Female Snipers. Greg Pius
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troops. Dent needed Leopold's cyber team to dig up enough dirt to justify his purge. As for Nova Kaufman she had a detailed knowledge of the military partners of his possible replacements. There could be no mistakes arising after Dent installed his cronies. No scandals that would only surface when Dent's own reputation for picking winners was on the line.
Having kept Kaufman waiting for his response, President Dent spokes in a measured tone of voice,
"I have not been happy for a while with the performance of the Finance Minister. He may think that his powerful friends protect him from dismissal but in that he is sadly mistaken. His Assistant Finance Minister impresses me greatly with her attention to detail. I have already spoken to her about taking the top job. Reluctant as she is to push her boss out of the way I can tell that she thinks she can do a better job than him. I will therefore offer her the post of our new Finance Minister. Find some ambassador post to shift our present minister sideways. Do that after you contact those union officials. That remains your number one priority but I want the current Finance Minister out today."
Realizing that she had once more being relegated to political novice by this remarkably devious man, Kaufman tried to win back some personal pride by answering quickly in a falsely eager tone of voice,
"The post of ambassador to Germany is up for renewal. You could send the Finance Minister there and retire old Sir Henry Proudsheer. Is that a possibility?'
President Dent allowed his aide to gain this small vestige of self respect. Henry Prodsheer had been asking him to let him retire to his southern highlands estate for the last year. Now he could appear magnanimous whilst getting rid of a political nuisance plus winning back his aide's unquestionable loyalty. So he nodded his head before saying in his official tone of voice,
"Draw up the appropriate papers today. We will have the swearing in of the new Finance Minister at six o'clock this afternoon. Its still the middle of the night in Berlin so leave my person to person encrypted call to Henry until say about ten o'clock tonight. Our finance minister can put up with being told by you that he is sacked. If he is fool enough to demand to speak to me tell him the German post is not set in concrete. There are a lot of backwater countries that also have vacancies. That will shut him up. Oh, you better get Leopold to come see me this afternoon. I am not happy about her performance of late. Time she too got a kick when it hurts."
Beaming at this latest statement, Kaufman raced out to begin what was going to be a long and busy day. Another dawn to midnight session faced this ambitious woman but her political enemy was going to be told off by her boss. Even her call to a one time ally to inform him of his immediate dismissal did not dampen her mood. Political allies came and went. Kaufman never got attached emotionally to anyone in politics. Her secret lover was a simple teacher. This modest teacher was her life time partner. Being both female they had got married then planned to have children when her partner could get maternity leave. They had already agreed that their first child would be a girl. Kaufman could not wait to enjoy being a working Mum. Of course her partner's pathetically low salary as a teacher meant that she would be the home Mum.
Hera Feelgood was losing her fight against ignorance and prejudice. Mothers of refugee children were still refusing to have their children immunized. Being so far away from their city homes these mothers had developed a siege mentality. Even though Hera was admired and respected by all these mothers they were still suspicious because the vaccines were coming from Australian Government laboratories. The United Nations did not have the funds to import these vaccines from external sources. So the United Nations had pressured the Australian Government to supply the necessary vaccine doses. This was then the sticking point with hardened rebel wives and mothers. Some asked the obvious question,
"What else has the government added to the vaccine? Will it affect the future of our children?"
Whilst she understood the reservations of these much oppressed women, Hera also knew that without these immunization programmes many children would die unnecessarily. But she still could not convince the camp mothers of the need to get full immunization.
Then an answer appeared in the unlikely form of Hera's eleven year old daughter Mossy. One of her best friends was sick. When she challenged her mother to save this young girl's life, Hera had told her that it was a a preventable disease. Asked to explain what this meant Hera had told Mossy the whole truth. Mossy sat there staring at her Mum's face. Finally she said,
"If they have to have the medicine to stop getting sick why don't they just do it Mummy?'
Not sparing her daughter any of the real problems facing such a simple solution Hera said in an exasperated tone of voice
"Because they don't trust our government. They imagine that some bad things have been added to this medicine that can hurt their children."
Mossy was not a child anymore she knew that there were evil people out there. So she asked in a penetratingly sharp tone of voice,
"And did they? Is there anything bad in that medicine?"
Hera was stunned at how adult her daughter sounded. But she answered honestly in a firm tone of voice,
"In my opinion those doses have not been tampered with but all immunizations come with some side effects. Still that is better than dying from a disease that a child did not have to get if they were immunized."
Her daughter had one clarification question left. She said in a annoyed tone of voice,
"If Herman had been immunized he would not be so sick today. Is that what you mean by 'preventable'?"
Knowing how close Mossy was to her best friend Herman, her mother answered candidly in a sad tone of voice,
"All Herman's suffering and pain would not have occurred if his Mum had only had him immunized."
Mossy nodded her head to show she accepted her mother's statement as fact. She now used her most determined tone of voice to say,
"Am I immunized?'
Hera answered truthfully in a caring tone of voice,
"Yes Mossy darling. I will never knowingly risk your life!"
Now Mossy was shaking her head as she said in a firm tone of voice,
"You may have to Mummy. Because I want you to Immunize me again so all my friends can see that this dose of medicine is safe. If they see I am okay then the mothers will rush to immunize their little children"
Shocked Hera said in a worried tone of voice,
"I could not ask you to do that Mossy. We will find another way I'm sure."
Mossy's head was now shaking violently. This was a sure sign that she had made up her mind. She said to her mother in a forceful tone of voice,
"You are not asking me to do this I am telling you that I will do this. If you wont give me the medicine then I will get one of the doctors to do it. I have to do this to save the little children. Herman is my oldest camp friend! If he dies and I did nothing to stop this madness then every death after that would kill me a little bit. Mum its the only way and you know it."
Hera tried desperately to think of another way that did not put her child in danger. But she could not think of even a remote chance alternative.