The Long View - S Andrew Swann, ebook
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//-->"The Long View" By S. Andrew SwannMaxim came to his decision on New Year's Eve 1991,while he watched the last official State broadcast fromacross the river. He hated the announcer's clippedGerman. He could have listened to the English version ifhe flipped a switch on the set. He didn't bother.It was, perhaps, the thousandth time Maxim had heardabout the rising tide of democracy in the East. The lastwound from the war was about to be healed.The fact that the announcer could saythat, and say it witha straight face, was what decided Maxim.He turned off the set, left the university, and drove histwenty-year-old BMW downtown. There he bought ablack-market .32 caliber revolver from a homeless manwith an eastern accent. The man wouldn't take hisFederal currency. Fortunately, Maxim had some hardJapanese money.***All one country now, Gregg thought as he paced backand forth outside the TDP building, waiting for theprofessor. Reunification was a surreal thought. The Easthad been a separate place, apart from him. The Eastwas evil, repressive. They spoke a different languagethere.Now, suddenly, everything he had known in his life wasturned upside-down.We're joining together. The Russians are falling apart.Palestine is talking to the Jews. God, how the worldcould change in two years.Gregg was normally not this reflective. He was moreinterested in the fabric of space-time than the fabric ofhistory. It was Professor Maxim who had him thinkingalong these lines. Maxim himself was a little chunk ofhistory.An anachronistic chunk.The Federal University, within fifty kilometers of theborder, was supposed to be a pillar of cooperationbetween East and West. Professor Maxim didn't belonghere. Maxim had been a refugee, a former politicalprisoner, a reminder of history people were trying toforget.Gregg's breath fogged in the January air. Maxim wasHistory, Gregg was Physics. There really shouldn't havebeen anything to draw them together.Gregg looked at the TDP building.Except for this, he thought.***The graduate student's reaction to Maxim's plan was©1995 by Steven Swiniarski, all rights reserved.
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