They Said It Would Be Easy (April Book 7)

by Mackey Chandler

  "You've re-invented the boomerang," April observed.

  "Not nearly," Jeff objected. "The guy who invented that was brilliant. I'd love to have know him. He had to be much smarter than me."

  April didn't argue, but she was skeptical and couldn't hide it.

  "No, really. It's a very complex shape. Somebody thought it out from observation," Jeff insisted. "I read some fool of an anthropologist theorize that an aborigine found a weathered stick and copied the shape. Anybody who believed that fantasy would believe Henry Ford found a Model T that had auto-assembled from an ore body in the desert and stole the design. What he was really saying is - I can't believe some grunting savage, without a degree like me, was smarter than I can ever hope to be."

  Then his com demanded his attention with a high priority signal.

  Message to ALL on Home com: Special Assembly of the people called for 20:00 Zulu by Mr. Eduardo Muños on behalf of Jon Davis, Head of Security. Discussing a matter of Public Safety.

  "What is that about?" April asked Jeff. She got an alert the same time as him. It had to be the same.

  "I don't know," he said, irritated. "I spend almost a fifth of our income on intelligence gathering and stuff like this still surprises me. Sometimes I wonder why I even try. You're the one who has a private contact for Jon. Muños is calling the assembly for him. Why don't you ask him?"

  "No, no. That's a terrible idea," April said.

  "Why? He has to know." Jeff pointed out.

  "Yes, but if Jon has the thought cross his mind, Should I tell April? I'd much rather have him assume there's no need, because I'll know already."

  "That's uh, crazy," Jeff insisted.

  "Not at all. People tell you much more when they assume they don't have to tell you. They rush to tell you things because they are afraid it will look like they are trying to be sneaky and keep things from you. They're scared next time they need to ask you something you'll cut them off because they kept something secret from you."

  "So, you think Jon would tell you, but he isn't? Why not?" Jeff asked confused.

  "He'd tell me if we happened to be doing some other business. He wouldn't call up to chat about something else and fail to mention what the Assembly is about. We just don't happen to be in contact at the moment. I could dream up some reason to call, and he'd spill his guts about this and three other things. But if I keep doing that it becomes an obvious pattern where I'm fishing for information."

  "But you didn't pretend you knew what it was about to me," Jeff protested.

  "Of course not. You already tell me everything you get from Papa-san and Chen Lee, and I tell you everything you need to know. We're equals, and it's my money we're spending to get it too. But I don't owe Jon everything I know. He has to keep earning it."

  Jeff looked confused and dismayed.

  "This is why you hire out spying," April assured him. "You should. You aren't devious enough. I find it charming, not a weakness. None of us can do everything. Everybody has a certain suite of talents. I've noticed Jon is too honest and can't lie for anything. He has to delegate that to people who can do it. But since you want to know about this I'll find out. Just not from Jon."

  April picked up her pad and used it slaved to her spex so Jeff wouldn't see what she keyed in. She'd learned quite a while back that he could watch the dance of your fingers on the keys and tell you the input. Even for long strings of numbers. She called her friend Ruby, but didn't mention her name out loud and her screen didn't display the video either. Her spex did.

  "Hi, I need a favor, if you happen to know what's going on with this sudden call to an Assembly. I have a friend who wants to know," April said.

  "Oh that, sure. Wanda told me when I got to work. Cowboy couldn't hang on to his gun, which went flying when he stood up in the cafeteria this morning. It went off on impact and shot a shuttle pilot through the leg. Jon has had quite enough of this from him. This is his third 'oops'. Also, he shot my coffee dispenser. We're trying to see if it can be welded up and repaired. No way I want to try to get one on the freight schedule right now," Ruby said. "If they can't fix it I'll have one made from scratch. It may not be as pretty, but I don't care as long as it works."

  "Cowboy? Is that guy who wears shirts with buttons all the time?" April asked.

  "Yeah, Phil is his real name. He works in distribution," Ruby remembered.

  "Was that the guy that tried to go nude everywhere after the war, when he realized there was no law against it?" April asked.

