Great tale, Tom. Your speculative fiction is perfectly plausible. This plot is more intriguing than most of the Dan Brown/Tom Clancy novels of the 80s and 90s. It's interesting to read an outline with this much detail on Substack. I applaud your efforts here.
When he was in his 80s Czeslaw Milosz published a small book called Road Side Dog. In addition to small poems and essays, he had a section called "Ideas to let" in which he set down outlines of cherished ideas he knew he would never get a chance to write. They were mostly classical and reminded me of Stendhal or Tolstoy in their studies of social structures and individualist psychology. I always appreciated him doing that.
I had one minor failure of suspension of disbelief: the FBI is part of the Tromp cartel.
I do not believe that Kashyap Pramod Patel and his organization would come to the defence of government whistle-blowers. The FBI is run by the DoJ, and as things stand, there is *nobody* protecting whistle-blowers! All the high-level career bureaucrats have been replaced with Tromp toadies. Indeed, the FBI is more likely to be rounding them up for persecution than protecting them.
In this story, the FBI went from threatening Elena Morrison to protecting Jennifer Kwan. Before this goes to print, you might want to fine-tune that. Perhaps have the DC Police be the good guys.
Other than state police in blue states, today's whistle-blowers have nowhere to go for protection. I sure wouldn't trust either Kash Patel or Pam Bondi!
“Democracy dies in darkness,” is what the WaPo once stood for. Now its motto is, “Riveting storytelling for all of America.” How the great have fallen.
Here, in a truly riveting story that’s a placeholder for our fallen free press, you show us all we have lost in the darkness - and how we might yet recover it.
This is why I always read your work before I read anything else, anywhere. This morning, it was at 5:30 am. Thank you, Tom.
Thank you Esme!! When I get a compliment like this it makes it all worth while that it took me over a month to write these stories. Thank you so much!!
Same, Esme. For the most part, Tom is the only one I read. His stories always resonate deeply within my heart, and my soul. Hard truths, yet profound hope.
Capitalism is a virus. Anything can be bought. A newspaper has a price. Then it becomes a mouthpiece for Jeff Bezos.
Homo sapiens lived in small groups of no more than 150 for our first ~297,000 years of existence. Then, we figured out how to grow food that would keep for more than a turn of the seasons. Grain agriculture created hoarding and withholding, richness and poverty, haves and have-nots. We began congregating in groups way larger than the ~150 individuals we could personally keep track of.
Then, some 200 years ago, we clever fire-monkeys discovered how to get 250,000,000 year old fossil sunlight out of the Earth. Prior to that time, our cities had rarely supported more than a million souls. It took twelve people working the land to support just one in the city. Today, each farmer supports over 700 people in cities. Thanks to that one-time gift of fossil sunlight, our numbers exploded.
Today, we find ourselves in a situation that our evolution never prepared us for. Living in cities, representative government, the ability to hoard and withhold — evolution never prepared us for this.
This is why Rebecca Winters has to keep doing what she's doing. Over and over.
And it will not end until we use up all the fossil sunlight and return to hunting and gathering in groups of under 150. Or extinction.
As a counter-example, the largest ant colonies rival the largest human cities in number of individuals. But they don't have a hierarchy, they don't kill each other, they don't have "crime". They perform tasks cooperatively, and they use their "hive mind" to perform tasks too complicated for their individual brains.
Ants evolved to live in groups of millions. Humans evolved to live in groups of under 150 or so.
Tom, if you think you're punching out of your weight with this all-too-believable and utterly riveting piece, you have a bad case of imposters syndrome.
As a Clancy aficionado, you have him all beat with this.
Again, a riveting piece. It could so easily be true... Your work is always so thought-provoking. You walk the line between fiction and reality with great finesse. Change the names and publish the book!
Tom, this intriguing completely feasible story left me stunned, speechless and wordless on Dec 19 and has lingered in my mind since. What a gift you are. Thank you.
Thank you Dawna,I am in the process of turning the trilogy of stories into a book. Hopefully in the next 6 months. Thank you so much for your support!!
