PREFACE ADDED TO THE BACKSIDE OF THE COVER
These are odd days, I am starting this because the world is going crazy and I need all the help I can get to come to terms with it. And I have a lot to come to terms with. We all have. Sis, if you get this as the government sends you my stuff, you know why, show it to the kids when they are old enough. If they let you publish it, go for it, people deserve to and should hear how we saw the calamity and what we had to deal with. I used fake names though. You never know.
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ORIGINAL PREFACE ON THE PAGE FOR PREFACES
Dear journal (better than "to whom it may concern"),
I should have started this journal right away, but hindsight is always perfect, so let me add my recollections:
I had been drafted. That has become one of my lesser concerns. No, I am neither crazy nor one of those who cannot wait to get their uniform back like in the olden days. In fact I do not have a uniform. I have a badge that reads „Federal Office for Infrastructure Security – Special Auxillary Division – senior technical staff“, albeit a metal one going around my neck on a metal cord with the lower half with my name on it designed to be broken off. Yes, they do not expect all of us to come home in one piece. That is how you can draft a guy of my age with chronic medical issues. You call it civil auxillary service and skip the test of medical fitness a soldier would undergo.
Why did they take me? I am good at ritual magic. Yes, I am one of those wizards feared for arcane powers and now loathed for failing to stop the vampires right away. They tricked me. How was I supposed to know that this new game on my phone was based on real ritual magic? Whom am I kidding – that was a stroke of genius. The Network – back then it was only the one Network – had designed it. I like to complain, but legally speaking I technically still have a job I’ll keep when I’ll be released from federal service, because, as my colleagues are telling me, we are working in a strategic sector and they are now working on computerized detection of dimensional intrusion … . Cancel that, let’s call things by their names. They are hooking up the equipment for detecting monsters materializing to computers. Anyway, who cares, spilled milk.
Only one thing is important. They gave me an essence. That really removes any vestige of incredulity if you get it the third day after the government announced on TV that magic is real, the world is being invaded and the rural population would need to be concentrated in defensible areas. Sis, I know that you and I were not in the same camp, politically speaking. So let me tell you how that went. Though I stand by it. That was funny and the guy who used the term „concentrated“ deserves a price for dark humor.
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PAGE #1
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I drove to the place I would get my magic. Only that I didn’t know it. I’d spoken to my neighbor, the lawyer, and she’d told me to heed the letter. She was going to lodge an official complaint on my behalf, but for now I’d better play along. They sent us to a rural hotel near a US air base. I arrived in the afternoon. Mainly compact cars and a few old vans on the parking lot. We were about a hundred people, nine out of ten of us men. Wearing t-shirts and sandals. Grey beards prevailed. The one in the ten was young women oddly enough. I am allowed to use that stereotype. I am one of them. No socks, though.
We were met by an overworked government official and federal police. They collected our phones and laptops in exchange for temporary name badges unlocking our rooms. We had to sign a secrecy agreement. So far, no drill sergeant. More like the check-in at a high security corporate site.
Dinner was good. The place even had a pool. I used it. A state of emergency had been declared and the curfew was about to begin. I did not really believe in monsters, but who am I to risk a fine to see some stupid village while I could legally enjoy a hot whirlpool? Cancel that, let’s be honest. I was the kind of guy following orders. I would have sat around in the hotel anyway. But a hot pool is a hot pool.
Unfortunately it is also a public place, where you meet people, strangers even.
UM: Hi, long time since InfoSecConf
P: Ugh …
UM: Thomas Miller – from the company with the three letters
P: That rings a bell
T(UM): This is not like in the movies when you go to boot camp
P: Sir, yes, sir!
T: Ten swim-ups from you, recruit! Seriously, what are you thinking about all this?
That caught attention. Three more men and, among a group of nerds that makes a difference, a girl joined us. It is always embarrassing if somebody tells you that they remember you from a conference but you cannot recall the face. I am bad with faces and names. Anyway, we had watched clips of official announcements from all over the world and the infamous Starlight Rider. Sure they collected laptops and phones but left the hotel’s public terminals functional. We had had a good laugh at the government’s expense.
The prevailing theory was first contact with aliens using advanced space-time manipulation rather than space ships and the governments of the world getting it all wrong. We even went on to watch good, old TV together.
Not my cup of tea, too many people. Indeed I had a few cups of tea. Our beloved leader was on TV and announced food rationing would begin next week. That actually got a response from the staff and they put up a sign that members of the Special Auxillary Division are exempt from rationing and that their badge, specifically the special requisition code number and QR-code on the flip side, would replace the ration book. Splendid. I had some more tea. Take what you can get, while you can get it.