“Sweet Jesus,” said Liam. “He should have just let me put a bullet in his fucking head.”
* * *
Republic of Indian Stream, Sunday, August 10, 1834
Ten days after the Battle of Third Connecticut Lake, the Honorable John Appleton, Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Department of State, Sir Henry Fox, British Ambassador to the United States, and the Honorable William Parks, American Charge d'Affaires in Montreal, passed through Sherbrooke on horseback headed towards the Republic, with a small escort of British dragoons and American marines. Mr. Appleton was accompanied by an aide, Mr. Harold Worthington the Fourth. Their progress was tracked by a Shadow drone. When they arrived at Hall’s Stream near East Hereford, they were met by a squad of ISRM soldiers in LTVs and First Sergeant Dwight Carver on horseback. The American and British soldiers remained on the west side of the border while the four statesmen crossed into the Republic.
Corcoran watched the video feed as Dwight greeted the men. As Corcoran had instructed, Dwight left one fire team at the border to keep an eye on the dragoons and marines, then turned his horse back towards the road leading into town, bringing the diplomats with him. The second fire team followed at a discreet distance in their LTV.
Corcoran, along with Councilors Kellen Coyle and Nathaniel Perkins, was waiting at the Assembly Building when the small party arrived. Introductions were made, then they moved into a small conference room off the main hall and got down to business.
Corcoran began by providing each of the visitors with a copy of the Republic’s Constitution. “I’d like you to closely examine our Constitution. Two things will stand out with regard to the current dispute. First, debtor’s prisons are strictly forbidden. And second, extradition of Citizens of the Republic for trial outside of the Republic requires due process and a judicial order, which the citizen in question may dispute in court. Sheriff Mackenzie’s repeated attempts to kidnap Mr. Blanchard, with and without the support of British Regulars, could not be tolerated, nor will any future attempts.”
Corcoran had framed his opening speech around the theory that Sir Henry wished to defuse, not escalate, the situation, and thus would tacitly agree to ignore the fact that the second and third invasions had each clearly been in retaliation for the deaths and/ or injuries in the previous attack, without any regard to Junior Blanchard or his debt.
Sir Henry was apparently in agreement with this sentiment.
“There has already been far too much bloodshed over a simple hardware debt. I fear there will be much more if we continue along the current path. I propose to reopen negotiations on the border issues left unresolved by the Treaty of Paris, and thus put relations between our countries back on a normal basis.”
Corcoran was having none of it. “I’m afraid ‘tis impossible for the Republic to be absorbed back into either the United States or British Canada at this time. As you’ll see clearly stated in the Preamble to our Constitution, three conditions must be met before we would consider such a move. First, slavery, indentured servitude, and debtor’s prisons must be outlawed in all states, provinces, territories, and colonies subject to the rule of the nation we join. Second, with regard to joining the British Empire, the Monarchy must be relegated to a ceremonial status, with all real power given to a Parliament that represents all the people. And third, women must be given the vote on an equal status with men.”
Corcoran continued over vigorous objections.
“We fully understand that neither of your governments is willing, or indeed able, to take these steps at this time. Therefore, we suggest instead a formal treaty that establishes the Republic of Indian Stream as an independent nation with full diplomatic relations with both Great Britain and the United States. We’d establish embassies in Washington and London, and a consulate in Montreal, and allow for establishment of your embassies here.”
Corcoran anticipated that Sir Henry had come to the meeting prepared to relinquish British claims on the Republic’s territory in order to avoid war, so conceding to the Republic’s continued existence would be no great loss. Mr. Appleton was somewhat harder to convince, and his aide, Worthington, pushed hard for more information on the Republic’s extraordinary military capabilities. During a private meeting between the Council and the Americans, he demanded the BLE sell their weapons to the American War Department.
Corcoran flatly refused, assuming Appleton had orders to make the problem go away, with or without an arms deal, and wasn’t surprised when Appleton acquiesced. Worthington continued to complain during the subsequent detailed discussions, and Corcoran got the impression that he wasn’t actually Appleton’s aide, but rather an agent of the Defense Department. He tasked Megan O’Rourke to keep an eye on him whenever they weren’t in chambers.
