Paper or Plastic

by Mackey Chandler

  Impossible to ignore, was the low shape of a Raytheon battlefield ballistic laser, on a combat chassis in the southwest corner. It was under a camo net, but easy to ID from the side and as out of place as a buffalo in a tearoom. Yellow tape marked a stay-clear zone around it and the muzzle pointed north at the sky.

  A young couple sat on the stairs leading to the upper deck, cleaning what appeared to be .50 caliber Barrett’s sniper rifles. Efraim reconsidered, adding up all the hints he'd seen, that perhaps this place would be harder to take than he’d first thought.

  "Our lord and master, Joshua." Gil jokingly introduced him, omitting his last name. "Efraim Mofaz, Minister of Defense and Barak Menashe, spymaster," he introduced them. He made no objection to the title and they knew there was no reason to introduce Haim. Gil after seating them went around to one of the chairs and hesitated. "I believe I shall forego the jacket if you don't mind Joshua."

  Joshua looked amused. "What does it take to get you to drop the formality?" he asked. "Do you see me sweating in one of those things? Take it off. Take the shirt off too and sit and scratch your chest like a monkey for all I care."

  "I was raised to defer to my elders, even if with all due respect they are barbarians," Gil replied, but he did fold the jacket neatly and put it over the back of his chair. "Feel free to remove yours if you want," Gil offered their guests. "Joshua won't think to offer you the informality; because he is so casual he assumes you'd just do it if you wanted." Seeing the hesitation, he added, "Don't worry about the gun Barak, we've all seen one and won't faint away."

  Trying to ignore the grin on Haim's face, Barak shrugged out of his suit jacket and draped it over the chair back like a hanger. It would have made his tailor grind his teeth. Efraim kept his and looked comfortable in it.

  Indeed neither Joshua nor the even younger boy sitting next to him had jackets. The child – that was the right word – seated beside him had on jeans, a t-shirt and a huge stone set in a massive silvery metal finding. That was on a chain that looked more suitable to locking up a bicycle, than as a piece of jewelry. It didn't go with jeans and a t-shirt and dwarfed the magnificent square cut diamonds he had in earrings. He also had a set of the specs, the wraparound lens set completely clear showing his youthful face, but tiny spots of light reflected off his cornea showing it was active.

  This is Hyman Schumacher," Joshua introduced the boy who appeared to be perhaps fourteen. "He is not a permanent member of the household, but is a friend of Gil. He has a holiday from his schooling in Switzerland, so he is visiting. His father's firm does some business with us. That's how we became acquainted."

  "I'm an officer of our firm too," Hy firmly reminded them. "I don't want them to think I'm just some little kid."

  "Don't worry, I certainly remember the deal you did in New York," Haim agreed. The mention of New York drew a few frozen seconds of silence, like mentioning the recent dead and then everything went on.

  "So what does this firm, of which you are a member, deal in Mr. Schumacher?" Efraim asked.

  Hy took another close look at his face, probably wary that he was being patronized, but there wasn't a trace of a smile or amusement.

  "Diamonds," he replied, reaching up and touching the pear shaped stone hanging above his breast bone. That answered one unasked question.

  "But this isn't trade stock," he added on after thinking about his gesture. "It is a gift, a deal sweetener from my first trade, so I wear it always. But I do wear it inside my shirt when I'm at school," he added quickly. "The other boys think it's sissified and the girls hate you for having better jewelry than theirs."

  "Aren't you concerned it might get stolen wearing it every day like that?"

  "No, I have at least two bodyguards even when I go to class and I'm more valuable than the gem. If I'm snatched the Great Stone is an afterthought."

  "I can hear the capitals in the description," Efraim said. "What makes it a Great Stone as compared to a merely large one?"

  "It is greater by being unique in some fashion. It may have an unusual shape or color. It may have been the booty of a pirate, or taken in the fall of an empire, or possibly as part of a crown or other jewels of state. Most of all it may have legends or histories attached – even curses. There are many large stones, but only a few hundred you'd call significant. You can tell for sure," he said, almost as an afterthought, "if they are named. And of course their names can change just like people."

  "Like the Hope diamond," Barak offered.

  "Yes, that's well known."

  "So what is this named?" Efraim wondered.

  "The Sweet Tear, because of the shape and it being a deal sweetener and its association with the New Kristallnacht that closed the diamond trade in New York," Hyman explained. "It came out, uncut, in my pocket, along with some other significant stones we were given to cut that escaped being seized."

  "I can't imagine how you could have bodyguards in class," Efraim changed the subject, uncomfortable with the turn of conversation. "Isn't it disruptive?"

  "A lot of my classmates do," Hy explained. "It isn't like we all get together in one big room all that often. There are less than two hundred in the class anyway. We link together online and get together at most, maybe six at a time to study. All the guards know each other and sometimes they are interested in the class themselves and sometimes they even help us with our studies. They give each other work breaks and there are just always a few of them hovering in the background. That's on top of the school's own security people. Quite a few have been employed with their families forever." he paused, thoughtful.

