In Niven & Pournelle’s Footfall, a group of SF authors are called in by the US government to act as advisers during an alien invasion. Similarly, in a short story I read years ago (possibly by David Brin), an SF author is called in as a special advisor to investigate a strange phenomenon. In that story the author is summoned by two Secret Service agents who come to his door and announce:
“There’s been a fire.”
So, you can see why I was quite excited when the phone rang Saturday morning:
“This is Security,” the voice said. “There’s been a fire.”
Of course, it turned out to be Security from work and there really had been a fire. I was called in to advise on contamination and disposal issues. Not as exciting as an alien invasion, but probably safer!
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