Coffee Break Read – Clear As Mud

What happens when the hunter becomes the hunted…

The unknown woman smiled vacantly, a perfect political smile. “What I am saying, is that we can’t afford to take any risks around the issue. If it were to turn out that some obscure aspects of the theoretical predictions had retained an ongoing residual relevance to reality and we had not taken any action, the consequences could be unhelpful for the Coalition.”
Her words left a distinct chill in the air behind them.
“Unhelpful?” Grim echoed, not sure what degree of hazard that was really suggesting.
“Yes. Extremely unhelpful, in fact.” The woman’s voice was as toneless as an AI announcement. “It could lead to the coalescing of a number of anti-establishment elements in a manner that might even pose potential issues in our overall security management.”
Which made it all as clear as mud. Grim wondered if it was a prerequisite for political life to have mastered the fine art of using language to obscure whilst appearing to clarify.
“You mean, something a bit like The Legacy?” Cista Tyran asked, frowning. She must have played this game before.
“Right. Like — but not the same as,” Jecks said, brusquely. “In fact — just possibly even worse.”
There was another chilly silence, but this one was stark. Grim found it hard to imagine anything much worse than the terrorist attacks of The Legacy and he was pretty sure the others were just as uncomfortable at the idea.
“So — if that is all you need me for?” The unknown woman was getting to her feet, the same politely vacant political smile still in place. Rather than making an attempt to detain her, Jecks rose too.
“Right. Of course. Thank you so much for coming. I will show you the way out, Var Dray,” he said. Then he seemed to remember there were two others present and looked at Grim and Cista Tyran with a scowl as if resenting their presence. “If you two would like to review the material, for now. I’ll return to complete your briefing in a short while.”
The door slid closed behind them and for a few moments the silence grew awkward, as Cista Tyran pulled up some remote screens and plastered the walls with images of the two men they had been considering. Then she looked round at Grim.
“Guess this means we will be working together.”
Nightmare.

From Iconoclast: Mistrust and Treason a Fortune’s Fools book by E.M. Swift-Hook – which is only 0.99 to buy for a limited period.