Post-Human Series Books 1-4 Read Free Page B

it’s successful, this war will be over a lot sooner than the world thinks.”
    “It’s insane,” was all his wife could reply, her eyes still lowered.
    “Sammie, put the ultrasonic on.”
    “My battery is too low,” she protested.
    “It doesn’t matter. I have to go now anyway. Just put it on, Sammie.”
    “Okay,” she replied, the earnestness in her husband’s voice compelling her to click the switch on the phone dock.
    Immediately, there was a buzz on both ends of the conversation as the dock vibrated ever so lightly, but steadily on the table. Craig leaned in and cupped the back of his wife’s head, pulling her toward him and kissing her. It wasn’t a perfect kiss—there wasn’t a taste or any moistness to it—but the softness of the ultrasonic waves forming the shape of his wife’s lips as she kissed him was priceless. They kissed for nearly a minute, unwilling to end their physical contact before suddenly, without warning, Samantha’s battery gave out.
    He leaned back in his hardback chair and stared into the empty place above the table where his wife’s visage had been only seconds earlier. “Bye, Sammie,” he whispered.

3
    Craig walked across a sprawling hangar at Cannon Air Force Base in New Mexico, toward a waiting shuttle bus. As he neared the bus and began to raise his arm to salute the driver, a voice called to him from behind.
    “Captain Emilson! Doc! The colonel wants to see you!”
    Craig turned to the young airman and nodded. “Where?”
    “I’ll take you to him.”
    Minutes later, the young airman saluted the colonel as he delivered Craig to the door. Craig stepped in and saluted as well. The colonel waved the young airman away before motioning to Craig to come in. “At ease. Grab a seat, Doc.”
    “Thank you, Colonel.” The colonel was sitting at a desk in a room so small that it appeared as though it may have been a converted supply closet; it was obvious that this was an impromptu conversation. The colonel was wearing augment glasses, reading something that was invisible to Craig.
    “You wouldn’t believe the phone call I just got not five minutes ago,” the colonel began.
    Craig listened intently but didn’t verbally respond; the colonel’s demeanor was deceptively casual, but it was a casualness that only went one way and was meant to demonstrate his power.
    “None other than the chairman of the Joint Chiefs. And do you know who he wanted to talk to me about?”
    Craig’s eyebrow rose inquisitively, but he remained silent.
    “You! How about that? The Joint Chiefs are about to assemble in the situation room below Mount Weather, and they’re all talking about you. You wanna know why you’re the topic of conversation, Doc?”
    “Yes, sir,” Craig replied.
    “See if this rings a bell,” Colonel Paine replied as his eye went back to the projection from his aug glasses. He tilted his head forward to select something and then began reading: “We don’t support this war. We don’t support this ridiculous Luddite government. I’m sick of this. You shouldn’t be there. ”
    “Holy—”
    “Yeah,” Colonel Paine nodded.
    “That wasn’t twenty minutes ago—”
    “Intelligent algorithms. Our Luddite government likes to use them so we can identify any interesting tidbits that might come up in a conversation.”
    Craig didn’t know how to respond. He wanted to deny the assertion that he thought the United States government was Luddite, but he couldn’t find the appropriate words. It didn’t matter—Colonel Paine was on a roll.
    “Your wife is pretty damned accomplished. A PhD when she was only twenty-six, recruited by the top nanotech lab in the country for her post-doc. But you’re no slouch yourself, Doc. You made it into med school before the world ended, back when it still meant something. You two are a couple of smart ones, all right. I bet you even think you’re smarter than your commanding officer.”
    Again, Craig desperately wanted to reply. He