It always comes back to China--and America.

• Author: Scipio, Alexander
• Position: Literary Scene - Short story

West of Quetta, Pakistan, standing beside the Prince of Terror, each with an AK-47 slung across one shoulder, two bodyguards watched Li's approach. Each took a step forward, increasing their defensive perimeter around the Arab. Almost reaching the bodyguards, Li stopped two meters away and waited impassively.

The man before him planned to change the world even more than his father had before him. Li brought him weapons to fight his foe as never before, to reconfigure the world utterly. Yet, this Arab pretended not to notice the men who made possible his next step.

Ignoring the bodyguards, Li waited expressionlessly for the Arab to turn to face him and provide the targeting information. Once he had the coordinates, he would enter the data into the onboard flight control system of each missile, along with the final launch sequence and the detonation altitude for each warhead.

He would launch the weapons. He and his men would return to civilization. He stared at the back of the Arab. The bodyguards took another menacing step forward, each unslinging and then gripping his AK-47 as he brought the rifle across his chest, muzzle angling up into the darkening sky. Li ignored them still, awaiting the attention of the silent man in the dirty linen.

Having been ordered to command a unit of the Special Forces of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea to deriver covertly and for immediate use six Medium Range Ballistic Missiles with mated thermonuclear warheads, and to provide the final guidance and targeting expertise required to launch the missiles as directed, Li was about to complete his mission.

China had 20,000,000 Muslims within her borders, mostly in the Xinjiang. They were allowed to practice their religious beliefs, but China accepted no Sharia, no fundamentalism, and no terror whatsoever. Those who began to foment trouble were, very simply, quickly and quietly killed, along with their families. China had too many people to worry about to allow the criminal acts of a few, acts that were an economic and political drag on the entire nation and society.

Though not a Muslim, Colonel Li had been raised in the Xinjiang and spoke fluent Arabic, the language of the educated Muslims, in addition to Mandarin, the official language of the educated Chinese society to which he belonged.

As the Arab continued to ignore Li, the two bodyguards raised their weapons threateningly to Colonel Li, an expression of menace on the face of each man. In Li's...