Lesedi

By Roland Hughes

Lesedi - in his country his name means 'the light' though he has never chosen to walk in it. A man who has been driven by duty to himself now finds he must carry out one final duty for a country which isn't even his. He has finally learned the meaning of a phrase he had uttered much of his life "sucks to be you."

This book is both stand alone and the middle work of the “Earth That Was” trilogy. “Infinite Exposure” and “John Smith - Last Known Survivor of the Microsoft Wars” are the beginning and end. It was written in response to fans wanting a bit more of “the story in between.”

The first wave of nuclear attacks from both terrorists and governments has happened though the general public has yet to figure it out, most are too busy trying to survive to bother figuring it out. The predicted extinction of all life did not happen possibly because many of the first attack detonations occurred at our own nuclear power plants.

Follow his journey and those of the survivors he meets along the way to see if the Universe allows them a brief bit of happiness or chooses to squash them like a bug.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Roland Hughes
• Release date: Feb 14, 2017
• ISBN: 9781939732057

Roland Hughes

Roland Hughes started his IT career in the early 1980s. He quickly became a consultant and president of Logikal Solutions, a software consulting firm specializing in OpenVMS application and C++/Qt touchscreen/embedded Linux development. Early in his career he became involved in what is now called cross platform development. Given the dearth of useful books on the subject he ventured into the world of professional author in 1995 writing the first of the "Zinc It!" book series for John Gordon Burke Publisher, Inc. http://www.kilibro.com/books/0934272395/zinc-it A decade later he released a massive (nearly 800 pages) tome "The Minimum You Need to Know to Be an OpenVMS Application Developer" http://www.worldcat.org/title/minimum-you-need-to-know-to-be-an-openvms-application-developer/oclc/76032459&referer=brief_results which tried to encapsulate the essential skills gained over what was nearly a 20 year career at that point. From there "The Minimum You Need to Know" book series was born. http://www.theminimumyouneedtoknow.com. Three years later he wrote his first novel "Infinite Exposure" http://www.infiniteexposure.net which got much notice from people involved in the banking and financial security worlds. Some of the attacks predicted in that book have since come to pass. While it was not originally intended to be a trilogy, it became the first book of "The Earth That Was" trilogy. Infinite Exposure Lesedi - The Greatest Lie Ever Told John Smith - Last Known Survivor of the Microsoft Wars When he is not consulting Roland Hughes posts about technology and sometimes politics on his blog http://www.logikalblog.com. He also has regularly scheduled Sunday morning posts appearing on the Interesting Authors blog. http://www.interestingauthors.com/blog

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Lesedi

The Greatest Lie Ever Told

Roland Hughes

Copyright ©2014 by Roland Hughes

All rights reserved

Printed and bound in the United States of America

This book was published for the author by Logikal Solutions. Neither Logikal Solutions nor the author shall be held responsible for any damage, claim, or expense incurred by the user of this book or any company, persons, or individual that perceives any real or imaginary damages from it.

This is a work of fiction. Take it as you will for what it is.

Smashwords Edition

Microsoft is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation.

Windows is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation.

All other trademarks are the property of their registered owners and a best effort has been made to ensure correct capitalization and spelling.

Foreword

Lesedi is the second book of the Earth That Was trilogy. It can be read as a stand-alone work but to understand the ending one will need to read the final book of the trilogy. The titles of the trilogy, in story line order are:

Infinite Exposure

Hardcover ISBN-13 978-0-9823580-6-1

EPUB ISBN-13 9780977086689

Downloadable audio ISBN-13 9781934814437

Lesedi

EPUB ISBN-13

John Smith – Last Known Survivor of the Microsoft Wars

Paperback ISBN-13 9781939732002

EPUB ISBN-13 9780982358061

Downloadable audio ISBN-13 9781934814390

I am providing the titles to you in storyline order because there could be some confusion when one looks at publication dates. Infinite Exposure was written first, John Smith second and Lesedi third. In truth I had not planned on this becoming a trilogy but many things transpired to change those plans.

First, fans of the stories wanted to know the story in the middle. As the author of both works I understood the story in the middle, but readers had not completely grasped it. Yes, if I was a Hollywood writer I would have focused on the point in time when things were blowing up so there was lots of room for special effects should a studio wish to option the trilogy. Thankfully, I’m not a Hollywood writer. Those movies may be entertaining to watch with a cold beverage in your hand, but they don’t provide much mind food.

Second, the NaNoWriMo project happened. I know it happens quite often, but this time it happened in November 2013. I was helping with harvest on the family farm and had time to write during the rainy days. The idea of cranking out a 50,000 word story in a month was something to satisfy the mind so it didn’t mind all of the physical labor I was performing. (This work weighed in at just over 52,000 words before the contest ended.)

