already been reported, that our soldiers in this
effort are clones, not conscripted citizens. Not one lost life has been a son
or daughter, nor a father or mother of our nation. Some have questioned the use
of clones, but the overwhelming response of our people has been positive. I
find this progressive attitude to be encouraging. It is a blessing from our
Creator to have grasped the science which allows us this power, the power to
create an animated replication of life. These clones are the result of decades
of research and effort from the greatest minds of our time.
“Now
I wish to lay out my aims for this war. I do not desire to annihilate our
neighbors. I do not want to conquer them. I look at our efforts in a similar
light to the United States’ bombing of Japan in August of 1945. Such an act,
while devastating in the short term, brought years of peace and friendship between
those two nations. It also saved millions of lives. I, too, wish only to save
lives from the horrible effects of war and violence. Because of this, I have
reached out to President Marnyo in the spirit of diplomacy. I have told him
that our objectives are threefold.
“First,
I will declare a ceasefire if the NWG will publicly admit to and apologize for
the nefarious attacks on our soil through their funded terrorist program.
Second, they make reparations of these damages amounting to eleven billion dollars.
Finally, they begin to make steps toward adopting the CAG constitution. Our
hope is that over the course of the next ten years, all NWG territories will
accept limited, and then full representation in our government. It is my hope
that they embrace the concept of an American World Government!”
“Turn
it off,” Jeffie told Levu, who sat closest to the holo-screen. “I don’t want to
listen to that liar anymore.”
A
few of the Betas protested.
“I
don’t care!” Jeffie told them. “Nothing he says is true.”
“I
want to watch it,” Ludwig said. “You’re not in charge.”
The
hologram of President Newberry disappeared. Levu held the remote. Ludwig and a
few other Betas glared at her.
“Jeffie’s
right,” Levu stated, brushing back her long dark hair from her face. “All we
hear from him is lies.”
“It
doesn’t matter,” Ludwig responded. “Some of us want to be informed about what’s
happening out there.”
“This
isn’t being informed, Ludwig,” Brickert said. “Don’t act like you didn’t see
the footage from the NWG news station last night. President Newberry just said
they’d only made three strikes against us. Try six. He conveniently left out
Tokyo, Taipei, and Lisbon. You can’t trust this government. Those terrorist attacks
he mentioned were orchestrated by his government, not us, I’ll tell you!”
“Relax,
Brick,” Ludwig said. “I don’t need you telling me what Sammy’s already said.”
Brickert
looked like he wanted to hit Ludwig. Instead he turned to Sammy. “Tell him,
Sammy. Tell him what the—”
“I
never said I don’t believe Sammy.” Ludwig shot Sammy a nasty glance and then
looked away. “But like I’ve been saying for the last week, I get the feeling
that we don’t have all the information about what’s going on.”
“Like
what?” Li asked.
Ludwig
ticked off his fingers. “Why were there clones of Sammy in Orlando? Why would
the guy who runs the whole government want to play a game of chess with Sammy? Why
did he want to kill all the Betas and Alphas except Sammy? And most of all, why
does everything keep pointing back to Sammy ?”
Sammy
felt several eyes on him. Obviously Ludwig wasn’t the only one with these
questions. Despite not knowing what to say, Sammy felt he owed his friends a
response. Only a week ago, his friends snuck out of Beta headquarters, flew with
him to Orlando, and fought Aegis and Thirteens in an underground parking garage
while he sat in a lavish penthouse and played the fox in two games of chess.
“Commander
Wrobel gave the CAG a