My sister gave me this idea for a flash fiction piece while we were sitting in the coffee shop last week. She told me to write a piece about a character who finds out a terrorist group figured out how to weaponize rain. So, here we go!
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Raya stared at the screen and the data flashing across it. She closed the report and ran it again. How? How had the ITO managed this? Weaponizing rain itself, or, actually, anything in a specified zone? She hit the print button and rushed to snatch it off the printer.
She barged into her boss’s office, ignoring how rude it was. She’d apologize later, and he’d want to know this now. Besides, he’d cut her some slack given how polite she usually was. He paused in mid-sentence on the phone and raise a brow.
“Sorry, sir. But you have to see this.”
He nodded and sighed. “Sorry, Pat. I’ll have to call you back. If I don’t get back to you about it by end of the business day, shoot me an email. I’ll respond when I get home. Yes. Exactly. Thank you. Bye.” He set the phone aside and pursed his lips. “Raya…”
“It’s important! I promise.” She hurried over and set the reports down on his desk. “You know how you set me on monitoring ITO?”
He began rifling through the papers with a frown. “Yeah?”
“Well, they made their move, and it’s worse than we thought. The intel indicates they found a way to remove air resistance from specific areas with some sort of machine. They’re going to weaponize rain according to the files we stole and decrypted.”
“Let’s pretend I don’t have a Ph.D in physics and I hired you to break things down for the non-scientifically minded individuals like me.” He smiled. “Explain to me how someone weaponizes rain.”
“If you remove air resistance, sir, then rain will just keep gaining speed as it falls through the atmosphere. When it hits, it’s going to have an insane amount of velocity on it. The speed at which that water droplet hits will make it like a bullet in whatever it hits, but there won’t be any trace of the weapon once it hits.”
His mouth opened and closed as he searched for a response.
“So, sir, I think this justifies barging in?”
He swallowed and nodded. “I… It more than justifies it. I’ll get the higher ups on the phone. You can just go back to monitoring and keeping an eye on things for now. I’ll have someone go get you if I need you.”
She nodded and turned to leave.
“Thank you, Raya. You may have saved us all by finding this now.”
“I doubt that. We don’t have much time. I’ll be at my desk if you need anything.” She hurried out the door, her heart thumping wildly. They had to stop this. If they didn’t, the results would be disastrous. Life and death were the currency they were now paying down in any bet they made in the attempt to stop this weapon. She just prayed it wouldn’t backfire on them.