The General's President

by John Dalmas

  "First, abortion. I will not legislate barriers to abortion, but the states may prohibit it within their boundaries if they want to. However, if a state prohibits abortion, that state must ensure adequate care for the child and for the pregnant mother, including a medically adequate delivery. And if they have much sense, I don't think they'll want to get into a program like that one.

  "Next, the increase in venereal disease, especially the very large number of AIDS cases that have surfaced, has caused considerable pressure recently for laws prohibiting extramarital sex. There used to be such laws, years ago. Some of them may still be on the books. We know how ineffective they were and are. A government that tries to actually enforce sexual morality intrudes heavily into the private lives of individuals, and deserves all the trouble and expense it gets.

  "However, to legislate against harming others is another matter. Therefore, as of next Sunday midnight it will be a felony for a person to infect someone with a venereal disease, after symptoms of their own infection can be presumed to have been evident.

  "It will be a felony, not just a misdemeanor. And anyone found guilty of this felony will be held accountable for one-half of the reasonable costs of the disease in the person they infected, whether those costs initially are born by a private individual or by some public or private agency.

  "Again, you will note that this is not legislation of morals. It is a correct allocation of accountability for harm to others.

  "Another sex-related matter is the number of rapes in America. Courts often seem to have difficulty in deciding what constitutes rape and how to deal with rape charges. So I'm helping them out. As of Sunday midnight, rape includes any forced sexual intercourse, intercourse with any person against their expressed unwillingness. And that unwillingness can be expressed by verbal objection; it does not need to be by physical resistance, which can be dangerous. Rape includes forced intercourse with anyone—a prostitute, a man, anyone including one's own wife. Rape is always a felony. And rape charges may be accompanied by other, related charges such as assault with a deadly weapon, and battery.

  "Of course, the case has to be proven in court. But this clarifies and simplifies deciding what the charge should be."

  While the president talked, Lester Okada watched from his position ten feet to the president's right. And it seemed to Okada that this press audience was more intent than any he'd seen before. It should be, he told himself. They were witnessing a basically un-American phenomenon: law by presidential edict.

  "Now for another matter," Haugen was saying. "In recent years, some progress has been made on getting child support payments actually paid by a parent in another state. We're taking it the rest of the way. Per a new law, failure to make such payments is a felony. If you are supposed to be making child support payments across a state line, you'd better make them, or you will be subject to arrest, if you receive federal money, part of it can be withheld and sent to help support your child. If you are employed, you have the choice of making payments willingly, or having your wages garnisheed. And if your income now seems too low to make the payments set in the past by a court, you can seek arbitration for a payment level you feel you can afford. But understand that the arbitrator may not even leave you beer money, because the child comes ahead of most other things.

  "Finally, if all else fails, you can be put in jail for your felony, and your prison wage sent to help support your child. I'm not talking about imprisonment for debt. Realistic and feasible payments can always be arranged short of prison. I'm talking about imprisonment for the felony of refusing to help support your child.

  "And let me add that if the child becomes a ward of the state, the state can sue either or both parents for child support."

  The president looked intently into the cameras and rapped the lectern with a thick forefinger. "This is not a matter of punishment. There may be a few people who can't see that, but it is not a matter of punishment. I'm not much into punishment. This is simply a matter of requiring that people take responsibility for their actions. To father a child, or to bear one, even unintentionally, is not a trivial matter.

  "And that's all I have to say about that, except to point out that these laws were not etched into stone on top of Mt. Sinai. Nor did they come from the Congress. But they are certainly susceptible to being changed by Congress.

  "On the other hand, it may be that the American people will like them well enough to insist that they be continued. For now, they are law. Full written versions have been drafted and reviewed by competent legal experts, and will be available to you when you leave. They will also be mailed to legal jurisdictions tomorrow. I trust that they'll be in your newspapers tomorrow, also."

  He looked his press audience over. "And ladies and gentlemen, that's it for this evening. Have a good night."

  ***

  As he rode the underground walkway to the White House, the president wondered what Judge Liederman would say about these laws when he met with him the next evening. And Senator Lawes and Professor MacLieth next week. Perhaps he should have held off till the legal reform package was ready. But this would serve to prepare people, and give him some feel for public acceptance.

  TWENTY-ONE

  A plane carrying a President of the United States is ordinarily recognizable. In this instance however, it was a very ordinary-looking Air Force C-17B cargo transport, with temporary facilities that allowed its several passengers to work and sleep. And to clean up properly for a secret meeting, for there would be no layovers enroute.

  The transport flew seemingly unaccompanied, but half a hundred miles to both north and south, sea-rescue aircraft flew parallel courses while tracking her by radar. Arne Haugen wasn't aware of them. There was no particular reason that he should be; the risk was slight.

  It had been early afternoon when they'd taken off from Andrews Air Force Base, flying toward westward-creeping night. Their destination was six time zones east, and the prospect of jet lag suggested going early to bed, but meanwhile this was an opportunity to read something the president had been putting off as of relatively low priority. He opened the report that Cromwell had given him more than a week earlier, on the executive boards, past and present, of the Holist Council. It was in a post-binder, thick, with a detailed table of contents, an index, and protruding tabs to help access it.

