"Lt. Janowicz was sent to recruit me to support a coup against the present military government in North America. He never named his group. It doesn't matter much to us. I had no interest in aiding him. Indeed he indicated there are several such groups, each sure their military government will be better for the country than the present one. I find that remarkable hubris. I'd emphasize...He was not offering to restore me to office. He just wanted an endorsement for whatever legitimacy he imagined that would confer upon his group.
"I'm going to try to make clear to you what this young man would not accept from me. I'm not interested in coming back to Earth on any terms. I'm not interested in getting involved in the cesspool of Earth politics again. I'm a citizen of Home, not any sort of dual citizen. Most of the talking heads on the Earth news channels make it clear they don't think spacers are very nice people. For your information feelings run the other way too. It is common here to refer to Earth with expressions such as the Slum Ball. Please, just keep your politics to your own world.
"The lieutenant died with his hand on a weapon. A nasty indiscriminate weapon. A spray with a neurotoxin derived from coral. It would have killed most or all of the innocent people in the club where we were having dinner and speaking with him. Once he was sure I couldn't be enlisted I was an asset to deny to others. The USNA used to regard such suicide missions as simple terrorism.
"I was entirely too polite to him, and he came far too close to killing us for it. I won't make the mistake again. Be advised, henceforth anyone who appears to drag me back into Earth politics or recruit my endorsement will be shot without any discussion or mercy as soon as they reveal their mission.
"If the lieutenant had succeeded in assassinating me, and in killing perhaps forty citizens of Home, I have no idea what the response would have been. But I doubt you'd celebrate it. I saved you more trouble than you can imagine.
"If that isn't plain enough I doubt I can make it any clearer. Ignore it at your peril," she ended.
"Oh my. I believe Martha was ticked off," Jon said.
"If Martha was irritated, then I'd assume Ben is in a cold rage," Muños said.
"I'm surprised he didn't waste the kid himself," Jon admitted.
"It was done too simply. You should read his books sometime. It would have to be some exotic and improbable cause of death by his hand. He'd get artistic," Muños avowed.
"What can you do in a nightclub?" Jon pointed out. "One is limited."
"Perhaps a pickle fork up the nose?" Muños speculated, with a thrusting gesture.
"Don't tell me anymore," Jon begged. "I want to sleep tonight."
"Are you going to do anything supportive of her?" Muños asked.
"Publicly? No. I think your good advice still holds. But I may just leak pictures of his little nerve gas dispenser. It will lend some credence to her story."
"That may create a chain of events in North America. Somebody is going to recognize the little spray pen, and they'll start investigating who has access to them and how it was acquired. There may be serious repercussions between various branches of the military and agencies."
"Not my circus, not my monkeys," Jon avowed.
* * *
"I wish she hadn't admitted killing him," April worried. "There are all sorts of soft headed Earthies who will never admit there is such a thing as legitimate self defense."
"Han shot first," Jeff said.
"Huh?" April had no idea what that meant.
"An obscure literary reference," Jeff said, waving it away. "It doesn't matter what they think, because the Assembly would never condemn her. If the North Americans asked for her arrest the Assembly would probably invent some new award with a nice medal to give her, just to irritate them. The USNA issued the travel warning. I suspect they'd have put us off limits entirely, but it would violate the treaty terms."
"Maybe it will all settle down and be forgotten in a week or two and they'll lift the travel advisory. You know they always make a big fuss about declaring one, but they never make a big deal about rescinding them," April said.
"Maybe," Jeff allowed. He didn't seem convinced.
* * *
Jeff followed April's advice and related Li's suggestion about buying a ship to Eddie and Irwin, suggesting he'd take a small interest himself, but didn't have the time or funds to pursue it alone. If they wanted a little piece themselves fine, and they should feel free to mention it to friends.
Irwin had dinner with Larkin, and Tetsuo before the weekly poker. Sadly Muños and his wine were not there this evening. Larkin promoted Jeff's proposal for housing expansion and found he was preaching to the choir. Irwin tossed out Li's idea, and Jeff's limited endorsement of it. Larkin owned nothing that could land on Earth so he wasn't immediately enthused. Tetsuo didn't seem that interested either, but with him you couldn't tell what he was thinking. When they went in the next room to play poker he wouldn't be giving out free tells there either.
The next morning he described the idea in some detail to Chen over breakfast. Huian said nothing but took it all in. Later she dropped a message to Myat, asking if she knew anyone involved in the ship breaking trade.
* * *
"I don't believe it!" April said out loud. That was a bad sign when she was reading on her pad.
Jeff had brought dinner and was unpacking it, putting it on the table. He saw his plans for a quiet dinner evaporating. April rarely got upset enough to shout out. Maybe if he just smiled and ignored it...
"Are these people on drugs? Or do they need some good ones?" she asked. "Listen to this."
Todd Brenner, correspondent for Capitol Comments made this insightful statement: "This is not the Wiggen I knew when covering the White House. She was always much more gracious than this. I really wonder if she is under duress and sending a message by over acting to a supplied script? We have a treaty that mentions free travel as its core, but we don't see anyone traveling here from Home. One has to wonder if they are holding up their end of the agreement, or if travel to North America is quietly suppressed."
