Dash: But…any decent introductory text on incentive engineering would show how valuable money is as one of a suite of rewards. If you want to enhance the reliability with which higher quality materials are produced, you should really include money. Incentive engineering, it’s a crucial idea.
Author: Dash, let me remind you. We’re in 2018 now. There is no field of incentive engineering yet.
Dash: Oh. Forgot. Incentive engineering as a discipline won’t exist until—
Author: Stop right there. Remember the rules. You can’t be telling the readers about the actual future.
Jam: Could I ask a question?
Author: Of course. Though I may not be able to answer, you understand.
Jam: What are we going to do about the Chief Advisor and the Premier? I mean, they keep giving us trouble.
Ping: Yeah, when do we get to whack ‘em?
Author: I, uh. Ahem. So, I think it’s pretty clear what’s going to happen to the Chief Advisor, eventually. The Premier’s case is more complicated.
Ping: So we don’t get to whack ‘em? What about Fan Hui? We’ve really got to whack her.
Author: You seem to have an awful lot of heartburn with someone who hasn’t actually done anything awful yet. You seem to know her. Anything you want to tell me about that?
Ping: As you know better than anyone, I lived most of my life in Chicago.
Jam: I have a request. Could you please give Joshua a break?
Dash: Give Joshua a break? From what?
Ping: He really does like us despite the way we treat him, you know.
Dash: What’s wrong with the way we treat him?
Author: He likes you? Are you sure?
Ping: Of course. We talk with him in between chapters. What do you think we do between chapters, sleep?
Author: I hadn’t really thought about it.
Ping: Am I ever going to get to use my Big Gun? Or are you going to keep teasing me with it forever?
Author: I probably shouldn’t tell you this, but…you should keep practicing with it.
Ping: Really?
Author: Upside down.
Ping: Upside…what?
Jam: I wanted to thank you for bringing Captain Ainsworth and Security Chief Hart back. It was so great to see them again! You treated them like such minor characters in the first book, you didn’t even give them real names. How’d they wind up in book two?
Author: Funny story. The narrator for the Harmony of Enemies audiobook gave them such wonderful British accents, I couldn’t resist. So I promoted them, asked them for their names, and the rest is history. Future history, that is.
Ping: Upside…what?
Jam: Could you give us any hints about who we’re going to fight in the future? A couple books from now? I guess our plate is already pretty full for book three.
Author: There’s a new character. He’s…really scary. As smart as Dash. I’m glad he’s confined to the pages of the book.
Ping: Let me guess. You won’t let me just whack him now.
Author: Couldn’t even if I wanted to. You’re all invulnerable except when you’re in a scene. For which you should be thankful. He knows you already, knows the threat you represent, and his assassins are as scary as he is. They bring a kind of trouble you have not yet known.
Ping: Bring ‘em.
Dash: So, I too have a request.
Author: Of course. Anything within my power.
Dash: I was really upset when you pushed me into a situation where we all got a glimpse of my dark side. I didn’t even know I had a dark side. I’m still very upset. Could you please not put me into any more situations where that comes up?
Author: I’m so sorry. You know that’s not how this works. Sure, I set up the initial conditions, but after that, I just observe and tell the story. You guys are the ones who create it.
Dash: Which is just as it should be.
Jam: Allahu Akbar.
Ping: Hallelujah. I see they’re bringing in the champagne. Can we celebrate now?
BOOKS BY MARC STIEGLER
The Braintrust - A Harmony of Enemies (1)
The Braintrust: A Crescendo Of Fire (2)
Valentina
(Hugo Aware Finalist)
David's Sling
(Prometheus Award Finalist)
EarthWeb
The Gentle Seduction (anthology)
CONNECT
Join the BrainTrust discussion group on Facebook at
https://www.facebook.com/groups/326423271191445/
Table of Contents
Title Page
Contents
Copyright
Acknowledgments
Dedication
1. Fireworks
2. Counting Down
3. First Launch
4. Endings and Beginnings
5. Snatched
6. Easy Cruising
7. Complex Allies
8. How to Build A Rocket at Home
9. Fuxing Rising
10. Radioactive
11. Princelings of the Blood
12. Jewel in the Sky
Author's Notes
Books by Marc Stiegler
Connect
Crescendo Of Fire Page 21
