Another rewrite:
Mirage Men
Mirage Men is an American alternate history novel, published in 2005.
The story opens at WorldCon, 1975, and physicist and author James Hartsfield, author of Rendevouz at Tau Ceti (Tor Books, 1964) and Rock of Ages (Bantam Books, 1968), is there signing books. While taking a break to smoke, he meets John Yung, an aged Chinese physicist, whom Hartsfield recognizes as having been a prominent scientist in "Project Camelot". Yung is fidgety, and evasive towards Hartsfield questioning, only stating he was meeting with legendary science fiction author Julius Rosen, who is at the same con. Yung leaves, and Hartsfield returns to his post. He meets with teenager Ana Schlovsky, whom he had been corresponding with for several months, after she pointed out an error in one of his books, and he signs her copy of "Rock of Ages". The con is interrupted by the death of Yung, who was shot as he exited.
Hartsfield is taken in for questioning, and briefly meets Rosen after his release. The two had previously met at the 1969 WorldCon, where Rosen had praised Rock of Ages, and admitted disappointment it hadn't won the Verne prize that evening. While also evasive when Hartsfield tries to ask him about Yung, he warns that a potentially dangerous situation may be brewing, and he gives Hartsfield his address, as well as a series of numbers. Hartsfield, deciding to investigate further, finds reports from across the nation of Camelot scientists getting killed. He also learns of the disappearance of several prominent science fiction writers. Concerned about Rosen's safety, he heads to the address that Rosen had given him, only to find him dead from a self-inflicted gunshot. After looking at the paper, he realizes the series of numbers he was given was a safe combination. He finds a number of files relating to "Project Thunderchild". Heading back to his apartment, he learns from his flatmates that CSS agents have bugged his home, revealing they are aware of his investigations. He takes the file, and remembering Ana's address, heads to her house in Deleon-Debs, far from Metropolis. There, (after Ana sneaks him into her room), they look at the file. They find out that in 1949, a group of science fictions(some real personalities mentioned include Robert Heinlein, L. Sprague de Camp, Clifford Simak, and Poul Anderson) were gathered by several generals at Stavka, to discuss a secret theoreticalproject. As the reactionary People's Alliance came to power in the FBU, it was decided that perhaps unifying against a common threat, as it was duirng the Second World War, would help cement the world revolution, since the Labor/Parti d'Oviers had been in power after the war. The WFRA was studying common threats to use, one of which was an alien invasion. The science fiction authors were assisted by several scientists brought over from Camelot, to formulate how to fake an alien invasion. They conceived the idea of several rockets moving around the moon, each carrying a dead creature made from the corpses of several different animasl, and a nuclear bomb. The creature would crash land in the surround area, and a nuclear weapon would detonate in 10 major cities across the globe. The rocket would be destroyed, and the animal corpse would not be identified easily. The idea was meant to be entirely hypothetical (none of the team took it seriously), and the WFRA decided at the time that it was "too dangerous and potentiallly costs many innocent lives" to implement, ulitmately scrapping the idea of using a common threat in favor of traditional means of support for revolutionary groups. However, in 1973, a number of physicists and writers from the failed project, including John Yung was approached by a shadowy figure, who revealed he was now enacting the plan. The writers and scientists were understandably horrified, and tried to expose the program, but they were quickly assassinated. Yung tried to find Rosen, whom he hoped could reveal the project to the world.
Hartsfield leaves Ana's house to try to get the file to the Daily Worker, but is captured by CSS agents. He comes face to face with James Rosen himself, back from the dead. It turned out that it wasn't CSS agents who were pursuing him, but rather members of a secret society Rosen had assembled called "Ad Astra Per Aspera", who intend to enact the plan. Rosen explains his rationale. He has, for the past 30 years, observed the economic patterns of the AFS, and has also been observing political trends. He fears that several potential hotspots around the globe could give rise to a nuclear war, which could set back humanity centuries. While somewhat indifferent towards the revolutionary struggle, he remembered the alien study that he participated in, and realized that such a scenario could potentially prevent nuclear war. In the early 60's, he began to assemble resources. He retrieved some outdated missiles from the USSR and Germany, and hired genecists to create a composite creature. He plans to enact this scenario soon, but doesn't have the resources. During Rosen's monologue, Hartsfield broke his bounds, and attacks him. While the Ad Astra memebers hold him off, his attack was long enough that the real CSS arrives, (warned by Ana after Hartsfield left.) The Society is broken up, the files are permanantly destroyed, and Hartsfield is inspired to write a new novel based off his experiences.
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Based off two novels "Yellow Blue Tibia" by Adam Roberts, and "The Amazing, the Astounding, and the Unknown" by Paul Malmount