~Democracy's Demise #4~
Enjoy mates
The clack of silverware was all that prevented utter silence from engulfing the room. Mister Emerson didn't talk unless he had to. He preferred to think. And when Emerson thought, no one was safe. Doctor Keltz picked at the decadent meal before him, uncomfortable beneath Mr. E's black eyes.
Clearing his throat, he ventured, "Emerson, I lost a good messenger yesterday. I lent him to that blunderer Rhalington, then never saw him again. He claims he never returned. Do you know anything of this?"
Quiet seconds passed before the man responded. "There are some scary people on Terra Prime. Especially in this area."
Inwardly, Keltz cursed. That boy was supposed to my eyes and ears in Emerson and Rhalington's affairs. Should have known Emerson would smell a rat...
But outwardly, he smiled. "Scary people, eh? I suppose you might be one of them?"
A smile slowly formed on Emerson's face. Then suddenly, he was laughing. Head back, roaring with sickening laughter. Then, as suddenly as it had started, it stopped. Only the smile remained. "Yes, I suppose you could say that."
Keltz shuddered. The last time he had seen Emerson laugh was at a funeral. Trying his best to sound casual, he changed the subject. "Well, Emerson, the night grows late. Perhaps you would care for a glass of wine?"
"Of course."
"Keltz called his attendant over, murmuring, "Two glasses of wine."
As the servant departed, another silence fell upon the pair. It wasn't until the wine had arrived that Emerson finally spoke. "Do you know why I killed him?"
Keltz was suprised by the question. Taking a sip of from his glass, he resp0nded, "No. Why?"
"'Cause I couldn't trust him."
The doctor didn't like where this was going, and he breathed a sigh of releif when Emerson took a draught of his wine. But he never swallowed. His face grew pensive as he swished the liquid around in his mouth. Suddenly, his face darkened, and he spit it directly into Keltz's glass, growling one word. "Poison."
Keltz's veins filled with ice. Emerson continued, rising from his chair as he did so. "Yes, Keltz. I couldn't trust him, so I killed him. Can I trust you, doctor?"
All pretences of confidence had left the man, as he stuttered frantically, "Y-yes, yes!! Y-you can t-trust me!"
Emerson advanced on the quaking doctor, drawing the Chesterton-7 laser pistol from his coat pocket. The barrel of the sleek weapon hovered inches from the man's left eye. Keltz clenched his eyes shut, and felt Emerson's musty breath on his cheek. "Oh, but I don't know if I can." He waited, but the shot never came. Haltingly, he opened a eye. Emerson was practically nose to nose with him.
"I won't kill you, though should. No, instead, my dear Keltz, you will work. You will work on your technology, day in, and day out. You will have no privileges, luxuries, or assistants. And if your work is not complete by the end of the week, you'll wish I had killed you here." The dark-eyed man ground out every word. "Are we understood?"
Keltz was beyond words, but he nodded frantically.
Emerson smiled. "Good." With a shove that toppled the traumatized doctor and his chair, he whirled, hands in pockets, and headed toward the door. The butler rushed to open it for him. Doctor Keltz heard Emerson mutter one phrase just before the door slammed shut. "I'm getting soft with age."
So, what are your thoughts, questions, or reactions? Lemme' know- a good writer lives off of feedback! =)
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Pure genious! Stunning! Appaling in a perfect way! 10 out of 10!
ReplyDeleteNo wonder Emerson is the third worst person in all of Literature: He's portrayed beautifully! Job well done, BK.
Thank you, thank you! =D
ReplyDeleteAnd I know you're dying for me to ask- who are the two worst?
Oh, the two worst? Let me explain:
ReplyDelete1. Satan - Don't need to explain him, do I?
2. Amir Kaeef - Empire Without End's main character, Amir plans to conquer the United States by manipulation, force, and fear. He murders his own officers, leads an assult on DC, bends a homeless orpha to his will and burns all historical books.