It took the rest of the day, and two days following, to work out the nitty gritty details, but a draft treaty was developed for review and approval by the respective national bodies.
An emergency meeting of all the eligible voters of the Republic, men and women, occurred on the evening of the third day. With Sir Henry, Mr. Appleton, Mr. Worthington, and Mr. Parks in attendance as observers, the Supreme Council presented the draft treaty for approval by the Assembly. The vote was overwhelmingly in favor of passage.
Sir Henry returned with Mr. Parks to Montreal, where he was to give the Governor and senior British Army commander copies of the draft treaty and instruct them to behave as if the treaty was in force until notified otherwise by London. He would also put one of his senior aides on a packet ship to England with a copy of the treaty and a lengthy note explaining why the treaty should be approved by Parliament and signed by the King.
Similarly, Mr. Appleton would go back to Washington with his copy for review by the Secretary and the President, and approval by the Senate.
Right now, Corcoran had a firm grip on power in the Republic. With Wilcox and the Mannheim woman dead, history’s two biggest wild cards were off the table, improving their odds of success. But if either the United States or Great Britain were to repudiate the draft treaty, his position could be threatened, and with it, their best chance of averting the plague.
14 - DWIGHT
Bankruptcy: a generalized term for an Indian Stream Republican Court procedure that helps individuals and businesses discharge their debts and repay their creditors. Bankruptcies can be categorized as liquidations or reorganizations. Glossary, An Illustrated History of the Republic, Helen O’Shea, Ed.
Republic of Indian Stream, Thursday, August 14, 1834
Dwight still had a daughter to raise on his own and that took money. He believed that the Treaty would be ratified by the British Parliament and the American Senate. Dwight also had faith in the judicial system that had been built up in the Republic. So while the rest of the citizenry celebrated passage of the treaty by the Assembly, he set off on horseback for Sherbrooke.
He was waiting at the door of Leblanc’s Hardware when the portly owner arrived to open the store the next morning.
“Monsieur Rene Leblanc?” Dwight asked.
“Yes, may I help you?” Fortunately Leblanc spoke English. Unlocking the door, he ushered Dwight into the store, which was packed with equipment of all shapes and sizes. Leblanc opened the shutters on the windows, admitting some light into the place. Then he gestured for Dwight to continue.
“Well sir, I’d like to make you a business proposition. My name is Dwight Carver, and I’d like to purchase the promissory note of Mr. Richard Blanchard, Jr.”
“Why would you want to do that?” Leblanc asked. “That bastard will never pay up.”
“I think I can get some of what’s due,” Dwight replied. “I’ll give you five pence on the pound.” After some haggling, Dwight ended up paying ten pence on the pound to purchase Junior’s debt. They took the note to the town clerk and had the transfer duly notarized. Dwight thanked Monsieur Leblanc and the clerk, took the note, and headed back to the Republic.
* * *
At a ceremony conducted in th
e Grand Hall on January 1st, 1835 the Supreme Councilors put their signatures below those of President Andrew Jackson and King William IV. It was a day of great celebration in the Republic.
When the courthouse opened the following morning, Dwight filed the promissory note with the court, and then began debt collection proceedings against Junior. It took several months, but in the end Junior had to declare bankruptcy. Dwight took possession of all his property, which he sold for three times what he had paid Leblanc.
Junior, who had caused so much trouble, packed up what little the court left him, and departed the Republic.
Dwight hoped life would settle down a bit after a turbulent couple of years. But history was a bitch, and she had no intention of leaving Dwight Carver alone.
15 - ANNA
Underground Railroad: a network of secret routes and safe houses used by fugitive slaves in the 19th Century to escape, with the aid of abolitionists, to states that had outlawed slavery in the northern United States and Canada. Estimates suggest that as many as 100,000 slaves escaped via the Railroad. Glossary, An Illustrated History of the Republic, Helen O’Shea, Ed.
Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, USA, Thursday, August 14, 1834
Anna, who now called herself Anna Carlton, awoke just before dawn, shivering in a cold sweat. Jake began screaming almost immediately, the child evidently having experienced a nightmare as well. The house she had bought was a small one, only three rooms. It was nothing like the luxurious trailer she had lived in with Mike. Heat came from the fireplace in the kitchen, but she had banked the fire before bed and it was chilly in the bedroom.
Anna crawled out of bed and scooped Jake out of his crib. She hugged the ten-month-old boy tightly to her breast, and patted him on the back. After a moment he stopped screaming. When she drew back to look at his face, she saw he was staring out the window. She followed his gaze and saw a horse standing in the yard. It looked like Betty. Maybe Mike had followed her somehow.
She hurriedly put Jake back into his crib and ran to the door. Throwing it open, she called Mike’s name. But there was only the horse, with neither saddle nor halter. And somehow she knew that Mike was dead.
She wrapped her arms around Betty’s neck and cried. She considered seeking revenge. Among other things, she had access to late 20th Century nuclear weapons via the portal generator that had sat unused for the last few weeks. She could blow the Republic to kingdom come.
Her hand reached into her pocket and withdrew the device of its own volition. She gazed at it, then shook her head. She had a child -- soon two children -- to care for. And the ledgers were already overflowing with names written in blood because of her actions. The effects of the 1988 tide weren’t really her fault, but there was no question that the deaths and injuries due to the time jump she’d made in July were her doing.
She’d met a man in Mercersburg who had been crippled falling off a ladder when the temporal shock hit. An anonymous gift, by way of the local pastor, had provided some relief for the poor fellow and his family, but the newspapers were filled with tales of misfortune resulting from the phenomena that had occurred in July. She had to do more. She had to make her life matter.
* * *
Anna’s redemption began a few weeks later. It came in the form of a black teenager she found hiding in the small barn she’d paid two local men to build for Betty. Upon seeing Anna, the girl shrank back in fear, scrambling to the back of the stall in which Anna had been about to bed down Betty for the night.
“Don’t be afraid, I won’t hurt you.” Anna tied Betty’s lead to a wooden post, then crossed the straw-strewn floor to the girl.
“Please don’t make me go back. Please ma’am,” the girl pleaded, terrified. Fresh whip marks crossed the girl’s exposed lower back where her blouse rode up. Bruises mottled her rail-thin arms.
Anger rose up within Anna, furious that people could treat fellow human beings this way. The cold-blooded Stasi spy she had once been was long gone, or at the very least, in deep hiding. Motherhood will do that to a person. But the Stasi- and KGB-taught skills were still there, and she resolved to use them to save the girl.
“What’s your name?”
“They call me Clara, but my mother told me my real name is Zahra.”
“Well Zahra, you’re safe with me. Why don’t we go up to the house and get you something to eat?”
Anna secured Betty in her stall, then led Zahra back to the house.
“Have a seat at the table while I check on the baby. I’ll be back in a minute.” When Anna came back out of the bedroom she found Zahra still standing near the kitchen table.
“My mama told me never to sit at a table in a white man’s house.”
“Well there aren’t any white men here,” Anna replied. “Excepting little Jake, and I don’t think he’ll object. So sit down and let me take a look at your back.” Reluctantly, the girl obeyed.
Although her brief glimpse of the girl’s lower back had prepared her somewhat, Anna was still shocked when she lifted the girl’s blouse. There were dozens of scars, some fresh, some years old.
“Mein Gott, what did they do to you?”
“I’m clumsy,” Zahra replied.
All teenagers are clumsy, especially those that are tall for their age, like Zahra. It’s not a reason to whip the skin off a girl.
“Is that why you ran away, because of the whippings?” As she talked, she laid out the meal she had been planning to eat herself – bratwurst, baked bread and fresh milk – and then took the medical kit from its place on a shelf.
“No ma’am. It’s because of Mr. Worthington.” Anna applied an antibiotic salve to the freshest whip marks, then gave the girl a Vicoprofen, telling her to swallow it with her milk. She poured herself a glass, and popped a pill into her own mouth.