"I doubt if Martha will volunteer to take a North American vacation to allay his fears, " Jeff said.
"I hate this sniping at us," April said. "How do you deal with it? The creep would never say this stuff to my face up here. I'd invite him to meet me before breakfast and blow his head off."
"He isn't addressing you. He isn't really even addressing Wiggen directly. It's just propaganda for the herd. And he didn't really say anything concrete," Jeff pointed out. "I wonder...One has to wonder...He never reaches any conclusion. There's no real assertion of fact to attack."
"It was easier when they threatened us plainly and you could shoot them dead with a clear conscience. I'm not into all this innuendo and subtle propaganda. If I tell him what I think of him it won't be with a bunch of questions and disclaimers and qualifications," April promised.
"I have no doubt. If you damn him to hell he'll be left with his socks on fire. Usually, you are the one to advise me on social things, but I feel compelled to offer my advice here," Jeff said, trying for a reasonable calming voice. "There is no way to win replying to vague accusations and shadowy rumors. If you make a complex and rational response the public doesn't have the patience to hear it through and think on it. Most of them have simply had their prejudices reinforced by this garbage anyway. If you lose your temper and condemn him in vile terms they'll take that for a win, as it makes you look bad too. It's best just to ignore them," Jeff counseled. "If Martha decides to make a reply that is her prerogative. She has a great deal of political experience and likely knows how to do this sort of verbal fencing. My guess is she will either say 'no comment' or let loose with a one line zinger beyond common skill."
"I hear you, but they make me feel powerless and angry."
Jeff looked at April astonished, and then thoughtful. "But you aren't. You still have the codes in your spex to our private weapons. You could rain a dozen three hundred megaton weapons on them and utterly destroy the
m. Or simply remove Washington and decapitate the majority of their government. They are like a silly little dog loudly threatening you, when the most they can do is bite your ankle. You should be amused at the absurdity of it."
"I'm seventeen. It's not easy to be that responsible. I'm not sure I'll be ready when I'm fifty," April said. "But you don't murder a city to crush a cockroach."
"Ah, good. You're still sane."
"Well yeah, but let me complain now and then. It helps to keep me sane rather than keeping it all bottled up," April asked.
"Alright. That seems like a reasonable price to keep you from destroying North America," Jeff allowed. "But dismiss them for a moment and come have some dinner before it needs reheating."
"That sounds good. What did you get us?"
* * *
The vehicle braked until its orbital motion went slightly retrograde, and then the solid fuel engine disintegrated from several small charges. It fell almost straight down, already low enough to be experiencing significant drag. The shape behind the capsule was a lattice cone of cheap lunar ceramics. It resembled a shuttlecock more than a traditional reentry vehicle. It produced a layer of ionized air that reflected radar for part of its fall, but at an angle up. The path it followed didn't fit any of the computer profiles that would alert humans to its fall as any sort of weapon. When it hit denser air the tail burned off progressively from the edges. It exposed a central cluster of sturdier articulated speed brakes that spread when the capsule started rocking, to both stabilize and slow it. It spread wider as it reached denser air and adjusted drag side to side as needed to keep it on course as it fell toward the target field.
In the night, four of Myat's relatives sat on opposite sides of a farmer's field. The sorghum was harvested and the field had only a low stubble. The farmer was in his darkened house, presumably sleeping, and paid well to stay there and ignore any noise or odd commotion.
"There it is!" Myat's cousin with the night vision goggles said. The capsule had ballistically deployed a parachute only a few hundred meters from the ground. That's what he'd seen. The driver of the small pickup had no goggles and had to take his word for it. "You can start forward slowly. It's going to hit near the center of the field." They'd picked tonight just for the fact there was very little wind forecast.
The other truck stayed at the tree line to watch their back, and interfere if anyone tried to disrupt the retrieval. They would turn on lights which the primary wouldn't do under any circumstances in the field, and they were armed against simple banditry, which was all too common a problem now. Even in the quiet of the night there was no thump as it landed.
"It's down. Continue forward, slowly," the cousin said. The driver could see a vague shape in the starlight as the parachute collapsed. "To the right a little. That's good. Slower...and stop," he ordered. When he got out there was no interior light. The diode had been removed. He went back and lowered the two piece tailgate that made a ramp. The parachute was used to drag the capsule up the ramp and then it was unlatched, gathered and stuffed in a duffel bag so the wind couldn't catch it when the truck moved. He raised the ramp and got back in the cab, taking the night vision set off and giving it to the driver. He didn't need it anymore.
The driver of the other truck had his own goggles and headed for the gate to the road ahead of the loaded truck. When he turned on the road he put his headlights on and drove away at a normal pace. He'd go back into the city. Myanmar had no automated vehicle system except in the capitol. The chances of a vehicle even being tracked and entered into the surveillance system were slight away from government offices or an airport. Both trucks belonged to service companies that might be expected to roam all over at odd hours.
