01/06/2024 Snippet, PICKMAN’S MODELS.

This might end up a stretch goal. Pondering.

“There are some doors you need to not open, Commander.” Rushan Turkel told him. “Some rooms are sealed for a reason.”

Tobias scowled at the woman on the other end of the call. Turkel these days had graduated from being the Qocho Khaganate’s Lunar spymistress to being the Chinese Coalition’s. He was mildly surprised she didn’t have Hu’s job; but then, would she even want it? “This is not a great time to be vague, Rushan,” he told her. “None of us have the time.” He had a very, very horrible thought. “This isn’t leading up to an admission that you have secret reserves, is it?”

“No!” Turkel sounded legitimately outraged at the suggestion, he thought —

I agree, Commander, Asenath whispered in his head.

— but she didn’t look angry at him for making it. There’d been a few groups that had tried to hoard supplies, in the earliest days of the apocalypse. It hadn’t ended well for any of them, but the reaction had almost wrecked the remaining inhabited bases. People just weren’t reacting calmly to things beyond a certain point, anymore. Which was the real reason Tobias supported Hu’s biofeedback classes. Every little bit helped.