The Last Mayor Box Set

by Michael John Grist

  "You don't," Anna said. "But you'll see. I'm going to crush that bitch to dust."

  This did not seem to move him. He stood up.

  Witzgenstein was coming in, walking in from the bunker's interior. Of course, that was good optics, it gave a sense of ownership. Anna rose along with everybody.

  Witzgenstein took her seat, banged her gavel and so it began.

  "It is with the greatest regret that I call this hearing to order. I intend for it to be as truthful, peaceful and honest as I am able to ensure. Shocking charges have been made, and today we are gathered to hear the full extent of those charges, in full view of all. But let me be clear, what we do here today is not a trial. The Council met and determined speed was of the greatest importance in holding this hearing, lest the charges be exaggerated, blown out of proportion or suppressed."

  She paused and cast a meaningful look between Alan and Amo.

  "However, a vote may be called. Not on guilt, but on admissibility. Will the testimony we hear today be admitted, therefore altering the nature of the trial begun yesterday? That is a decision only you, the people of New LA, can decide. So I stand down with the reminder, repeated a second time so as to leave no doubt; this is not a trial. Any trial would come in weeks or months, affording all parties the time to prepare their cases. This is merely a preliminary hearing."

  She banged her gavel, and Anna barely prevented herself from snorting. It plainly was a trial, if one of public opinion. The results of it would be very real, even if Amo was not yet indicted. The whole affair was a recipe for chaos and disquiet; all surely part of Witzgenstein's plan. She would come out of this looking magisterial, above the fray, like the only impartial adult in the room, while everyone else would be sullied.

  Feargal began, as previously agreed. He called Alan back to the stand, to continue his deposition, and Alan walked up there slowly, sensitively, as though he were very brave and carrying a great weight on his shoulders. Anna bit her tongue and listened along with all forty-six of them in the hall.

  "Yesterday you told us Amo wanted Masako dead," Feargal began, speaking clearly and loud. "What the people in this room don't understand, and what they want to understand, is why he would want that? He was already mayor, newly elected. Was it purely a grudge? We know Amo has not acted on grudges before; Julio is a case in point. So why would he do so now?"

  It was a fair question. It was leading the witness, or supposition, Anna knew as much from watching old legal TV shows, but it would stand up in this court. People wanted to know, and calling out 'Objection' now would reduce the impact of what she had planned for later, so she held her tongue.

  "I believe he was afraid," Alan said. He looked stronger today; in keeping with his story, perhaps. No longer so afraid of Amo. He raised his gaze to look out over the congregation. If anything he seemed angry. "Of what she knew. She was in New LA at the start, before Amo learned to brand himself so well. He was afraid she was going to tell the truth about him, now they were political rivals. About how Don and Sophie really died."

  Anna frowned. Don and Sophie now too? Witzgenstein was going all-in, it seemed. Get all the charges in, leave them a month or two to stew, then call a trial? It was transparently unfair.

  "We all know how Don and Sophie died," Feargal said. "It's common knowledge. What can you tell us that is different?"

  "He murdered them," Alan said.

  The congregation gasped. Anna shook her head. Alan pressed on bravely. "She never told me until that night in Pittsburgh, but then it came out. He killed them then turned them into his legend. He's a sick man, and we have to do something. We can't let him rule anymore."

  Feargal paled. Anna doubted even he had known this was coming. He was a good man, now co-opted into Witzgenstein's conspiracy. So she built her new consensus. Voices clamored in protest from behind Anna; she recognized Jake, Sulman, even Cynthia, which was good. There were others though, too, Witzgenstein's supporters, calling out 'For shame!'

  Witzgenstein hammered her gavel and called them all to order.

  Feargal licked his lips and pressed on, asking questions that built a fuller picture of Alan's fantasy. How had Amo killed them? Sophie by strangling, Don by purposefully siccing his zombie horde on them. Alan described how he'd used the comics to spread his false legend, because in truth he was a megalomaniac. He explained how Masako had seen him intimidate others countless times, forcing them by blackmail and threats to be silent, and how those same tactics had worked on her. He described how Amo and Cerulean had worked together to crush the free spirit of New LA, under the guise of setting it free.