  "There is one guy at school I'm friendly with, who doesn't want to go into his dad’s business like they expect him to. I'd like for us to give him a chance to go – elsewhere, where he can be whatever he wants."

  "The gentleman knows there are starships and other worlds of men," Haim reminded him.

  "Yeah, but a lot of us younger ones wonder if he really believes it, or at least if the guys he has to explain it to believe it. Sometimes we think it's a bunch of science fiction to them. As much as I'd like a ride to see another world, I think maybe you should stuff their butts in a ship first and take them to some weird world that looks really different, with dinosaurs or something, so they have to know it's real right down in their bones."

  Haim cringed at the blunt assessment only a child would blurt out.

  "Well, young fellow, I have a few politicians I have a hard time dealing with myself," Efraim admitted. "But as head of a political organization, at some point I have to stop worrying what people believe and content myself what they will do. If they serve our purposes, let them think any silly thing they want to."

  "Indeed, better often enough," Barak mused.

  "So you really are Mossad?" Hyman asked Barak abruptly.

  "More than that," Barak assured him. "The head, Da Big Cheese," he assured him with a horrid fake New York accent. Hy was delighted.

  Efraim grabbed the jolly mood to bring up his business.

  "Despite that assessment, I think after all the back and forth over detail, we may have an agreement from all these politicians with your corporation. Want me to summarize them, or do you just want to read them? They are not too extensive if we have a few moments before they will have dinner ready."

  "A summery would take them off the mind, so we can enjoy dinner." Joshua suggested.

  "Everything previously agreed stays. All the terms of your bio patents are assured and immediately public. Your space drive and power patents, they agree to let be published in three years, instead of the five they wanted and you have use of them as well during the secret period and openly once our own use is public. The home here, they agree will have extraterritoriality – once you have an actual extra-solar colony you are representing."

  "That is not in perpetuity. You shut down or move off and the land reverts. They were not willing to make it effective until you can demonstrate the reality of such a colony. If any ship is sent to make a permane
nt settlement, a protective force shall remain with it until they are recalled, or absorbed into the settlement. And they agree – nothing more than a trade mission on worlds that already have humans. We have no desire to be colonialists."

  "I notice you say protective force, not army or military?" Joshua asked.

  "No, not conventional forces. Certainly not in the situation we are talking about. They have to be volunteers capable of thinking through the results of their actions, acting almost like a diplomatic mission if needed, because we are primarily concerned with the possibility we will stumble upon another intelligent race, no matter what the experience of Martee's people."

  "So we are looking at expanding the number of operatives Barak's agency fields to create this force. That also avoids bringing in more departments and agencies, before the first ship ever lifts. We are thinking in terms of teams of six people – three couples – and if they choose to remain in the colony after we withdraw support, that is fine with us, we will leave their equipment and supplies in place. And that doesn't apply to ships and satellites within the solar system," he reminded them.

  "Yes, too bad, but we understand the necessity of that," Josh admitted. "There's no help for it, as long as the political situation in the solar system stays the same. I actually expect most everyone will cheat and arm their interstellar ships to some degree. At least with short-range defensive weapons. I know I'm not going to sail off into the deep dark without some protection. It sounds very reasonable. I have the authority to approve it for my partners in their absence. So I'm saying yes. You have a deal." He stopped perhaps considering what he wanted to say. "We were really concerned you'd try to keep all these technologies secret for longer than would be practical. I'm glad you were reasonable."

  "Oh no," Barak assured him. "We're very much looking forward to a world where our neighbor's oil is finally simply chemical feed stock and not a vital energy source. It's going to be a new dynamic, with much opportunity when they find their income plummet and they still have to deal with a population unsuited to a modern world. Believe me; we are doing extensive planning to deal with all the changes to the world economy."

  "About arming the ships though, why did you push for this prohibition if you expected cheating?" Efraim asked.

  "If we allow anything at all, then you immediately have lawyering. We'd have case after case of people arguing what constitutes a defensive or an offensive system and the rulings will nibble away at our authority over time. It would be a waste of time and a constant aggravation. If everything is forbidden, then we have the upper hand to point to a system and say, that comes out, without any foot dragging or threatening to fight it through the courts."

  "It gives us the discretion to allow reasonable people some latitude, but the ones we are convinced are jackasses who will make trouble, we can deny so much as a pickle fork. That means it's really critical the enforcers are handpicked carefully and the fewer the better, or we'll have a worse situation of bribe taking and partial enforcement, than if we just had a vast collection of rigid rules and a thousand inspectors."

  "I understand now," Efraim nodded. "I'll make sure the PM understands your reasoning. It's unusual you know, to just blurt right out you intend to run things by a hidden set of rules, behind the official ones. As you said, if not watched closely it can go very wrong."

  "It's a hell of a way to run things, but I haven't figured out a better way yet," Barak admitted. "It also puts a damper on the likelihood a ship will use anything they have installed, because they know they are getting away with something and may get hauled up short if they are investigated, If you think of some other way of doing it, that doesn't require a massive bureaucracy come talk to me."

  "I saw a number of young people about the place when I came in, Joshua. Are they employees you've recruited locally?"

