Read The War With Earth for Free Online Page B

clothes. If you tried it, the bioactive liquid would eat them right off you.
    Having the attendant there to advise me on clothing was a big help. I just hoped that he didn't have a streak of practical joker in him. I mean, were lederhosen and Tyrolean hats really in style out there? To be on the safe side, I elected to wear a class A uniform on my first outing into the real world.
    "It's all mostly imported from New Ireland, sir, although some of the cotton things were made right here on New Yugoslavia, in some of the automatic factories that we bought from you Kashubians," the attendant told me. Then he sold me a set of hand-tooled leather suitcases from New Mexico. The planet, not the state.
    Eventually, before we were through, I had six big suitcases full of civilian stuff, way more than I'd ever owned before. Like most men, I've never liked shopping, and figured it would be best to get it all over and done with.
    "I'll have it all sent to your hotel room, sir," the attendant said in Kashubian, with a Croatian accent.
    "Uh, yeah. Say, how do I pay you for all of this stuff?"
    "You don't, sir. This is all the gift of the grateful New Croatian Government."
    "Thank you. I'm impressed. But, do they pay you to say that?"
    "In fact, yes, sir. I mean, I'm a government employee, and it's my job, but it's still true. We all appreciate the help that all of you have given to our cause. I'm just here to express it personally. Actually, I volunteered to serve in the army, but since I happened to speak Kashubian, I was assigned this duty, rather than being sent to the front, as I had requested. In time of war, you can't always get what you want."
    "Yes, that is too terribly true. Well, thank you. Thank you very much. Is Kasia ready?"
    "The colonel? Not yet, and if you don't mind my saying it, sir, the ladies always take a few hours longer than the men do, what with all the makeup and wigs, and trying on all the shoes and so forth. I can escort you to your hotel, if you want, or show you around the town. It's all part of the service."
    "A walk outside would be nice. You said something about makeup. Should I do something about my bleached-out skin?"
    "I have some skin dyes available if you want, sir, but if I may suggest, it might be best to leave it as it is, and simply avoid the sun for a few weeks. Your color of skin is the mark of a hero in New Croatia."
    The last thing I was issued was a pocket communicator, complete with an inertial positioning system. A global positioning system couldn't work here, since all satellites had been knocked out long ago, when the war started. Regulations required me to carry it, so that the military, and my tank, could find me if they wanted me. Thoughtfully, Kasia's number was already loaded into button number two. I called her, and told her to take her time. She said that she intended to, that she loved me, and that she was busy, now.
    I pressed button number one. "Agnieshka, you've just become my social secretary. Find me the nearest Catholic priest."
    "Wouldn't you rather . . ."
    "I'd rather that you followed orders." I was still a little ticked at her.
    "Yes, sir."
    "And after that, find me a real estate salesman who knows all about ranch land."
    * * *
    There was a church a few blocks from the Serviceman's Center that I was decanted in, and with the attendant as a guide, I didn't get lost as I otherwise would have done.
    Despite the fact that the city of Nova Split was less than twenty years old, the city's founders had laid the streets out like those of a medieval town, with curving roads of varying width meeting at odd angles, and no two things ever the same as anything else. Some streets had street signs, hand carved on the corners of buildings in different styles, but most streets didn't. No two buildings were the same, or even in the same architectural style, that I could see.
    I suppose that it was all very quaint and picturesque, but it sure wasn't stranger friendly.
    The people were