The Latter World
honorable mention from our October Flash Fiction Contest.
“Good evening, Mr. President.”
“Good evening,” Truman responded. “I, uh, read your recommendation regarding the bomb. I wanted some clarification.”
“Of course.”
“All you people are rather eccentric aren’t you?”
“We prefer the term ‘esoteric.’”
“I don’t think I care much to know the difference. You recommended using the A-bomb because … ” he petered off.
“It will destroy their gods.”
“Right. Their ‘gods.’”
“Yes, the soul of the Japanese people, the souls of the cities you will incinerate.”
“You’ve been an asset,” Truman admitted. “You broke the Jap and Nazi codes with your unique,” he paused, “skills. I don’t really understand it, but it’s winning the war. So please don’t think I am ungrateful. I’ve just never appreciated your kind’s magic talk. In layman’s terms, you think these atomic bombs will destroy the Japanese psyche or what-have-you more than napalm?”
“Yes. It is a harnessing of the basic power of the universe. The force from which the sun draws its power.”
“We have thousands of bombs and thousands of planes. I could roast that whole island like a rotisserie chicken.”
“Iwo Jima and Okinawa are hell on earth. The fighting has become apocalyptic.The spirit of the Japanese people is strong. Firebombs aren’t enough. We need to kill body and soul instantly. It takes an elemental weapon, the blurred edge of physicality and spirituality to do that.”
Truman grunted. “I’d be lying if I didn’t say I feel the movement towards this bomb. It’s like rowing against the Missouri with a spoon for a paddle,” the commander-in-chief looked off into the distance. “Well,” he began again. “The other reason, the more important reason, I brought you here was to discuss the strange things at the Trinity Test Site.”
“You mean the message?”
“Rather unusual to get a cryptic radio message during a weapon’s test, isn’t it?”
“Inconsequential,” the visitor said quickly.
“What an odd thing to hear coming from you. We get a strange one-word message, triangulated by our best people as coming from the center of the explosion, and you say it doesn’t matter?”
“Radio operators received a very garbled one-word message that they could make out as ‘abandon.’”
“Who said it? What does it mean?”
“There might be something on the other side.”
“What is it? Is it a threat to national security?” the President pressed.
“It is beyond what we can comprehend. My team sensed it during the flash point. As far as a threat to national security I would say: it is no more a threat to national security than the bomb itself.”
Truman leaned back in his chair and looked the visitor over.
“I could stop the project right now. I could firebomb and invade that island.”
“We can’t win a total victory that way. There aren’t enough American boys to send to their deaths.”
“I could say to hell with total victory.”
“Then we will have a settled peace with the Empire of Japan?”
There was a long silence before the President responded. “That’s not politically possible.”
“The bomb will destroy the god of Japan, what some call the body politic. Use it.”
“If this thing–this thing from behind the sky can send a message like that–it is clearly an intelligent force with capabilities unknown to us.”
“Mr. President, with all due respect, you don’t believe any of this anyway. You said it’s all ‘magic talk’ to you.”
“The boys at Trinity said they saw something move, a shadow in the blast zone, and then the message. Abandon what? Is it a command? Who is saying it and why? What happens if we don’t abandon?”
“Mr. President, you are passing up an opportunity to end the war without further American casualties due to a shadow and cryptic radio message.”
“Your kind is usually quick to find the psycho meaning in everything and now you’re trying to tell me it’s my imagination?”
The visitor pulled his lips back into a grin. Truman recoiled. The visitor spoke calmingly.
“Ok, Mr. President, let’s go down that rabbit hole. You now have a choice between two worlds. It is not the choice of whether you use the bomb, because sooner or later someone will use it. The first world is the world of science, where you end the carnage and bring peace to a war-wearied nation. The second is a world full of ghosts and monsters peeking out of hellmouths created by nuclear fission. That latter world is one where science is no different from magic, and every great scientist is a Faust. You tell me which one you believe in and I will tell you which one you belong to.”
The president cupped his face in his hands for a long moment. Finally, he lifted his head up and looked the visitor in the eyes. He was choosing which world before his eyes. He could ask more questions about the test or let it go. “It disappeared when the flash ended?”
“Yes. Untraceable, no sign of anything or that there ever was anything.”
“It’s reasonable to assume that that pattern would continue?”
“It’s reasonable. My team could monitor from the bomber if you’d prefer.”
“I’ll consider it. That will be all.”
The visitor said good night and left the oval office. Of course the test explosion was only a window. There needed to be blood as well to open a door. These bombs would give it all the disembodied souls it needed to step through. The target would become an atomic altar the size of a city. Some would have called it Ares, Mars, or Krishna. But he and his team had communed with it and received instructions. It was something so powerful and ancient that their minds were converted instantly to secret devotion. The radio men didn’t know history. They had done their best but the message was garbled. Only a psychic could properly translate the message which wasn’t “abandon” but “Abbadon.”