“Poor Logh,” Suzl sighed. “It and me are always linked. We both wind up with the raw end of the stick every time. Still, I can’t give any quarter in this. Somebody’s in charge in New Eden. Somebody’s always in charge. Why after all this won’t they give in?”
“Maybe because the ones at the top aren’t personally hurt,” Jodi suggested. “I know how they think. Believe me.”
“Huh?” they all said at once.
“They had the Gate at New Canaan, right? They saw and heard all the stuff, all right, so they packed up their families and their most precious belongings and used the Gate transfer system to get out.”
Suzl suddenly struck her palm with a fist. “Sure! I remember now! It’s all so—long ago. You forget stuff. We always knew that if there was ever trouble we and the kids should go to the Institute and be taken to New Canaan if the threat was to Logh, or Mareh for anything else. It’s distant, very far away, and about as far south as real Flux power operates, although we didn’t follow the logic then. That’s where the families are! But where would the judges go? Not with them—they’d be completely out of touch. I gotta go back, think like a Fluxwife—no, think like Adam’s wife. They’re mostly from the same generation and same mold. They’d go where the bulk of their troops were! They’re right here! They’re in Logh! I bet on it!”
Matson had uncharacteristically not smoked many cigars in the past few months, but there was one in the old stringer’s mouth now. “All right, then. It’s time to up the ante in the poker game. We’ll need a stringer line to Logh Center. They can probably set one up from Nantzee, but it would be nice if it was direct. I find this very distasteful, but we have to be prepared to go through with it if it doesn’t work.”
“What’s your idea?”
“A second ultimatum. This one to be delivered direct to the leadership via both the stringers and by rocket.”
“Rocket?”
“Uh huh. A tremendous number of copies, stuffed into rocket heads and fired into New Eden, designed to break apart in the air. I want the troops to know what’s happening and ask questions. I want the field officers to know that their wives and kids may be starving in the dark now. Mutinies aren’t unknown in New Eden if you give ’em the right reason. Even Tilghman was overthrown, a fact I bet they don’t teach straight to the new generations. Give them one hour. Then tell them we’re gonna come at Logh with more than one superbomb. They got the Sea on one side and a fairly narrow strip down the other before they get wide-open country again. They can’t possibly disperse in that time.”
“What would we say?”
“The truth—a little dressed up in dramatics.”
“To the People of New Eden: Your leaders are deceiving you. They have the truth and they will not tell you. New Canaan is destroyed. Its survivors, men, women, and children, are without food, water, sewage, or means of transportation or communication. Your factories are gone. Your rail centers are gone. Our weapons are invincible and horrible. Your wives and children suffer, but your leaders believe they and theirs are safe. They are not.
“We have exhausted military targets. Our original offer, a copy of which is on the back of this, was fair and generous. Our weapons are fashioned out of Flux. We will not run out of them. In one half-hour, we will launch and detonate a single one of our weapons one kilometer out in the Sea off Logh Center. That is to demonstrate that we wish to kill no more of you. If we do not hear from your leaders after that, we will have no alternative. We will detonate multiple devices throughout Logh that will destroy most of it and not incidentally kill many of you. Maybe most of you. You will die without being able to fire a shot in return, for we are far in Flux. Your leaders may nor die. They may leave you and escape through the Institute to Ozkah, but then we will destroy Ozkah. They will then run to Mareh, but even that is within our reach and we will destroy Mareh. We need not do much to Nantzee; its center is still burning. There is no honor in this. No glory. You will get one demonstration, no more. That is more than you would do for us. Then we will proceed methodically, showing no more mercy or compassion than you have shown your enemies.”
“Some of the hard-core fanatics will try and grab all the leaflets,” Morgaine noted. “Remember our late, unlamented Major Verdugo. There’s lots more where he came from.”
“They won’t be able to get them all,” Matson assured her. “The word will spread like wildfire. They might not believe it at first, but they’ll have big doubts anyway. Then the bang comes. If what they report is true, we’ll be able to feel it even here. The men will pressure the noncoms, then noncoms will corner the officers, and the officers will face down the big brass.”
“Yeah, but what if we’re wrong?” Morgaine asked. “I mean, suppose the big boys aren’t there?”
“Don’t fire unless we find the troops dispersing or mass evacuations. Let them sweat. As somebody said, there’s always somebody in charge, and if they won’t make a decision then the officers will to save their own necks. Cass did this sort of thing in her wars of reformation when going against Anchors. They rarely had to fight much to take one. They can’t withdraw. They’d be too bunched up at some points and we could take out half the army with two bombs. They’ve very densely concentrated now. Three bombs and our troops could take them. Let’s append that ultimatum. Give them a place. Just in Flux outside the old Anchor Logh West Gate. Guarantee their safety and integrity under a white flag, and insist on direct talks.”
“And if they still don’t deal?”
“Then we do it. Simple as that. We will be forced to kill millions of innocent people and reduce the survivors to a nearly animal-like existence. Then we’ll convert the four-hundred-thousand-person army we inherited from Liberty, go in, and take over the place or what’s left of it.”
Chua seemed delighted with the idea. “Why, that’s brilliant! It’ll be the master program all over, but in reverse! We’ll use their own old methods. Make the Fluxgirls the mistresses and the men the stupid, muscled slaves who’ll do all the heavy work while their wives rule!”
“No,” Suzl said flatly. “That would make us just like them.”
