turned around on the bike and saw flames shooting up from the industrial area she’d driven through just before. Flames popped up in a row to the north. There were more explosions, and then antiaircraft guns and sirens began to sound.
“Mara?”
“I’ll have to call you back,” she told Lucas.
“Hanoi’s on fire. It’s being bombed. The whole goddamn city, from the looks of it.”
Chaos
Oil Exports Down, Revenue Up in Malaysia
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (World News Service) — While oil exports dropped due to a decline in production at the Sahah off-shore oil fields, income rose by nearly eighty percent last year due to the continuing increase in energy prices, the oil ministry reported today.
The increase was roughly in line with analysts’ projections. Other oil producers, notably Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, have reported similar increases over the past week.
UN Begs Fresh Relief Effort in South America
Buenos Aires (World News Service) — UN Secretary General Cyrus Bapoto today called on Western governments to increase funding to aid countries in South America devastated by climate change.
Bapoto recited now all-too-familiar statistics detailing the devastation of agriculture in South American economies, including the virtual evaporation of Argentina’s beef production.
Until recently, Argentina accounted for approximately eight percent of world beef exports. A combination of decline in purchasing power of its traditional markets and widespread drought in the Pampa Humeda region have provided a double whammy to Argentina. The country’s economic crisis is even worse than 1999–2002, with the GDP expected to decline roughly twenty percent this year. The decline comes on top of a fifteen percent decline over the last six months of 2013.
Non-Rice Paddy Rice Scientists’ Dream
Giverney, France (Reuters-Gannet News Service) — Here in the bucolic town that once inspired some of the world’s most beautiful Impressionist painters, a French scientist is working on hybrid plants that he hopes will one day solve the world’s famine crisis.
His goal: rice that can be grown on dry land.
Professor Pierre Valois, 52, has already successfully bred several versions of the plant that require only about half the rainfall of the mainstream variants. He cautions, however, that he may be “five or six years” from finding a “waterless rice,” and that it may take ten years beyond that to prepare seeds for farmers in sufficient numbers to make production worthwhile.
More promising is a salt-water variety, which Valois says can be grown in ocean areas. The crop’s yield so far has been disappointing — merely one-tenth of a normal rice paddy — still, the scientist thinks rice may be grown in sea farms by the beginning of the next decade…
1
His chest and legs ached; his hip felt bruised. His neck, stiff from sleep, felt cold.
It was still dark, at least an hour if not more before dawn.
Slowly, he pushed himself from his side to his belly, then raised his head and chest. Gripping the pistol, he crawled from his hiding spot and slipped down to the path, rifle in his hand. There he turned around in a slow circle, pausing every few degrees to listen as best as he could to the jungle, trying to detect any sound made by machines.
When he was sure no one was nearby, Josh went back to the niche where he’d slept and took a drink of water from the soldier’s bottle. He slipped the pistol into his pocket. He did the same with the satellite phone, sliding it next to the video camera in his left pocket.
The satellite phone’s software lock made it impossible to check the calls-received list. But he knew the call hadn’t been a dream. Someone was going to help him.
In the meantime, he had to find some food. And a real place to hide.
Josh decided he would wait for the dawn, but after only a few minutes he found himself walking. It was impossible to stand still, he realized, and maybe even dangerous. When he came to a Y in the path, he turned left, believing it led south.
The farther south he was, the easier it would be for his rescuers, Josh thought. Here, he was too close to the Chinese border.
About fifteen minutes after starting, still before light, Josh smelled something burning. Immediately, he felt disappointed, almost depressed — smoke meant the people who lived in whatever village was nearby were awake already, which would make it hard for him to sneak in and find food. But he kept walking, slowing as he neared curves and pausing every so often to listen in case someone was coming.
The village had been built on the hillside above the path. The trail skirted around it, just at the edge of the jungle, coming no closer than a hundred meters. Josh didn’t realize this until he had gone about halfway around the settlement. He backtracked to a spot where his approach would be hidden by bushes, and began sneaking closer to the hamlet.
The sun was just about to rise; the trees and bushes in front of him seemed to have turned a light shade of blue, standing out from the gray.
The scent of tea wafted down the hill. Josh’s stomach began to rumble.
He was incredibly hungry. Should he show himself?
Josh heard voices. He lowered himself to his knees, trying to see who was talking. When he found he couldn’t, he began moving up the hill again, this time crawling on his hands and knees. He heard the light singsong of voices, but saw nothing until he came to a low fence or wall made of logs stacked two high and laid out on the edge of the slope.
Something moved just beyond the fence, shadows, people.
Men in uniform.
He stared through the trees. He could see only their legs, but he was convinced they were Chinese.
Josh began moving backward. Each sound he made seemed to echo around him, and with each push he thought the soldiers would finally hear him and rush down the hill to kill him.
Finally, he reached the trail again. He took a small sip of water and considered what to do.
Part of him wanted to go back and kill as many of the bastards as possible. The emotion, his anger, surprised him. He wasn’t sure where it came from. He should be afraid, petrified.
He
Going back was suicide, and he wasn’t ready for that. He didn’t need it — he was getting out. And he was going to help the world fight these bastards.
