Eden's War (A Distant Eden) Read Online Free

instrumental in that goal. Pushing back the raiders gives the farmers and ranchers the time, and room, to work on expanding. Expanding their operations means more food. More food means there’s more time for some young genius to educate himself, and then to invent something that he can manufacture, and sell to others. It has a snowball effect, each person whose life is touched by that genius’s idea or thing has a chance of sparking another new idea, or they figure out how to improve on it.”
    As they reached the house again Adrian stopped Race at the door. “You’re living a dangerous life, Race. A hard life that is exhausting and brutal. But what you do has a direct impact on how fast and how far we can go in this new world we live in. You are doing good work, helping all of us. Remember that on the days that you judge and execute the criminals that are holding us back. I’m proud of you Race, as proud as I can be.” Adrian gave her a long hug. “Thank you for what you are doing. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.”
    As they entered the house Adrian turned for the kitchen, but Linda waved Race over into the living room. “I’ve put a hot meal for you in the study, looks like the Admiral has a lot more to talk about and I thought you might want to eat and then get some sleep.”
    “Great idea Linda… and thank you.” Race said.
    Linda watched Race walk into the study. “Looks like Adrian has done it again, that girl is glowing,” she said aloud, though no one was listening. “He hates being a politician, but he damn sure knows how to inspire and lead people.”
    “Adrian.” The general said calling out from the kitchen. “We’ve got new intelligence on China, and you need to hear it.”

Chapter 3
    A drian studied the Admiral’s face. He’d only known him for a year, but it had been a long year that included a war with former drug cartels from Mexico. It felt like they’d known each other a lot longer than they had. They had grown close in that year, with the Admiral being the closest thing to a mentor that Adrian had known in a long time. It was the Admiral who had cornered Adrian into becoming the civilian Command in Chief because as President of the Republic of Texas he was the only acknowledged leader of anything in what had once been the United States.
    Adrian could see the tightening of the crow’s feet around the Admiral’s grey eyes, noted the lowered pitch of voice; signals to Adrian that the news wasn’t good. He knew the Admiral well enough to spot signs of tension, a here was a lot of tension.
    “Sit down and tell me,” said Adrian
    They sat, accepting the cups of rare coffee Sarah brought them She had bartered heavily to get a small amount of the beans. She smiled at the Admiral, then left the room to check on Race.
    The Admiral played with his coffee cup for a moment, swirling the black liquid around. “Adrian, the intelligence reports we have are sketchy at best. We have two submarines patrolling off the Chinese coast that pick up occasional radio traffic and what they can see by radar and periscope. Most of that traffic we can’t decipher, so we don’t have much that’s of military origin. We catch an occasional bit of commercial talk though. Putting together what we have, we think they are going to be coming a lot sooner than we had originally thought. The bad news is they could begin moving in three months, maybe less.”
    Adrian looked at his hands for a moment, not noticing the scars, not noticing his hands at all. “And the good news?” he asked.
    “None,” replied the admiral tiredly. “No good news of any kind.”
    “What’s their latest ship count?”
    “Their naval ships have all been put back into action. Their surface ships about match ours in number, but not in capability. In an open battle we would win. They have eleven nuclear subs, those worry me some. They’ve been frantically collecting and refurbishing every large commercial vessel they can find