“All reasonable requests,” General Veracruz stated as he looked around at the group of about 50 officers, most seated on old boxes or on the dusty floor. “Give us some time to discuss your requests. We need to make sure the prisoners are secured first, and then we’ll do what we can to help. Agreed?”
There were unanimous nods around the room and a scattering of comments such as, “Yes, sir,” “Absolutely, sir,” “Whatever it takes, sir.”
Joe seemed to be holding his breath, but at their favorable response a big grin split his face. “Thanks so much. Just let us know if there is anything we can do to help. We don’t have a lot of food available, but I’ll do my best to help you feed the rebel soldiers. We are all committed to restoring our freedoms to read, write and worship, too.”
“We are pretty well supplied with rations, Joe, so keep the food for residents, okay?”
After Joe left, the officers discussed priorities. One of the officers, Major Bill Hall, who served in the medical corps, suggested instead of trying to figure out where to locate prisoners, “Why not install behavior chips in all of them? They could be sent to energy farms or to work in Austin City restoring the infrastructure so badly neglected by Priest. It seems to be a less expensive and easier solution, with no housing or feeding expense for us. If residents accept responsibility for supervising them after chips are inserted, our responsibility for the prisoners is over. We move on to more battles against Priest.”
“How long will it take to install B-chips in almost five thousand prisoners?” One of the majors asked Corpsman Hall.
“Well, the whole process is only about 10 minutes if done by an auto-doc. The university has dozens of auto-docs in shut-down mode in their medical research departments. I’m thinking it shouldn’t take more than a week or two, once the auto-docs are properly programmed; especially if they work 24 hours a day and only need a handful of my medical corps to supervise. But, we need heavy security since I’m sure there will be some significant opposition by individual soldiers.”
General Veracruz looked around the room at his officers. “What do you think?”
One of them asked, “Should we give them a chance to join the rebels first?”
A long discussion followed about whether the soldiers could be trusted if they decided to join the rebels.
“General, it makes good sense to give them the two options,” Major Curtis responded. “We tell those who want to join the rebels they must first work with the citizens on the infrastructure for one year, without the B-chip. That way we can see if they are really on our side.”
After some discussion, everyone agreed. One of the general’s aides went to find Joe and tell him their proposal so he could present it to the citizen’s council. The residents must agree to supervise would-be rebels, as well as enemy soldiers with the B-chip inserted. Before the day finished, the citizen’s council agreed to accept responsibility for oversight of prisoners after implanting them with the B-chip, as well as supervising any who wanted to join the rebels.
“They almost destroyed our city,” Joe said, “It is only appropriate they help us rebuild it.”
As the final order of business, the general asked the group about celebrating their victory. “Joe informed me now the battle is over, citizens want a celebration. It is the 4th of July, after all. And what better day to celebrate our victory than on the birthday of our country 350 years ago.”
Citizens wanted to enjoy the evening, even lacking a lot of necessities. They rounded up enough former members of Austin City Philharmonic for an impromptu outdoor concert on the banks of Lake Austin. Residents and rebels joined a “bring your own basket of food” party before the concert. Someone even discovered some fireworks, including several boxes of sparklers for children to use. An engineer from the rebels volunteered to handle the fireworks and put together a laser light show for the party. It wasn’t as magnificent a show as residents had seen in the past, but it was still wonderful and thoroughly enjoyed by all participants. Although hot and humid during the day, by the time the sun went down, and the party started, it was much cooler, with a light breeze wafting from the lake.
General Veracruz worried about how long it might take before Priest retaliated for the defeat, but he decided to put off his concern until tomorrow. For the first time in weeks, he relaxed, even if only for the evening, deciding to enjoy the victory. He hoped this would be another in a string of victories to eventually destroy Priest’s reign.
He laid down on the grass on the gradually sloping banks of Lake Austin, a soft cool breeze blowing across the lake caressing his face. He was, surrounded by happy citizens and rebels in the magnificent but injured Austin City. The general fell asleep with the sound of fireworks, laughter and celebration all around him.
Chapter Seven
Enemies Become Friends
It had been several years since anyone saw Emperor Priest in public. He only appeared over vid-communications and never in person. Rumor said he was too paranoid someone might assassinate him if he came outside the glass pyramid which served as his headquarters in the Boston Province.
One of the Book Liberator spies, Claudette Burns, worked her way on to the public relations staff of the emperor. She made sure she stayed as anonymous as possible. She wore only drab and oversized uniforms, no makeup and no other adornments. She did her job as a graphic designer, but never put herself forward. Her fellow staff nicknamed her, “Mouse.” Not only because of her quiet demeanor, but also how she looked. She was thin, almost scrawny, her hair stringy and a dull, lifeless brown. If anyone looked at her carefully, however, they would see beautiful, intelligent brown eyes in a finely boned face. But as part of her disguise, she kept her eyes lowered and maintained a shy, unobtrusive demeanor.
But there was more to Claudette than met the eye. Thoroughly trained in every type of weapons use, military tactics and intelligence gathering, she developed her own profile to stand up to scrutiny by Priest’s vetting process. The profile conveniently left out the fact her parents were killed in the Van Horn massacre, the first massacre of Book Liberators. General Veracruz was skeptical about sending her to infiltrate the emperor’s staff, but she volunteered. Brogan told the general she was very impressed with her during some military games she oversaw.
