The Project Gutenberg EBook of Belly Laugh, by Gordon Randall Garrett

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Title: Belly Laugh

Author: Gordon Randall Garrett

Illustrator: Charles Berger

Release Date: April 30, 2009 [EBook #28643]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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[Illustration: Illustrator: Charles Berger]

BELLY LAUGH

By IVAR JORGENSEN

_You hear a lot of talk these days about secret weapons. If it's not
a new wrinkle in nuclear fission, it's a gun to shoot around corners
and down winding staircases. Or maybe a nice new strain of bacteria
guaranteed to give you radio-active dandruff. Our own suggestion is
to pipe a few of our television commercials into Russia and bore the
enemy to death._

_Well, it seems that Ivar Jorgensen has hit on the ultimate engine
of destruction: a weapon designed to exploit man's greatest
weakness. The blueprint can be found in the next few pages; and as
the soldier in the story says, our only hope is to keep a sense of
humor!_

Me? I'm looking for my outfit. Got cut off in that Holland Tunnel
attack. Mind if I sit down with you guys a while? Thanks. Coffee? Damn!
This is heaven. Ain't seen a cup of coffee in a year.

What? You said it! This sure is a hell of a war. Tough on a guy's feet.
Yeah, that's right. Holland Tunnel skirmish. Where the Ruskies used that
new gun. Uhuh. God! It was awful. Guys popping off all around a guy and
him not knowing why. No sense to it. No noise. No wound. Just popping
off.

That's the trouble with this war. It won't settle down to a routine.
Always something new. What the hell chance has a guy got to figure
things out? And I tell you them Ruskies are coming up with new weapons
just as fast as we are. Enough to make your hair stand on end.

Sugar? Christ, yes! Ain't seen sugar for a year. You see, it's like
this: we were bottled up in the pits around the Tunnel for seven damn
days. It was like nothing you ever saw before. Oops--sorry. Didn't mean
to splash you. I was lau