The Enigma Cube (Alien Artifact, #1)

by Douglas E. Richards

George Patton, who had said, “You don’t win a war by dying for your country. You win a war by making the other dumb bastard die for his.”

So having decided to go in, I decided to go all in. I had an idea that would have been even more agonizing for my protagonists than what I ended up writing. They wouldn’t just fail to kill the most despicable man in history. They would be forced to actively prevent good men from killing him.

It really is stunning that Stalin, Hitler, and Tojo were all active at the same time, each responsible for the deaths of millions of innocents. Talk about your axis of evil.

and I thought I’d expand upon it here just a bit (because there’s nothing more awesome than duct tape). Its inventor was a woman named Vesta Stoudt, who had two sons in the Navy, and who worked at the Green River Ordnance Plant, inspecting and packing cartridges used to launch rifle grenades. The cartridges were packed in boxes taped shut and waxed to make them waterproof. The problem was that the quick-release tabs on the tape often tore off when soldiers were in desperate need of ammo, leaving them scrambling to pry the boxes open while under fire. This cost numerous lives, which could one day include Vesta’s sons. So Vesta proposed sealing the boxes with a strong, cloth-based waterproof tape instead. Voilà! Naturally, her idea was shot down at the plant. Fortunately for the world, Vesta was far too stubborn to let that stop her. She ended up writing a letter to the president, himself, and the rest is history. If you’d like to read more of this history, or see a copy of her actual letter to FDR, you can Google, “The Woman Who Invented Duct Tape.”