  He forgot about bed until he'd finished it; his fellow passengers were already asleep. He had a drink then and stripped to his shorts, while an Air Force corporal prepared his bunk. Afterward he lay awake for a time, thinking about what he'd just read. Although it was a listing of open activities lacking any direct information on motives or conspiracy, it had given him a different perspective on the problems of his country, and by extension the world.

  It would take awhile to digest it properly, to integrate it sufficiently within his subconscious database that he would compute with it automatically, subliminally. But the world, and especially America, would never look quite the same to Arne Haugen again.

  At the same time, it did not alarm him. There was nothing urgent about it; it required no immediate action. He would put it out of his attention and free his mind for more immediate things, matters to which the new information was operationally irrelevant.

  ***

  The unmarked Bell Mescalero SOC helicopter lifted from the joint German-U.S. air base at Leipheim and headed south over the black forests of the Schwäbische Alb in bright early sunshine. Here and there, snow powdered the firtops on higher ridges, and before long the little aircraft had crossed the dark green water of Lake Constance into Switzerland. The Swiss air defense network monitored its passage, but it had clearance; the symbol crawling across their CRTs was watched for routine air safety rather than military security. High rugged snowscapes loomed ahead on the splendid Glarner Alpen, then passed below, making the entire world seem white beneath blue. The chopper, with a performance ceiling of 6,500 meters, lifted lightly over knife-edged arretes and toothed tors, where snow plumes curled co
ldly in a northwest wind.

  The high ridges and peaks became the Alpi Lepontine, and crossing the last major crest, the pilots and their passengers looked south down a long valley, blue with lake, dark with forest and drab with autumn meadow, separating two snowy ridges of the Italian forealps.

  On a broadly rounded side ridge, newly snow-covered, stood the villa of an Italian industrialist who found pleasure in privately hosting the eminent; a man who kept secrets well. The Mescalero swung low. Its pilot noted the groups of armed and uniformed men below, all watching, ready, and there were sure to be others he couldn't see. Their weapons included what had to be SA rocket launchers. He'd been told there'd be heavy security—heavy and very touchy.

  For a moment he hovered, then landed in a gritty swirl of white. When the vanes had stopped, three men strode toward her, one an African robed in black.

  Arne Eino Haugen climbed out, with Father Stephen Joseph Flynn, John Zale (acting now as Haugen's travel secretary), and Papal Nuncio Msgr Robert Alfred Koenig. They met the greeting party halfway, and greeters and greeted went into the villa together, talking as they walked, while the Mescalero lifted and left for a prearranged refueling at an Italian army base.

  It was back in little more than an hour, and waited, leaving with its passengers early enough to return to Leipheim before the early nightfall. The C-17B was waiting, ready to fly. Arne Haugen would eat breakfast in his own apartment the next morning, having been away less than forty hours on "a visit to the Nevada test site." He was returning well-briefed on the character of General Wojciech Jaruzelski, the Premier of Poland, and on the somewhat precarious semi-autonomy his country maintained, close against the armor-plated breast of the Russian bear.

  His Holiness the Pope knew Jaruzelski, and was always very well informed and up to date on things in his homeland.

  ***

  Cromwell tapped a key on his phone, accepting the call, "Good morning, Mr. President," he said with a smile. "I hope they were good to you in Nevada."

  "Very good, Jumper. The flight was fine, and the people I talked with were very helpful. On the way there, I read Chilberg's report. Interesting as hell. Do you have any more on that?"

  "No sir. But we recently acquired an inside contact we're working with now." Cromwell hesitated, then decided to say no more about it just then. They'd managed to install a spy device in Massey's Connecticut residence, an opportunity of the moment that could hardly have been foregone. He'd write up a request for authorization for the president's signature and give it to him later today.

  TWENTY-TWO

  The hearing chamber was full, with media people occupying more than half the gallery seats. The committee was large: seven senators and seven representatives. Senator Tim Brosnan was the chairman, Congresswoman Margaret Bushnell the vice-chairman.

  The president sat alone at a table, facing the committee. To emphasize that this was not an interrogation, he'd brought no aides or counsel.

  Senator Brosnan rapped his gavel. The buzz of voices fell off abruptly, then died beneath the senator's scanning, bristly-browed eyes. "All right, I guess everyone's here that's supposed to be. Let's get started.

  "Mr. President, I'd like to thank you for agreeing to come here this afternoon. If you've been reading the wrong newspapers, you may have gotten the impression that this committee is hostile toward you. I believe you'll find we're not.

  "As you certainly know, there are members of both houses, in both parties, who feel it is time to repeal the Emergency Powers Act. And a bill authored by Senators Harmer and Van Dorn has been submitted to this committee, proposing the repeal of that act. The committee is considering the bill, and you are the first person we've called on to talk to us about it."

  Brosnan looked toward the Congressman farthest to his left. "We'll start the questions with Congressman Huan of Hawaii."