3. Emerson - This part is for you to write ;)
very good! and RB your guy must realize that even in a book a frontal assault on the most powerful nation in the world would be met by failure, and then it would have a depression in time space and someone would go beat up a puppy. Is that what you want? Terrorists don't want to rule America, they want to DESTROY America. So your book is just a little off target. Now a book with terrorists with nukes...... well that has a lot of todays concerns written into it! Perhaps you will want to edit that, also taking D.C. would have almost no impact on the military, it's not like it's a Military base, just a city, and a city with the highest Crime rate in america to! It would almost be a relief! Also your leader person army would have these problems to deal with: How do they get here in the first place? By sea? Or are you forgetting that the Atlantic fleet is stationed in Virginia, very close to D.C. ? Perhaps by hijacking a bunch of planes to transport his army then? Ohh... but langley airforce base is the first base in the country to have a squadron of F-22 fighters... you know, the same F-22s that can take on enemy aircraft 8 to 1 and win? Also there is the problem that the F- 22s can cruise at above Mach speed so they can cover the entire eastern seaboard, and if the terrorists in your book attacked the New York first to establish a foot hold, they would be in even more trouble because the U.N. headquarters are there!!! We are talking about Millions of the some of the best trained and equiped troops in the world!!!!! not even mentioning all of our allies!!! so, you had better think of somthing really good because it just isn't realistic for someone to launch a direct assault on the U.S. when they only have some AK-47s and RPGs and a few mentally confused guys with C-4 jackets, and we have the air support the Naval vessels the troops the intelligence and enough heavily armored vehicles to conquer most every city in the world with hundreds of thousands of soldiers to man them. It just isn't logical.
ReplyDeleteIt's quite logical if you think about it this way: Numero uno, We are talking about al-Qaeda, the largest terror group in the entire world with thousands of operatives and the number grows every day. And I wouldn't bother counting all of their allies. They have so many men at their disposal. Numero dos, it's a book. This isn't going to happen in real life. It's FICTION, for pete's sake. Numero tres, Amir is a master of stealth, trickery, and an all-around skilled dude. He is going to use others to get what he wants. Numero quatro, Amir has operatives in America. We haven't found half of them. Numero cinco, the defenses in America are going to be attacked by aircraft after the disabling of the anti-aircraft batteries. If you destroy DC, then the U.S. would be leaderless. What are soldiers to do without a commander. Plus, the terrorists have more weapons, willpower, and brains than you think. Did you think that Bin Laden made up the 9/11 plan by himself? They succeded. I'm not pro-terrorist, but for the sake of my book, the terrorists are better than in real life in EWE.
ReplyDeleteHmmm...
ReplyDeleteRB, idk if I can rate Amir higher on the evil list until I see some real scummy deeds and creepy actions on his part... =)
About the whole RBvPH argument, I can't say either way if this is realistic or not. PH, I trust you to have the facts about all things military, but I also know you can be overly cautious of RBs ideas. Also, it IS fiction. Are speaking lions, sword-weilding rats, flying bycicles, warping wardrobes, hotwired horses, sentient trees, lightening harvesting flying pirate ships, or omen-bringing flying jellyfish realistic? If all these things happen in fiction, I think terrorist can take America too.
Three cheers for fiction! BK, you cannot believe what Amir will eventually do in the first two books (I'm saying this for unknown reasons). He'll twist people, decieve people, crush people and traumatize people until he has his revenge. Believe me, Amir will be up there with Death and Satan in due time.
ReplyDeleteAnd, also, which book or movie are lightning-harvesting flyig pirate ships from? I'm quite curious.
P.S. RICK RIORDAN CAME OUT WITH A NEW BOOK! It's called the Red Pyramid and it's about the Egyptian gods. It looks really cool. I hope to get it at B & N bookstores soon!
BLAST! I can't remember the name of the series... I'll let you know when (if) I remember. Anyhoo, Emerson has a very similar agenda... Hmmm, you didn't sneek a look in the DD vault, did u? =P
ReplyDelete