"Noel K Hannan - Bad Jihad" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hannan Noel K)

Bad Jihad
a short story by Noel K Hannan
art by David Stephenson

Honourable Patrons,
I beg the forgiveness of Allah and, more specifically, of the Covert
Projects Committee of the Revolutionary Council, for the failure of the
B.A.D. JIHAD project. As Project Director and Military Commander of the
Masshad Research Village, it is with me that sole responsibility lies. I
accept this responsibility, and ask only that your punishment be just,
merciful and (above all) swift, and that you spare my comrades and
brothers any retaliatory action. They were, after all, only following my
orders.
You have requested a detailed breakdown of the project stages and some
indication, in my opinion, of where the project went wrong. I stress again
that where I may appear to blame other members of my team, I personally
oversaw all major phase decisions and completions. The project was
executed as follows:
PHASE ONE -- Selection of the candidate
There was much debate among the teams as whether to use a live or deceased
volunteer, or to attempt the construction of an undetectable cyborg (an
option favoured by the robotics and artificial intelligence teams, always
eager to justify their budgets), and in the early stages a number of
variants were completed and tested. My own choice would have been the
cloning of an Olympic athlete and training the child from its earliest
years in the skills of a warrior, however the time scale imposed upon the
project precluded this. After several disastrous attempts with live
subjects and some promising but ultimately fruitless androids, a hybrid
was suggested and although initially dismissed by all concerned, proved to
be the best compromise.
Our subject was Private Hanan Bashir of the Islamic Guards. He was
gloriously killed in action at Shiraz on January 7th, 1987. As per our
request to the forward field hospitals, his body was identified as
conforming to our template and had all major organs intact -- he had been
suffocated in a collapsed bunker during an assault by Iraqi forces. His
body was delivered to us on February 1st.
At this stage we had settled on the preferred method of advance on the
project and had pre-cast the hydraulic limbs, optical devices, sensors,
weapon systems, heart/lung units and neural enhancements, hence the need
for a physical type that lay within narrow parameters. Appropriately,
Private Bashir was officially re-animated on February 24th, Martyrs Day,
when a blood supply was restored to his brain.
It was at this point that I feel the project first floundered. While my
teams were attempting to test and develop the unit's combat prowess and
the largely experimental software, an increasing amount of operational
time was being taken up by the mullahs assigned to the military village,
with the express remit of investigating the after-death experiences of the
subject individual. I understand that they were reporting directly to the
Revolutionary Council. While I appreciate the importance of their Holy
Work, I feel I must faithfully report that their presence hindered our