  "We have staff, a middle aged couple that has been with the house from when we rented it, before we purchased it. They've been residents longer than we have and you'll see the husband preparing the buffet and his wife is cooking. We have some other locals they hire, who are all relatives or people they have known in the area for years."

  "We don't have much staff for a villa this size because we don't have much landscaping and the young folks you saw are expected to keep their own rooms clean and even take turns at kitchen duty. We don't have much use for somebody too good to get their hands dirty. If they are asked to bus dishes, or clean a toilet, it weeds that sort out pretty quick."

  "However, most of the young people you saw became associated with our firm when they or their parents decided to leave New York, due to the Diamond Trader's Association moving. They are all on loan from our European businesses. There were also a lot of other Jews who decided to leave. I'm sure you know emigration has picked up since then, from all over America, not just New York and not just the diamond traders and their extended families."

  "Yes and it has been a sore point between our diplomatic staffs," Efraim agreed. "They insist it is an overreaction to one isolated incident."

  "Has it bothered them enough to return the stones to their rightful owners and pay for the damages from breaking in? Have they offered to compensate our security people and their families who were injured and unemployed?" Hyman asked. Barak lifted an eyebrow and seemed to be interested in how Efraim would answer.

  "I see you have a skill for cutting to the heart of the matter," Efraim said. "Those are indeed the questions our people ask every time the matter is brought up. No, they won't offer compensation and restitution."

  "They'll pay in the end," Hyman assured him. "Just like Germany paid a price nobody mentions. How many Ashkenazi Jews after World War Two were American Nobel Laureates? How many taught at their colleges, or for that matter were even in their government? The Germans lost how many patents and business startups? We'll see how much it costs America in twenty years," he threatened.

  "There is a more immediate problem for them," Gil said in an odd voice.

  "What's that?" Barak asked perking up.

  "My family is in the precious metals trade," he said for Barak's information, if he didn't already know. "So we of course have to know people in banking and brokerage, as futures and investment is part of our business. There are those who feel that when a government becomes repressive it is less stable."

  He looked around the table to see if anyone disagreed. "You might for example consider that one of Hitler's bully-boys at the peak of his power would have had an excellent credit rating. However in hindsight being commander of a concentration camp turned out to be a high risk, short-term source of employment with no follow-up career. That's why, taking the long view, a number of bankers have decided that personnel of Customs, Treasury, FBI and the like, are similarly at risk, so they have taken the stand that when there is any irregularity, the safest thing is to declare such people's loans for their mortgages, or anything else in default."

  "In fact where such loans are callable at will, it seemed the prudent thing to do so. My one uncle even intimated that the Director of the FBI himself, had such a loan call and had a very hard time finding a source to re-write his mortgage on short notice. Certainly not for favorable rates and getting insurance will become increasingly difficult too."

  "Don't you think such acts might be viewed as retaliation?" Efraim asked.

  "I don't think the lenders really care how they view it," Gil assured him. "If the regulators want to destroy a huge chunk of their banking industry, then I suppose they could do something about it, if they want to do away with the Fed and create a new system. It would be a dangerous exposure to possible instability. It would be interesting to see if they find that a greater loss than the diamond trade. I'm sure all of our people in the banking business and quite a few other industries, are making sure they have sufficient assets moved overseas to protect themselves, if the US government decides to do something stupid. There has been a considerable flight of capital from the country, not all Jewish and it can't be invisible."<
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  "Has your own family moved to Israel?" Efraim asked Gil.

  "No, my father and uncle still do business in New York, but they take turns in Europe. They have a habit now of transferring ownership of actual physical assets, away from the parent company, even faster than they move the metal itself out of their vaults. At the end of any one day there just isn't much there to seize. My uncle bought a home in Switzerland and father bought a home in Italy and it seems my younger brother and sister were shaken from fleeing New York, so they decided they would like to go to school in Italy too. So of course my mother spends most of her time there. I work for Joshua's company in Italy, so it's convenient for me to live with them. As a matter of fact all Joshua's young employees you are asking about, decided to live in Europe when we left America. If a large number of his people were of draft age and became Israeli residents – well, it would just be too tempting for you, wouldn't it?" he asked.

  "For me? Not at all," Efraim assured him, "for some others, maybe. If someone tried to pressure Josh by leaning on his employees… I've been given to think it would backfire. We're not that hard up for conscripts to jeopardize our relationship over a few score people, but basic fairness is important to public morale. But how do you all come to be here today, if you work for him in Italy or wherever?"

  "He's a friend of the family and does a significant business with my father's firm so I'm visiting as a friend first and getting some training while I'm here."

  "How nice," Efraim allowed. "May I ask what you do for him? Or is it confidential?"

  Gil raised an eyebrow to Joshua. "Am I permitted to discuss what I do, or is it proprietary information?"

  "We don't have any umbrella policy of secrecy," Joshua pointed out. "Haven't you already discussed it with anyone?"

  "Only with Hy and in a very general way, with my father, otherwise no, I haven't even discussed it with my mother," he said.