Stormworld by Brian Herbert, Bruce Taylor Read Free Book Online Page A

what he had lost, and what could never be again. He became aware of the virtual-reality headset, saw the visor fade from view. Reaching up, he felt it on top of his head, where he had earlier flipped it out of the way.
    Did I only imagine it? he thought. No, it had to be real. He came back to me, and he’s watching me now.
    With fresh determination, Director Jackson pulled a gun out of his lab coat, and stared at the weapon.
    “Dad,” he whispered reverently, as if addressing a god, “you’ll be proud of me yet.”
    With that, he took the gun and strode toward the door, knowing what he had to do next.

CHAPTER 10
    An Accidental Meeting

    “I’ve already named my child,” Peggy said.
    In Belinda’s tiny room, she sat on the floor on a thick pillow, with her back supported by a wall. Belinda sat cross-legged in front of her, in the middle of the floor. A chess board was between them, with a game in progress, the third one they had played this evening, the tie-breaker.
    “It’s Rose,” Peggy said. She smiled, and touched her stomach as it jumped. “Little Rosie is signaling that she’s pleased to meet you.”
    “She has quite a kick. Look at that! How did you get a medical test to determine the sex?”
    “Well, I just got back from the deep forest clinic, after waiting in line with the bears, the deer, and a couple of mama raccoons. No, silly. I just know it’s a girl, that’s all. And she’s anxious to get out.”
    “We all are,” Belinda said, in a dismal tone. “We’re trapped in here because of people getting into power that had conflicts of interest—oil men for example, seeking to control oil-rich countries.” She stared at the board, then moved a black pawn forward one square. The set had hand-carved wooden pieces and a board of inlaid fossil ivory.
    Belinda was always railing against particular political leaders, but Peggy didn’t completely agree with her point of view, which they had been debating during the game.
    “It wasn’t all the fault of our leaders,” Peggy said now, responding to a diatribe by Belinda had just made against a series of U.S. presidents, who held power up to the time when the government collapsed and—pursued by angry mobs—went into hiding. “Global warming started long before they started passing the presidency around to each other,” Peggy added. “The American public knew about it back in the 1970s, but we as a people have been in denial, continuing to drive big cars and consume as if there were no limit to the resources of this planet.”
    Shaking her head, Belinda said, “The politicians and their corporate cronies didn’t do enough to stop global warming, and mounted disinformation campaigns that were designed to confuse the public. Citing potential damage to the U.S. economy, a succession of American governments refused to enter into agreements with other nations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and take other environmental-protection actions. What a bunch of hooey. The politicians were using economic reasons as a smokescreen for what they wanted to do, what would line their pockets with greenbacks.”
    “You seem to overlook facts that don’t support what you want to believe.”
    “Such as?”
    “Such as the fact that China, India, and other countries were exempted from any potential agreements. That isn’t right. Why should America join if China—with its huge rate of industrial growth—wasn’t participating?”
    “The U.S. should have made itself an example for the world,” Belinda insisted. “A good one, instead of a bad one. I trace all of our problems back to our self-aggrandizing presidents and their cronies. Remember the two Iraq wars, fought for oil interests? And the trillion-dollar mineral deposits in Afghanistan—do you really think that had nothing to do with us sending our forces in there, and keeping them there?”
    “I came here to play chess, not to solve all the problems of the world,” Peggy said, feeling increasingly