The Rats, the Bats and the Ugly trtbav-2

by Eric Flint

  Chip understood now, how difficult it would be to think of this piece of lawyerly double-talk. But knowing it before the chip was inserted had made all the difference. "It works. A fair number of"-she would never have heard about intelligent rats and bats-"other implanted ones do it out there."

  She sighed again. "It does, indeed. But they will find out now, when they question you. You won't be able not to tell them. That's why they haven't mindscrubbed you."

  "I need to get away from the… Crotchets." Somehow he knew that it would be terribly evil to even think of escaping the beloved Korozhet.

  "The only way to do that is to die. You will be incinerated, and your ash dumped."

  "If that's what I have to do, that's what I'll do," said Chip, grimly. If there was no way out he'd kill himself before he talked and gave Ginny and the rats and bats away. But how?

  A siren rang out. "Come. Or no food get," said the Jampad.

  "I think not." Chip shook his head. "I'm not hungry yet. Actually I feel as sick as a horse. And I suppose they'll take me for questioning when I am up. How long can I pretend to be unconscious, before they come looking?"

  The woman shrugged. "You never can tell. They'll leave a body in here until we lug it out, or it rots. When we go out to eat they'll assign us to tasks. They have visual and auditory pickups in here, though. We think that they're not always active."

  Chip sighed. It was so much to absorb and his head hurt terribly. "Which is my shelf?"

  "Marie's old shelf," said the woman with pain in her voice and pointed.

  Unsteadily, Chip got to his feet and managed to climb into it. The effort was of such an order that he did not have to fake unconsciousness.

  Eric Flint

  The Rats, the Bats amp; the Ugly

  Chapter 44

  Eric Flint

  The Rats, the Bats amp; the Ugly

  A universe centered around Virginia.

  Animal Holding Pens, Grecian-style HAR council chambers, and Webb Fields Auditorium.

  "Talk, argument. And more talk!" said Ginny furiously. "That's all they're doing. Chip could rot before they actually do anything. Well, I want action. And if they don't provide it I'll organize it myself. I want an army. And if I've got one thing out of this, it's access to some money, even if the money that the MPs confiscated from Chip is still securely locked up. So: I want you to organize a meeting with the Ratafia for me. I'm going to get me an army."

  " 'Tis easy enough to organize," said Melene. "This afternoon?"

  Ginny scowled even more fiercely. "This afternoon I have two things I can't avoid: Firstly I've promised Meilin I would come and speak at her Vat rally in support of Chip. And before that, I have a session with the Council of Shareholders. I want Talbot Cartup stripped of any possibility of using power. I've got some new lawyers, and they say that Chip's extradition was illegal, but the best speed for their legal steps is another three days. So: I want to go to the Council and get a new motion passed stating that the extradition is illegal and that the K… Crotchets must return him. Immediately and unharmed. I wanted them to state 'or face war' but the people I have talked to say I'll be opposed in setting any terms or conditions."

  She thumped her fist. "If there are no terms and conditions, they'll weasel and squirm for years. But I'll try their way first. Otherwise-tonight, I'm hiring."

  " 'Tis a huge ship," said Melene, doubtfully. They could see the silvery pumpkin-shape of it from here.

  "And it was a vast scorpiary," said Ginny, determinedly.

  Nym nodded. "I'm seeing if I can fit some armor to my golf cart. I've got a line on a used V-eight engine, instead of the electric one, and one of the techs at the university is helping me with a frame to support it. I'm with you. But the money would come in handy for accessories. Methinks chrome has a vile price."

  She hugged him. "I've got a credit card, now. Let's go shopping, Nym."

  "Well, you can buy me some more grog," said Fal. "Otherwise I might be too sober to go."

  "A few pints o' full cream and some o' t'at strawberry yogurt might be nice," said O'Niel. "I'd never encountered it before, but I was liking it foine."

  "O'Niel! Milk!" said Pistol in tones of horror. "If I were to govern, I would make it a felony to drink even small beer. Now, I'd not be going on this daft expedition, except that I've remembered Connolly still owes me several dozen hogsheads of whiskey. I'd fain get that, and I'll not see it, if he's dead."

