A camcording of Henry Jugos, the same human rights champion whose arrival had been announced back when Franz had spoken, was replayed for the crowd. In it he urged them not to back down and to demand their charter be honored. When martial law had been declared, the PI lawyers argued that this allowed them to nullify Jugos’ visa, and so it was back to court.
Scotty MacScotty, an irreverent comedian whose real name was a loosely-held secret, was next, and he had the crowd roaring as he skewered the company. Michi normally thought he was funny, if a little crude for her taste, but this time, she let the humor pass her by. She was watching the jacks and the Marines for any sign of action.
“There’s trouble in Dundee,” Cheri relayed to them in a whisper, one hand over the ear into which her PA bud was inserted. “The crowd tried to take over the company office, and the Marines pushed them back. There are some dead, but I don’t know who or how many there are yet.”
Dundee was Kakurega’s second largest city, the planetary capital, and the site of PI’s Plant 4, where large items were fabricated. There was a higher percentage of indentureds and fewer PI management at that factory than at perhaps any other company facility.
“We knew that was a possibility when we set this up,” Gabriella said quietly as she took a glance to see if anyone was listening in. “Hokkam said that we might need a spark to get the fire going.”
“Hokkam is out of the equation now,” Cheri answered. “So, it doesn’t matter what he said. We might have that fire, but will it engulf us all?”
Behind the Marines, Michi saw movement. It was one of the T2000 forklifts, the big ones used to move vats of base materials. It stopped in back of the Marines, and someone climbed onto the forks. The operator raised them, lifting the passenger above the Marines and jacks and in view of the crowd.
It was Dr. Keller, the deputy mayor. The fact that a public official was sitting on a yellow forklift with “Propitious Interstellar” printed on the side of the cab was a telling connection that did not slip past Michi.
“People of Tay Station, this gathering is illegal and you are ordered to withdraw. Despite no permits being issued, we have used patience as a show of good will. That good will has been exhausted, so as law abiding citizens, you must go home.
“If you have reasonable grievances, you may come down to the city offices during normal working hours and file them.
“As a member of the city council, I am issuing the order to cease and desist as per City Proclamation 19.815.3062, the previously declared imposition of martial law. Failure to do so can result in arrest and imprisonment for a period of no more than ten years.”
As if in a Hollywood flick, a round, red object sailed from the crowd and arched over to strike the mayor on his thigh. The tomato had been ripe enough to splatter, covering him in juice and seeds.
The crowd roared with laughter and the deputy mayor hurriedly motioned for the forklift operator to lower him. The laughter broke off and faded to nothing as the jacks, who had been lining B Street, split in the middle of the line and marched smartly to each side of the street, leaving the center open. A few people moved forward as if to enter the opening the jacks had made.
“Get out of here,” Michi said to Cheri and Gabriella, pushing them back.
They didn’t argue, probably thinking of what had just transpired in Dundee. A few other people started to edge back as well, but the bulk of the crowd just stared to see what would unfold.
Michi was not surprised when the Marines started moving in their huge combat suits. For something so big and unwieldy-looking, each Marine smoothly stepped forward, each rank in unison as they passed through the jacks, then spread out, shoulder to shoulder, completely blocking B Street and extending along the entire west side of the square.
A voice came out of some unseen speaker, “This is your last warning. Leave the square now and return to your homes or you will be forcibly evicted.”
Quite a few people turned to push their way out, but the sheer number in the square made that difficult. A person holding one of the rally signs tried to push past Michi, dropping the placard. Michi saw her own face as the sign fell, hitting her in the head before it fell between the people onto the ground. Michi might have thought the irony of getting hit with her own photo was funny if the Marines hadn’t then started a slow march forward.
Screams erupted from the crowd as people tried to get out of the way. The Marines did not fire any weapons, but merely walked forward in lockstep, using their combat suits as bulldozers. A few young bloods tried to hit the Marines with rally signs, and one young man jumped up on top of a Marine only to be casually plucked off as if he was an errant kitten and tossed aside.
Behind the Marines, the jacks had formed back up. Several of them pounced on the young man who’d just been tossed. A few people lost their footing. Michi became incensed when the Marines kept marching, stepping on those on the ground. An older lady fell, and a Marine stepped squarely on her. The woman went still.
“They’re not resisting!” she shouted, her voice lost in the bedlam.
She wanted to strike out at the Marines, and she had to fight the impulse to wade into them. Her blood boiled, but the rational part of her mind argued that she couldn’t do any good in jail. She wavered for a few moments as the Marine line moved inexorably forward, the eager jacks rushing to arrest anyone who was left as the Marines stomped over them. Finally, the rational Michi gained control, and she turned to flee.
She would leave the square to the Marines and bring the fight to them another day and on her terms, not theirs.
Chapter 25
The three friends jumped at the chime.
“Check it, please, Doug,” Michi said, trying to sound calm.
