The Modest Proposal Institute: A YA Dystopian Thriller

by Paul James

  “You’re winning, Tomas,” she told him one evening as they lay together in his room, “don’t you see that?”

  “I’m not doing anything and I don’t see any prize landing in my lap,” he snapped.

  “The Founders have lost all suspicion of you,” Nadia said, pulling him against her. “Look how they behave toward you now. Look how they speak to you—and of you!—to everyone. And I know from my conversations with them that they see you as one of three leaders now—Alexis, Shane, and you. Believe me, your restraint and the performance of the NuMen has made you one of them now.”

  “I don’t want to be one of them,” Tomas said fiercely. “The Founders are old, worn out, while the two kids are just that—kids! They’ve no idea what people are like and they think everyone is just like them—well-meaning, self-restrained sheep. I lived among and was mistreated by Westerners long enough to know strength is the only way to deal with them.”

  “Remember, Gandhi won India without firing a shot. You can lead the institute the same way if you’ll only stay calm. When you take charge, then you can make the changes you and I know are needed.”

  Tomas growled in disgust but agreed.

  Shane shared Tomas’s frustration from afar. He wished Nadia would stop holding Tomas back. The proof Shane needed would only come in a crisis and she was preventing that from happening.

  Chapter 42: A Demonstration of Power

  Days later, his communicator alerted him to an incoming call. Shane turned up the volume.

  “Yes,” he answered sharply.

  “It’s Alexis, Dean, and Alexander. We need you here.”

  “Where’s here?” Shane asked, puzzled. He’d understood the Founders and spokesman were in the US still trying to damp down the embers that might flare up at any time.

  “We’re in Washington right now.”

  “I’m not going anywhere in the US,” Shane said firmly.

  “We need you to demonstrate what we can do. There are some people here who could be allies, but we need you to demonstrate our defensive capabilities. We’re trying to come up with a compromise where they persuade others not to attack us in exchange for help from us.”

  “My dad used to say, ‘Pay extortionists and you’ll get more extortionists,’” Shane said.

  “We agree with you, but we’re not out of danger yet. We still have to stop these maniacs from attacking us,” Alexander said impatiently. “If we can demonstrate it would cost them more in lives and equipment than they could get in loot, then we can find a way to help them that doesn’t look like we’re paying extortion money.”

  Shane considered. “Okay,” he said at last. “What did you have in mind?”

  “We were thinking a demonstration of the EMP weapon. Knock out the power system of Washington, for example.”

  “That’s not a good idea,” Shane said. “Unlike the Europeans, they’re sure to have missile defenses that could destroy our delivery system before the weapon exploded.”

  “The place was just an example,” Alexis said. “We’re looking to you to suggest something that would demonstrate our strength.”

  “Just so you know, I don’t agree with any of this,” Shane said flatly. “Once they know we’ll pay, they’ll keep coming back for more. We’ll be bled dry and then, when we have no strength left to resist, they’ll still attack us because they’ll think we’re shamming poverty.”

  “We’ve considered that too, Shane,” Dean said, “and we agree with what you’ve just said, but we’re buying time—”

  “Exactly,” Alexis interjected. “I’m moving as fast as I can to get my people and project off Earth and you’re doing the same under the ocean. All we’re suggesting here is a one-off to gain six more months to escape with minimum loss of life and our wealth.”

  Shane frowned. “They’ve seen what we can do. Last year, when we knocked out northern Europe’s grid. Isn’t that enough?”

  “They don’t believe that was us,” Alexis said. “They think the European grid went down through lack of maintenance and staff. We can’t convince them otherwise.”

  “We have the ear of the president,” Alexander added. “He and his Cabinet just need something they can point to that explains why they chose a negotiated solution rather than a military one.”

  “Then,” Shane said, “I suggest we choose a small target somewhere else, a place that hates the US. That way we can suggest we might support them in future, militarily as well as financially, and not cause them to feel they’ve been hurt or humiliated.”

  “Good! Now you see where we’re going with this. Where do you suggest?”

  “You three are the people who go out into the world,” Shane said. “I don’t even watch the news. What I have in mind is a town, or maybe a military battle group, somewhere in a hostile region where no one but the target will care if the power goes out.”

  “You say small,” Alexis asked. “How big is that?”

  “We’ve only tested it successfully on groups of ships spread over a five-mile radius, so a small town-sized target.”

  “And no one will be killed?” Dean asked.

  “Not by the pulse,” Shane said, “but cars and planes could crash and kill people.”

  “Then we need to time it carefully,” Dean said. “We must limit casualties. This is supposed to be a demonstration, not a declaration of war.”

  “No one would know it was our weapon except us and the watching Americans,” Shane said, “but I share your concern. Starting a war with someone else to avoid one with the US won’t help the institute at all.”

  “A nighttime demonstration would be best,” Alexander said, breaking into the conversation. “The observers would see the place go dark when we say so and the amount of moving traffic in the location would be at a minimum so fewer casualties.”

  “I agree,” Shane said. “Give me some options to choose from.”

  “We’ll get back to you,” Alexis said.

