Two short stories
by KJ Hannah Greenberg

 

 

Kowtowing

 

Whenever Isla accepted her older brother’s demands, or apologized for deeds she never actualized, he was kind. Otherwise, he forced her into a Cinderella role.

 

Brutus figured that his Noble Laurent sister needed to be put in her place; she was younger. It was vital that his children respected him!

 

 

 

 

The Imagination Specialist

 

Nofar poked Maya. Her Shabak superiors had compelled creative writers to help Shin Bet expose terrorist rings. Yet, it seemed implausible that someone who sold stories about Medieval armies could locate individuals involved in radicalizing and drafting underage citizens for nefarious purposes, especially if that someone drooled every time that she fell asleep at her workstation.

 

On the one hand, the tech gurus in Agaf HaModi'in had successfully written software that measured the amount and range of vocal fry in a speaker’s voice, thus enabling Aman’s listening agents to identify folks attempting to foster attitudinal and behavioral changes in the nation’s teens. On the other hand, those violent persons had become wise to the state’s military intelligence; the current version of “suicide bombings” wasn’t strapping on pipe bombs and fragmentation jackets and then blowing up oneself but was willingly undergoing nose and chest surgery to change one’s voice amidst a recruitment campaign.

 

Whereas Aman was still developing a system to pick out suicidal terrorists from a distance, the Chief Intelligence Officer had concurrently prioritized safeguarding the nation’s young people. Accordingly, artsy types had been conscripted.

 

The research of a psychology professor at Tel Aviv University, who had a background in engineering and a three-dimensional mathematical model for measuring emotions had caught the commander’s attention. So, the academic had been pressganged to the voice project. It had been that professor who had recommended that “imagination specialists” aid IDF’s hunt. Weirdly, his “soldiers” had already busted ten terrorist rings despite having been enrolled without the comprehensive training ordinarily concommitant to Shin Bet service.

 

Nofar again poked Maya. The latter wiped crusty stuff from her eyes. Perhaps, after all, there were several ways to manifest the capacity to learn quickly and think critically.

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