They were in an apartment into which Doug had gotten access. It was furnished, if somewhat tacky, and from hints Doug had made, it was used as a secret getaway for higher ups in the company technical division when they wanted discreet liaisons. Doug guaranteed there was no surveillance leading to or inside the getaway. Michi thought it ironic that they were using what PI management had set up for secrecy, be it for an amorous reason, to possibly plot against the company.
“It’s them,” Doug said, checking the wall screen. “At least it’s Ms. Baliles and two men.”
“Am I OK?” Michi asked Tamara after switching on her face-spoofer. When Tamara said yes, Michi nodded at her, and Tamara opened the door.
Michi had been standing regally in the front hallway, her back highlighted by the afternoon sun. The effect, which the three of them had worked out, was spoiled by Rosario pushing her aside and quickly checking the apartment. Cheri and their guest came in, but Rosario held up his hand to keep them from talking while he took a portable scanner out of his pocket and checked for whatever he suspected.
“OK, it looks clear,” he finally said with a scowl on his face.
Isn’t he ever happy? Michi wondered before turning to greet her guest.
The man standing in front of her looked to be in his mid-thirties, stood about two meters tall, and was a trim 85 kg. He was supposedly an accountant for Jericho Trading, responsible for accounts payable to Propitious Interstellar. Jericho Trading was a Brotherhood company, just one of the many, many companies who bought PI goods and kept an office in the city. In reality, “Mr. Samuels” was a bishop in the Brotherhood military, if their information was right, and he wanted to meet the “Red Athena.”
The fact that he was in the military but undercover made Tamara declare that he was a bonafide spy. Michi had to agree, but Tamara seemed too excited over the fact. She had been in the condo when Doug had suggested the location for the meeting, and she was adamant that she was coming, too.
Michi was in full costume for the meeting, which had taken over a day to set up. The location proved problematic, what with Mr. Samuels being unable to visit the WRP offices and Michi not willing to go out in public in persona. It was Doug who came to the rescue with his division’s little sex hide-away
.
Mr. Samuels had extremely white teeth, Michi noted as he held out a hand.
“Thank you for meeting with me,” he said, smile dazzling. “Should I call you Athena?” he asked with just the right degree of lightheartedness.
“Valkyrie was better,” Cheri muttered under her breath.
Cheri was now the chairman of the WRP. She had been the unanimous choice, and Tamberlane, who had always been in on most chapter decisions anyway, and been elevated to full board status.
“Sure,” Michi said. “And should I just call you ‘Bishop?’”
“Touché, young lady, touché. But I think Mr. Samuels will be fine,” he said with a chuckle.
“Ms. Baliles has been kind enough to show me some of your recent recordings. I have to say you cut an impressive figure.”
Michi wondered if that had been a double entendre, but she simply asked, “So I can assume your interest in us means your, uh, company, might be willing to render assistance?”
“While my company appreciates your situation, and while we philosophically stand for human rights and freedom of speech and actions, sometimes our support is more of a moral type rather than the material.”
“So, you mean you will root for us, but in secret so as to not upset the Federation.”
“M—uh, Athena, it’s not that easy,” Cheri snapped, eyes blazing.
Michi didn’t care. Cheri was her friend, but this pompous ass came to ogle her in her costume, see the “Red Athena,” and maybe ask for a photo with her, and he offers nothing?
“No, Ms. Baliles, she’s only saying what is evident,” he said to Cheri before turning back to Michi. “No, we are not ready to offer overt aid. However, we can offer some information when it is feasible, and we will be monitoring the situation. If it escalates to a certain point,” he held up a hand as Michi was about to interrupt, “and what that point is, I frankly don’t know. But if it reaches there, we would be forced, on humanitarian grounds, to assist. Exactly how or in what form? I don’t know. My job now is to gather information so that we are able to react quickly if and when necessary.”
Michi started to protest again, but as she thought about it, what the bishop said made sense. She could not expect the Brotherhood to risk war over worker conditions on a Federation planet. They fact that they were even monitoring it was gratifying.
“And why did you want to meet me? I’m not a decision maker,” she asked, slightly mollified.
“Because I wanted to see the face of the worker movement. I wanted to get a feel for you. And something tells me that you are not the mere figurehead you let yourself on to be. There is more fire in you than that,” he said.
He’s a smooth talker, Michi admitted to herself, feeling herself calm down.
She had been frustrated over the last week. She was the one who had eliminated the traitor, but she had no say now in what was happening. The WRP was moving slowly while Michi knew in her heart that they had to push while the momentum was still there and before it dissipated. There had been impromptu protests, but with 23 killed in Dundee and two in Tay Station, and with over 40 in varying degrees of regen, the protests had a tentative feel to them, and the numbers were not overly impressive.
All she had done in the meantime was record four short camcordings, all done to a script that was handed to her. She had felt awkward and not vested in what was being said. To have the bishop tell her she was more than that was a needed boost to her ego.
They spoke for only a few more minutes, the bishop asking, Michi responding. She didn’t totally understand the point of each of his questions, but she tried to answer them in all candor.