  "No, no. That was Albert Nielson. He's a warehouse worker. Phil actually goes out and drops the stuff off at your cubic. But they do seem to be a strange bunch in supply," Ruby allowed.

  "Thank you. I owe you one," April said.

  "Another one," Ruby said, she was keeping score, and she terminated the call.

  "One of our resident idiots dropped a pistol on the deck and wounded a stranger. Did some damage in the cafeteria too. Apparently this isn't the first time. I never heard about any accidental discharges before, have you?" April asked.

  "No, it must not have been out in public," Jeff guessed.

  "But somebody either heard it or he damaged something that had to be repaired," April decided.

  "Yeah, or he was stupid and didn't realize he shouldn't reveal it," Jeff said.

  "Yeah, that could be with this fellow," April agreed. "I just wonder what Jon is going to ask the Assembly to do about it."

  "Banishment seems harsh if it wasn't willful behavior," Jeff said. "And yet the next one may shoot somebody through the head. It sounds like a good bet there will be a next time. Three is a habit." Jeff frowned and thought about it. "A pistol should not go off just from a fall to the deck. I bet he's been messing with it, modifying it to have a hair trigger."

  "Suggest that to Jon privately. I'm just concerned. If we start disarming people you only have to look at Earth to see where that goes," April said.

  "Yes, I wouldn't agree to start making general restrictions. But this fellow apparently has demonstrated he can't be trusted with a gun. Now, if you crashed a shuttle into the dock or other traffic, how many times would they let it pass before pulling your ticket?" Jeff wondered.

  "That isn't the same," April insisted.

  "Only because we don't make you take lessons and pass an exam to carry a weapon. You are assumed to be competent and granted your ticket automatically. But I'd say you can still demonstrate incompetence," Jeff said.

  April nodded. "If he's too stupid to handle a gun safely he probably can't handle other things in life."

  "But those other things won't kill people," Jeff said. "I don't want licensing either. It's always going to turn political and be used against whomever the licensing authority doesn't like. But I'd support giving him a choice. Stop carrying a gun or leave."

  "OK, I hate to have to do that, but I agree. If Jon doesn't suggest something like that, you should. You said it very reasonably."

  "OK, I will. You want to go to the cafeteria and see it live?" Jeff asked.

  "Sure, let's go early, stake out chairs and have a late bite after," April agreed.

  * * *

  Jeff got a call, well before they needed to head to the cafeteria.

  "Li had some problems with the pickup," Chen informed Jeff.

  Jeff looked alarmed, and caught April's eye. "Did they make the pickup or not?"

  "Both of them are on board and safe, for now, but a USNA cutter interfered and tried to send an armed party to board them."

  "I'm conferencing April into this," Jeff said.

  "I'm in," April confirmed.

  "To repeat for April, there was a problem. The trawler from Vancouver was shadowed by a USNA Coast Guard cutter and they insisted they were going to do an armed boarding of the Tobiuo. Li might have allowed them to inspect him, I'm not clear on that, but the idiots made a move to point their deck cannon at him," Chen said. "He said since he wasn't moving, he saw no need to do that. Very simply, he didn't trust them not to sink him on
political orders. So he took them out instead."

  "They might have just been intimidating Li," April guessed. "That's kind of stupid. They couldn't fire on him once their boarding party was aboard. Or even very close for that matter. It's dead easy to aim and shoot if they tried to run away. The only purpose to immediately point the gun at them was to communicate that they were too tough to mess with. Oops, they were wrong about that."

  "Well he doesn't intimidate worth a damn," Chen said. "It was the Mobile, and she went down with no survivors. They had an away party in an inflatable, but they opened fire on the Tobiuo with a light machine gun. Li had just offered to pick them up if they dropped their weapons overboard."

  "Stuck in an inflatable far from land? Sounds like a generous offer to me. They should have accepted," April said.

  "The main question in my mind is, did they have time to radio a report of what was happening?" Jeff asked. "I assume you are continuing to keep a watch on them? Are there other boats or aircraft making any move to intercept them?"

