Twisted Spaces: 1 Destination Mars by E.N. Abel

Author:E.N. Abel [Abel, E.N.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: UNKNOWN
Published: 2014-11-24T06:00:00+00:00

Chapter 76

Beijing

Monday, 14.11.2016

The midmorning session had hardly begun, when an aide came running in. ''Comrade Chairman, Comrade Chairman,'' he waved a pad computer, ''we have detected an intruder who has violated our northern border! One object approaching central China with unbelievable speed!''

The whole committee turned to the harbinger, when the Army's liaison officer yelled out and drew their attention to him: ''That's not all! We've lost contact with our missile base in Quan-Yang!''

''What?'' The chairman looked stupefied at the man, who typed hectically away on his notebook. After a moment he looked up, pale.

''It's gone, Comrade Chairman. Completely gone! Wiped off the map! See for yourself!'' He turned the notebook: it displayed a satellite view of a steppe with some streets ending in a big, round crater.

''What? How?''

That moment a new, silent sun appeared over Beijing. It was so powerful that it seemed to penetrate closed eyelids, sunglasses, even walls. For a few seconds it overwhelmed everything and everyone with its brilliant white glare, then it faltered and collapsed. The people had taken one breath, when a murderous blast of hot air hit the city, rushed through the streets, buildings, halls, tumbling people, bikes, goods. The hurricane lasted a few moments only, then was gone again, leaving a trail of clutter, debris and chaos.

And chaos was what reigned in the central committee's meeting hall. Everybody was shouting - nobody listened. Xao just picked up a tilted-over chair, put it upright again and sat down. He took a deep breath, happy to be alive. That had not been a normal nuke; only the warning he had hoped for.

Xao's adjutant Chin Feng entered the holy hall, carrying a pad computer. He stopped shortly, found Xao and came running to him. Putting the pad in front of him, Feng said: ''It's all over the internet. Our attack on that spaceship, their counter-attack and the explosion over Beijing.''

That did not exactly fit into Xao's plans, but he had expected the committee's actions to become public sooner or later.

''That's not all,'' the Lieutenant continued. Everybody in the room listened in now.

''What else?'' The chairman was furious.

Feng faced him : ''A message to you, I mean to the central committee. It was also published on the net. Shall I read it?''

''Yes.''

''To the central committee of the Republic of China. You have attacked us without provocation and with a weapon of mass destruction. We have retaliated in kind and destroyed your weapon and the base it came from. And we have sent you a warning. The sun you just witnessed was caused by an antimatter bomb with half a gram of payload. We will attack again, this time using a hundred times more. That will evaporate your city. Your only chance to prevent this is to publicly and through the Internet swear to never attack or harm us again. This pledge has to come from each and every member of your leadership. We also demand, as a symbolic submission, to supply a hostage in the form of the person who discovered our location in Germany.

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