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1dd63bd
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the strongest manacles are born in the blood.
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Charles Stross |
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b270817
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concentrate on my deep breathing and the whole mindfulness shtick and on trying not to casually squeeze the contents of a taxiing aluminum tube of intercontinental goodness into my imaginary mouth--it's a Boeing 777 or Airbus A330 and it's nearly two miles away, a distantly rational part of me realizes--
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Charles Stross |
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2f39638
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reach into my travel bag and pull out my hacked Palm computer,
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Charles Stross |
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31ff383
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I know just how devoted to this organisation you are. Draftees back in my day used to understand what they'd got themselves into, but you young ones . . ." 'Ask not what you can do for your country, but what your country has ever done for you?' I raise an eyebrow at him. He"
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Charles Stross |
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5ee5861
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Very good, Mr. Howard. They were the ones who didn't try to second-guess their commanding officer. Can I suggest that in future you take a leaf from their book and refrain from poking your nose into things you have been told do not concern you? Or at least learn not to be so predictable about it." "Ah--" "Go away before I mock you," he says, sounding distantly amused. I"
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Charles Stross |
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1484039
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It's insane, but no more insane than Japan shutting down its entire nuclear reactor fleet in the middle of a heat wave because an extreme tsunami washed over one plant, or the USA invading a noninvolved Middle Eastern nation because a gang of crazies from somewhere else knocked down two skyscrapers. In a sufficiently large crisis, sane and measured responses go out the window. But sanity
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Charles Stross |
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e56bbbb
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It's almost as if Congress has no idea that a giant occult power struggle for control of the US government is in progress ... or perhaps it's over already, and a ruthless media clamp-down by tongue-eating mind control parasites is the only thing keeping the world from learning about the takeover of DC by gibbering alien nightmares. I
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Charles Stross |
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4fb981e
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The food's very good," I offer defensively. "It's not that"--she gazes past my shoulder--"it's the culture. It's very Californian. I wasn't expecting the rot to have reached London yet." "We are Bay Aryans from Berkeley: prepare to be reengineered in an attractive range of colour schemes for your safety and comfort!" "Something like that." A waitron"
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Charles Stross |
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b3d6bb0
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Some invasions barely warrant the name.
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Charles Stross |
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45ab46b
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The vampire has just realized she's in a meeting populated exclusively by spooks and people who go bump in the night.
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Charles Stross |
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872b973
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Crawling eldritch horrors don't get planning permission unless they're Trump's hairpiece.)
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Charles Stross |
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2a94e62
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Emma has switched from sanguine to sanguinary in a matter of seconds,
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Charles Stross |
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a0d11f4
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the geas in question draws its power from the sum over time of the entire loyal British population's faith in the Crown since that charter was established over four centuries ago. Which adds up to something like ninety million person-centuries-worth of belief. Hence the, shall we
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Charles Stross |
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21ae9c3
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If you're a humble believer set on doing your deity's will, then what are you doing spending the take on Lamborghinis and single malt?
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Charles Stross |
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d1825c7
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All right." Panin sips at his wine. "Excuse me, but--there is a personal connection?" "What?" "You appear unduly upset ..." "Yes." She looks at her hands. "The missing officer is my husband." Panin puts his glass down and leans back, very slowly, with the extreme self-control of a man who has just realized he is sharing a table with a large, ticking bomb. "Is there anything I can do to help?" "Yes."
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Charles Stross |
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d020135
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See, it's the sudden cognitive whiplash that does it. One moment you're cruising along effortlessly at thirty thousand feet while the cabin crew slosh the whisky around in business class, the next you're in a screaming death-spiral with flames pouring from the hole where the starboard engine was meant to be before some toe-cheese puked a missile up its exhaust. It takes a little time to switch mode from business-as-usual to six-alarms-emerg..
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Charles Stross |
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1aa67d3
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since the draw-down in forces triggered by the 2010 defense review, the units the Laundry can draw upon have been depleted. There are now just two SAS squadrons, 120 men in total, to cover all contingencies: and only half of them are available at any given time. If the shit really hits the fan they can draw on the regular Army and the Air Force for support, but there will be delays in getting everyone up to speed.
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Charles Stross |
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daa9c48
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Policia genetica! !Usted, expulsado ahora mismo del acervo genetico!
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Charles Stross |
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4ce3fc6
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ever since that time of unbound paranoia the one unbreakable law of the British secret services has been: Thou shalt not snoop on Number Ten. Because we are not in the business of generating policy--it's not a task for which agencies like ours are suited, and in those countries where spooks set policy, it always ends in tears. We vet politicians on the way up--that's an entirely different matter--but by the time they're moving into Number T..
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Charles Stross |
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dd07056
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There is probably no way of explaining Project Koschei, or XK-PLUTO, or MK-NIGHTMARE, or the gates, without watering them down into just another weapons system -- which they are not. Weapons may have deadly or hideous effects, but they acquire moral character from the actions of those who use them. Whereas these projects are indelibly stained by a patina of ancient evil ...
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nuke
nukes
cthulhu
nuclear-war
weapons
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Charles Stross |
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a522415
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All around the UK, the lights are going out and the shutters are falling across the doors of dozens of offices and remote installations. The lights will stay on for a while longer at a handful of sites that are only tenuously connected to the rest of the nation, sites that are isolated by virtue of the perilous forces they work with or by the most draconian of security perimeters; but the orders have been issued, and by Friday evening the L..
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Charles Stross |
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fff7d27
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When humans gather, crime is certain.