  Hearing it all laid out made Anna feel ill, plumbing deeper depths than she'd even guessed at. It was all nonsense, utterly baseless and without fact, but enough of it would stick that a smear would forever be on Amo's name from this day forward. She could feel the mood in the room changing. Alan's story explained things they'd never understood before; linking together true facts with gaps in the collective understanding.

  Everybody knew that in some sense, their current predicament was actually all Amo's fault, stretching all the way back to origin of the apocalypse, with him and Lara in his New York tenement. Their union had triggered the end of the world; that was undeniable now. But Alan made it seem purposeful. He ascribed intent where there had been none, and in doing so he gave the people of New LA somebody concrete to blame for all their suffering, for so long.

  It was all Amo. For ten long years, he had been the author of their pain.

  Anna felt dizzy beneath the mass of 'evidence'. With Witzgenstein in the judge's chair, and Alan spinning out his story with anger and tears interspersed, they were riling New LA into a mob. Facts wouldn't matter if this kept up. Amo wouldn't be able raise his head to defend himself. This was a trial in the court of public opinion, and already she was losing.

  At last they finished. Feargal announced other witnesses that had 'come forward' in the last fourteen hours, all seeking to have their testimony heard, and Anna was not a bit surprised. They were all Witzgenstein's supporters. Their stories would doubtless corroborate Alan's and heap on new charges to boot. Could the good people of New LA ignore so much testimony, even if it was suspect, even if there was no evidence?

  She didn't think so. Root and branch. It had to happen now.

  Her heart thumped. She remembered her Pacific crossing, standing in the yacht of the madwoman of Hawaii, and facing a similar choice.

  "Thank you, Alan," Feargal finished. "I know this is hard for you. Anna, your witness."

  She took her time standing. She looked at Alan then Witzgenstein, then she turned to the congregation, surveying them steadily. At last she spoke.

  "This trial is bullshit."

  The words rang out and hung in the air. She looked in the congregation's eyes one by one, challenging anyone to defy her. Nobody did, except for Witzgenstein, who took the bait and rapped her gavel smartly. "Anna, please."

  Anna turned and looked up at the judge. Witzgenstein. "Janine," she said. "Of course you mean to defend the trial. It's your baby. Tell me, how long have you been planning it? How long did it take to coach this idiot to spit all these charges up?" She waved at Alan, whose face was darkening in anger. "It's impressive, truly, but it seems you've forgotten that I actually know Amo. We all here actually know Amo; he's a good man, he saved us, he brought us together. He did not murder Masako or any of this other nonsense."

  Janine tolerated all of this with no expression marring her perfectly stern features. "This is not how a trial works, Anna," she said coolly. "I realize you're too young to remember, but one does not usually attack the judge."

  This earned a few laughs. Very good.

  "I am young," Anna agreed. "But not so young I can't recognize lies spun out of whole cloth. Alan," she turned to him, "tell me, where's your evidence? Of everything you've said, where's the evidence? You have none. It is entirely hearsay. Gossip. Rumors. Bullshit."

  Witzgenstein rapped the gavel again. "A
nna," she warned. "Call a witness or interrogate the one you have. This court is not here for your grandstanding."

  Anna laughed. Yes, that would be the way. Make her over-react. Get tempestuous Anna to expose herself in public, then pull her down too. Discredit them all. They probably had a plan for Lara, for Jake, for Sulman. They would all fall from grace in a future Witzgenstein-led New LA.

  Not if Anna had anything to do with it.

  "I call myself to the stand," Anna said, loud and clear. "I was there on the radio, and I say my testimony stands." She turned to the audience. "In the end it will come down to Alan's word against mine, against the Amo you have seen and known yourselves for years. There is no evidence in their case, and I cannot disprove a negative."

  She looked over the audience. Cynthia was grinning chaotically, her libertarian streak luxuriating in watching it all come down like this. Ravi looked like a turtle trying to duck back into its shell. Lara was gray and leaning on his shoulder. Others just stared, uncertain what to believe.