Lastly, Lesedi stopped by. People who do not write do not understand that statement. I’m also certain mental healthcare professionals are mortified when writers say it, but it is the truth. For myself and many other writers, works of fiction are really transcriptions. One or more of the characters in the story become like those pesky birds outside your window the one morning your place is otherwise silent, the one morning you have to sleep in. There they are. First one and then a flock, all going into oratories.

Sparrows are the most common bird in the world by most accounts. There are many different varieties of sparrows just as there are many different varieties of people. Few people going about their daily lives even notice other people, let alone people they consider sparrows. Others tend to be annoyed by the noise of the sparrows. Writers put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard.

Some of you may be old enough to remember when television news was graced by the presence of Mr. Peter Jennings. He was loved by news audiences and hated by many a camera crew and probably many other journalists. When he was in the field covering a story he would keep the camera crews out for hours on end playing the map game. Once the main story had been covered he would close his eyes, wave his hand over a map of the local area and plunk a finger down. The whole crew went there to interview people. Not witnesses from the scene or people considered to be part of the story. They would simply interview common ordinary people and it managed to reveal more than any reporting done by any other news organization.

Why is this relevant? Readers and those wishing to be writers always seem to ask, in one form or other, How do you come up with your stories? The answer is simple. Do what Peter Jennings did. Listen to the sparrows.

Lesedi was a sparrow.

Lesedi

Lesedi sat in the sun near what had been his campsite. He had not risked a fire last night. Too many others had risked fire. He heard their screams and sounds of violence throughout the night. It simply wasn’t safe to risk fire no matter how cold it got and things got pretty cold this high up. He looked at his smartphone to check his location and the status of the charge. Quite honestly he thought embassy security was simply throwing away money when they forced everyone to get the same cell phones; then got a set of solar chargers for them. He had thought it was an even bigger waste of time when they were all required to attend training sessions on how to use them.

In truth Lesedi had thought all of that doomsday prepper training his country required of the diplomatic service was a waste of funds. He didn’t mind all of the money spent on parties, drugs, and prostitutes as that was the cost of doing business. Seriously, if someone crashed a plane into the United Nations building most of them would be dead before they knew what happened. It wasn’t like anyone was going to camp out in New York City. Still, it was required and he was willing to do whatever his government required to keep his plum job.

These classes managed to keep people until the end because at the end was when they handed out the phones and taught people how to actually operate them. Whoever came up with the name ‘smartphone’ should have been taken out and shot, he thought while staring at the battery indicator. A more expert-friendly piece of shit never hit the market, he said softly. He was not familiar with his current location and had no idea just how far sound carried.

When he was issued this phone what he really needed was a training course on how to hold it. The week after the training course had been a never-ending series of lost info, disconnects, and random dials. Yes, he had even done the infamous butt-dial a few times before he stopped putting the phone in his pants pocket. "The fool who thought it was a good idea to put all of these buttons and things on the side should be neutered before the fool who came up with the name gets shot, Lesedi said softly. He had said it a lot and far less politely when he first received this phone. The human race certainly doesn’t need engineers like that to procreate, he continued. Then an ugly thought hit him. Given how cruel the universe was, both of those people probably survived and have ten kids each."

Charging the phone was something to do so he wouldn’t think about how hungry he was. It was also a good reason to stay at the edge of this clearing in the sun. This place seemed untouched. Lying against a rock that had been warmed by the sun a person could almost forget about the trouble and danger all around. He had even slept for the first time in a long time on this very spot. For this brief time the world had seemed normal and good. He knew good was just a memory now, but it couldn’t hurt to relive that memory for just a little while.

According to the clock on his phone it was now 3:30 in the afternoon. Being able to obtain the time was kind of nice. He hadn’t thought to grab one of those cheap windup watches when he fled. Seriously, who needs to wear a watch when your cell phone always has the time? had been his question during the training session. They had actually wasted an hour teaching people how to tell time using a watch with hands. That had totally honked him off, until he realized the younger people in the room had no idea how to do it. Most had never seen a clock with hands, let alone a watch with them.

No, the doomsday prepper courses hadn’t been the waste of time he thought they were. He actually had laughed at the commercials for a television show of the same name. Freaks and weirdos, he had proclaimed. Not exactly the kind of people you want to party with. Then again, at least one of those people probably knew how to make alcohol so they could actually party now. It wasn’t safe to get near the major cities or what had been cities. There would be no parties now. Certainly not the kind he was used to attending. But without his medication he had no illusions about the time he had left to party.

He wanted to scream at the world that it wasn’t his fault and they shouldn’t blame him. This was the habit one develops as a politician. Even an aide to a politician must be a politician. He chuckled as he thought about the irony of his job title.

