For the next 91 days I’ll be following DeviantArt user QueenPetra’s 100 Word Challenge List. Today’s word: “Obsession”
“Sir? Sir, please, it’s been three days. You need your rest!”
The General sighed through his nose and kept his weary eyes trained on the map spread out before him. This aide had been pestering him incessantly to rest, to sleep, to close his eyes just for a moment… “Incompetent,” he growled, forcing a little more coffee down his swollen throat. “Incompetent, the lot of ’em.”
“Sir, if you could just take a moment to–”
“Don’t you see?!” The General turned sharply to face his aide, his bulging, bloodshot eyes narrowed to angry slits. “I can’t trust any of these idiots! It’s thanks to people like them that Calhoun got away in the first place! Bah — ought to keelhaul the lot of ’em!”
“Sir, it was one man’s mistake. Do you think it just to condemn every man beneath you because of what he did?” He didn’t think it helpful to remind the General that keelhauling was a not an effective punishment for the crew of an airship.
“Son,” his superior replied, rubbing a weary hand across his face, “don’t you see? The last time I trusted someone to do his ruddy job, the greatest traitor of our time was allowed to escape. If I want Calhoun brought in, I’ll have to do it myself.” The General turned back to his map. “I won’t sleep until that man is brought in… dead or alive.”
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