The Modest Proposal Institute: A YA Dystopian Thriller

by Paul James

  Dean replied firmly, “We have recovered the Medical Island and moved it out of their reach. We’ve rebuilt the Engineering Island and added a defensive wall. Both are almost operating normally again. We must maintain our calm even in the face of their naked aggression. Our retaliation will make things worse and we’ll lose everything.”

  Tomas snorted. The institute’s leaders’ blindness in the face of such provocation was too sheep-like for his spirit. “Our retaliation using the NuMen will be so effective they won’t be able to retaliate and any lingering hostility can easily be mopped up in the aftermath, but we must act now!”

  Shane frowned. The underwater cities were in good order and almost operating as the institute’s principal earthly presence. If Tomas’s robot attack on the Western nations was as successful as he claimed, there would be no problem. If, however, Tomas—like all history’s generals with a new super-weapon—was overconfident of success and there was retaliation, the underwater cities could be the next to be attacked.

  “Dean, Alexis,” Shane said, “do you really believe we can continue to fend off or minimize these attacks? Have your meetings with the outside world given you any confidence that this policy is safe to continue with?”

  Alexis replied for them both. “The attacks we’ve suffered have been by disaffected army units and criminal gangs rather than government directed actions. We still believe supporting the world’s governments as they try to regain control would be our best course of action.”

  Tomas thumped his fist on the table. “Do you not see? They tell you it’s ‘disaffected army units’ to distance themselves, but it is not. These are government directed attacks and you keep falling for their pretense! Ask Nadia. She hasn’t an ax to grind and she’ll tell you. Her opinion on this is the same as mine and she meets with these people more often than you do.”

  “We are aware Nadia thinks we’re being played for fools,” Dean said, “but she isn’t suggesting starting a war either.”

  “It isn’t a war,” Tomas snapped. “It’s a mission of mercy. Many of the world’s people are starving, even in Europe. There’s no food left in the stores. Farms and food plants are abandoned because they’ve been pillaged so often. The mission I’m proposing will remove their leaders, re-establish the borders, and return order to the lands. Once that happens, farming will begin again, clean water, food, and electricity can start flowing again, people can re-establish businesses, return to their jobs, and normal life will return. Starvation and murder will come to an end. What I’m proposing is a peace mission, not a war.”

  “Tomas,” Dean said, “I don’t doubt your sincerity, but this violates our most fundamental rule. We don’t run other people’s lives for them and that includes not running their countries. As you have read every week since you arrived but somehow not managed to internalize, empires often start by ‘advising,’ followed by ‘guiding’ followed by ‘aiding,’ followed by ‘administering,’ followed by ‘governing.’ It has happened over and over again throughout history. We are not going to do that. Any of the world’s people who want to, can follow our example but we will not provide them any ‘support’—not aid, not advice, nothing but trade. They must do it themselves. ‘No more empires’ is our most sacred creed and we will not change it.”

  “I called this meeting,” Tomas said in final exasperation, “because I wanted to give you the opportunity of taking an active or passive part. I see I’d hoped for too much sense or perhaps courage from you all.” He pressed a button on the phone in his hand and rose to leave. “The mission has begun,” he said, “and there’s nothing you can do to stop it. I will not stand by and watch millions, perhaps billions, of people die.” He turned and left the room, slamming the door behind him.

  Chapter 45: Shane Takes Charge

  “Is he right? Is there nothing that can stop it?” Alexander asked.

  Shane finally had his incident. Tomas’s belief together with his ardent spirit had led to this split with the institute and it could no longer be hidden. Even if the weapon that killed Leon wasn’t used, he was sure the Founders and Alexis couldn’t ignore this final act.

  “As you will recall Founder,” Shane said, trying not to sound triumphant, “Kurt, Yves, and I have been warning all of you about this possibility for some years, since that night Leon disappeared. Our warning wasn’t given the attention we believe it warranted. Tomas came to the institute late in life and he was never on board with our beliefs.”

  “What you say may be true,” Dean snapped, “but it isn’t helpful and it doesn’t answer the question. You gentlemen are our security and defense forces. Can the NuMen be stopped?”

  “I am answering your question by explaining what we’ve done, Founder. Fortunately for the institute, we did take what we were seeing seriously and, yes, we have developed means to block Tomas’s control of his robots and take control ourselves. While he was learning from us, we were learning from him.”

  “Then stop them,” Alexander said.

  “In time, we will,” Shane replied. He glanced at his fellow team leaders, Kurt and Yves, and they nodded. “We agree with Tomas’s assessment about the duplicity of the Western leaders, so we will allow his robots to carry out their surgical strikes, arresting and confining those people. We will not, however, let him take control of Western countries because we feel that would result in rebellions against us. When the leaders are gone, the people of those countries can organize themselves how they wish and relearn management of their own affairs.”

  “This strategy is as risky as the one Tomas proposed,” Dean cried, clearly frustrated.

  “We don’t believe it is,” Shane replied. “Without leaders, there can be no organized military response that’s beyond our ability to manage. It will take a year or more for people on the mainland to organize new governments. By then, the space and underwater cities will be totally self-sufficient and we would suffer no harm even if all our surface lands should be lost.”

