"I do not care !" The General screamed into the phone. "When I give an order, you'd better damned follow it. Don't give me your excuses!" He slammed the receiver down so hard that a crack spread across the red plastic handle. Around the room, his subordinates exchanged quick looks of fear, but also relief to not be the one bearing the brunt of his brutish temper.
"Hospital..." he muttered to himself, going back to the folder in front of him and not even acknowledging the rest of the men. "Who gives a damn?"
"Sir," Of all the cabinet members in the room, none had expected the quiet, squirrely head of intelligence to speak up. He was the General's man through and through. If even he disagreed with the plan, then this situation was worse than anyone thought. "We have reason to believe that the Americans and the Europeans will intervene if they think we are deliberately targeting civilians. Perhaps it would be best..."
"Puah!" the General actually spit onto the table in response. "I am sick and tired of catering to the Americans and letting them tell me how to run my war!" He threw the folder aside, spraying the walls with maps and charts. "I say let them come!"
The room fell silent as the General glared around, waiting for the next one to speak up against him. His nostrils flared like a silverback gorilla, and most of the men expected him to start thumping a fist on his chest and grunting. When no one dared respond, he gave a victorious smirk and turned back to the intelligence reports. Next to the briefing binders, there was a delicate silver tea set with steam billowing from the spout. Having studied at Oxford, the General had become a fastidious adherent to the practice of taking afternoon tea, but he'd been so busy raging that he hadn't even noticed the servant slip in with the tray. Most of the palace servants had learned to avoid him when he got in this type of mood.
"I want that town retaken," he ordered to no one in particular. The Minister of War looked around for some confirmation that it was a job for him. The General picked up the teapot without even taking his eyes off of the thick report in front of him. Hot amber liquid flowed from the spout and splashed into the teacup. Then he picked up the tiny silver tongs, looking not unlike a giant using human-sized implements, and plunked a single cube of sugar into the cup. "And when it's retaken, I want the rebels strung up all along the highway between there and the capital." He took a gulp of tea and winced a bit; it hadn't cooled enough. "And their women, too. I want this to be a message to anyone who would dare join them."
"Yes, sir," the Minister of War agreed meekly. He (and quite a few others in the room) were already having visions of standing before a judge in the Hague for this, but that was nothing compared to facing the General's wrath now.
"And another thing." He cleared his throat with the look of a cat trying to cough up a hairball. "If a single one of them..." He cleared this throat again, but it turned into a hacking cough. "Another...." The cough turned into a sickening squelching sound, and one of his massive hands flew up to his neck. The ministers traded looks, unsure of how to react. The general's face, already red with rage, turned purple as he desperately tore at the collar of his ornate uniform. Medals with his own face on them jangled like a chain in the breeze, and the choking sounds filled the entire room. Finally he slipped out of his chair and onto the ground, spilling the rest of the tea across the marble floor.
No one moved. The tea spread through the cracks between the tiles, heading toward the center in the room. After almost a minute of no movement, the Minister of Health finally stepped forward on his tip toes, as if the General was just having a nap and they didn't want to disturb him. He reached one trembling hand toward the General's throat and held his hand there. Then he turned back to the other ministers, trying to cover up his relief with a somber expression. "He's dead."
The others glanced back toward the steaming pot of tea and quickly made the connection. Again, everyone was afraid to move. Not for fear of the General's wrath anymore, but because they didn't know what was coming next. Finally, the Minister of Intelligence who had dared challenge the General moved to the tea set and picked up the jug. He circled the table and went into the restroom and then poured the rest of the tea down the sink. "It was a heart attack," he announced with great confidence. "You all saw what happened."
The others all nodded enthusiastically, though all made a mental note to switch to coffee until this was all settled.
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