  "I'll get them for you, if you get him back for me, Pistol," she promised.

  "Nay. 'Tis Connolly's debt. You can owe me another hogshead or two," said Pistol cheerfully. " 'Tis my intent to drown in them, but I'll have a ladder put so I can get out to leak afore I go."

  "Mercenary bunch," said Bronstein. "Capitalists! Still… um… Ginny. You wouldn't care to become a major shareholder in something else would you? The Bats' Bank? We won't be bloodsuckers! 'Tis just a way of Vats winning free of Shareholders, by liberating them o' the iniquity of compound interest."

  Ginny raised an eyebrow at Bronstein. "I'll talk it over with Chip. You know he's got rather strong feelings about Shareholders."

  "Uh, we were thinking of a cooperative. You know…" Then Bronstein realized what Ginny had said. "Er. To be sure. We'd better get him loose, then. Not that you have to coerce us, Ginny. We're supporters anyway."

  "I know," said Ginny, quietly. "But you don't know how much it means to me to have you with me."

  ***

  The Council meeting gave Virginia her first sure insight into the fact that Talbot Cartup might be on the run, but he wasn't beaten yet.

  "I'm afraid," said the Chairman, "that until probate is granted we cannot allow you to exercise your vote in this Chamber. As a Shareholder in your own right, you may of course petition the Chair to address the house when the open session is declared."

  Her new legal advisor got to his feet. "Mister Chairman. I'd like you to explain to the Council how, if this is the case, you accepted proxy forms allowing Talbot Cartup to exercise Ms. Shaw's vote?"

  "Ah. We were not aware at the time that there were some legal challenges to the disposition of Aloysius and Gina Shaw's estates," said the Chairman smoothly. "And as Virginia Shaw is still under twenty-one, her votes cannot be exercised without her trustees' consent."

  The attorney cocked his head and pursed his lips. "So, in other words," he said grimly, "not only were the proxies obtained under duress, but the Council failed to get the permission of those trustees, thus rendering this vote for extradition null and void. An illegal exercise."

  "Er, yes," admitted the Chairman. "Done in ignorance of the facts, unfortunately. It is a rather an embarrassing situation. But we have on the agenda a motion to ask for Connolly's return."

  " 'Embarrassing' is the wrong word, Chair," said her counsel, grimly. " 'Actionable' is the correct one. And 'ask' is the wrong word too. 'Demand' is the correct one there. But Ms. Shaw should at least be allowed to speak. To tell us how she would exercise her vote."

  Eventually, in the open session they were able to raise the matter of the conspicuously absent head of the Security portfolio. Her new attorney spoke first.

  "We've hired private investigators. We're running parallel investigations with the police for the cases in which the Special Branch are implicated. We've had nothing but complete cooperation so far from the Internal Affairs Department of the National Police."

  He didn't add amazingly enough, nor did he explain that Van Klomp's paratroopers were launching what amounted to a systematic campaign of intimidation against the police-and were being eagerly assisted by hundreds of Vat soldiers who had been stationed in GBS City. That campaign had-so far-stopped short of homicide against the regular police. Eighteen such policemen had been admitted to the hospitals suffering from various traumas, true, but most of them were no worse than some bruises or bloody noses.

  The army's campaign against Special Branch, on the other hand, showed no such limits. Special Branch had murdered militar
y personnel and the army was responding in kind. Any Special Branch detectives who fell into the hands of Van Klomp's soldiers received multiple fractures at a bare minimum. Eleven Special Branch detectives had been "shot dead while resisting arrest." So far as anyone could tell, the paratroopers' definition of "resisting arrest" ranged somewhere between he didn't get his hands up fast enough to he looked at me cross-eyed.

  "The corruption and level of misconduct on the part of Special Branch we've uncovered so far is utterly appalling. Among other things, we've discovered that almost all the staff on Shaw House premises are Special Branch operatives. They denied it, of course, but a number of them even had their ID badges with them. It seems they thought they were above prosecution."