  Anna wanted to sigh. These people.

  "As Anna, on the stand, I want to say that you should be on your knees thanking this man," she said. "All of you should, Alan and Witzgenstein included."

  Janine banged the gavel behind her. "Anna, let's have order. These matters need to be discussed in a civil manner, by cooler heads."

  Anna nodded. Yes, that was Janine's plan, but here her real argument began. "Cooler heads," she said. "Very well, I'll be civil. Let me make a fresh charge, since we are hearing new testimony. I allege that Masako died, Janine, because of you." She pointed, pausing for the congregation to catch up. "She died because of your lies and rumors, stoked up in the aftermath of Cerulean's death. Amo may have pulled the trigger out there in the snow, but who loaded the gun? Who put that gun in a vulnerable woman's hand? You. Though you're just the tip of the iceberg. I know who else is beneath the surface."

  She turned to eye each of them now: big Samuel in back, Akela the Christ-like hippy, Georgina and Harris the smug schoolteachers, Yugyong the body-building golfer, Jack and Phillipa from Arkansas. These were Janine's followers. They'd tried to split New LA with her before, they'd worked with her in quiet, sniveling sedition in dark back rooms, inventing conspiracy theories that took their own existence as proof, and now?

  "Now you're trying to destroy Amo's character, to further your own ambition. It's so transparent, but Janine, you don't get to become mayor this way."

  A ripple of consternation buzzed through the hall, in mutters and whispers and shuffling feet. Become mayor? Shit-slinging could go two ways. Janine banged the gavel and three sharp retorts echoed round the room, but still she looked cool and controlled as the hall came to order, as if nothing Anna said could sting her at all.

  "So you wish to make me a second plaintiff in this trial?" she asked, almost lazily. "Should I step down into the dock?"

  More laughter. Anna laughed along with them.

  It was her fault, of course. She'd let Janine's rumors simmer like a rotten stew for too long, providing fertile ground for darker, more severe infections to take root. Amo had done nothing to quell them, because Amo was Amo and he hated the stick. After everything they'd learned of Salle Coram and her brutal discipline, after all the terrible things she'd done to keep her people safe, Anna doubted Amo would ever wield the stick again.

  Cerulean had wielded it before. He'd crushed Julio, and he'd crushed Witzgenstein when she'd tried to split them in two before. Now Cerulean was gone, and that role fell to her.

  "This trial is only a stepping stone for Janine," she said loudly, addressing the audience. "She tars her opponents while she oversees it as judge. You all know this. It is fundamentally corrupt."

  "At least she was elected," someone shouted from the crowd, "you weren't."

  Anna smiled. That was Big Samuel, a real big man.

  "I wasn't here to vote in that election, was I Samuel?" she countered. "Do you recall where I was?"

  "You did inherit your position on the Council," Witzgenstein said calmly. "Samuel is right, Ravi gave you your seat. It's a matter of record that you don't represent anyone."

  Now Janine was coming for her directly. Janine with her so-serious, so-righteous face. She had the long blond tresses of a model. She had the baby-kissing mouth of a born politician.

  "I was in a plane when you voted," Anna said, soberly, firmly. "My second plane, after the first one fell from the sky. I was working to save this group, you and Masako and all your conspirators included. While you were sowing discord and lies I was hunting for the ocean to save us all. I was working with Amo to save us all. What were you doing at the time, Janine? What have you done to further New LA?"

  Witzgenstein nodded seriously. "You do wish to put me on trial. Then I will answer, as a witness should. I have given ministry, Anna. I have brought spiritual succor to the faithful and those in need, including Alan and his son, who will never see their Masako again. Have I done less, because I didn't fly a plane or shoot a gun, like you? We are not all soldiers born to fight. Some of us are born to speak God's healing words."

  Anna waved a hand. It was good but not good enough. "There it is, God, but I think your God is not the same as mine, Janine. The God I know is out there in the wilds, running with the ocean. The God I respect is in the love and unity I've seen in this room, when these people come together in the moments that matter. The God I know speaks through this man right here," she pointed at Amo, "if he speaks through anyone at all. And you want to brand him a murderer?"

