Excerpt from Down Time [Click to head to Down Time’s Amazon page]
You could almost hear Gamma radiation passing through the briefing room. If pins dropped they might scare half the people here to death.
“You have been called here because the rules of engagement have changed, ladies and gentlemen. Colonel Reich is the past. Consider him yesterday’s news. You should know that the Alphas now stand on the brink of death. You have had the luxury of several unsanctioned missions these past few months, but all that is over.
“Whatever reasons you might have had, excellent or fair or even poor, those reasons will not fly with me. I am not here to lay blame. I am certain that circumstances were compelling enough that the leadership here lost control of their wits, but this is not how the Alphas will operate under me.
“I understand also that Colonel Reich was, and I quote, very receptive to the concerns and beliefs of those under his command. You are, of course, welcome to protest how a quasi military operation is run. I will have staff on hand ready write down your complaints and mail them directly to the devil’s flaming arsehole.
“I am sorry to hurt your little feelings, people, but this group is responsible for saving the world. And that means quick-thinking, decisive strikes, with full congressional and United Nationals approval. As it now stands, your feelings on the matter are irrelevant to what is necessary for helping save the planet.
“When I was a boy, I was tasked with relocating manure. Cow pies needed to be transported from the fields into a tractor trailer for transport and sale. I shoveled shit for ten years on that farm, and not once did my feelings enter into the situation. You would do well to remember that.”
In half an instant, Colonel Meehan had just transformed himself into Colonel Manure, though of course no one would ever sling such shit to the good Colonel’s face.