  The Founders and Alexis called the next morning with a selection of potential targets. Shane scanned each target from the institute’s nearest spy satellite and chose one in a part of the world where order had broken down decades before. The Founders returned to the American delegations with the news. A room was set up where the test could be watched and from which the demonstration could be managed.

  With the American delegation of politicians and military in attendance, Shane sent satellite images to the conference room monitors showing the desert around the target in darkness, the town a solitary island of light. He maneuvered the EMP drone into place above it. On his Control Room monitor, he could see the Founders, Alexis, and the Americans watching the hotel conference room’s wall-sized screen. They seemed hardly aware that they, too, were being watched.

  “On your word,” Shane said when he was sure the stage was set.

  “No sense in waiting,” Alexander replied. “Go.”

  The monitors showed the town’s lights briefly eclipsed by an expanding ball of purple light and then they were gone. Darkness reigned across the whole screen where once there’d been an oasis of lights.

  Shane said, “I’m sure our guests will want to monitor the results before deciding, so they can be sure we’re not playing games with movies again.”

  Alexis laughed. “It’s true. We have form in that regard,” he agreed.

  “So, ladies and gentlemen,” Alexander said to the American delegation, “it’s over to you.”

  “We’ll check it out and get back to you when we’re convinced,” the president said.

  Listening to media and radio traffic confirmed that the institute’s part in the blackout wasn’t suspected by anyone. Shane had chosen the target because it was in a region with so many warring factions continuously attacking and counter-attacking that power outages had been features of everyday life there for years. No one was surprised by what happened and at least two dissident groups claimed responsibility for the outage. By the following day the area had returned to th
eir version of normality.

  Two days later, the Founders, Alexis, and the American delegation gathered in the same conference room that had been used for the demonstration. After some preamble, the Americans confirmed that their own spy systems agreed the EMP weapon was real. Their doubts about what had happened in Europe were gone.

  “Can we buy these things?” one of the air force generals asked.

  “They aren’t for sale at this time,” Dean said firmly. The last thing he wanted was any country being able to cripple their opponents, including the Modest Proposal Institute, without a fight. It was only the prospect of mutual destruction that kept the world safe.

  The Americans left deep in conversation. They had what they needed to move the debate away from war to negotiation; Shane heard that much before they were too far from the room for the sensors to hear.

  “Will they do what we need?” he asked the Founders after the Americans had gone.

  “I’m sure you heard them,” Dean said. “I think they will.”

  “I think they’re going to want something more in return,” Shane said. “I think they’ll demand EMP weapons.”

  “Is there a way we could sell them without anyone being able to take them apart and build their own?” Alexander asked.

  “We could look into that,” Shane said, considering. “Maybe have the casing booby-trapped to self-destruct if opened by someone other than one of our authorized technicians?”

  “You need to look into that quickly,” Alexander said. “If they are going to up their price like you say, we won’t have long to bargain.”

  Dean shook his head. “There’s no way we should sell these weapons to anyone. We’ve always been agreed on that.”

  “We may not have a choice,” Alexander replied.

  “There’s always a choice,” Dean said. “I won’t agree to this.”

  “I’m with Dean on this one,” Shane said. “Let them make their own. Now they know it exists, they’ll do that anyhow.”

  “Well,” Alexander said soothingly, “at this moment we don’t know they’ll demand one, so let’s keep this discussion quiet until we do know.”

  Their worst and best fears were quickly realized: The Americans did agree to hold off attacking the institute on the promise of investment in new Institute factories and farms to bolster the US economy and the delivery of EMP weapons, which brought on the discussion Alexander had delayed. It was held at Institute HQ and included the governing council and Tomas, which meant the numbers were on the side of accepting the US government’s demands and against Dean and Shane.

  The settlement wasn’t exactly a win-win, Shane thought, but it was a hard-fought draw that had been achieved without any active role from Tomas and his robots, which was good—and also bad because Shane still didn’t have the evidence he needed. For the first time, he really began to doubt he ever would get it.

  Only hours later, however, he had to sit and listen to the Founders and council praising Tomas for his mature judgment and the smooth deployment of the marine NuMen. It set Shane’s teeth on edge so hard he considered murdering them all himself. It seemed to Shane that if Tomas behaved like a normal person would, as he’d done when the first island was under attack, the Founders thought he was a genius. If Tomas actually did nothing, as he’d done in this latest event, the Founders saw him as a born leader of incredible cunning. There seemed no way of getting them to see what he saw—that Tomas was simply biding his time and would one day strike at them all.

  Chapter 43: Calm Before the Storm

  The North American crisis petered out into nothingness, and for a time the institute enjoyed a measure of peace. Its only effect, in hindsight, was that the movement of Institute people and resources to Moon City and to the underwater cities had been speedily achieved. Once they’d moved, most people showed no desire to return. What Alexis and Shane had expected to take months, if not years, was achieved in weeks. The fear the crisis created made the evacuation of Earth’s surface effectively permanent. Only the spaceports and Tomas’s islands remained. Once Institute people had finally understood their deaths were imminent, they’d acted accordingly.