  Huan stood, a book open in his large hands. "Mr. President, I would like to read, from the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, the definition of emergency." He looked at a page and read: " 'Emergency. A situation of a serious nature, developing suddenly and unexpectedly, and demanding immediate action.' " He put the book down. "Considering that definition, would you say that a state of emergency now exists in the United States?"

  Haugen considered for a moment. "Let's look at that definition," he answered. "It says that an emergency develops unexpectedly. The recent collapse of the economy, and of public confidence, and of law and order, was not unexpected. Various observers and commentators had been predicting it for years.

  "But the Congress obviously considered it an emergency when it passed the Emergency Powers Act. And while it wasn't passed until serious rioting began, this special committee had been seated and was considering emergency powers legislation for more than a week before that. So in deciding whether a state of emergency now exists in the United States, I consider that far more relevant than the definition you just read. We had, and we still have, a national state of emergency.

  "This state of emergency is analogous to the medical conditions 'critical' and 'serious.' We are now through the critical stage; the patient is no longer in momentary danger of dying. But its condition is still serious, requiring special treatment. We need to build its health sufficiently that it can function without the danger of another quick collapse. And that recovery is by no means a simple matter."

  He paused. "I believe that answers your question, congressman, but I'd like to say a little more about the subject if I may."

  Huan nodded. "By all means."

  "As of last Saturday, the patient, the United States of America, still had 42% of its work force unemployed. Forty-two percent! That's a substantial improvement, but it's very far from being something the country can live with for long. Numerous businesses have reopened, but far more have not.

  "And beyond that, many millions of people have lost their savings, their investments, their pension funds—whatever security they had for their old age. Millions of elderly people are destitute; many have been found dead of exposure and illness, compounded by malnutrition. Many insurance companies have gone bankrupt, leaving families without death protection, health protection—any protection at all.

  "And with these losses, people also lost their confidence in government as it was—government which allowed, and even led, the economy step by step to ruin. Not deliberately, but through error and doggedly persistent shortsightedness.

  "I can only hope, you can only hope, the people can only hope, that over the next year or so we will hammer out workable procedures that will provide and maintain an operational economy and a just and intelligent, functioning democratic government." He paused again. "While at the same time reestablishing the level of personal liberty intended by the founding fathers. And gradually eroded by government, the professions, special interest lobbies—let's say by 'the establishment.'

  "If the emergency government fails to provide those procedures, there is little chance that the people will look to government as it was. They will look elsewhere. Fortunately, right now the American people are willing to let the emergency government, and myself, lead them through a reconstruction. It seems to me to be a good idea for the Congress to let us continue."

  The president sat back. A brief spatter of applause sounded from the gallery, to die of embarrassment and Senator Brosnan's frown.

  "Senator Cerotti of New Jersey is recognized," Brosnan said.

  "Mr. President," Cerotti said, "recently you took it upon yourself to restructure a very large segment of the national economy, when you decreed law regulating the interactions of business and labor. Would you say that you acted beyond the intent of Congress in doing that?"

  "Presumably," Haugen replied, "Congress passed the Emergency Powers Act to empower the president to handle the emergency. And ending the emergency can't he done simply with bread lines and cheese lines and potato lines, as I'm sure you agree; or by food lines and emergency work projects combined. Those are vital short-term act
ions, like administering oxygen and plasma. But to end the emergency, we have to correct the things that caused the emergency, and the things that hold it in place.

  "I consider that my principal responsibility."

  The president sat back, and Brosnan looked to his left again. There were eleven more to ask questions, not including himself. There'd probably be time for a second round by most of them. "The chair," he said, "recognizes Congressman Washington of Georgia."

  ***

  In his living room, General Cromwell watched and listened, sipping absently at whiskey and water. His daughter sat near. He was a widower, she a senior at George Washington University, majoring in mathematics.

  "What do you think of him, Julie?" he asked.

  "The president? He's either very good or very dangerous, or both. I think I like him though; at least he's not more of the same old stuff, and he's got class. I'm willing to let him continue awhile."

  Cromwell nodded, wondering how representative her view was among students.

  ***

  During the single break, Brosnan and Kreiner talked together over coffee.

  "What do you think?" Kreiner asked. "It's going good. We'll see how Bender behaves." Kreiner nodded. "Bender thinks of himself as the reincarnation of Thomas E. Dewey. The great prosecutor. But he only gets one question at a time; no chance to confuse and hammer on the witness. Or in this case the guest. That's an advantage of this format."

  "We're going to have to send the bill to the floor, you know," Brosnan said, "regardless of what we think of it. The subject's too loaded, too hot to kill in committee. And by the nature of the beast, there's no reasonable way we can send it up altered or amended."

  "I suppose you've been reading your mail?"

  "I've been reading the tally sheets. Since the Harmer-Van Dorn bill hit the news, the volume's been way up, with about six to one for leaving the emergency powers in place. But there's a hell of a lot of lobbyist pressure; the heaviest I've seen in my twenty years here. I've even heard a few voices say they're afraid the IRS will lay a punitive audit on them if they don't vote to repeal."