What a powerful and fitting conclusion to Book One. I see it as a trilogy, within a larger trilogy. A window into the realization of an ever evolving and better world. Forever motivated, as always, for the children who will inherit the legacy of our choices. Congrats, Tom. This is pure gold.
Thank you so much!! I like the way this one turned out. Truthfully I don’t know if I have the energy to attempt something this big for a while. I think I’ll write a couple cigar and whiskey stories so I can rest up😀
I'm afraid that anything that I say will simply be me repeating what I've already said. Each installment is a step up on the previous one. The story is riveting. I refresh the open tab with your substack to see if you've added to it nearly every day. You're doing what I am denying myself and I am grateful for that.
Thank you Revel. Readers like you are the only reason I do this. This may be the last “thriller” though for a while.Like I wrote in a comment before, I was punching way out of my weight class with this story. Thank you so much for reading.
No, Tom. You're not punching anything, you've taken flight and are soaring with ever stronger wings.
Your vision, Tom, and the telling of it in every piece you write is impeccable and riveting.
Yours is a voice that centers people, not only within their heart, but in that mind space where anything is possible - a hopeful glimpse into a future that is more just for all.
Tom, As always, I thoroughly enjoyed the contents of your story. That said, please consider applying a WARNING label under the title of your future posts / stories.
*******************WARNING ********************
THIS STORY IS VERY, VERY, VERY, VERY, VERY, LONG
******************DO NOT OPEN******************
IF YOU DO NOT HAVE THE TIME TO READ UNTIL COMPLETION
Hard truths. Extremely well told.
Thank you Sandi!!
Great tale, Tom. Your speculative fiction is perfectly plausible. This plot is more intriguing than most of the Dan Brown/Tom Clancy novels of the 80s and 90s. It's interesting to read an outline with this much detail on Substack. I applaud your efforts here.
When he was in his 80s Czeslaw Milosz published a small book called Road Side Dog. In addition to small poems and essays, he had a section called "Ideas to let" in which he set down outlines of cherished ideas he knew he would never get a chance to write. They were mostly classical and reminded me of Stendhal or Tolstoy in their studies of social structures and individualist psychology. I always appreciated him doing that.
Wow. Just wow. Words fail.
Thank you Tom
Thank you for this, Tom. Tears!
I had one minor failure of suspension of disbelief: the FBI is part of the Tromp cartel.
I do not believe that Kashyap Pramod Patel and his organization would come to the defence of government whistle-blowers. The FBI is run by the DoJ, and as things stand, there is *nobody* protecting whistle-blowers! All the high-level career bureaucrats have been replaced with Tromp toadies. Indeed, the FBI is more likely to be rounding them up for persecution than protecting them.
In this story, the FBI went from threatening Elena Morrison to protecting Jennifer Kwan. Before this goes to print, you might want to fine-tune that. Perhaps have the DC Police be the good guys.
Other than state police in blue states, today's whistle-blowers have nowhere to go for protection. I sure wouldn't trust either Kash Patel or Pam Bondi!
Thanks for reading Jan. The DC police would have been perfect!!
“Democracy dies in darkness,” is what the WaPo once stood for. Now its motto is, “Riveting storytelling for all of America.” How the great have fallen.
Here, in a truly riveting story that’s a placeholder for our fallen free press, you show us all we have lost in the darkness - and how we might yet recover it.
This is why I always read your work before I read anything else, anywhere. This morning, it was at 5:30 am. Thank you, Tom.
Thank you Esme!! When I get a compliment like this it makes it all worth while that it took me over a month to write these stories. Thank you so much!!
Same, Esme. For the most part, Tom is the only one I read. His stories always resonate deeply within my heart, and my soul. Hard truths, yet profound hope.
Capitalism is a virus. Anything can be bought. A newspaper has a price. Then it becomes a mouthpiece for Jeff Bezos.
Homo sapiens lived in small groups of no more than 150 for our first ~297,000 years of existence. Then, we figured out how to grow food that would keep for more than a turn of the seasons. Grain agriculture created hoarding and withholding, richness and poverty, haves and have-nots. We began congregating in groups way larger than the ~150 individuals we could personally keep track of.
