Tomorrow War Read Free

had a quick flash of Y’s face about thirty minutes earlier.
    “I could have used that grand,” Zoltan told Y as he rustled through the few dollars he still had on the table.
    Y just shrugged. “Something more important has come up,” he said. “I have an assignment for you.”
    Zoltan’s spirits should have soared at this. In civilian life he was a professional psychic/nightclub hypnotist. But his bookings had been very sparse lately. With the war over and everyone seemingly certain about the near future, there was no need for the services of a psychic. Oddly enough, that had been the attitude while the war was on, as well.
    Now Y was offering him a job—maybe. But it would be for the Government and worse yet, the OSS. Not only did the intelligence service pay notoriously low wages, their assignments were usually fraught with danger.
    “What if I’m not interested?” he asked Y.
    Both Y and Crabb laughed. All three of them had spent time during the war against Germany in a place called Dreamland, up in Iceland. They all knew each other pretty well. And they knew if the gig was a paying one, Zoltan would be interested.
    “Here’s the dilly-oh,” Y began, looking across the smoky table at the middle-aged, goateed psychic. “Hawk Hunter is missing. I’ve been ordered to find him. I can pick anyone I want to help me. My own psychic instincts are telling me I should pick you.”
    Zoltan just stared back at him. He knew Hunter of course. They were friends—sort of.
    “Missing?” he asked. “Missing where?”
    “That’s top secret … ,” Y replied.
    Zoltan looked deeply into the OSS man’s eyes. Then his face turned a bit pale.
    “Aw, shit … that huge bombing?” he gasped. “The bomb that sunk Japan? Hunter was in on that?”
    “He sank Japan for Christ’s sake, who else could have done that?” Crabb said from the door.
    Zoltan closed his eyes and felt a shiver go through him.
    “Man, he wasted the place …,” he said slowly, conjuring up a mental image of the newly expanded Sea of Japan. “I can’t tell you how many dead. But the vibes I’m getting tell me they were mostly military. Could that be so?”
    Y nodded. “Most of the main island is gone. That’s the reports we get. And that it was totally under military control. Most civilians had been deported about six months before.”
    Zoltan nodded. “Yes, somehow I knew that.”
    Y looked up at Crabb, who opened the door and magically reached out and retrieved a tray carrying a bottle of scotch, a pot of coffee, and three huge mugs. He set it on the table, poured out three cups of thick joe, then added a gigantic splash of scotch to a pair of the steaming brews. He pushed one of the booze-laden mugs in front of Zoltan, taking the other laced coffee for himself.
    All three men took a huge swig. Zoltan more than the others.
    Then Y reached inside his uniform pocket and came out with a photo of the huge B-2000 bomber that had dropped the superbomb on Japan.
    Zoltan took one look at the airplane and felt another series of shivers go through him.
    “Oh, man, them is some bad vibes,” he said, nervously pulling on his goatee. “Talk about the angel of death. And look at the size of that thing!”
    “Are you saying it will be easy to find?” Y asked.
    Zoltan studied the photo. The airplane looked like a battleship with wings.
    “Even the moon is hard to find if you don’t know where to look for it,” he replied solemnly.
    “OK,” Y said finally. “Here’s what I have to do: I’ve been ordered to assemble a small—a very small—expeditionary force. We transit to Asia and look for, and hopefully find, Hawk and the rest of his crew.”
    Zoltan looked up at him. “And … ?”
    “And your government has requested that you come along,” Y told him.
    Zoltan’s mind flashed through a series of images: bowls filled with rice, stagnant water, and snakes. Lots and lots of snakes. He shivered again.
    “What would be my role exactly?” he