  "The Tobiuo's first shot produced such a violent secondary explosion they may not have sent any message. The front of the superstructure was severely damaged and it appeared the antennas were all stripped off. I believe naval vessels all have a continuous data link now. I have no idea if that extends to Coast Guard vessels. If they had a sat in position to use it is another question," Chen said.

  "Even if there was, they might have just lost contact. There's no reason to imagine they were streaming video or anything," Jeff said. "We have no positive reason to think this was even a centrally ordered surveillance of the trawler. The cutter simply might have noted the trawler was not on a customary heading to go to fishing grounds, or some other anomaly provoked their interest and they followed. North America has been leaving us and ours alone pretty much. They might even have been shaving their orders a bit, and didn't report trailing the trawler. If they had orders to leave the Tobiuo alone, an overly enthusiastic commander could say he was just following the trawler and rationalize it led him to the Tobiuo without initiating that event himself."

  "If so, he found out the hard way why there was a 'don't touch' order," April said. "Will they continue to ignore us, or is losing a cutter too painful to let go?"

  Chen shrugged. "I don't know. But it may be too dangerous now for the Tobiuo to approach North American waters. How far do you want me to escalate if they vector another ship or an aircraft toward her?"

  Jeff looked at April and lifted an eyebrow, seeking her opinion.

  "I'd suggest if you see anything moving toward the Tobiuo drop a rod across their nose. If a blazing reentry vehicle cutting across their path doesn't send a sufficiently strong message, that there is an interested eye on them from the heavens, don't bother with a second warning. Drop the next on right on them," April said. "How long until they transfer the stuff with Dionysus' Chariot?"

  "Early tomorrow morning," Chen said, and looked at Jeff.

  Jeff agreed with April before Chen could ask. He didn't want Chen to act like he had to confirm it.

  "A rod might not suffice for a submarine, and it's a very poor choice for a maneuverable aircraft. If you need a ten kiloton weapon dropped call me. Better to put the blame on me than the militia. Try to give me at least ten minutes if you can, so I can examine what I have stacked up in orbit and direct it. I don't have many of the small weapons. But we want the Tobiuo safe. Under no circumstances will we sacrifice her. If I have to use large weapons I will do so," Jeff warned. "I'm not sure how many square kilometers of ocean a two hundred megaton device will clear of submarines. But I bet the answer is 'enough'," Jeff said.

  "I'll try to spare the fishes if I can," Chen said. He took Jeff's nod for a dismissal.

  "If you want to make things perfectly clear to the North Americans, perhaps you should offer Li the option of having the Tobiuo flagged as a Home vessel," April told Jeff.

  He looked at her, astonished. "But we aren't a maritime nation," he protested. "It's not like we even have any Earth territory, much less on an ocean. It sounds absurd."

  "Look into it. I'd bet anything they let land-locked Earth nations flag ocean going vessels. If they can why shouldn't we?" April asked. "If that's prohibited we should refuse the Earth nations the right to flag space ships. After all, they aren't in space. Fair is fair," April insisted.

  * * *

  As April expected, the artist Lindsey was in the cafeteria. April and Jeff sat out front of the improvised stage. They didn't sit to the side like they would for a regular Assembly. There was an unofficial hierarchy of seating that had evolved. The prominent people and business owners sat to each side rather than in front. They tended to self sort into groups like ship builders. Today April and Jeff didn't even sit close to them.

  Phil Donahue decided not to attend the Assembly in person. It was a last minute special assembly. April had no idea if she'd want to attend an Assembly if she was the object of a complaint like Phil. She could hope she never had to find out. The thing about it was – Jon could request an Assembly be called – but there was no guarantee it would do what he wanted. Once convened it had the power to do anything it wanted. It could see blame where Jon didn't, and it might impose solutions or penalties he didn't anticipate or want.

  After Mr. Muños called them to order he sat and turned the lectern over to Jon. Jon told pretty much the story Ruby had related to April, but detailed how Cowboy had placed lives and property in jeopardy before on two occasions. Mr. Muños did interrupt to ask if Mr. Donahue wished to call any witnesses, to contest the facts of those earlier accidental discharges. He didn't dispute the bare facts at all. Neither did he try to make excuses. That was probably to the good for him.

