around the desk to meet her, holding out his hand. “Mrs. Aldred, how nice to see you again.”

“And you, General Khan.” She returned his grasp firmly. “What’s this I hear about trouble at the prison camp?”

“Ah… yes, there were some problems last night. Sit down and I’ll tell you about them.”

Giving as few details as possible, he explained that all the former prisoners-of-war were now at large, and that the Resistance appeared to have been reconstituted and re-equipped. “I don’t know what that’s going to mean for us in the short term, Mrs. Aldred, but I don’t think it can be good. I’m hoping your efforts will help to keep things from deteriorating into open hostilities once more.”

She nodded vehemently. “I’ll do my very best to help, General, but it’s difficult. I’ve managed to recruit a dozen or so helpers, but none of them are particularly influential in the community. We’ve all had enough of violence and bloodshed, and we all want peace, but we’re very much in a minority among the residents of Laredo. Too many of them remember the invasion and the evil years that followed – just as I’m sure many of your peoples’ attitudes are conditioned by the same memories.”

“That’s true, I’m afraid. Has the security we’ve provided been adequate?”

“Well, I’m still alive, if that’s what you mean!” They smiled wryly at each other. “It hasn’t stopped a whispering campaign against all of us, particularly me. I thought my description of how the Resistance tried to kill me would help to open people’s eyes, but I’m afraid it hasn’t. Most of them believe the Resistance’s claim that it had nothing to do with shooting down that cutter, even though it’s a matter of public record. I wanted to ask for your help in answering an argument that was thrown at me at our latest public meeting. A heckler stood up and shouted that if the Resistance had shot down that cutter, there would have been casualties; but he claimed that none had been admitted to hospital that day, and none had been buried as a result of the crash. He said the whole thing was a set-up by State Security. Could we check your records? There must have been at least a list of the names of those involved.”

“Yes, of course. I’ll take you to our Records section as soon as we’ve finished our other business. They maintain a centralized database of all our records, including those from the spaceport, the hospital and the War Memorial. All three departments should have the information you need to counter such allegations.”

Ten minutes later they walked down the corridor together. The General showed her into the Records section ahead of him, and led her to the counter where a clerk snapped to attention.

“Mrs. Aldred is looking for some information,” Khan told him. “Get her what she needs at once, please.”

“Yessir!”

“I’ll leave you to it, Mrs.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.