Walter M Miller, Jr's "Check and Checkmate" (novelette, diplomacy, free): An unusual weapon for diplomatic haggling & espionage

Much of it sounds like Indo-Pak "talks" we constantly seem to have! If individuals were doing it rather than countries, we would have called them neurotic.

Story summary.

This is a cold war story - US vs Soviet Union. Only both are replaced by complicated alternate tags: "Western Federation of Autonomous States" & "Asian Proletarian League", respectively.

After a 4 decade of isolation, the two have now opened a communications channel - their Presidents have began talking to each other. Over the course of the story, one will learn, too late, that the other has an unusual weapon that gives its side TOTAL advantage over the other...

Fact sheet.

First published: If, January 1953.
Download full text from Project Gutenberg, Manybooks, Feedbooks.
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Walter M Miller.