Epistolary fiction; Science fiction; Short stories
Naturally, my Government cannot deviate from our present just and
reasonable attitude in the Khakum River question. Trusting that your
Government will realize this, I have the honor to be,
Your obedient and respectful servant,
Wu Fung Tung
_From N. Y. TIMES, Feb. 20, 1984:_
AFGHAN RULER FETED AT NANKING
Ameer Shere Ali Abdallah Confers
With
UPREA Pres. Sung Li-Yin
_UEESR Foreign Minister Dzhoubinsky to Maxim G. Krylenkoff, Ambassador
at Nanking:_
3 March, 1984
Comrade Ambassador:
It is desired that you make immediate secret and confidential repeat
secret and confidential inquiry as to the whereabouts of Dr. Dimitri
O. Voronoff, the noted Soviet rocket expert, designer of the new
guided missile _Marxist Victory_, who vanished a week ago from the
Josef Vissarionovitch Djugashvli Reaction-Propulsion Laboratories at
Molotovgorod. It is feared in Government circles that this noted
scientist has been abducted by agents of the United Peoples' Republics
of East Asia, possibly to extract from him, under torture, information
of a secret technical nature.
As you know, this is but the latest of a series of such
disappearances, beginning about five years ago, when the Khakum River
question first arose.
Your utmost activity in this matter is required.
Dzhoubinsky
_Ambassador Krylenkoff to Foreign Minister Dzhoubinsky:_
9 March, 1984
Comrade Foreign Minister:
Since receipt of yours of 3/3/'84, I have been utilizing all resources
at my disposal in the matter of the noted scientist D. O. Voronoff,
and availing myself of all sources of information, e.g., spies, secret
agents, disaffected elements of the local population, and including
two UPREA Cabinet Ministers on my payroll. I regret to report that
results of this investigation have been entirely negative. No one here
appears to know anything of the whereabouts of Dr. Voronoff.
At the same time, there is considerable concern in UPREA Government
circles over the disappearances of certain prominent East Asian
scientists, e.g.. Dr. Hong Foo, the nuclear physicist; Dr. Hin
Yang-Woo, the great theoretical mathematician; Dr. Mong Shing, the
electronics expert. I am informed that UPREA Government sources are
attributing these disappearances to us.
I can only say that I am sincerely sorry that this is not the case.
Krylenkoff
_Wu Fung Tung to Vladmir N. Dzhoubinsky:_
21 April, 1984
Estimable Sir:
In accordance with our established policy of free exchange with
friendly Powers of scientific information, permit me to inform your
Government that a new mutated disease-virus has been developed in our
biological laboratories, causing a highly contagious disease similar
in symptoms to bubonic plague, but responding to none of the
treatments for this latter disease. This new virus strain was
accidentally produced in the course of some experiments with
radioactivity.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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