Midnight by Anna Dove (love books to read txt) 📗

of what he perceived to be the worst evils humanity could face-that is, nuclear war. He believed that the United States would benefit from advancing their nuclear technology to the point that no other country, primarily Russia, would dare try to attack. Now, Katrin was a teenager when he was working on this. She inherited his scientific mind, his love of physics, and easily understood his college-level lesson plans at the age of thirteen. From a very young age she helped him on his projects.”

         Jack paused, and looked around the room. All eyes were trained on his face, listening with rapt attention as she annunciated each word clearly.

         “She was seventeen when the Russians found out. Her father disappeared one night, and she never did see him again. She fled with her mother to Paris, where she lived undercover for twenty years, and then her mother passed away in her sleep naturally and peacefully. Katrin continued throughout this time to develop her understanding of nuclear physics and maintained contact with the United States. A few years after, she was discovered in Paris by the FSB, and the Marines sent a team to extradite her from the dangerous situation. Katrin flew to a suburb of Paris, where she barely escaped with the Marines team. One of those Marines was me.”

A ripple of shock issued through the audience.

“Katrin and I developed a relationship. She told me everything--all the details of every project she had ever worked on; she was the best teacher I could have asked for. I learned it all, and bragged about her and about my knowledge to my friends in the Corps. We lived so happily together for a while in Annapolis, and then I was called away again, with no chance to communicate while I was gone. The first thing I saw when I looked for her upon my return was her obituary in December of 2021. I threw myself into my work, earned lots of awards, and then last year I was sent with a special team to oversee the development of a nuclear weapon on Baker Island, which is a U.S. territory in the Pacific less than one square mile in area.”

He took a deep breath and his hands gripped the witness stand. His fingers were sweaty and cold and his heart raced. He cleared his throat and looked at the sea of faces upturned to his own.

“I was told that it was for testing over the Pacific, like Operation Fishbowl had been. For a few months I stayed on Baker Island, in an underground bunker, monitoring the construction of the nuclear weapon. At that point I was sent home again to the mainland, because I had succumbed to post traumatic stress disorder from my previous missions. But before I left, one particular individual came to visit several times, to check on the construction. It was the Chief of Staff, Snyder Reed.”

Sharp inhales, and then low murmurs, as people shifted in their seats. The prosecution again screamed “OBJECTION” but before he could finish, the Justice bellowed, “OVERRULED, PROCEED.”

“He came several times. I am sure that if there are paper copies of his travel records, they will corroborate this. He was very interested in the details, and asked me for a lot of information. He wanted to be sure that it would be ready for testing before the summer. But, after a few months I was sent back to the mainland. I originally had a stipend for food and housing, but I grew dependent on alcohol and then was disqualified for the stipend. However, an old friend from the military, who worked at that time in the Chief of Staff’s office, kept me supplied with fifteen thousand dollars per month, ensuring that I stayed good and drunk.”

“OBJECTION--”

“Sustained.”

“Well,” said Jack, “I did stay good and drunk. I was useless. When the attack happened, I fled the city up to northern Maryland, where I lived for a while with other survivors, and I got sober along the way. Our group returned when we heard that Mrs. Gilman was running for president, because we knew that she was having an affair with Snyder Reed.”

A collective gasp, and then shouts, and the Justice pounded his gavel fruitlessly for five minutes.

Was it true? The people looked from Jack to Reed to Adela, the latter of whom was sitting silently and composedly, save for a slight color in her cheeks.

“We came back,” continued Jack once the noise had subsided. “And here, I found the one thing I thought I would never have.”

In the crowd, a woman stood up. She was small and silver haired.

Jack, seeing her, smiled, and as the room watched, she slid out from the row into the aisle.

“Your Honor,” cried the prosecution desperately amidst a flurry of papers, “Who is this? We must bring this trial to the District Court again! This is not justice, this is not right!”

“I am a witness, my name is Katrin Von Gorben,” she replied in a quiet voice, “If I may.”

The Justice leaned back in his seat. One one hand, this really should be going to trial court, now that more evidence was coming to light. On the other, he was personally riveted by the turn of events. It is not every day that one sees dead people come back to life.

“Will the witness approach the bench. Will the current witness sit down.”

The prosecuting attorney threw his hands in the air with an “objection--this should be retried--”

“Overruled.”

The prosecuting attorney sat down with a blank expression.

As Katrin reached Jack, she embraced him.

“I’m so proud of you,” she whispered.

         Jack felt his old self melting away all of a sudden. Gone were the demons of despair and hopelessness—he had crushed their heads below his heel. Gone were the long nights blurred by glass bottles and an unquenchable thirst. Gone was his maddening