Then, some 200 years ago, we clever fire-monkeys discovered how to get 250,000,000 year old fossil sunlight out of the Earth. Prior to that time, our cities had rarely supported more than a million souls. It took twelve people working the land to support just one in the city. Today, each farmer supports over 700 people in cities. Thanks to that one-time gift of fossil sunlight, our numbers exploded.
Today, we find ourselves in a situation that our evolution never prepared us for. Living in cities, representative government, the ability to hoard and withhold — evolution never prepared us for this.
This is why Rebecca Winters has to keep doing what she's doing. Over and over.
And it will not end until we use up all the fossil sunlight and return to hunting and gathering in groups of under 150. Or extinction.
As a counter-example, the largest ant colonies rival the largest human cities in number of individuals. But they don't have a hierarchy, they don't kill each other, they don't have "crime". They perform tasks cooperatively, and they use their "hive mind" to perform tasks too complicated for their individual brains.
Ants evolved to live in groups of millions. Humans evolved to live in groups of under 150 or so.
Tom, if you think you're punching out of your weight with this all-too-believable and utterly riveting piece, you have a bad case of imposters syndrome.
As a Clancy aficionado, you have him all beat with this.
Thank you.
Thank you!! That is a wonderful compliment!!
As always, a fantastic, well written piece. Do these come to you naturally or in a fever dream? Thanks Tom.
It started as an idea for a book.Which I have actually written but probably won’t publish because of the references to Trump and Kennedy.
Well, you could always change the names. Everyone will know who you’re talking about.
Again, a riveting piece. It could so easily be true... Your work is always so thought-provoking. You walk the line between fiction and reality with great finesse. Change the names and publish the book!
Thank you!!
Tom, this intriguing completely feasible story left me stunned, speechless and wordless on Dec 19 and has lingered in my mind since. What a gift you are. Thank you.
Thank you Dawna,I am in the process of turning the trilogy of stories into a book. Hopefully in the next 6 months. Thank you so much for your support!!
I’ll buy your book!!!
Just an excellent tale, unfortunately too plausible.
Wow, Tom. I'm speechless. And teary.
What a powerful and fitting conclusion to Book One. I see it as a trilogy, within a larger trilogy. A window into the realization of an ever evolving and better world. Forever motivated, as always, for the children who will inherit the legacy of our choices. Congrats, Tom. This is pure gold.
Thank you so much!! I like the way this one turned out. Truthfully I don’t know if I have the energy to attempt something this big for a while. I think I’ll write a couple cigar and whiskey stories so I can rest up😀
Lol. And I'm pondering switching from ciggies and Prosecco to cigars and whiskey to better access a muse like yours!
Oh gosh, Tom.
I'm afraid that anything that I say will simply be me repeating what I've already said. Each installment is a step up on the previous one. The story is riveting. I refresh the open tab with your substack to see if you've added to it nearly every day. You're doing what I am denying myself and I am grateful for that.
Good read, as usual.
Cheers!
revel.
Thank you Revel. Readers like you are the only reason I do this. This may be the last “thriller” though for a while.Like I wrote in a comment before, I was punching way out of my weight class with this story. Thank you so much for reading.
No, Tom. You're not punching anything, you've taken flight and are soaring with ever stronger wings.
Your vision, Tom, and the telling of it in every piece you write is impeccable and riveting.
Yours is a voice that centers people, not only within their heart, but in that mind space where anything is possible - a hopeful glimpse into a future that is more just for all.
Tom, As always, I thoroughly enjoyed the contents of your story. That said, please consider applying a WARNING label under the title of your future posts / stories.
*******************WARNING ********************
THIS STORY IS VERY, VERY, VERY, VERY, VERY, LONG
******************DO NOT OPEN******************
IF YOU DO NOT HAVE THE TIME TO READ UNTIL COMPLETION
Be well …...
Yeah. Maybe I’ll start breaking them into 2 parts 😀
Get yourself an agent, publish your novella / book, and then have your agent start shopping same to movie producers.
It wouldn't hurt to try ..!!!!!!
Merry Christmas to you and yours .....
Yes. After the holidays I’m going to get serious.