  A senior council member rose to reply. "While I appreciate that you have had problems with a few renegade elements of the Special Branch, who were misled by Dr. Thom, it is simply impossible to take these steps. Why, if the Special Branch was disbanded-"

  "If it was disbanded?" snorted Ginny angrily. "In case you've been living on another planet, Special Branch is being held responsible by the army for murdering army personnel. The question is not 'if' Special Branch will be disbanded. The question now is simply whether there will be enough of the thugs left alive to disband at all. The paratroopers are in a pure fury."

  The senior council member gaped at her. "But… but we might all be murdered in our beds! These Vats are getting out of control!"

  Ginny stood up. She'd been totally terrified of speaking in public at first. But, if she didn't, Chip would be doomed. As it was, all she could do was speak, until probate was passed and the shares became legally hers. Funny, how they'd been happy to accept her proxies, but not her actual vote. Well. She'd just have to use her voice as well as possible.

  "This colony, fellow Shareholders, was set up to escape tyranny and repression. To build a new utopia, for all the people of Harmony and Reason. Not just some of us. The right to free association and public assembly is set out in our constitution. That right does not just apply to Shareholders. We have no need or right to have a repressive organization, with basically unlimited license and no controls, here on Harmony and Reason. If, and this is a very big 'if,' the Special Branch is not simply disbanded as it should be-as I intend to demand that it be-then the Council must move and move swiftly to take proper, accountable control over them."

  The Chairman was at his most icy. He knew he had little to lose. He was a well-known Cartup family loyalist. When she wielded her votes, he was going to be out of that position. "We already have someone who is responsible for the Special Branch, that you want removed. Talbot Cartup is only implicated by your accusation, Ms. Shaw. A man is innocent until proven guilty."

  She looked down her nose at him. "Not that Special Branch has ever respected that legal axiom. But leave that aside. Firstly, if you suspect a man with bloody hands of axe-murder, you take his axe away and put him in custody while he awaits trial. If he is given bail, there are strict conditions set to stop him committing another crime. The trial will establish his innocence or guilt-but you don't leave him on the loose with his axe, Mr. Chairman. And secondly, by giving all responsibility for the Security portfolio to one individual-without any checks and balances on that power-we, as the Council, must accept the blame for that individual's actions. We need to set up those checks and balances. We also need to at least suspend Talbot Cartup from that post, until the courts decide on his innocence or guilt."

  "Those seem fair calls to me, Mr. Chairman," said one of the younger councilors. "Shall we put that to that to the vote?"

  The two motions passed… by the slimmest of margins. But when it came to direct action against the Korozhet, unless they returned Charles Connolly, Ginny had less luck. The Council refused to do more than issue another amorphous, weak-worded request, without time limits or the intimation of threat.

  ***

  Afterwards, still seething with fury, Ginny spoke to Bronstein.

  "Look, Bronstein. I've changed my mind. You've got a deal right now. But I need your support. This is the deal I am offering…"

  ***

  Virginia looked out onto a sea of faces. Meilin's VLO was far larger than the Special Branch had reported… or the public's curiosity about the guest speaker was larger than anyone had guessed. There was a whole stadium full of Vats. Many of them were women with young children, the men and unmarried women being off at the war-front. They hadn't cheered when she'd stood up to speak. But they hadn't booed her yet, either.

  Virginia cleared her throat, and flung straight into it. "I'm here because one brave soldier made me realize that Vats are not second-class citizens." A ripple of surprise ran through the crowd.

  "I am here to tell you I am going to stand by you and for you." They liked that, but didn't trust it. Well, she wouldn't have, either. But if the Special Branch could play dirty, so could she. "And here's my first-and unconditional-demand. Abolish the Special Branch. Destroy it, root and stem."

  They cheered wildly, then. She had them.