Over the next few hours, she drew the horror story of out of Zahra. Child molestation had led to oral sodomy, and finally to rape. Anna recalled her own treatment at the hands of the Stasi jailers, and resolved that one day she would find Mr. Harold Worthington the Fourth of Richmond, Virginia, and repay his kindness to Zahra. No doubt his punishment would count on the plus side of her balance sheet.
Zahra refused the offer of Anna’s bed, and fell asleep curled up in front of the fireplace. Anna covered the sleeping teenager with a blanket. Jake stirred in his crib. Anna bent over him, waiting to see if he’d awaken or fall back to sleep. Then she remembered the pill.
Calling up every ounce of the training she’d endured in Moscow, she picked up a mirror and looked at herself. Dummkopf, she accused the woman in the mirror. Jake and his unborn sibling, and now Zahra, depended on her. The real her, not the drug addicted person she’d become when she’d first arrived in 1832. Mike had been right to confront her when they first discussed having a child. Now she had to confront herself. She walked outside, closed the door, and slapped herself in the face as hard as she could. She’d been well trained, and it hurt like hell. She turned the other cheek and did it again.
* * *
Reverend Jerimiah Penn was as staunch an opponent of slavery as could be found in the State of Pennsylvania. When Anna quietly knocked on his door the next evening, Zahra in tow, he didn’t hesitate to invite them in.
And so Anna became part of the Underground Railroad. Her boat became a vital cog in one branch of the railway, picking up escaped slaves from the Virginia shore of the Potomac and ferrying them to Mercersburg, where Reverend Penn’s people shepherded them on their way north to New York and beyond.
She hoped that somewhere the keeper of the tally was taking note.
16 - DWIGHT
Sync-pattern Learning Machine (SPLM): a learning machine capable of imprinting knowledge on students’ brains, allowing them to learn things thousands of times faster and retain it far better, while simultaneously imprinting muscle memory on the students’ nervous system, providing the technique for physical tasks that would otherwise require hundreds of hours of practice. Glossary, An Illustrated History of the
Republic, Helen O’Shea, Ed.
Republic of Indian Stream, Tuesday, February 10, 1835
The 1835 Assembly focused on a series of administrative matters, including schools, roads, and banking. Helen O’Shea was nominated for Superintendent of Schools, and the shapely brunette laid out her vision of a four-tiered system of schools. Elementary school would consist of grades one through six, and would focus on teaching children reading and writing, arithmetic, basic scientific concepts, art, music, world history, and information technology usage. The latter would instruct the children on how to use the new communications devices BLE would be introducing throughout the Republic.
The second tier, High School, would consist of grades seven through twelve. These students would be primarily taught using learning machines. O’Shea explained that the machines were a new tool that could be used to teach people much faster than the old ways. She then called Dwight forward to demonstrate. Dwight nervously got to his feet and went to the front of the hall.
“Mr. Carver, before last Monday, had you ever heard of an English writer named William Shakespeare?” Mrs. O’Shea asked.
“No ma’am. I didn’t have much schooling,” Dwight replied. “I know about him now, though. He wrote thirty-eight plays, one hundred and fifty-four sonnets, and two long narrative poems. Most consider him the greatest writer ev’a.”
“Mr. Carver, do you have a favorite among Mr. Shakespeare’s plays?”
“Hamlet, I think,” Dwight answered.
“A wonderful play. Do you think you could recite the first act for us?”
Much to everyone’s surprise, even Dwight’s, he did.
Once he finished, O’Shea asked, “And you could recite the rest of the play if I asked, as well as all of Mr. Shakespeare’s other works?”
“Yes ma’am,” Dwight replied. “Those learning machines are truly amazing.”
“Thank you, Mr. Carver, you may return to your seat.” As Dwight made his way back to his seat, getting congratulations from everyone along the way, Mrs. O’Shea continued. “Which brings me to the third tier of the proposed school system, the Vocational School. The Vocational School will be for adults who want to learn.
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