but one toe in the untamed tides of this world, just enough to animate the mind, which fails to see what is perfectly apparent.
Another question,
Why arenât apples called reds?
, who longed for her answer but bragged of her independence nonetheless,
once heard rumors of such fantastic foolishness, such confident meaninglessness, and she scoffed.
Â
39 In my own time and space, I retired to the front porch with my dog, Meeko, a good-natured mutt, surely the furthest a canine could be from a hound of hell. I sat stroking his ears, watching night settle onto my isolated residential street, trying to fathom the events of the day. After a bit, I remembered Tyneeâs enigmatic purple envelope, whose contents I had not yet found a chance to read. I didnât know it then, but the boastful introduction would turn out to be no hyperbole. This is what the letter said:
Â
Congratulations, Dr. Fountain!
Due to your extraordinary expertise in the area of molecular biology, you have been selected to participate in research of monumental historical importance.
We represent a top-secret committee of military and industry representatives that has been long disturbed by the nature of warfare. Mind you, we are not so foolish as to believe that war can be done away with; indeed, we recognize the utter inevitability of it in human nature. However, the Committee for Peaceful Conflict (CPC) was founded upon a sincere belief in the possibility of
humane weaponry and warfare
. Briefly, the concept of humane weaponry and warfare is to incapacitate, rather than terminate, an enemy. Traditional warfare decimates entire population centers. This renders natural resource reserves virtually worthless by destroying vital transportation routes and causing billions of dollars in property
damage. The toll in human suffering need hardly be mentioned.
The CPC has been actively promoting and sponsoring a shift away from these foibles of the past for some time now. Humane weaponry and warfare
is
possible, and recent research in genetics puts humanity on the threshold of an era when the economic and human devastation wrought by war will be nothing more than a memory.
Our research program has proceeded in three stages. Stage one, Operation Moneybags, was dedicated to the identification of the most efficient incapacitating agents. To that end, a massive survey of chemicals was undertaken, without success. Chemistry is the technology of the past, as you must surely realize, and genetics is the technology of the future. With that realization, the program was scrapped and begun anew.
Let us remind you before we go any further that our goal is
humane weaponry and warfare
, not germ warfare. We are not searching for or looking to create a new plague upon humankind. Rather, we seek to remove the plagues of economic devastation and human suffering from the annals of warfare. War cannot be helped, but it
can
be peaceful.
All disclaimers aside, once a suitable carrier virus was identified, it was brought into the laboratory for genetic mapping. This has been accomplished. Stage two, Operation Recount, involved the manipulation of the genome. We believe we have engineered a highly unique virus with specialized symptoms that, were it introduced into a population center, would almost immediately incapacitate it without a single building being destroyed and with a minimum of human suffering.
Stage three, Operation Small Change, involves you, Dr. Fountain. In short, we need your expertise. Humanity needs your expertise. A viral incapacitating agent such as we have been describing is useless without a cure or a vaccine. We possess neither of these. Although President Tynee has assured us that you would be glad to provide your services, we prefer to allow you to decide. At the time of a decision in the affirmative, you will be fully debriefed and allowed access to our records and laboratories, as well as provided with luxurious and sequestered accommodations. Let
Another question,
Why arenât apples called reds?
, who longed for her answer but bragged of her independence nonetheless,
once heard rumors of such fantastic foolishness, such confident meaninglessness, and she scoffed.
Â
39 In my own time and space, I retired to the front porch with my dog, Meeko, a good-natured mutt, surely the furthest a canine could be from a hound of hell. I sat stroking his ears, watching night settle onto my isolated residential street, trying to fathom the events of the day. After a bit, I remembered Tyneeâs enigmatic purple envelope, whose contents I had not yet found a chance to read. I didnât know it then, but the boastful introduction would turn out to be no hyperbole. This is what the letter said:
Â
Congratulations, Dr. Fountain!
Due to your extraordinary expertise in the area of molecular biology, you have been selected to participate in research of monumental historical importance.
We represent a top-secret committee of military and industry representatives that has been long disturbed by the nature of warfare. Mind you, we are not so foolish as to believe that war can be done away with; indeed, we recognize the utter inevitability of it in human nature. However, the Committee for Peaceful Conflict (CPC) was founded upon a sincere belief in the possibility of
humane weaponry and warfare
. Briefly, the concept of humane weaponry and warfare is to incapacitate, rather than terminate, an enemy. Traditional warfare decimates entire population centers. This renders natural resource reserves virtually worthless by destroying vital transportation routes and causing billions of dollars in property
damage. The toll in human suffering need hardly be mentioned.
The CPC has been actively promoting and sponsoring a shift away from these foibles of the past for some time now. Humane weaponry and warfare
is
possible, and recent research in genetics puts humanity on the threshold of an era when the economic and human devastation wrought by war will be nothing more than a memory.
Our research program has proceeded in three stages. Stage one, Operation Moneybags, was dedicated to the identification of the most efficient incapacitating agents. To that end, a massive survey of chemicals was undertaken, without success. Chemistry is the technology of the past, as you must surely realize, and genetics is the technology of the future. With that realization, the program was scrapped and begun anew.
Let us remind you before we go any further that our goal is
humane weaponry and warfare
, not germ warfare. We are not searching for or looking to create a new plague upon humankind. Rather, we seek to remove the plagues of economic devastation and human suffering from the annals of warfare. War cannot be helped, but it
can
be peaceful.
All disclaimers aside, once a suitable carrier virus was identified, it was brought into the laboratory for genetic mapping. This has been accomplished. Stage two, Operation Recount, involved the manipulation of the genome. We believe we have engineered a highly unique virus with specialized symptoms that, were it introduced into a population center, would almost immediately incapacitate it without a single building being destroyed and with a minimum of human suffering.
Stage three, Operation Small Change, involves you, Dr. Fountain. In short, we need your expertise. Humanity needs your expertise. A viral incapacitating agent such as we have been describing is useless without a cure or a vaccine. We possess neither of these. Although President Tynee has assured us that you would be glad to provide your services, we prefer to allow you to decide. At the time of a decision in the affirmative, you will be fully debriefed and allowed access to our records and laboratories, as well as provided with luxurious and sequestered accommodations. Let
Similar Books