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Charles Stross |
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ad25583
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There are races that do not enslave, do not slay, do not war. There are races which do not lie or falsify. You think them weak? But they are among the strongest and finest denizens of the Will. They waste no treasure, nor time, nor grief, nor lives, nor blood, to maintain the ungainly apparatus of suspicion and bloodshed you call government, the princes and policemen and hangmen without which you humans dare not risk to live with each other..
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Charles Stross |
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867f776
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He looks like the bastard offspring of a multitool and a mangabot.
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Charles Stross |
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12eb2b8
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Russian espionage directed against the West has been rising since 2001. We kind of forgot that you don't need communism to set up an east/west squabble between the Russian Empire and Western Europe--in fact, communism was a distraction.
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Charles Stross |
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ae325a2
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Not everyone is concerned with the deep future," Manfred interrupts. "It's important! If we live or die, that doesn't matter--that's not the big picture. The big question is whether information originating in our light cone is preserved, or whether we're stuck in a lossy medium where our very existence counts for nothing. It's downright embarrassing to be a member of a species with such a profound lack of curiosity about its own future, esp..
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Charles Stross |
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fa865d6
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Mulle tundub, et astronoomide seas on mingi seltskond suisa solvunud, et need, kes selle ketta ehitasid ja meid siia toid, ei maandunud Valge Maja ette murule ega tutvustanud ennast.
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Charles Stross |
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2d2acc3
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In case you're worried about BLUE HADES, Professoe O'Brien speaks the language and is qualified to Liase. She's also completed her certification fixation on combat epistemology and can operate as your staff philosopher, should circumstances require it.
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Charles Stross |
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f2cd07b
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If he wakes the ancient sleeping horrors I am going to have to brief the private secretary and the Joint Intelligence Oversight Committee so that they can explain CASE NIGHTMARE GREEN to the COBRA Committee, chaired by the Prime Minister, and I expect that will make them extremely unhappy
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Charles Stross |
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82c7982
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This is serious business: you're representing the Laundry in front of the Black Chamber and some very big defence contractors, old school tie and all that." "I went to North Harrow Comprehensive," I sat wearily, "they didn't trust us with neckties, not after the upper fifth tried to lynch Brian the Spod."
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Charles Stross |
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bc79037
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Shut up. Stand up. Put this on. That's right . . . if you were the kind of man who found it easy to do that kind of thing do you think I'd bother with you?" Her question takes him by surprise, rattling his introspective daze."
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Charles Stross |
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ff72aac
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Brains mouses over one of the images.
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Charles Stross |
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60f81df
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Everything he's learned about the Civil Service tells him that having tea poured for you is one of the ferociously guarded signifiers of rank, like the grade of paintings from the Government Art Collection hung on your office wall, or the quality of your carpet.
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Charles Stross |
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edc527e
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he looked like an escapee from a reeducation camp for fashion criminals.
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Charles Stross |
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fad2117
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The first law of Bureaucracy is, show no curiosity outside your cubicle. It's like the first rule of every army that's ever bashed a square: never volunteer. If you ask questions (or volunteer) it will be taken as a sign of inactivity, and the devil, in the person of your line manager (or your sergeant) will find a task for your idle hands. What's more, you'd better believe it'll be less appealing than whatever you were doing before (creati..
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Charles Stross |
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b44cbc6
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Angleton is not to be trifled with. I don't know anyone else currently alive and in the organization who could get away with misappropriating the name of the CIA's legendary chief of counter-espionage as a nom de guerre. I don't know anyone else in the organization whose face is visible in circa-1942 photographs of the Laundry's line-up, either, barely changed across all those years.
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Charles Stross |
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4376ed8
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What are the consequences when the government, the media, and the leaders of commerce all speak with one voice? Why, it means that if you hold opinions other than the ones you are told to, you are out of step, and if so, it is best to bite your tongue and be silent. The most efficient kind of censorship isn't the heavy-handed black inking of the secret policeman: it's the self-censorship we impose on ourselves when we're afraid that if we s..
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Charles Stross |
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d7fcff5
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MONDAY DAWNS BRIGHT AND HOT AND EARLY, AND I FIND MY SELF waking to the happy knowledge that I can go back to work, and nobody will order me home.
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Charles Stross |
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f432442
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This is a joke. Right?" I'm pointing at the green-screen terminal on the desk, and the huge dial-infested rotary phone beside it. "No sir." Bill clears his throat. "Unfortunately the NDO's office budget was misfiled years ago and nobody knows the correct code to requisition new supplies. At least it's warm in winter: you're right on top of the classified document incinerator room, and it's got the only chimney in the building."
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Charles Stross |
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6fd101d
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Did it have a name, this project?" "Yes. The books and posters are called MAGIC CIRCLE OF SAFETY, but she said I'd find it in the stacks under a very strange reference--KGB.2.YA--what's so funny? Bob? Are you choking? Bob? Bob? Do you need help?" Kiss Good-Bye 2 Your Ass: I love the Laundry sense of humor." --
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Charles Stross |
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3d94126
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I gather Andy is still in full-on Office Flying Dutchman mode . . .)
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Charles Stross |
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c4c5d6a
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So Ah'm no evil, Ah'm just plain bad.
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Charles Stross |
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cc25f63
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The official Government Random Number Generator used for seeding new encryption keys is a thing of legend, running as it does on a type of punched paper tape that hasn't been manufactured since the 1950s. (We had to invent some really neat hacks using digital cameras to read it into our oldest trailing-edge minicomputers in order to use those numbers . . .)
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Charles Stross |
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f77cca9
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And rumor has it that the Central Ammunition Depot hanging off Box Tunnel still contains two thousand barrels of iron-tipped English longbow arrows, in case it becomes urgently necessary to re-fight the Battle of Crecy.
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Charles Stross |