{"id":16672,"date":"2017-10-12T17:45:04","date_gmt":"2017-10-12T17:45:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/?p=16672"},"modified":"2017-10-12T17:45:04","modified_gmt":"2017-10-12T17:45:04","slug":"life-island-times-red-death-chapter-eight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/life-island-times-red-death-chapter-eight\/","title":{"rendered":"Life &#038; Island Times: Red Death Chapter Eight"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/101217-1LIT.jpg\" alt=\"101217-1LIT\" width=\"550\" height=\"351\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-16674\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/101217-1LIT.jpg 550w, https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/101217-1LIT-300x191.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/101217-1LIT-440x281.jpg 440w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 550px) 100vw, 550px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Marlow was searching his files for the finishing touch graphics for his Brazilian destroyer piece, when the Commanding Officer&#8217;s secretary appeared on his screen.  She told him that the boss wanted to go over the piece.  He alerted Aenid and they headed for CO&#8217;s office.<\/p>\n<p>When they entered, they found the CO slumped over their one-pager with an undisguised look of displeasure in his eyes.  \u201cSit down,\u201d he said, \u201cI have a few suggestions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>They sat down and made themselves comfortable. They might as well &#8212; for in Marlow&#8217;s brief experience, a few suggestions usually took at least an hour.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m a little disappointed in this draft,\u201d he began. \u201cI thought opintel analysts understood the need to write simply and clearly.  I know Aenid writes well. I\u2019m familiar with her work, and this section on the NORK exercises is very much to the point. Now, Marlow, you&#8217;re young and will develop a better feel for the Center&#8217;s style in time. Too much gobbledygook in your paragraph.  No policymaker is going to understand what&#8217;s there.  I do, of course, because I&#8217;m an older than dirt Cold Warrior,\u201d he was quick to add with a smile, \u201cbut they won\u2019t.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Marlow shifted himself slightly forward as he saw his one chance.  He was too young to realize that he was about to risk everything in a single dice roll with what then came out of his mouth.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWell, sir, how about this.  &#8216;Surprise launch of NORK \u201cRed Death\u201d missile submarine dot dot dot nearly undetectable dot dot dot equipped with unknown cruise and ballistic missiles dot dot dot IOC could  destabilize world balance of power&#8217;?&#8221; <\/p>\n<p>\u201cAenid, Lt, this has got to run tonight.  No more delays or happy-to-glads.  Turn this into a brief and get ready to lean forward on this.  Write what you think.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As they walked back to their spaces, Aenid almost passed out from the shock of Marlow&#8217;s boldness.  Her twins were fully clustered and heaving.  He attended to her while keeping it above  board.  <\/p>\n<p>With the CO&#8217;s backing, Marlow told Aenid that tech expert Karen&#8217;s negative reactions tomorrow would have no impact.  They would address her concerns with standard school taught, weasel words like &#8220;according to one source\u201d and \u201ccould be.\u201d As he sat in front of his screen in the late afternoon he knew that he was caught between the devil and the deep blue sea.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2017 My Isle Seat<br \/>\nwww.vicsocotra.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Marlow was searching his files for the finishing touch graphics for his Brazilian destroyer piece, when the Commanding Officer&#8217;s secretary appeared on his screen. She told him that the boss wanted to go over the piece. He alerted Aenid and they headed for CO&#8217;s office. When they entered, they found the CO slumped over their [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-island-times"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16672"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16672\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16675,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16672\/revisions\/16675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}