proceed without him. McCracken had a pass for the countryside, being a
veterinarian, and held proxy for the colony’s underground associates in
Barclay.
“The Barclay Free Company, a provisional unit of the United States of
America, is now in session,” Morgan announced formally. “Does any member
have any item to lay before the Company?”
He looked around; there was no response. “How about you?” he challenged Joe
Benz. “I heard that you had some things you thought the Company ought to
hear.”
Benz started to speak, shook his head. “I’ll wait.”
“Don’t wait too long,” Morgan said mildly. “Well, I have two points to
bring up for discussion — ”
“Three,” corrected Dr. McCracken. “I’m glad you sent for me.” He stepped up
to Morgan and handed him a large, much folded piece of paper. Morgan looked
it over, refolded it, and put it in his pocket.
“It fits in,” he said to McCracken. “What do the folks in town say?”
“They are waiting to hear from you. They’ll back you up — so far, anyway.”
“All right.” Morgan turned back to the group. “First item — we got a
message today, passed by hand and about three weeks old, setting up another
provisional government. The courier was grabbed right under our noses.
Maybe he was a stooge; maybe he was careless — that’s neither here nor
there at the moment. The message was that the Honorable Albert M. Brockman
proclaimed himself provisional President of these United States, under
derived authority, and appointed Brigadier General Dewey Fenton commander
of armed forces including irregular militia — meaning us — and called on
all citizens to unite to throw the Invader out. All formal and proper. So
what do we do about it?”
“And who the devil is the Honorable Albert M. Brockman?” asked someone in
the rear.
“I’ve been trying to remember. The message listed government jobs he’s
held, including some assistant secretary job — I suppose that’s the
‘derived authority’
angle. But I can’t place him.”
“I recall him,” Dr. McCracken said suddenly. “I met him when I was in the
Bureau of Animal Husbandry. A career civil servant . . . and a stuffed
shirt.”
There was a gloomy silence. Ted spoke up. “Then why bother with him?”
The Leader shook his head. “It’s not that simple, Ted. We can’t assume that
he’s no good. Napoleon might have been a minor clerk under different
circumstances. And the Honorable Mr. Brockman may be a revolutionary genius
disguised as a bureaucrat. But that’s not the point. We need nationwide
unification more than anything. It doesn’t matter right now who the titular
leader is. The theory of derived authority may be shaky but it may be the
only way to get everybody to accept one leadership. Little bands like ours
can never win back the country. We’ve got to have unity — and that’s why we
can’t ignore Brockman.”
“The thing that burns me,” McCracken said savagely, “is that it need never
have happened at all! It could have been prevented.”
“No use getting in a sweat about it,” Morgan told him. “It’s easy to see
the government’s mistakes now, but just the same I think there was an
honest effort to prevent war right up to the last. It takes all nations to
keep the peace, but it only takes one to start a war.”
“No, no, no — I don’t mean that, Captain,” McCracken answered. “I don’t
mean the War could have been prevented. I suppose it could have been —
once. But everybody knew that another war could happen, and everybody —
everybody, I say, knew that if it came, it would start with the blasting of
American cities. Every congressman, every senator knew that a war would
destroy Washington and leave the country with no government, flopping
around like a chicken with its head off. They knew — why didn’t they do
something!”
“What could they do? Washington couldn’t be protected.”
”Do? Why, they could have made plans for their own deaths! They could have
slapped through a constitutional amendment calling for an alternate
president and alternate congressmen and made it illegal for the alternates
to be in target areas — or any scheme to provide for orderly succession in