  Dean and Alexander looked at one another in dismay. After what seemed like a lifetime, Alexander spoke wearily. “Very well. You are the future—you must decide.”

  “After what we’ve just seen and heard,” Alexis said, “I agree with Shane. Tomas is right in many ways but, like many people, he thinks a world run by him, or even by us, would be perfect for everybody. It’s the old human delusion—an all-knowing, all-wise, whole world government that will save humanity from itself. We believe you, Dean, were right; like-minded people must run their own affairs for themselves, which means small communities and not giant empires. It’s the only way. So, our decision is to let Tomas deal with our real enemies and free the world’s peoples to run their own affairs.”

  “I think your plan sounds like the worst of both options,” Dean said sorrowfully. “The new leaders will soon re-establish empires of their own.”

  “Perhaps, and we shall know soon enough,” Shane said. He pointed to the wall monitors where scenes of mayhem from different capital cities appeared. Smoke and flashes of gunfire were everywhere as the NuMen closed in on their targets.

  At first little could be seen through the smokescreen of knockout gas; then, as the smoke cleared, NuMen appeared carrying the insensible bodies of the Western world’s self-styled leaders out of their offices and back to the NuMen’s waiting vehicles.

  “They will be treated decently?” Dean asked, anxious at the apparent lifelessness of the prisoners.

  “Tomas assures us he has pleasant, though not populated, islands for the leaders’ exile,” Alexis said. “The guards who are unconscious will recover and be sick as dogs for a day or so but otherwise unharmed.”

  “But there will be food and shelter on the islands?” Dean asked.

  “Rudimentary at first,” Shane replied, “but Tomas says the exiles are going to improve their lodgings and food stocks by their own efforts. He says they’re going to spend the rest of their lives managing their own lives instead of everyone else’s. And,” he added firmly, “
in that I agree with him. It’s time these professional politicians learned what they’ve been wrecking all this time.”

  Dean smiled. “I think we can all agree to that, but are you sure Tomas means what he says?”

  “We’ve been eavesdropping on Tomas and his team, so at this time we believe he does.”

  “But you intend to stop him from taking over the governments of these countries?”

  “Yes,” Shane and Alexis said together.

  “I hope you can.”

  “We hope so too. What we’ve learned from you, Dean, is that people always mean well at the start but they always end forcing others to do their bidding. ‘For their own good,’ of course, but we know how it ends—camps and guards and deaths. He has removed the leaders who were threatening us; now we will prevent him from threatening others. We are good students, you see.”

  “How will you do that? Surely, the NuMen recognize only Tomas as their master?”

  “We prefer not to say,” Alexis replied. “As far as we can tell, Tomas doesn’t know what we intend and we’d like to keep it that way.”

  “You think we can’t keep a secret?” Alexander asked with a growl.

  “We know you can,” Alexis said. “But walls have ears, as it was said long ago, and they have even more ears in today’s wired in world. After all, we spied on Tomas; might he not be spying on us right now?”

  “Maybe,” Alexander said, mollified. “But you’d better be quick.” He gestured toward the monitors where, as the vehicles of exiles left, more NuMen carriers were arriving.

  “Well, let’s see,” said Shane. He kept his voice and expression but his insides were in turmoil and he was praying for success. They’d had few opportunities to test out their systems because any misbehavior on the part of the NuMen during testing would have raised Tomas’s suspicions.

  The NuMen carriers rolled to a stop but the doors didn’t open. Minutes passed and people who had taken shelter began to re-emerge and wait expectantly. Crowds began to build and still the vehicles stood motionless. Then, as if directed from a single source, the carriers rolled forward, swung round and headed back the way they’d come.

  Shane breathed a sigh of relief, though he found he couldn’t take his eyes from the screen until the carriers were out of sight.

  “As simple as that,” Dean said admiringly.

  “Not simple at all,” Shane said. “It has taken us a lot of work over the past year to be able to do that. And unfortunately, while we have achieved our aims, there will be bloodshed in those Western countries as their citizens fight it out to replace the old gangs we’ve just removed. There may also be bloodshed here in about two minutes when Tomas realizes he no longer has control of the NuMen and comes storming in to have it out with us. What we have done is high-handed and against the institute’s hands-off policy toward each other and each other’s projects, but it is necessary. We are the security team, after all, and we must maintain the institute’s safety even when the danger comes from inside.”

  Chapter 46: The Institute Reshaped

  He’d hardly finished speaking when the conference room door was flung open. Tomas, red-faced with rage, stood before them like an avenging demon. Fortunately, he was unarmed.

  “Release my robots,” Tomas yelled.

  “We can’t do that,” Shane said, standing to confront Tomas.

  “You can and you will,” Tomas growled, striding into the room and squaring up to Shane, nose to nose, eyes boring into Shane’s.

  “We can’t let you take over foreign countries, Tomas,” Dean said. “You know our rules and our creed—no more empires.”