Indiscretion was the lifestyle of the politician. It was the primary reason to become one. Well, that and greed, but greed could be tracked. Indiscretion required someone to talk and talk could be silenced. This was especially true if the talker could not produce physical evidence like a semen-stained blue dress or a paternity test proving parentage. The real reason for all of the greed was that it cost a lot of money to buy silence these days. Even silencing someone by the Chicago method wasn’t cheap if you didn’t want it being tied to you later. The first rule of political assassination has always been kill the assassins.

Only stupid people without money went to prison in this country. The crime did not matter. Roughly 8,000 authors had charged Google with ‘massive copyright infringement’ and nobody from Google was in prison. Wall Street financial analysts, investment bankers and mortgage companies had all knowingly engaged in one type of crime or another prior to causing the Great Recession and none of them were in prison. A few paid some fines, but the upperclass protected its own here. Even a politician who had willingly leaked the name of an undercover spy didn’t do any real time before he was pardoned. Ethics only existed in people who didn’t have off-shore bank accounts.

A doctor had even testified before Congress that she wanted to confess a murder for which she was never charged while working for an HMO (Health Maintenance Organization.) Her murder weapon? Denying approval for care that she knew as a doctor would have extended the patient’s life. In Lesedi’s home country death squads were roving bands of armed thugs, in America they were the claims processing teams at health insurance companies. In Lesedi’s country death squads wore whatever rags they owned but in America they wore suits, had power lunches and were considered pillars of the community. Those people committing the largest crimes in terms of number of people impacted also tended to be the strongest advocates of gun control. The irony of this country made him laugh even now.

Lesedi had spent many an hour with these people. Eating their food, drinking their wine, and sleeping with their whores had been a way of life for him. It had been a way of life for his predecessor as well, at least until Lesedi managed to get video of his predecessor sleeping with a girl who wasn’t quite of an age consistent with the laws of most countries. Indiscretion could be silenced. In this case the price of that silence had been Lesedi now filling the role his predecessor had held. He hadn’t been in line for this job when he was given it. Others who had worked for many years and were many levels above him at the time were quite bitter about his sudden rise. He had fully expected someone to turn one of his indiscretions against him at some point, not that it mattered now.

One of Lesedi’s indiscretions had set a time limit on how long he would have been able to maintain his lifestyle at the United Nations anyway. The clock had moved forward dramatically once the trouble started. In truth it had been moving forward faster than it should have due to his fear of getting caught. He desired the good life almost more than he desired life. In truth he had to admit to himself he desired the good life more than just life.

Fear of losing one desire had him walking into a free clinic under an assumed name during a trip back home. For a while he had smuggled the medication into this country via diplomatic pouches for his ambassador. Lesedi opened all of those courier pouches, which meant the only weak link was the person back home putting his medication into the courier bags. Amazingly that weak link never exploited the leverage beyond money. It turns out they were using that money much the way Lesedi would have. That weak link was eliminated in a dispute turned ugly outside of a brothel.

With the link had went the anonymous source of medication. At least until Lesedi went to a free clinic not far from the U.N. building under a different assumed name. Some of the drugs were free, others required money. Once he handed them a wad of cash to pay instead of a credit card, the clinic started needing cash for all of his prescriptions. Odd how free clinics always seemed to need cash, he mused softly.

Obtaining the medication wasn’t as difficult as taking it. If any of his coworkers had found out his dirty little secret, his E-ticket ride on the party with hookers express would end instantly. He was also pretty certain one or more of his coworkers who had received services from some of the same ladies he had been with would arrange for his death, if not kill him themselves and use their diplomatic immunity to flee the country. It wasn’t an honest thing he did, and he knew it. He simply wasn’t going to give up the hard-partying life no matter how correct it would have been given his condition.

The pills needed to be taken multiple times per day at specific intervals. He simply couldn’t hide both the medication and taking of it at work. The compromise had been to take them in the morning before work and whenever he managed to get home, if he came home. Compromise is when nobody gets what they want. His compromise already had him on his third therapy in less than three years after being diagnosed. He still felt good enough to party most days and that was important to him. He also didn’t like wearing rain coats when he went swimming. He was past caring what happened to others.

It had been three weeks since his last dose. In truth it had taken the world less than a year to fall apart. Here he sat, part way up Black Mountain in what was Kentucky. Is this still Kentucky if the government has fallen? he pondered aloud.

Yes, it is, came a response from behind him. Startled he spun and fished for his gun while trying to rise and crouch at the same time. Relax, came the female voice again. I’m not here to hurt you or steal your stuff. If I wanted to do that I would have done it while you were asleep. I’ve been watching you for a while.

Huh? was the best he could do as a response. His mind was still trying to grapple with how he hadn’t heard someone coming through all of that brush.

I try to avoid contact with everyone. I’m guessing so are you. I can tell from your clothing that you are not originally from here. I only approached once you started talking to yourself. You do know it is a bad sign if you start answering those questions out loud don’t you?

Everybody knows that! he spat. What do you want?

"Just simmer down. I have