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Jerry pulled back to his chair. He rested the gun in his lap. |
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Wiley took a few deep, wheezy breaths. "It was a project funded by the US Army. It was top secret and only a handful of people worked on it." His voice was trembling. He glanced at the photograph. "Please don't hurt her . . ." |
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"Please, I want your word." |
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Wiley let out his breath, and his large belly looked like a balloon deflating. For the next several minutes he outlined the nature of Project Black Flag. "The Vietnam war was raging without an end in sight. Some people were concerned that even if the war ended, the conflict would go on for generations, the way it had for the previous two generations. The Communists had been battling different Vietnamese regimes since the forties. There were worries that a war of attrition would go on into the next century. And that's where the idea of Black Flag came from, out of the need to put an end to the hostilities. At the time, I'm afraid I didn't care much about moral implications. Nor did the others. One man's boy was tortured and killed by the VCs. He was nineteen. We were too outraged not to go along with it." |
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"A genocide virus." Jerry's mouth made an O of comprehension. "Thus, Black Flag." |
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Wiley nodded. "Horrible code." |
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Wiley glared at him, then dropped his eyes to the glass of port. "It was designed to sterilize the male population of North Vietnam. Or any future enemy, I suppose. The idea was to administer it through the water supply. Without any noticeable side-effects, it would target spermatozoon cells and reverse the transcriptive of the genetic information. At least that was the plan. Coincidentally, the project was a major breakthrough in genetic engineering." |
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"Visions of a gook-free future." |
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Wiley rubbed a spot on his forehead, partly shading his eyes. "Not the way I'd put it," he said softly. |
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"Or wop-free, Jew-free, Arab-free, even WASP-free. The mind bog- |
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