A Girl Called Badger (Valley of the Sleeping Birds) by Stephen Colegrove Read Free Book Online Page B

weaponizing the virus and releasing it on American soil. The President and State Department officials presented evidence on 36 Chinese citizens affiliated with the PLA in major American metropolitan areas during the first outbreaks. These individuals allegedly played the role of “Typhoid Mary” by spreading the betavirus at convention centers and large population groupings. The Chinese bodies were not found until two weeks after the first outbreak, allegedly hidden in trunks of abandoned cars and even in rented apartments in some cases. The President has declined to give details, but the massive riots in urban centers, deaths in local police forces, and lack of proper training meant the intelligence was not followed up for over a week. Negotiation of the issue is hampered by no official channels between the U.S. and China, since the Kaosiung nuclear disaster and invasion of Taiwan last month. The European State has urged calm and continues attempts to bring both the American and Chinese forces to the negotiating table. President Ford continues to state emphatically that until the PLA leaves Taiwanese soil, no negotiations are possible.
Senate Majority Leader John Allen (R-New York) has been rallying for a declaration of war for over a week. “The ‘mistake’ at Kaosiung was a deliberate murder of three million people,” he stated. “The mission of the PLA is not to help Taiwan, but to crush it. We have a duty as Americans to protect freedom and democracy in Taiwan. If China started this pandemic that’s a deliberate act of war. If this isn’t an aggressive attack on the people of our nation, then what is?”
House Speaker Dan Leonard (D-Ohio) released a statement: “Under no circumstances, including these unsubstantiated allegations from the President, can we involve ourselves in another overseas conflict. Our soldiers are spread to the breaking point in Pakistan and with assisting municipalities around the nation. The urban centers are already in need of more troops. Thirty percent are already suffering. We have to re-prioritize and find a cure for this disaster.”
     
    The hatch clanked out in the hallway and Wilson hid everything under his blanket. Father Reed appeared, his face flushed from a walk or whatever exercise he’d been doing.
    “Ensign! Fix the problem?”
    “Yeah.”
    “I’m glad you’re the one crawling down there and not me,” said Reed. “You were off the locator.”
    “It’s not something I want to do again. What happened to the pump?”
    Reed sighed. “Who can tell? I’ve looked at the reference diagrams. It was possibly an exchanger safety switch or air circulation kick-off, and could even be related to the faulty meteorological data. But leave these matters to an old man. You have a young female matter waiting.”
     
    MINA SAT ON THE edge of the recovery bed. She wore a pale hemp blouse and yellow floor-length skirt. Instead of the tangled mess of hair and mud that Wilson remembered, her face was framed with bright, strawberry-blonde curls. Apart from the large bruises, swollen left eye, and a few scratches she looked healthy and fit. Wilson knew his first impression had been wrong and she looked about his age. Mina rubbed her bare knees and Wilson realized he’d stared too long. He flushed and dug fingernails into his palms.
    “Hello, Mina.”
    She smiled. “Good morning!”
    “So you speak English?”
    Her good right eye opened wide. “Speak what?”
    “La Anglan.”
    “Ah,” Mina smiled. “All my village speaks Anglan.”
    “Why’s that?”
    “Teacher says we must.”
    The tribes around Station used pidgin English for trading. “Teacher” could be anyone from a practical merchant to a rabid cannibal with an eccentric taste. In any case, the village could have other books and maybe even medical texts.
     Mina waved in his face and Wilson snapped to the present.
    “Sorry!”
    “Wilson, how do you komprenmia lingvo and not the others?”
    “Oh, I have to study