“But—darling! We are just like them! All of human history on World proves that! There are no monuments here to the noble, the self-sacrificing, the pacifists and downtrodden! We are animals, nothing more, staking out our territory and then fighting for the position of boss! If you don’t do it, someone else will. That’s what most of these girls really want, deep down, and if you dig deep enough you’ll find it. New Eden is an aberration only because it’s Anchor! There have been countless wars, Flux wars, revolutions, and the like in the past fifty years, and in every case—every one—even those who said they wanted freedom, liberty, and equality for all wound up reinforcing the same system. The downtrodden of this world don’t want freedom or equality! They want to be masters. It’s human nature, darling! You can fool yourself that it’s not, but you can’t avoid it or wipe it out.”
“If I really believed that, I think I’d slit my own throat,” Suzl commented, totally disgusted.
“Well, I’ve never met a slave who truly wished to abolish slavery. They only want to see the master dressed in rags out in the fields in back-breaking toil while they sit in the golden mansion and grow fat. New Eden was founded basically by former slaves. Men oppressed by female Fluxlords. They managed to escape their Fluxlords’ grasps, many partly in thanks to those silly Reformation wars that did nothing but reinforce the old system. And what did they create? A system no more oppressive than the average Fluxland’s, but in Anchor. A system where they were on top and the women on the bottom, just the reverse of what they’d had. Wake up, dear! You are in serious danger of becoming a saint, and they’re all dead or quite mad, you know.”
15
MASKS AND MEMORIES
Matson had insisted on going down to the old Gate, and Suzl had no objections this time. More than anyone, the stringer would know how to deal with these people, and whether they were playing true or false. Jodi would also come as close cover, although they were being monitored by projectors all the way, and Gill because everyone thought she deserved to be in at the finish. Gill elected to retain and wear her Fluxgirl guise, not only as a symbol but because she wanted to see the expression on their faces when they saw a Fluxgirl dressed only in gunbelt and, special for the occasion, heels. Matson had been tempted to reassume the Fluxgirl form as well, for much the same reasons, but ultimately decided that the tall, dark Sondra was required as an authority figure. It was enough that they had a symbolic Fluxgirl present; they were trying to end a war, not restart it.
It was also decided that Matson should not reveal his identity to New Eden. It would give them the rationale of having been defeated by a man—and a legend, at that—and Suzl was adamant that they know just what beat them, even if they weren’t straight on the who of it.
There had been reports of large troop movements in the two hours since the “demonstration” bomb had gone off, but there was clearly no attempt to either shore up the border defenses or prepare for a major withdrawal. They could only sit, and wait, and hope.
A little after the fourth hour, Jodi said, “Somebody’s coming. Four men on horseback. They’re armed but nothing’s drawn, although one’s carrying something.”
They mounted up and went in to meet the quartet. They proved to be a brigadier, a colonel, a sergeant-major, and an artillery sergeant. All were in full uniform, with the lowest-ranking sergeant leading and carrying a staff on which flew a white flag apparently torn from a bedsheet. None appeared to have much Flux power, although the sergeant with the flag had enough to see strings and feel the others coming before they could be seen in the dismal void.
They seemed uncomfortable facing the New Harmony trio, and their eyes kept going to the curvaceous Jodi and the apparent Fluxgirl, but they weren’t deterred. Matson had dressed in the black stringer uniform, but with all insignia removed and the one on the hat replaced with four stars surrounding a rifle. It wasn’t anyone’s standard insignia, but it was close enough that the officers could tell that the woman they faced was a general officer in the regular army. The general saluted and got it returned by Matson.
“Sondy Ryan, commander of conventional forces,” the old stringer said casually.
“Albret Stong, Commander of the Logh District,” responded the brigadier. He seemed uncertain how to proceed from there, and was clearly uncomfortable. Matson guessed that it was the worst day of the man’s entire life. “Brigadier, you know our intentions. We’re here to hear yours. You are the first man of New Eden who would even do us the courtesy of replying at all, so we’d like to know what you have to say.”
Stong coughed nervously. “You must forgive me. I must tell you that I never believed I would ever find myself in such a position. I am ever willing to die for my country and my cause, but I know an untenable situation when I see it.”
“I’m old professional military myself, Brigadier, from a long line of professional officers. My ancestor was the first commandant of the Signal Corps here, so I sympathize.”
Stong’s eyebrows rose. “The Corps is involved in this as well?”
“No, I’m retired. Long retired. I was—retained—by New Harmony to get them into military shape, and I think I did a pretty good job of it.”
“You have the full authority to speak for them?”
“I do. And you?”
“I—I suppose I do. My officers insisted that I verify or disprove your rather unusual letter, and I went to the Institute where a majority of judges were staying. I failed to get much of an answer from their staffs, so I’m afraid I took some drastic action and placed my own guards on the Gate access port. They then received me, after failing to find anyone who disagreed violently with my actions, and generally confirmed the facts of your letter.”
Matson understood the situation perfectly. “I see, sir. And did they authorize direct negotiation?”
“Not at first. However, when I suggested that they could best reassure the troops by being with and among them, commanding them directly for the period of the emergency, they took a softer stand.” He paused a moment, and seemed almost grimly amused at a thought. “You see, sir, it was reported that although virtually all the structures in the immediate downtown area of Nantzee Center were demolished in your blast, all those in the administration building suffered was some temporary deafness and intermittent internal light failure.” That was the old temple building, as the Institute was in Logh. “I thought that this fact colored their attitude a bit.”
“Uh huh.”