{"id":2635,"date":"2013-08-26T08:00:23","date_gmt":"2013-08-26T13:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.revolutionsf.com\/revblogs\/geekcurmudgeon\/?p=2635"},"modified":"2013-08-25T18:37:04","modified_gmt":"2013-08-25T23:37:04","slug":"rayguns-over-texas-preview-josh-rountree","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.revolutionsf.com\/revblogs\/geekcurmudgeon\/2013\/08\/26\/rayguns-over-texas-preview-josh-rountree\/","title":{"rendered":"Rayguns Over Texas preview: Josh Rountree"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Cover<\/a>

Cover by Rocky Kelley<\/p><\/div>\n

As we barrel toward the August 29 premiere of\u00a0Rayguns Over Texas\u00a0<\/em><\/a>at\u00a0LoneStarCon 3<\/a>\u00a0(aka the 71st Annual World Science Fiction Convention) in San Antonio, I am presenting book excerpts, one contributor per day.<\/p>\n

The final selection comes from\u00a0Josh Rountree<\/a>‘s\u00a0\u201cBest Energies.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

After the bomb dropped at Hiroshima,\u00a0the United States, led by President
\nGeorge Washington, and Texas, led\u00a0by President Sam Houston, rest on the
\nprecipice of a cold war in Josh Rountree’s startlingly\u00a0different vision of the mid-20th century.<\/p>\n

Defecting from the Unites States wasn\u2019t the easiest of tasks,\u00a0certainly not for a man as recognizable as Albert. He\u2019d shaved his\u00a0mustache and cut his wild hair into a short and messy patch with\u00a0his pocket knife. He\u2019d done so in a gas station restroom somewhere\u00a0west of Memphis after being recognized by a poultry truck driver\u00a0who\u2019d given him a ride from Nashville. The man had let him off at\u00a0the station with few questions and little trouble, so either he hadn\u2019t\u00a0been listening to the radio or had somehow missed the alerts airing\u00a0constantly for Albert\u2019s capture.<\/p>\n

Albert trudged along the side of the road, cursing the damned\u00a0Ford that he\u2019d left smoking alongside the highway a few hundred\u00a0miles behind. He finally receives the call to put the plan in motion\u00a0and the car picks that day to die. As far as signs went, it wasn\u2019t the\u00a0most promising.<\/p>\n

He\u2019d left the Pool Compound mid afternoon the previous day.\u00a0Better to make it look like he was leaving for some quick errands\u00a0than sneaking out in the middle of the night. By supper time the\u00a0reports of his flight had already reached the press, and King George\u2019s\u00a0propaganda experts were earning their money. Albert had woken a\u00a0national hero and by the time he\u2019d slept, half the country thought\u00a0he was a murderer. Killed two men and stole state secrets. Tried\u00a0to pollute the Immortality Pool. It was nothing but lies, but that\u00a0wouldn\u2019t matter if he was caught.<\/p>\n

Albert had expected this sort of thing, but not so quickly.\u00a0Technically he wasn\u2019t even a citizen of the United States and could come and go as he pleased. But he had no more personal freedom\u00a0than a prisoner. Albert knew far too much about the internal\u00a0operations of the Compound, and about the Water itself, and he\u00a0knew how the King would react if he simply disappeared. Better to\u00a0cut his losses with his pet genius than let that sort of \u00a0knowledge fall\u00a0into foreign hands.<\/p>\n

The King had never trusted him; Albert doubted there was a man\u00a0on earth he trusted.<\/p>\n

Albert heard the gray pickup rattling before he saw it appear\u00a0over the rise. He stuck out his thumb, and pulled his hat down a bit,\u00a0hoping the lack of mustache would be enough to disguise his true\u00a0identity. The locked steel briefcase he was carrying wouldn\u2019t make\u00a0him any less conspicuous.<\/p>\n

The truck stopped and the driver pushed the passenger door\u00a0open. \u201cGet on in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Albert climbed into the truck and put the briefcase between his\u00a0feet in the floorboard. The cab smelled like liquor, and the driver\u00a0looked as if he was quite familiar with the stuff. He was handsome,\u00a0and had a better shave than Albert, but he was rail thin and wore\u00a0only a stained undershirt and worn pants and boots. He had a\u00a0crooked sort of smile that made Albert a little nervous, and his eyes\u00a0seemed to be staring at some point just beyond the horizon. His hand\u00a0jumped slightly when he offered it to shake and Albert wondered if\u00a0he might be affected by something more than just alcohol.<\/p>\n

\u201cName\u2019s Hiram,\u201d he said. \u201cWhere are you headed?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAustin, Texas,\u201d said Albert.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Excerpt from \u201cBest Energies\u201d \u00a9 2013 by Josh Rountree.\u00a0<\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As we barrel toward the August 29 premiere of\u00a0Rayguns Over Texas\u00a0at\u00a0LoneStarCon 3\u00a0(aka the 71st Annual World Science Fiction Convention) in San Antonio, I am presenting book excerpts, one contributor per day. The final selection comes from\u00a0Josh Rountree‘s\u00a0\u201cBest Energies.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-rayguns-over-texas"],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n