“Well, Ms. Athena, I want to thank you for meeting with me, but I’ve got to get back,” he said, shaking her hand. He didn’t let it go but stared at her face for a few moments before saying, “Not a bad job on your disguise. I can barely tell where it leaves off and where you begin. I can’t quite see what method you are using, but if you want a slight bit of advice, though, you might want to up your frequency. Certain surveillance devices available to any military might be able to mesh with your transmitter and essential see what’s underneath. A shifting frequency might even be safer.”
Michi heard an intake of breath from Doug. She almost had to smile. Doug had been so proud of his spoofer, but evidently it was not quite as unique as he had thought.
“Thank you,” Cheri whispered as she turned to leave, probably relieved that the meeting had not gone too poorly.
Rosario hung back, and as the other two stepped out the door, he grabbed Michi by the arm and pulled her in close to quietly snarl, “I know who you are now, and I know what you did to Hokkam. Remember one thing. I am in charge of security, and your amateur actions could have blown up in our faces, still might, and that puts all of us in danger. If you find out anything else that affects us, you come to me and let me handle it. Understood?”
Michi glared back and ripped her arm out of his grasp. “Have a good day,” she said forcibly.
He looked at her for another moment before Cheri’s voice came in from the hall, “You coming?”
“Remember what I said,” he whispered as he turned and left.
Michi took a deep breath as the door closed and turned around to face her two friends. Doug was staring at her, either upset about the comment about his spoofer or because he heard part of what Rosario had said. Tamara, on the other hand, had a goofy smile on her face.
“Did you see him?” she asked. “That’s enough to make a girl weak at the knees.”
“What?” Michi asked, taken by surprise by the direction of her roommate’s comment.
“Oh, come on, Michi. A handsome hunk like that? Did you see his teeth? And a spy? Didn’t he make you,” she paused to dramatically put her hands over Doug’s ears, “make you just the teensiest bit wet?”
Doug winced and recoiled from what he’d heard, while Michi protested, “What? No!”
“Oh, come on. Have you gone all dried up and dusty inside?”
That innocent comment hit Michi hard. She had felt dark and “dusty” inside, not in a sexual way, but in her heart. Tamara was talking about sex, but it went much deeper than that to Michi. She feared she was losing her humanity.
“You’re losing it, girlfriend, and you need to get it back. You need to get laid and soon. Tell you what, I’ll step back and leave Mr. Spy to you.”
“No! I mean, I’m not interested!”
“OK, then anyone. Hey Dougie, you got anyone for the ice princess here? Someone who can give her a good fucking?” she asked, using her arm and fist to pump back and forth.
“Tamara! Stop it!” Michi shouted. “I’m serious!”
“OK, sorry. I was just joking,” Tamara said, sounding miffed.
“You can be a real bitch,” Doug said quietly to her.
“What a bunch of limpies,” Tamara said in response, but more to herself than to anyone else.
Michi needed to move on, to get the subject off of her. The bishop had said there was more to her, and Michi grasped at that like a life ring in a storm.
“Both of you, get serious and come sit down. Doug, how long do we have this place?”
“Uh, I don’t know. At least until evening, maybe longer.”
“OK, Tamara, put on some coffee, and let’s get to work. We’ve got some planning to do.”
Chapter 26
“What do you mean you can’t get their schedules? I thought you could hack into anything?” Michi asked in exasperation.
“I told you, I can get anywhere into the company or the government here because when we put in the security, I managed to insert a back door. I’ve got the key, and I can get in anytime I want. But you’re talking about the military. They’ve got Gen 10 security, and there’s no way I can break in.”
“Just hack it,” Tamara said.
“You’re not getting me. I couldn’t hack PI without the back door. As far as military? There’s just no way!”
two hours later .
. .
“So that won’t work either,” Michi said with disappointment as she read the web article. “The PICS are shielded against some pretty powerful energy weapons, so a simple electric current, no matter how powerful, won’t knock one out.”
“I thought it might work, but I guess that would be too easy,” Doug said with a sigh. “Well, back to the drawing board.”
another hour . . .
“Yech! The coffee’s cold! Tamara, how about contributing and brewing up a fresh pot!” Mich said.
Two more . . .
“I already took care of that. As far as anyone knows, you live in apartment 307 in Building 1002, Franklin Manor,” Doug said.
“And that will fly?”
“It should. You’ve been burning power, watching the holo, going online. I even had you download your speech about the Marine and his girlfriend.”
“Was that smart? I mean, downloading it was illegal. What if they come to check on me?” Michi asked.
“Sister, everyone downloaded that.” Tamara said.
“Tamara’s right. Almost everyone undoubtedly did. There are probably programs out there to see who didn’t. Anyone too clean raises red flags,” Doug agreed. “You even filed a report on noisy neighbors.”
“So as far as anyone knows, I don’t stay at Tamara’s? And when did you do all of that?”
“When I first met you two. It just seemed like appropriate precautions.”
Tamara gave him a hug and kissed his forehead. “Oh, you care, Dougie!”
Doug shrugged off her arms and muttered, “Just being safe is all.”
But his face was turning red.
2:30 AM
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