Sea of Sacrifice
J. Schultz
THE SECRET CACHE Senior Inspector Mildred LuGato [now Tier-26] adjusted to the harsh lighting in the inspection room, now finally alone, having dismissed the other junior-ranking personnel due to the find. She was told the item was recov- ered from a secret cache discovered in a recent raid on rumored separatists; constables also noticed the name “Greeda Kanjou” scrawled on a scrap of paper buried with it. Secret cache? That got her attention…before her sat a faded, crinkled, dry-rotted greenish-brown IR-absorbent poncho folded tightly in a squarish shape. The unevenly weathered camouflage (the old “Rain Pattern No. 22-Z”) suggested years of storage as if tightly folded long ago. More importantly, it smelled faintly of mud, rain and fecundity, downright earthy, as if hard use permeated the material. She estimated it as perhaps 20 years old or more. She did not open the folded item, just stared at it, turned it over and almost let it fill the small space with that faint, yet distinct, odor. Her brain was trying to locate the smell’s origin in her immense repository of obscure knowledge that propelled her to this moment. She took out an old gravity knife, given as an award from a former commander, and placed it on the table. The battered old weapon reminded her of why she did her job and helped to focus her thoughts on whether she needed it or not. She was told only she was cleared to investigate the find, so now it was up to her and no telling how important the find actually was. She chose this room as it had no surveillance and whatever she discovered would be known to her only. One could never be too sure, not in these tumultuous times. Official Bekanntmachungen told one story, yet she knew deep inside the Enclave swirled in a deep malaise, whether from poor leadership, supply difficulties, technological shortfall, political intrigue, spionazhe or likely a combination of those factors. Comrades she once thought of as reliable, now she questioned, and that made her job harder. Were the constant warnings about fifth columnists, saboteurs and/or traitors hiding under
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