Брюс Бетке - Expendables

"Have you ever seen someone who's been napalmed, Senator?" Meredith continued, low and guttural. "Have you ever seen a living face that's been burned down to cartilage and bone? I have. I've seen arms and intestines hanging from the trees like bloody fruit. I've watched a woman spend all day dying from a septic gut wound, and seen her children hobbling around on infected, oozing stumps.

"Does that disgust you, Senator? Death is supposed to make you sick. That's why it smells so bad. It's supposed to be the most nauseating, horrible, gut-twisting thing you could ever witness, and maybe that way you'll remember why you don't kill more often." Meredith released the Senator and turned away.

"Klein! Do you know what you've done? These bastards keep balance sheets in human lives! This many spent; that many taken: and if they take more than they spend, they win!

"You've given them cost-free war, Klein! No more soldiers' widows crying by the sides of flag-draped caskets. No more heart-broken kids wondering why daddy's never coming home again. No more maimed and mutilated veterans sitting out in public view, reminding the voters that war is really a vile business!

"You know what your Valkyrie really is, Klein? It's a crutch that lets slugs like the Senator here stand up tall enough to get their hands on the trigger! Be it in the name of national honor, or national pride, or whatever affront to their tiny little manhoods they're feeling this week, it doesn't cost them anything to launch the Valkyrie!"

Meredith's voice dropped. "That makes it too easy to use. They can forget the cost to the people it comes down on." Shaking his head, Meredith started walking slowly out of the room. "God, I wish I was a plain old prostitute," he muttered. "I'm sick and tired of feeling like some kind of pimp for Death."

The people at the door stepped aside and let him pass. When Meredith was gone, Klein blurted, "What the hell was that about?"

"It seems Mr. Meredith needs a career change," the corporate vice-president said grimly.

"A sad, sad, case," Senator Brock observed, shaking his head. "He was a war hero, you know; shot down over Vietnam. This must be that delayed stress syndrome they talk about."

"You see now why we need the A-43?" the active duty general added.

"Sometimes ordinary combat trauma will turn an otherwise good man into a totally useless wreck."

"Well, that's why we built it!" Klein said. "Our little baby is gonna save lives. Hey Ryan! Can you run that tape again?"

"Sure thing!" Ryan yelled back. Someone dimmed the lights, Ryan started the tape, and the Senator sent out for popcorn.

© Bruce Bethke 1988, 1998—"Expendables" was first published in Tales of the Unanticipated, Spring 1990.