  "It is the system that has to change. You can change a system in two ways. Either you can smash it, in which case a lot of people are going to get killed. Our people as well as their people. Or you can take it over, and nobody has get hurt. Nobody but the Special Branch." She smiled at the crowd. "They've always said 'anyone can become a Shareholder, just as soon as their debts are paid.' Only… the longer it takes the deeper in debt you get. Twenty-two percent per annum, compounded, interest on interest. The Shareholders get rich and you get poorer."

  Now the crowd booed. She held up her hands for silence, and they were still.

  "I intend to break this. Completely. No Shareholder child is expected to pay for his or her upbringing. But to do this legally, without bloodshed, I will need votes. And to get that I need Shareholders to support me. And we need to do it without fighting on the streets, except in self-defense, because if we fight they can repress us. As soon as I have legal control over my fortune-and I own one-third of all the shares in the colony-it is going to be given to the Bat Credit Cooperative."

  A sea of tonsils stared at her from the open mouths on the stands.

  "To explain, I am going to hand this microphone over to one of the organizers. Michaela Bronstein."

  The stunned crowd watched a bat on the podium tap the microphone with a wing-claw.

  ***

  "Indade, we're planning to break the stranglehold of Shareholders. We don't wish to make money out of this project. We bats have no interest in money. Ask those Vats who have fought beside us on the front lines. All we want in exchange is freedom for the uplifted creatures. We want you to vote for us to be recognized as sentients. As well as the rats." Bronstein shrugged her batwings. "I can talk and think. But any human can legally kill me as they would sheep. We will support you, but we want your support in return. We need to stand wing to shoulder against those who oppress us. We've fought as comrades in arms in the trenches. Will you stand with us here?"

  The clapping was hesitant at first. Then, as Virginia held out her arm, and Bronstein flew onto it, the clapping became a wall of sound. Virginia raised her arms and hushed them.

  " 'Tis a vile underarm bouquet you have, " said Fal, with a snigger from his perch just inside the podium.

  Somehow, that made the rest easy. "And when we have those votes, we'll move on three things. Firstly, we want to move to a 'one person one vote' system, instead of the votes being weighted by shares. Secondly, we want a debt cancellation for the rearing of clones. Thirdly, we want recognition of full sentient rights for the uplifted creatures."

  She waited for hush again. "We are going to do all this because we can. Because when we start to organize there is no force that can stop us. We are going free Chip Connolly. We are going to drive the Magh' and… their allies off Harmony and Reason. We are going to build a free society of equals. We are going to do this-"

  She stood in the dramatic position she'd assumed, frozen.

&nb
sp; Literally.

  The bullet that interdicted the slowshield Liepsich had fitted saw to that.

  Eric Flint

  The Rats, the Bats amp; the Ugly

  Chapter 45

  Eric Flint

  The Rats, the Bats amp; the Ugly

  Mostly in the nest area of the head of the Ratafia.

  After the sort of day she'd had, Ginny thought, nothing should faze her. The paratroopers had killed the would-be assassin. That was perhaps unfortunate, since it might have been better to capture him and make him talk. But…

  The paratroopers were more concerned with completely, thoroughly and utterly terrifying the police-especially Special Branch. They'd practically blown the assassin into shreds.

  Afterward, Ginny and Bronstein had calmed the crowd. That had taken some doing. If she had been killed, a riot would indeed have occurred-which, clearly, was what Special Branch had intended.

  Surely no more could happen today?

  This phone call had knocked her back in her tracks. Not even being shot at had done that. They hadn't yet been able to find Talbot Cartup. But he'd found her.

  He didn't beat about the bush. "I've got access to Connolly, Shaw. If you want him that badly, I'll arrange it. But the price is going to be very high."

  Virginia sat down, hard. "All right. I'll pay. What do you want and when?"

  "Oh, not money, Shaw. I have plenty of that. A number of other things. The first one is for you to drop all the charges against me. The second one is to stop your rabble-rousing among the Vats-I don't need any extra trouble from them. The third one is that a motion will be put forward in the Shareholders Council to reaffirm the Council's confidence in Special Branch and with me as the holder of the colony's Security portfolio. You'll vote for that."

  "I can't. Not until probate is granted on the will. Council objected."