The driver with the load waited and let the other truck get a few kilometers down the road. His phone rang a couple times but he didn't answer it. That was his signal the other driver hadn't been stopped or seen any unusual activity. He finally turned on the road also and put his lights on, looking perfectly normal, except there wasn't much traffic at this time of night. That's why he only went a couple kilometers and turned in the parking lot for a factory. The guard at the gate was one of their own, and they had a bar code to scan that passed them in. They'd sit there until dawn when there would be much more traffic to blend with going into the city. When the factory shift changed, they'd leave. Their man at the gate would be gone by then, but outflow from the lot was allowed to clear the gate without each vehicle being checked like when they entered.
* * *
"Myat has your machines," Huian informed Jeff. "She was very impressed with your aim. They had a really easy recovery."
"They survived OK? I packed them really well, and put them in on top of a layer of crushable boxes too. The guys who built the vehicle said it could take higher Gs, but it was still all calculated. You never know if reality is going to follow your computer model."
"They're all fine," Huian assured him. "Myat didn't call until after they powered them all up."
"That's great," Jeff said, relieved. "We couldn't get away with this so easily in North America now. I wonder how often we can do it this way, before somebody catches on?"
"I hope that's a rhetorical question," Huian said frowning, "because it is outside my experience."
"I do that..." Jeff explained. There was a gap between them of age and experience, probably culture too. He was embarrassed she'd taken him literally.
Huian nodded, relieved actually. Offering advice was full of peril. But she did have something to offer Jeff.
"Myat also informs me that there is an Indian gentleman interested in investing and doing business with your bank. She mentioned him before. They have had difficulty doing business since both their countries have imposed tighter capital controls. You might pick up the slack if you can get around the limitations. I understand from listening to my husband and T talk that you are interested in buying a ship. He happens to be a dealer in scrap from broken up ships."
Oh really? I'm very interested, and of course there would be a finder fee for you," Jeff said.
"That's fine. Myat said part of the deal would be a guaranteed lift for him and his family if they decide to leave Earth. Even Myat said that seemed to be a prudent thing to do – to keep a door open, although she didn't ask it for her household. That's surprising to hear her thinking like that, given her families deep roots in Myanmar."
"Lifting them, if we have a dedicated launch platform, isn't as big a problem as somewhere to put them once we have them here," Jeff said. "But I'm working on that too," he promised.
* * *
"The coup we've been expecting has started in North America," Jon said.
"The faction that sent the lieutenant to Martha?" Muños asked.
"Who knows? We never identified his handler. It could be one of the other groups he intimated exist. But we see all sorts of movement starting, just like when China had their internal fighting."
"Have you told young Singh?" Muños asked.
"Chen alerted me, so figure that he knew first," Jon admitted.
* * *
"April, your instincts were certainly right on the money about Wiggen," Jeff admitted. "Jon admits the late night skulking about and the emergency trip to an airlock were all tied up with the mysterious body. You should know in the last couple hours Chen sees a lot of the same remote sensor signs of internal conflict in North America like we saw before in China, government workers told to stay home, roadblocks and troops around agency buildings, bases sealed off and people loading up light armor and prepping helicopters and aircars for either evacuations or conflict. It happened so fast that the morning deliveries for bread and produce were backed up at the gates because they had no notice not to show up as usual.
"Air transport has never recovered all the way from when we fought with them, but they just kicked all the civilian traffic off domestic flights and reduced international flights to a handful. The suborbitals are still flying a daily for most routes, but all the
cheap sub-sonic cattle car flights were just put on hold indefinitely. That means the middle class people on vacation somewhere will have to pop for an expensive ballistic ticket, and probably have to extend their stay and wait for seats at the higher price."
"It's amazing that as crappy as the economy was doing, so many people still were flying somewhere on vacation. But then wealthy people went on vacation during the Great Depression too. Just not as many. There will be howls of outrage at being trapped. Some of them won't have the credit to stay over or make it home." April predicted. "What are they going to do? I imagine most of the other countries won't accept them staying past a vacation visa period,"
"Yes, No matter how bad the economy is there are always people with disposable income. It isn't a depression if you still have your job. The government workers always get paid, and they are about a third of the workforce now. They are already showing them lined up at the USNA embassies in England and Spain." Jeff gave an exaggerated shrug. "If those countries want to deport them they'll have to buy a ticket to be rid of them. I doubt they are going to organize an evacuation like they would for a local revolution or a natural disaster. The military certainly has other worries at the moment."
"Are you going to set up a watch in your office like you did for China?" April wondered.
"No. We aren't engaged with North America like we were with China back then. This is their internal affair. I don't expect it to reach out and touch us and demand we get involved. I have Walter sharing my space now too. He doesn't deserve to be disrupted if it isn't a necessity. If you want to follow it I can ask for Chen and Jon to share feeds, but I wasn't going to rent a geostationary eye myself. I planned to keep busy with other stuff."
"Do you want to come by for dinner tonight and keep a bit of a watch? I'll make popcorn," April offered.
"Sure. I'll send the access codes now, look in your spex, and you can record the video. Say six channels of coverage. If something interesting happens we can watch the recording to bring us up to date. Do you want me to bring supper?" Jeff offered.
They Said It Would Be Easy (April Book 7) Page 28