Inanna was chuckling as she edged the car through the roads to Georgetown. “Honey, do you find the idea of getting shot by a drunken general amusing?”
“Frankly boss, yes. Somehow you'd turn it into an advantage. That wasn't why I was laughing though. I was thinking about the phrase the Christians have in their Bible. 'When the end days come. Demons will walk the earth.' Does that make these the end days.”
The Seer didn't join her laugh. “All too probably I'm afraid. Technology development is moving much faster than people's ability to control that technology. That was obvious even as early as the Civil War. Even then, technology had moved faster than the ability to understand its implications. They were still trying to fight rifled muskets with Napoleonic tactics. Damn it, Sam should never have tried that last assault at Cold Harbor and he nearly shot himself when he realized what he'd done.
''Now, it’s a thousand times worse. We planned The Big One as a horrible example to the world of what the power of modern weapons really meant. Curt sees it the same way, just a different perspective. I don't think anybody has listened to either of us.”
“So the prophets were right then? Could it be some mystics are right?”
“Oh come on Inanna.” The Seer was slightly irritated. “In all the time we've been around, have you ever known a mystical prophet to be right? ’There will be accidents'. 'Important people will die'. 'There will be discontent.' 'Trade will be affected’ That's the best they can do. Vague generalizations that could mean anything and only mean something long after the event. Most of them were so far gone on hallucinogens that their minds were up in the clouds anyway.”
“What are you going to do about Loki, Seer? He hates you for not telling him that The Big One was about to happen.”
“I know, and it could have got him killed as well. Loki will get over it. It’s not the first time he's lost people due to his own lack of foresight. There was the Morrigan business a few years back. I've heard that was connected with the way Odin vanished from circulation but I expect I'll get the truth of it eventually. He'll cool down in the end. Any word from Suriyothai yet?”
“None yet, I think she's still tied up with the Moscow Conference. The status of Saigon or something.”
“We'll need to talk to her, Loki as well. Mostly Suriyolhai though, it looks like she was right after all. We can't carry on wandering from country to country avoiding trouble. We've run out of places to wander to. My guess is, here we are and here we'll stay. Its a good country and these are good people, we should cast our lot in with them. Eldest won't like that either, he's never approved of Suriyothai's attachment to her homeland. I don't think we have a choice though. We have to join the Americans and that means doing the best we can for them.”
“The Anvil of “Necessity.” Inanna's voice was thoughtful.
“That old Russian saying? Its true though. We have to stay with the Americans for both our sakes and necessity makes the alliance a strong one. I just pray that it’s strong enough. I don't know what's going to hit us eventually but something will and when it does it will be very, very nasty,”
The two occupants of the car settled back in silence, contemplating the future. Unknown to either of them, the wire recorder concealed in the car hissed gently as it transcribed the silence onto its reels.
The End