  Jon emphasized how reluctant he was to curtail any person's right to effective self defense, but insisted Phil was such a hazard having three discharges in two years that it was a matter of public safety. He pointed out that with life extension therapy Phil might live another hundred years on Home. At the present rate he could have a hundred fifty unsafe discharges during that period. The odds one might main or kill somebody seemed too high. He didn't make a detailed recommendation what to do about it. That surprised April, but it seemed very smart to her. Let the Assembly find their own solution, and Jon couldn't be put in the position of having his rejected.

  A few proposed banishing Phil outright because they were philosophically opposed to disarming him. Before that went to a vote somebody fielded a counter proposal that he be given the choice to stay on home unarmed, or accept voluntary banishment to Earth.

  Another voter proposed he be allowed to carry any sort of edged weapon he wished, excepting something like a spear that would be so big it was a danger in the hands of the clumsy. That made another suggest he be allowed a shotgun in the privacy of his own apartment, but only loaded with the Israeli shells that used a sort of grit, and would not penetrate bulkheads.

  Mr Muños let them talk, nothing proposed required a vote to clear matters for a subsequent proposal, so he made a list and waited. The last proposal suggested that he be allowed to have the issue reexamined in fifty years, but they then all agreed he was free to petition the Assembly any time he wished, if he stayed.

  Muños brought the items to a vote, starting with straight banishment, asking "How do you people say?" in the traditional form. They rejected banishment in short order, less than 5% wanting it.

  They ended up with it being his choice to go or stay, edged weapons allowed, a limited firearm in his quarters if he wished. Only the shotgun had a serious number rejecting it, but not a majority.

  "I want to stay," Phil decided without any delay. "Would you tell me what is acceptable to do with my pistol?"

  "It's your property," Eduardo Muños reminded him. "We are not stealing it. You can keep it or dispose of it as you wish. Just do not wear it out in public at the ready."

  "Anybody want a used pistol, cheap?" Phil asked. That got a laugh, and Zak of the Home Chandlery offered to put it
at auction for no fee, as a public service. Phil accepted.

  April and Jeff hadn't needed to say a word. April was very happy with that. The less often you put measures forward the more people were disposed to listen when you did. They grabbed a bite and left to go see what was happening with the Tobiuo.

  Chapter 7

  The seas were quite calm, that state expected to hold for most of the next two days. Li went to bed, leaving Tara on the night watch after the man had a nap. He could sleep easy with Tara at the wheel. He trusted Tara's judgment deeply. Li put another crewman at the wheel with him, not because he didn't trust Tara, but because he was uncomfortable with any crewman all alone at the wheel with Chen's agent on the boat. The extra man could fetch him coffee and provide a measure of safety, if the fellow wasn't as committed to Chen as they thought. He also issued Tara a pistol, which wasn't their custom at all.

  Tara seemed alert when Li woke at first light. He hadn't needed an alarm. Li was actually surprised at how long he'd slept. Li dismissed the helper to his bunk so he could speak with Tara privately. First he examined the plot on the screen in front of the wheel. The following seas were picking up, so Tara had adjusted the speed back to eight knots.

  "Do you think the clients will reimburse us to fix all the damage?" Tara asked.

  "I certainly hope so! It wasn't just some random event. It only happened because we were in their service," Li said. "They've never been cheap with us before."

  Tara nodded, satisfied. "I finally got a report on the diesel. A bullet busted the injector manifold. It's an aluminum casting. I'd suggest getting a new one, because of the pressure at which it operates. I could try patching it, but I wouldn't trust it. At least it has a safety circuit and won't keep pumping if the pressure doesn't rise quickly. It only spilled about a liter of fuel, already cleaned up, and it wouldn't lose more unless you were stupid and stubborn and manually reset it."

  "Do you think you could have it out before we are done transferring everything from the Dionysus' Chariot?" Li asked.