“I put her on a team to infiltrate the communication’s building and test security of the encampment. She was the only one who didn’t get caught. The rest of the team tried to use standard military infiltration tactics in the middle of the night. She simply forged some documents, including some military IDs, and walked into the building in broad daylight. Apparently, she hacked into personnel files on the base and inserted her forged identity. We found her calmly sitting in the most secure section of the building. And, I’m guessing, we only located her because she let us.”
Brogan attended grade school with her. “Although a year behind me, I remember how smart she was. I was the only person in the small school she had anything to do with. I remember her saying to me…and she was probably only six years old at the time… ‘Everyone in school is so dumb, except for you’. What she said stuck with me because I remember thinking how grown up she sounded.
“I lost track of her after I left for college, but she told me her parents didn’t know what to do with someone so smart. Eventually, they sent her to the University of Texas Dallas, on full scholarship of course. She ended up with several degrees, including a couple of doctorate degrees before she turned twenty years old. She is probably one of the smartest people I know. And, because of what happened to her parents, she is absolutely committed to the BL cause.”
The decision to send Claudette to Boston as a spy was not an easy one for General Veracruz. Few BL spies survived more than a year. Priest’s intelligence network was top notch, and quickly caught most spies. But Claudette had so far lasted longer than anyone without getting caught. She had instructions from her control agent in Laredo, General Veracruz’s father, Max, to do nothing suspicious for at
least two years.
“Just do your job as unobtrusively as possible. Send us messages only if they are critical, and only if you are positive the message cannot be hacked by Priest’s agents.”
Claudette had been on the PR staff in Priest’s complex for two years. The only message she sent to Max told about the disappearance of Priest’s consort. The code she worked out with Max was virtually indecipherable and appeared as part of an innocent vid-phone chat with a maiden aunt in the Dallas suburb. She figured out a way to send a copy of her message to Aunt Pat directly to Max if it was an important message. She really did have an Aunt Pat who had no idea Claudette was a spy. She adored her niece and frequently sent her packages of homemade cookies, which Claudette shyly shared with other staff in the emperor’s office.
Three days after the Battle of Austin City. Max received a coded vid-phone message from Claudette, via Aunt Pat. He was appalled at what was in the deciphered message. The encryption method, based on a simple code incorporating original BL hieroglyphics appearing at various places in the conversation, used every seventh word code. Extremely adept at phrasing her verbal conversations so they seemed to be innocuous messages to her Aunt Pat, Claudette communicated directly with Max.
The shocking message she sent couldn’t possibly be clearer: “Priest livid at defeat in Austin. Top ten military officers killed in retaliation. Instructing scientists to work to develop nuclear bombs to drop on Laredo and Austin. Wants release in one year.”
After World War III, with millions of lives lost because of nuclear bombs, plus the devastating impact of the fallout on the land and climate, Americans pushed Prime Minister Altero to establish a total ban on all nuclear weapons. It was one of the few times the PM acceded to the wishes of citizens. The ban had been in effect now for more than forty years. When Priest’s consort, Sandra Bernhardt, assassinated the prime minister and he appointed himself emperor, he had not lifted the ban until now.
Max conveyed Claudette’s message to the general, still in Austin City. General Juan called an emergency meeting of his team and key representatives of the Laredo citizens’ council by vid-phone. Although the general knew most of the research on how to build nuclear weapons was purposely destroyed after the war, he told the group Priest evidently found some plans somewhere.
“Unless we can figure out a way to sabotage what he is doing, it means there is probably only one year to free our country from Priest and his henchmen or face total devastation across the country with millions of lives lost.”
Priest’s nuclear plans galvanized the rebels to begin crystalizing a series of strategies to combat the possibility of another nuclear war. Moving the rebel headquarters had to be their first strategy.
“We are too out in the open here in Laredo,” General Veracruz stated. “We must find a new location for our base, less visible from the air, just in case he is able to develop a nuclear bomb. And, secondly, it means our citizens must move, too.
“Thirdly,” the general continued, “We have no choice. We must assassinate Priest. He has become way too psychotic. When Sandra gets back from Canada, she can give us some direction on how to infiltrate the glass pyramid and kill him.
“And, fourth,” Max added, “A more strategic plan in our approach to fighting the empire is essential. Except for the battle for Austin City, everything has been defensive or focused on using guerilla tactics. We cannot afford to do that anymore. We must develop more offensive approaches to attack Priest’s soldiers in every province.”
A member of the citizens’ council also suggested a more concerted effort to recruit citizens across the country to join Book Liberators. “The more we can convince our fellow citizens to stand up and fight, the easier it will be to ultimately defeat Priest. The BL members and citizens did a phenomenal job hiding millions of banned books, but we neglected BL recruitment since we started military operations. Maybe it is time to focus attention on getting more citizens on our side. If we train citizens in sabotage, it might really help fragment the empire’s attention away from our military operations.”