  "He has not been formally charged with murder," Witzgenstein said. "There is only testimony thus far. This is a preliminary hearing."

  Anna snorted. "Testimony that is falsified. Testimony with you at its root, as everyone here of good conscience knows. Yes, Amo has killed, but never with glee, never for personal gain, never on a whim. He genuinely is the moral man we all believe him to be. He is the opposite of the gutter-dwelling slime that you are, Janine."

  Chairs shuffled in the hall. Sweat beaded on shiny temples, cast with an orange glow off the walls. People looked at each other uneasily. Witzgenstein's solemn expression grew more solemn still. This was the moment she'd been waiting for, and she let fly with both barrels.

  "You are a hero of our war, Anna, that is true, but you have always been a destructive, callous, cruel child, as you are showing yourself to be now. You have toyed with the emotions of all those nearest you, as you seek to toy with these good people now. You have manipulated your way onto the Council, using that poor boy who idolizes you." She gestured at Ravi. "You are attempting to manipulate the course of this hearing, but I will not have it. You are and have always been a violent, out of control adolescent without the judgment or temperance to know when to speak and when to be silent, and all here know it. Amo at least knows this much, that we all must be judged."

  There were some good blows there. They cued her up perfectly. Anna smiled, and spoke clearly, slowly and loud.

  "So let us both be judged. Right now, Janine. I am willing to put all that I have at stake in the public eye; my Council seat, my reputation, even my presence in New LA. This is a court of law, and here sits a jury of our peers." She waved at the congregation. "They've heard your charges against Amo. Now let them make a judgment about you."

  Witzgenstein frowned. "You aren't a judge, Anna. You can't arraign me."

  Anna nodded. Got her.

  "You're right, I'm not a judge. I'm a sheriff."

  Witzgenstein's eyes bugged for a moment, then she laughed. It was a high and musical sound, pealing out as evidence of her wonderful singing voice. Others in the congregation joined her, but not all. "You certainly are an imaginative young woman, Anna, I grant that. So what would my punishment be, a public hanging?"

  "Exile," Anna answered.

  This silenced even Janine.

  "I call for a vote," Anna said, "effective immediately. We are still a tiny community barely clinging to life. I have seen the world out there, Janine,
I have looked into the demons' eyes, and in them I see the end of everything we've built. I see New LA torn up by the roots, with you at our head. It is Amo's dream we've been following all this time, to unite us, while you have sought for years to divide us. We cannot afford that, not with eleven bunkers still out there, with eleven more demons, with many thousands who want us dead. We need Amo. We need me. And we do not need you."

  A long moment passed in which nobody moved.

  "Your fantasy is running out, Anna," Witzgenstein said. "I rule you in contempt. You may leave."

  Anna didn't leave. Too late. She held her ground. "The vote has been called. Who is in favor?"

  She eyed them, her people. Many turned away. None wanted to be dragged into this, but she couldn't afford them that luxury. Decisions had to be made, and she would not allow them to go blindly to their own ends. They would have to make that choice for themselves, and look her in the eye as they did it.

  Jake stood. He didn't look happy, but he stood.

  "A simpleton," Witzgenstein said, "hardly a binding vote."

  Sulman stood next. Lara followed shakily after, helped up by Ravi. After that the avalanche began. When the shuffling was done, Anna counted. There were thirty-four people standing and fourteen still seated. It was more than enough.

  "It's a clear majority, Janine."

  There was a flicker of concern in her ice-blue eyes now. "It's in no way binding. With no defense, no due process. What are your charges, that I lied? I have been utterly impartial. That I once sought a second settlement? That is no crime at all."

  Anna nodded. She couldn't have prepared the way more neatly herself.

  "So take your second settlement."

  The words hung brightly in the air between them, and the hall collectively held its breath. Witzgenstein's perfect face wrinkled in a frown.

  "I beg your pardon?"

  "So take your second settlement," Anna repeated. "We know who your supporters are, they're the ones preparing now to give more false testimony. So take them and be mayor of another community. Lead them. The good people of New LA don't want you here anymore."