  Flights from Earth to Moon City and back were now like business flights between the major cities on Earth had once been. The principal business for Alexis was the establishment of a tourist trade. Moon City’s first resort, Earth View Hotel, was nearing completion. How best to fill it with eager high-spending guests was a great concern for him. As it would be Moon City’s only industry for some time, it needed to be profitable.

  “Hey, Shane,” Alexis said, arriving in Shane’s room by way of the hologram. “I have something I want to discuss.”

  “Obviously, or you wouldn’t be here,” Shane said drily. He and Alexis had settled into an amicable working arrangement but it didn’t involve dropping in on each other at random times of the day.

  “I’m hurt,” Alexis replied, though without any sign of being so. “I want some of your underwater settlers to be our guinea pigs in the Earth View Hotel.’

  “If they want to do that, okay,” Shane said. “You don’t need my permission to ask them. I don’t keep them locked in. Any message on the internal system will find them as well as anyone else.”

  “I want your people specifically,” Alexis said. “They will want markets for their products and our people want the same from you. We can stimulate trade by these trips. The surface world is growing poorer. Soon we’ll be the only ones able to afford each other’s products and we need to start that process.”

  “It’s already happening, isn’t it?”

  “Yes, but I want to give the hotel staff some guests to practice on. By choosing your people over the Institute surface dwellers—the few who are left anyhow—I hope to kill two birds with one stone.”

  “You don’t want to send out an Institute-wide message, I guess.”

  “Exactly. I was hoping you’d do a word-of-mouth campaign that didn’t look like a campaign at all.”

  Shane considered this and, other than the deception, couldn’t see a problem. Tomas for one wouldn’t like it, but the surface folks could take part later to even things up. Meanwhile, his settlers would have a head start in selling their products, which was as important to the undersea cities as it was to Moon City.

  “Why don’t you visit Shaneville and, in the course of looking around, start the idea in people’s minds?”

  “Shaneville!” Alexis laughed. “You really have to find a proper name.”

  “I don’t see why,” Shane said. “Everybody uses it now and they don’t think it over the top.”

  “Whatever! I accept your invitation to Shaneville. I’ll be at the African spaceport in two days’ time. Have a Ray pick me up.”

  “Okay. Who knows, you might just see that the underwater life is light-years better than being stuck on a dry, dusty rock in the middle of space.”

  “I think we’ve had this conversation before,” Alexis replied, “and I wasn’t convinced then.”

  Shane considered what he and Alexis had just done. It seemed that, even though he and Alexis didn’t see everything the same way, Alexis still didn’t see Tomas as quite right—not someone who he’d choose to start a new enterprise with—and that gave Shane some renewed hope. Maybe when the time came, he would have allies to support him when he exposed Tomas for the budding villain he had no doubt was.

  Chapter 44: Gathering Storm

  Although the agreement with the US government brought peace for the institute’s properties in North America, its effects weren’t felt elsewhere. Local “big men” were taking control throughout the world; even Asia was breaking down. Within months of their North American agreement, the institute’s properties were again under attack across the world. The crisis seemed never-ending. This led to more harsh words being spoken at the institute’s governing meetings. In particular, Shane remembered the one called by Tomas that once again whipped up the animosity so prevalent at that time.

  Shane
watched Tomas as he looked around the table at the assembled leaders. Tomas’s denunciation of yet another ordered retreat had angered the Founders, the council chairman, the heads of the space and undersea projects, and the heads of the security and self-defense projects, as Tomas’s words often did. Every person in the room looked so hostile, Shane could imagine someone leaping over the table and strangling Tomas.

  “We have no choice,” Tomas continued. “I’m not leaving my properties. All I’m asking of you is that you understand and, even if you can’t agree, that you don’t disagree.”

  “This is against our rules,” Alexis retorted. “We’ve discussed it a million times and always the decision has been to stick to our beliefs and our rules—no empires. Not theirs and not ours.”

  “I’m not invading their lands,” Tomas shouted. “They’re invading mine! Even you people must see that. Despite buying off the EU and American governments, the attacks on our lands have grown more violent and more destructive because those governments aren’t really in control anymore. It’s like we came to an agreement with the Roman Empire but we missed the emergence of the barbarians, Huns, Vandals, and Goths. It’s okay for you guys in space and under the sea, but here on Earth our lands are being destroyed. We must strike back, and hard. My NuMen armies are ready to move. We can take out their leadership and then manage their countries properly in order to recover some of the prosperity they so foolishly threw away. Once people see we’re right, they’ll accept our government. You’ll see. There’ll be no trouble once their leaders are out of the way.”

  “Tomas,” Shane said quietly, “we all share your frustration about what is happening and would love to see an end to it. But,” he paused, “we are bound by our rules and we see no reason to change those rules now.”

  “No reason!” Tomas cried. “They’ve tried to destroy the African and South American spaceports, they have all but destroyed our Medical Island and the first Engineering Island, and you say there’s no reason to change our rules? You’re all mad. Our rules were meant to keep us safe, our non-aggression was intended to subdue theirs, but that hope is clearly no longer sensible. We must act.”