Free Emile and the Dutchman by Joel Rosenberg Page B

series hit People's China from Shenyang south to Phnom Penh, ten clusters smashed the Ganges plain; separate carpetbombs hit Nagpur, Poona, Hyderabad, Sholapur, and Bangalore. While large numbers were indeed killed by the bombs themselves, the vast majority died with the destruction of the fragile economic superstructure of that polyglot nation.
    No continent was left untouched. One small carpetbomb impacted on New Mecca, just south

    von du Mark/Origin of the Contact
    Service/Twelve

    of David's Gift; in Africa, fifty-seven were scattered across the continent, from the most northward, which spent itself uselessly in the Erg Iguidi, south to where the destruction of Port Elizabeth put a final exclamation point on the Greater Zimbabwe Race War.
    In South America, a burrowing chain turned the Panama Canal into the Panama Straits; other bombs missed the major cities, with the single exception of Rio de Janeiro.
    In North America, Mehico DF and Great Los Angeles were targeted squarely, while New York's bomb merely completed the long-pending destruction of the South Bronx. What was almost certainly intended to be the Philadelphia bomb hit nearby Harrisburg, putting an end to that city's long history of near disasters. Quebec was almost blown off the map.
    Although there is still much speculation as to why the Xenos attacked at all, it is interesting to note that the how isn't as yet settled, either. Careful examination of the remains of most sites left it beyond doubt that the Xeno bombs, both blast and carpet, used neither atomic fusion nor fission. Early testing might have been able to determine whether the weapons were based on some powerful chemical explosive, or—perhaps more

    von du Mark/Origin of the Contact
    Service/Thirteen

    likely—employed subatomic fission or fusion as their powering principle. There is no evidence that the boron-11 propulsion system known to power the Xenos' battleships was in any way involved in their bombs.
    Everyone was too busy to conduct research. A high priority among the newly formed World Government Council was the location and execution of the incompetent leaders and representatives of the former "United Nations" regime. Interestingly, much of the move was led by the Chiefs of the "United Nations" Navy, perhaps in an attempt to divert attention from their own guilt.
    After the destruction of the original SolGate, the priorities were as executed: the reconstruction of the planetwide economy, the building of the lower-level SolGate and the five Mercurian "trapGates," and the substitution of the twin AlphaGates as the gateway to the Solar System.
    What surprised many contemporary observers was to what a great extent life went on as before.
    During the early years following the Xeno War, there were suggestions that the proper policy was to continue the exploration program, but simply to exterminate any possibly intelligent species we might find. But wiser heads prevailed, and the present policy of

Communication

I

    I wasn't surprised when the Dutchman slouched back in his chair as the ambassador and his aide walked into the briefing room, although the other two were. Three, if you include Ambassador Vitelli.
    Maybe four, although I couldn't tell anything about the aide; she kept her smooth face impassive. Without a word, she crossed her long legs as she seated herself at the table at the front of the room, then opened her briefcase, removing a multisteno; she shrugged her shoulders to clear the hair away from her ears as she plugged in the earpiece, and then turned, either to face the ambassador or to give us the benefit of her profile.
    Or both. It was a spectacular profile, at that—then again, I've always had a weakness for well-built redheads.
    "Good afternoon, gentlemen," Vitelli said. "I am Ambassador Dominic Vitelli. This is Consul Janine Urdway, my secretary and aide."
    I was on my feet, of course, and so were the new weapons and comm officers of our Team.
    Vitelli looked at me.