  “This isn’t about empire-building,” Tomas said icily, leaving Shane and turning to address them all. “It’s about helping people to rebuild, teaching them how to recover their countries—”

  Alexander interjected quickly, stopping Tomas in full flow. “We’ve had this discussion too many times. Every empire-builder has said the same since time began, but once you’re there you can never quite leave. We will not have our Modest Proposal Institute turned into another failed ‘make the world a better place’ project.”

  “I would never do that,” Tomas growled. “My motives are absolutely honest. With their leaders gone, there will be confusion and fighting. People will die. I plan only to stay there long enough to keep the peace while they find and elect new leaders.”

  “They will find leaders without your help, Tomas,” Alexis said, meeting Tomas’s angry glare without flinching.

  “Millions—possibly billions—of people will die!” Tomas cried. “Don’t you see? I’m talking about a humanitarian mission here, not rebuilding the Russian Empire.”

  “People will die with or without our intervention,” Alexander said. “The West is slowly subsiding back into the world’s average for all measures of well-being. They can’t sustain the size of the populations they had when they were rich. Sadly, neither can the rest of the world once the West is gone because they depended on the West for so much.”

  “All the more reason for us to stabilize the situation,” Tomas snapped. “If we can do that, the humanitarian disaster we’re both talking about might be averted or moderated.”

  Dean interjected. “The West set themselves and the rest of the world on this course when they began managing the world. I’m sure they knew this would be the outcome of the drive for sustainability. They just chose not to say it. Sustainability and organic food could only happen at a much lower population than the world has today.”

  “How can you say that they knew that? No one would wish this on themselves.”

  “Tomas, think!” Dean cried. “When they promoted sustainability, organic food, an end to chemicals, having no children, and all the rest of it, did you not see this is what they meant? A return to a world with little or no growth and a stable but small human population. They said it often enough. Didn’t you hear them?”

  Tomas was speechless with rage. Only the veins throbbing at his temples expressed his inner turmoil.

  “What am I to do with their leaders?” he demanded after a full minute of wrestling to regain control.

  “Exile them as you planned,” Shane said. “Treat them humanely, just not lavishly. We all feel that having them experience how regular folks live can only be good for them.”

  Tomas grinned. It wasn’t a kind expression. “Can you imagine them cleaning toilets and digging gardens?”

  “I not only can,” Dean said, “I look forward to seeing it as well. When they have a real life to manage, they might become better people than they’ve been.”

  “And most of them have no family to miss them, so it’s a win-win for everyone,” Tomas said, in better command of himself now that he saw where the discussion was leading. “However, I must have control of my robots returned. They, at least, will be unhappy at their parent’s absence.”

  “It will be done,” Shane said, “because it’s possible one of these countries may organize quickly and decide to strike back. We need our defenses fully prepared.”

  Tomas nodded. “I’ll be in the Security Center,” he said, turning to leave. “I expect to be able to recover control very soon. Every minute that passes without the NuMen primed for action is a threat to all of us.” He stopped, then turned back to face them. “But remember this moment when you see the bodies of the world’s dead. I wanted to help. I meant to save lives. You chose to stand by and let death, starvation, and violence take the lives of millions of innocent people.”

  “We will join you there soon,” Shane said, ignoring Tomas’s grim speech. “Control will be handed back, then, in an orderly fashion.”

  Tomas left the room and the others watched him go in silence. When Alexis checked the door and they were sure Tomas wasn’t eavesdropping, he said, “What do you think? Has he really given up that easily?”

  “It’s possible,” Dean said. “Tomas is a hot-head, not a megalomaniac.”

  “I share Alexis’s concern,” Shane said, sha
king his head. “Tomas has been working toward this for years now and that isn’t the behavior of a ‘hot-head.’ It’s much more like a megalomaniac.”

  “If your ability to take control of the NuMen remains effective—” Dean began.

  “If is the operative word,” Alexis said. “Tomas is probably finding a way to change the robots’ AI control systems and block our override right now.”

  “Then we need to have their management shared with the Founders, the council, and the security projects,” Alexander said, “and we need to have that agreed and implemented before control is returned to Tomas.”

  “For now,” Shane said, “the best we can do is get agreement from Tomas that such an arrangement will be in place in the future.”

  “The agreement needs to be more than just a handshake,” Alexander said. “Can your override stay on until we have it worked out and in place?”

  “It can stay poised,” Kurt said.

  “And we can oversee the existing control systems to ensure they aren’t being modified,” Yves added.

  “Very well,” Alexander said. “We need Tomas and the NuMen on our side for the foreseeable future, so go and sort it out with him.”

  Shane, Yves, and Kurt joined Tomas in the Control Room. His expression was once again murderous. He greeted them scornfully.

  “We share your compassion for the peoples of the Western world,” Shane said, trying to be conciliatory. “We just don’t agree on the solution.”

  “Innocent people will die.”

  “They’re not innocent,” said Yves, who’d had too much real-life experience with the people Tomas was talking about while defending the food program. “They voted for governments and policies that brought about their own destruction because they thought it would give them things they wanted without their own effort. They knew what they were doing was nonsense—nothing comes from nothing—but they chose to enrich themselves and hang the consequences. They chose this. That isn’t innocence.”