by G. R. Carter
The mayor stood to speak, “Let’s say we go with your plan. Even if we have enough food, what stops the looters from sacking your warehouses? Or just killing all of us and taking everything anyway?”
Thank you, Mayor, now you’re thinking like the tactician I know you to be, Tony thought.
“That’s the hard part, yes,” Tony replied. “As you all know, we have fortified this building against terrorist activities. I believe that with our highly trained Peacekeepers and the modifications made to the building, we can hold out against a sustained attack.” He nodded over to Bobby, reminding everyone that not everyone in the ARK family were lawyers.
“The problem is that you are all responsible for more Level A citizens than I have room for in this building. Therefore, I am proposing that we take the buildings in the City Center, those in the immediate vicinity of Renaissance Tower, and utilize them as Emergency Shelters and Temporary Disaster Command Centers. You will recall a provision included in the Pullback legislation that allowed our City Council to declare a State of Emergency and allow the temporary occupation of private property to use as Disaster Command Centers. Clearly, this qualification is met by the situation at hand. I imagine the Council will be happy to act quickly.
“Once a State of Emergency is officially declared, we can legally begin moving personnel and their dependents into the buildings around this one. My engineering staff has drawn up plans to immediately fortify each building. If each Firm takes one building, the city and state take one building, and we keep another building for other essential citizens, we can keep the core of our city secure.
“We have to move quickly. There is no time to lose. Chief Thomas, I’m sure that you’ll want to follow up with me regarding our cooperative efforts on security. Madame Mayor, you are welcome to use the Executive Conference room to convene the attending City Council members to discuss the State of Emergency. All others, please begin formulating how many people your organization will need to shelter. That will give us an idea of which building to assign you. I’m sorry if we can’t accommodate all your wishes. I hope you’ll understand that if we don’t finalize our plans within the next couple of hours, the situation will get away from us. Without Wristbands or instant messaging, getting in contact with you will be impossible. So you must have everything settled with my security staff before leaving to gather your people.”
He stared out at the dozens of faces now hanging on his words. “Because some of the Firms decided to leave early, I’ll make their arrangements until I can make contact with them again,” Tony concluded.
The implication hung in the air. Few originally noticed when M&C or the others departed. They quickly understood what “leave early” probably meant and didn’t intend to meet the same fate. Just like that, more Firms were instantly added to Tony’s power base. That gave him control of the Police Department, the food supply, the best security force in the city, and now a Firm nearly the size of all the others put together.
St. Louis had a new sheriff.
*****
By the next day, streams of refugees were pouring into the downtown St. Louis area. With police escorts, there was little trouble with civilians trying to harass the columns. Every cooperative police officer was promised a place for their family in the central hub, so there was no lack of motivation in helping the VIPs get relocated to City Center.
Construction workers, with their families already safely settled into the 8th tower, worked feverishly, reinforcing entrances to the City Center towers that would house the people deemed worthy of saving from the slowly unfolding crisis.
With all the police occupied shepherding ARK’s relocation program, the rest of the city and surrounding area descended quickly into anarchy. Before GRAPEVINE went to sleep, everyone in the city had been assigned a specific day to pick up their weekly rations. Tony’s people left just enough food in the city owned distribution centers for the next couple of days to hold off some of the rioting sure to come. But many people showed up trying to get theirs a day early, just like they had in more compliant times. When that didn’t work, they simply waited for others to get their rations and then took it from them.
The first real violence broke out on day three, when one of the Firms from further out in the suburbs finally got their herd of dependents near the City Center destination. A small mob noticed several groups of well–dressed folks flowing in that direction, and logically decided that there must be something good wherever they were going.
As the mob continued to harass the Firm’s people, the cops finally became fed up and fired shots in the air. Although St. Louis kept laws on the books restricting personal ownership of firearms, common knowledge was the rougher neighborhoods of the city were armed to the teeth. People who lived and operated there also knew how to use the illegal weapons they possessed.
At the sound of police gunshots, the mob began to fire back, causing panic in both crowds. In the running gunfight that ensued, one police officer and two members of the Firm’s entourage were killed. No one cared to make an accurate count of how many hungry civilians were hit. ARK Peacekeepers arrived just in time to prevent further violence, driving two old Jeeps commandeered after invitees drove to the secure zone with them. Antiquated technology like those vehicles remained unaffected by Solar Storms or the GRAPEVINE shutdown and allowed Peacekeepers to drive out into the city and retrieve the remaining Firm’s dependents.
Other than that incident, the mayor and Tony both marveled at how smoothly the plan progressed. By the end of the week, the City Center towers had been secured and streets for a three-block radius were made impassable with old cars and collapsed rubble. Snipers were posted at every entrance to an area now referred to simply as The ARK. Just over 11,000 people safely sat back and waited to see what would befall their city of millions, millions they had once sworn to serve and protect.