shining a bright light my way as if searching. I dug for my anti-laser goggles but couldn’t find them. There came a buzzing, a white-hot light scorching the air in my lungs so I buried my face to hide my eyes, feeling the heat singe the ground. Brandt sent us to die and now I was the only survivor. I dug into the soft ground and covered myself to hide my body heat from that thing and must have passed out. Then I was alone again with the smell of death hang- ing in the air.
Mildred checked her files, then checked again. No - impossible! She knew who the unknown author described. It was none other than Praetor Armin - ius, aka Brandt! He would have been a young officer back then -- how was this coincidence possible! Sending personnel to die was not an offense but someone proving it when you sought high office – the optics! Whoever the author was, they likely perished on that atoll so this tightly-bound secret ex- isted only to Mildred. And if there was any truth to the allegation he had been captured, he would be disqualified immediately from higher office – that was an unforgivable offense equated with cowardice. However, she also realized that due to his connections to Prefect Borgu, she would need to be very careful leveraging any accusations against him; after all, he had a strong benefactor who was known for his capriciousness. Ever since they had fitted the corpulent Borgu with a grav-seat, he’d been very bitter and moody. Losing his legs in an orbital bombardment had deleteri - ous effects. She recalled the last time she saw him, floating perhaps 3 meters above the rank and file on his platform like a demigod, his swollen face bark- ing vitriol about recent defeats and the inability to protect from the random attacks which had turned to rubble perhaps a tenth of the Enclave. His bloat - ed appearance raised many rumors that his staff were quick to squelch. Then she felt a resigned wave of shuddering realization: there was no coincidence – never. He was unmistakable, the scar the main clue. He was up for the prestigious “Order of Poseidon” and if she shared this allegation of cowardice or any kind of weakness…no telling what might come of it. But what to do? She was not a political actor, yet she knew full well how
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