Free World War IV: A Broken Union by James Hunt

me.” Ruiz grazed the painting with his fingertip. Tiny bumps from the grooves of the brush and oil pressed against him, and he saw the smudge of his print where he’d touched it.
    “Your contributions to Delun will not go unnoticed,” Fung said.
    “No,” Ruiz replied, still staring at the painting, “but that’s because he won’t have a choice in the matter.” He turned back around to Fung. “Do you know the history of the atomic bomb, Ambassador?” Fung shook his head. “It’s quite an interesting one. The scientists and engineers that constructed the weapon wanted to save lives, not end them. They’d justified the death the weapon created in the name of protecting the living from those that wished to murder the masses. And it wasn’t long before every nation in the world tried replicating what the first creators had done, and they succeeded. For years, the great nations produced these weapons in an arms race unlike anything seen before. But despite the end of traditional warfare, and the disarmament of much of the original nuclear arsenal they’d created, the very weapons designed to protect them became their undoing. And do you know why?”
    Fung shrugged his shoulders. “The same reason nearly every war starts. A crave for power.”
    Ruiz shook his head. “A lack of control.” Fung finally offered his first hint of bewilderment, but only for a moment. Ruiz made his way over to the door. “Follow me, Ambassador.”
    The armed escort accompanied them through the halls, making nearly every walk through the palace a parade, forcing servants to quickly dodge out of the way, lest they be trampled by the sentries protecting their leader.
    Torches flickered an orange glow that gleamed against the hilt of the swords at the guards’ belts as they descended deep under the first floor of the palace. The guards stopped just before the stairs ended along with the torches. Ruiz came forward, the guards letting him pass with Fung close behind, who clutched the coat around his neck in the cold.
    “Presidente.” One of the guards spoke up as Ruiz passed into the darkness. “You should not go alone.” He then made an eye toward Fung that left little imagination as to who the guard was concerned about.
    “If the ambassador chooses to kill me, then you have my permission to take his head. Until then, you will leave us.” Ruiz left the disgruntled guards and led Fung through the darkness. He fumbled his hands along the wall, searching for the hidden stone. The wall was damp and grainy to the touch.
    “Ruiz, what are you doing?” Fung’s voice echoed a faint sound of fear.
    Ruiz finally felt the loose stone and pulled it back, a small switch against the wall that he flicked upwards, a portion of the wall sliding open, casting a growing light into the darkness.
    Fung quickly shielded his eyes against the brightness, backtracking into the dark. “Ruiz, what is this?” The panic in the ambassador’s voice reached a crescendo. “Ruiz?”
    “This is power, Ambassador.” The lights behind Ruiz cast his profile over the rest of the hall, and he stepped inside, where dozens of men worked around tables, all with different devices. Some were small enough to fit in your hand, others nearly touching the ceiling.
    When Ruiz approached one of the tables, the men around it scattered like cockroaches. What Ruiz picked up looked like a rifle but slightly shorter, and thicker around the trigger. “I have the best engineers in the world, and I have them working on projects far superior to the radio technology I gave Delun.” Ruiz tucked the weapon under his arm, aiming at Fung. “This is how I will keep Emperor Delun on a short leash.”
    Just before Ruiz squeezed the trigger, he repositioned his aim just to the right of Fung, firing into a target. Dozens of rounds collided into the wooden statue, turning it into a pile of toothpicks in less than a second. Ruiz kept the gun tucked under his arm and walked over to Fung, who