Invisible Sun (Empire Games, #3)

by Charles Stross

“Colonel Smith? I’m Captain Jacobs, and I’d like to welcome you to the Commonwealth on behalf of the Department of Para-historical Research. My colleague would like to see your passports, now.” He couldn’t put his finger on exactly why for a few seconds, but something about the reception party gave him a drenching shock of déjà vu. Brutalist concrete architecture, unfamiliar retro-looking supersonic jet fighters waiting to scramble from their dispersal bays, soldiers in emphatically non-NATO uniforms . . . and a southern accent? It was like something out of an old cold war movie: the United States in the wake of a Soviet invasion, minus the fake Russian accents. “I . . . yes.” Smith stifled a yawn. “Long flight?” Jacobs’ sympathy was unaccountably irritating. “From Germany.” Colonel Smith handed over his passport and Jacobs handed it to a woman in another strange uniform—tailcoat, bicorn hat, and a leather case with a fold-down flap that held official rubber stamps and ink pad. She scrutinized his passport as if she’d never seen one before (of course: she hasn’t, Eric realized blearily), then flattened it under a glass plate and photographed it, before stamping it and handing it back.