Pure Spite

Episode 6

There were two realms that were unaffected by the Monster. First space, the men on the Space Station panicked. They watched below as the bright lights of civilization changed to the dull fires of disorder. They could do nothing.

The satellites were all simply fine. The American secret space platform, with twenty MIRV warheads, sat in its hidden orbit. The Russians, we knew, had their platform. It was only filled with fifteen warheads. Both platforms could hold twenty–five warheads each. The Chinese were left on the planet with the largest army and the most ammo. Plus, what about killer satellites? Everything in space was ready and waiting for a signal.

The other realm unaffected by the monster was under the sea. The skimmers or surface ships were useless hulks. The mighty aircraft carriers, adrift.

To the submariner it was everything was fine, then no signals from home. Most did not know what to think. The North Koreans knew that this cowardly act could only have been done by the Imperialist Americans and moved to take revenge. Under extreme silent running and at a speed of 4 knots, they crept towards their target.

Iran's strategic submarine came near the surface. As it clandestinely prepared to launch its load, it was not alone. On a hydrophone, the Israeli fast attack submarine broadcast its only warning.

In Arabic, they said, "You have thirty seconds to surface, or you will not see the sky again. Say that you agree over your hydrophone."

Over the hydrophone, the fast attack counted down, "29, 28, 27, 26, come on guys, 21, 20, 19, What can you do? Why die? 14, 13, 12, 11, I will fire at zero, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2"

"Okay, okay, we will surface," the Iranians said.

They surfaced and were forced to take their sub was taken to Israel. Everybody else with submarines used them to secure their borders.

After three days, I was taken to Washington DC. It seemed some vehicles had escaped the death sentence. The old diesel motors, which ran on glow plugs, would work. One had to park on a good hill to start the truck as it rolled downhill, with no starter motors. The modern diesel had too much computer control. They did not work.

In DC, I was taken to a room operated by the FBI. There was power and lights.

The agent came in with his files and sat down, "So you caused this."

I grinned and said, "I released the monster."

The agent said, "Okay, and just what kind of monster was this, you released. I've got one guy who called on God. There is yet another who said 'The Holy Word.' A guy says he's in charge of a secret society, and they use their death ray. The last guy says the little black box he has, with a dial and a push-button switch, is what caused everything. Each threatens to do it again and wipe out humanity."

I said, "Nope! You can't do it again, with no infrastructure. You don't have the power grid for it right now. Want me to do it again? I'll need a new sixty-foot diameter tesla coil. I burned mine out, releasing the monster. In my set up in Vegas could be resurrected."

He said, "Could you make one here?"

"Sure, I guess." I said, "What is the power source? I need about a megawatt to pump the planet. You got the power?"

"You make us a monster maker."

"Sure," I said.

"First, I need a wooden support. Then I'll need as much quad ought wire as you can get, some copper tubing, and as many high current caps as you can find."

That afternoon I had what I had asked for and four assistants. They knew how to make a Tesla coil.

I said, "We need a map of the sewer system here. I used an ultrasonic scanner tied to a laptop to map and calculate the harmonic frequencies that will let us reach into the Monster zone. You have a laptop computer?"

The next day I had a new laptop. We tried the system together, and it took two weeks to plot the sewers in DC. By the end, I calculated the frequencies and picked the best resonance I could create.

"We will have to set up and resonate the tank to see if it will load the signal to pump the planet. We may have to adjust the size of the cavities to tune it."

It took a day to fine-tune the system. That evening we got a visit from an Army General.

He said, "You say this thing is ready?"

I said, "Yeah, sure, you want to release the monster again? Let's do it. Just tell me when."

He brought me into the corner where no one else could hear.

"I may," he said, "If you have a messenger, come to you in the evening and say the code phrase, the cats are barking in the pool. Then, release the monster at dawn."

I got the distinct impression that the people with me were babysitting me. For two days, we could go anywhere I wanted, but I was never alone. We ate at the best places in DC. We had gone out for dinner. When we got back, a uniformed messenger was waiting for us.

They walked up to me alone and said, "The General wanted me to tell you. The cats are barking."

I said, "I understand. You may leave."

One of the babysitters came up to me later, just before we went to bed, and said, "I supposed you will want up an hour or so before dawn, right?"

"I why yes I do. How did you know?"

The person said, "I saw the messenger and just assumed the General wanted the device energized at dawn."

"I see."

Sure enough, I was awakened an hour before dawn. I walked up to the control panel and saw that someone had the local generators revved up to the full output. The power was available. One of the new babysitters watched everything I did very intently.

About fifteen minutes to dawn, that person walked over to me as I sat at my desk and said, "Aren't you going to fire the device this morning?"

"No, I am not." I said, "The passphrase was wrong."

"Damn it. We paid good money for the phrase."

He produced a strange-looking device. It made a weird noise. A rather ominous tube pointed at me. The other two agents jumped at the hostile. Quickly, there was a bright violet beam that touched the agents, and they were vapor.

"Get it ready to go, now. Unless you want to be vapor."

"No. Shoot me and guess how it works."

The other person with the hostile walked up to me and hit me in the jaw. I fell backward and propped myself on my elbows.

I looked up and said, "I disabled it last night. You will never figure it out. Shoot me, Jerk!"

"You stupid human," they said, "Bow down and worship me. We are your Gods."

I went back to cross-checking data, "No, I think not."