The team in Laredo divided into planning groups to begin developing strategies for implementation of the proposals. The general and his staff would head back to Laredo as soon as they could. He sent an encrypted message to Claudette, asking her to identify potential weak spots in the tight security around the emperor; and, to find out the location of any nuclear bomb factory. The rebels had to figure out a way to destroy the effort before nuclear bombs became a reality.
As General Veracruz brooded about the issues later in the day, he realized he needed to let Brogan know about the situation. He wasn’t sure where she and Sandra were on their journey to Canada, but Marco would know. He quickly sent an encrypted message to her through Marco. Now, more than ever, they needed Canada’s help defeating Priest.
When Marco got the message, he immediately forwarded it to Captain Shoemaker on the submarine, asking her to convey the information to Brogan. He didn’t even bother to encrypt it since he knew the Canadian security was better than anything Priest might have. A few nautical miles from docking at Sault St. Marie, the message appeared in the communication’s room of the sub. Marked “Urgent. Captain’s Eyes Only,” the sealed message was transferred to the captain, who was in the process of preparing the sub for docking. As soon as she read it, Captain Shoemaker got on the intercom.
“Brogan and Sandra to the captain’s bridge immediately.”
Brogan and Sandra dropped what they were doing in preparation for disembarking.
“I wonder what that’s about,” Brogan mused to Sandra. “Let’s go find out.”
They approached the bridge and the captain turned at the sound of their footsteps. They could tell something was up by the expression on her face.
“What is it, Captain?”
“I just received an urgent message from Marco, which he asked me to convey to you. Apparently, your Emperor Priest has discovered some nuclear bomb making plans and intends to build some bombs to obliterate Book Liberator rebels.”
Stunned, Brogan and Sandra believed Priest literally planned to destroy America. They found chairs and sat down, too shaken to remain standing. Total silence filled the bridge for several minutes while they tried to absorb the potential consequences of the terrible news.
Brogan finally spoke, but she had to take a couple of tries before her voice stopped shaking. “Captain, our plans have changed. I don’t know if there is any way you can help, but Sandra and I need to somehow get to Priest and stop his madness. Any suggestions?”
During two days on board the submarine, the women got to know the captain and discovered she was an excellent tactician. Especially enamored with the captain’s ideas on destroying laser fences around the waterways and ocean fronts, Brogan thought it a great way to surprise and defeat the empire’s soldiers.
“It would be simple, using subs and destroyers to knock out laser fences and come ashore under cover of darkness. Priest’s soldiers would never know what hit them since they are totally dependent on the fences to protect their borders. I’m guessing they don’t even post sentries around laser fences. Right?”
Brogan and Sandra agreed, and although they weren’t sure how to make it happen, her suggestion certainly had a lot of merit. The only problem was, they had no nautical vessels. Making it work depended entirely on Canada’s help.
“Now America has a psychotic at the helm who is threatening to use nuclear weapons, it might finally convince my government to help,” Captain Shoemaker said quietly. “But, what do you need from me right now?”
Brogan looked over at Sandra, furiously writing on her notepad. She pushed it toward Brogan for her to read. Brogan read it out loud, so the captain heard.
“Know how to get inside pyramid and into Priest’s quarters without being seen, if we get to Boston,” Sandra wrote. “Pretty sure I know where scientists will work on nuclear bomb project.”
Brogan and Captain Shoemaker looked at each other. Wit
hout a word, the captain turned to her console and began to push some buttons. She keyed her throat mike and began to talk. Within a few minutes, she reached her commander at Canadian Royal Fleet headquarters and explained the situation. She listened carefully and responded with a “Yes, sir,” and clicked the mike off. She turned to Brogan and Sandra.
“I’ve been ordered to hold steady until command can discuss the situation more thoroughly. At least they didn’t tell me ‘no’ right off the bat. All we can do now is wait. Do you want to send a note to Marco?”
“Great idea, Captain.”
Brogan composed a quick note to Marco, telling him they would figure out a way to arrive closer to Boston. Lobbying the Canadian government by Brogan and Sandra would have to wait. Brogan and Sandra returned to their cabin to impatiently wait for news. Within a couple of hours, the captain heard from her commander.
“Brogan and Sandra to the bridge,” came over the intercom. Both women jumped up from their game of holo-cards and headed for the bridge. As they entered the bridge area, Captain Shoemaker swiveled around to meet them. As usual, it was difficult to read her expression. But she didn’t keep them waiting.
“Good news. The commander of Canadian Royal Fleet received authorization from our prime minister to do whatever is necessary to transfer you to Boston Harbor. We will need to dock for a few hours at Sault St. Marie to resupply, but we will be underway as soon as it’s done. I’m guessing you’ll want to send word to Marco about your plans.”
“Yes, thank you, captain,” Brogan replied. She quickly jotted down a message to Marco.
“Get the message to com,” the captain told her lieutenant. “And then join me back here on the bridge.”
She turned to Sandra. “Given your knowledge of the emperor’s security, I’ll need your input on how where the best location might be to dock. We will provide you with tools to disable the laser fence, so you can get in. Unfortunately, my orders do not include allowing any of my crew to accompany you but only to get you there.”
The Slave Warrior Page 7
