All in Good Time

by Mackey Chandler

  “Yeah, agreed,” Alice said. “I really lucked out.”

  “How so?” Vic demanded.

  “I fell in with rich people who turned out to be decent. What are the odds?” Alice asked.

  “Mr. Mast and Mr. O’Neil are both rich by the new standards after The Day,” Eileen insisted. “I believe either one of them will treat you decently even if you aren’t with us. I don’t know where you got the idea that rich people are automatically bad, but I think you need to reconsider it.”

  “Maybe you’re right. I think I got that from the Olsens,” Alice admitted. “They were always harping on who had stuff at the festivals and how they didn’t deserve it. My folks never talked like that.”

  “The Olsens would have been better off to try to flag us down and talk business with us instead of rob us. They were short-sighted. They should have known we weren’t traveling on a motorbike without having connections and friends. It’s going to go badly for them for taking up banditry and slavery,” Vic said.

  Eileen seemed more startled and upset at that than Alice.

  “That’s one of the things Mr. Mast is going to organize over the winter,” Vic revealed.

  “Good,” Alice said.

  * * *

  “At how low of an angle can your rods approach a target without burning their shields off?” Chen asked, illustrating his question with his hands.

  “It isn’t the extra flight time through the atmosphere,” April said. “On a long shallow approach, they will have slowed down to where the shield isn’t being ablated much. In fact, even though they start dropping faster as they lose velocity they gain some accuracy compared to a steep approach because they slow down to the point they aren’t surrounded by a layer of ionized air. They can go to direct sensors instead of receiving laser commands on a receiver in a tail recess. But they also have less impact on the target, hitting slower.”

  “How much less impact,” Chen insisted.

  “Down from several hundred tons of TNT equivalent to just a couple ton. If it gets slow enough it won’t even vaporize the rod on impact and create a shock wave. It could eventually just be the mechanical impact that would punch a hole through something and the shrapnel from the rod and pieces of the target fragmenting.”

  “So more like an airplane crashing into something than a bomb,” Chen extrapolated.

  “Yeah,” April agreed, “but it would still punch right through a main battle tank and tear it to pieces. But there’d be no Earth-shattering >KaBoom< unless you get secondary explosions from the ammo. Why?”

  “As far as I can see from satellite images, the facility doesn’t have its own ballistic defense,” Chen said. “I’m trying to figure out how to avoid damaging the city as you wish. There’s an anti-missile site where they extended the airport to the north on the west side of town and I suspect that’s the only protection. It would be good if we could avoid engaging them at all. Some rods will always go off target when they try to intercept them. They may never have seen this as a primary target for other nations to attack. When it is handling data on foreigners it’s often with the other country’s cooperation.”

  “Why would another country cooperate with spying on their citizens?” April asked.

  “If their law prohibits spying on their own people then they will spy on say, the British, and the British spy on the Americans, then they swap data. So technically, they got it from a foreign source which makes it legal.

  “Don’t look at me like that. I didn’t say it makes sense or isn’t corrupt,” Chen said.

  “I don’t know if they deserve to have me wipe this data if they don’t have the gumption to put a stop to it themselves,” April said.

  “You could say that about so many things down there,” Chen pointed out. “Don’t look at it as a favor for the people. It really will be terribly disruptive and expensive to their entire security apparatus. I was going to suggest you bring some rods in very low to get under the Salt Lake ballistic defense. If you cut off their power and data lines, then physically cut the roads to prevent anything from being removed from the site, you can then defeat their missile defense at your leisure. They won’t have time to save anything before you break through their defenses.”

  “Show me on a map,” April insisted.

  After Chen identified everything April sat looking at the map for a long pause.

  “Do you remember when Jeff bombarded that dam in China?” she asked Chen.

  “Yes, it created a cascading failure down the entire river system. You should know that the Great Salt Lake is extremely shallow and doesn’t have any connections to exploit.”

  “No, but he actually bombarded the lake behind the dam,” April said. “I’m looking at that map and wondering what it would do if I dropped a ten kiloton weapon on the far side of the lake and blew a great deal of that water into the air over the airport and defense systems?”

  Chen looked surprised. “I suspect a huge rain cloud of saltwater and muck would do little for their radar coverage. You’d have a couple of minutes that they’d be blind. It might even create a surge and flood their missile sites. It’s pretty flat from the lake to the east. You can’t build anything close around much of the lake because it contracts and expands a great deal with the rains and seasons. If their computer sees your shot as a clean miss they probably won’t even waste a shot on it. I’d use a penetrator to get down in the lake bed and lift some of it. The distance and using a small weapon should prevent any undue damage in the city.”

  “What do you consider undue?” April worried.

  “At that range, I’d be surprised if it even breaks any windows,” Chen said.

  “Sounds like a plan,” April agreed. “I’ll start setting it up.”

  * * *

  “Oh Dear God,” Anna’s professor said. “You can’t publish this. It has the potential to ruin your life, child. It would likely damage the school and might even bring harm down on your nation.” He pinched the bridge of his nose in honest distress.

  “Why?” Anna demanded. “I thought it was clear from my questions I find her position extremist. Indeed, I think she could be deemed criminally insane under our laws.”

  “It doesn’t matter what you think. People won’t even consider that. Just the fact you gave her a voice to express this will enrage people and they will forever link it in their minds to you. Have you learned nothing about how shallow most people are by your age? If you predict a storm some in the public will blame you for the winds, because the vast majority of the herd are magical thinkers, and they will feel you brought it on them by speaking of it.”

  “Her com code is public,” Anna said. “I was simply amazed. Anybody could have called her and I think she would have talked to them. She already has a voice heard in the news reports. The people at odds with her haven’t bothered to call her.”

  “Do you see?” her professor guided her gently. “They have nothing to say to her. She could have issued the same threats to them in the first place, but decided not to. In many people’s minds, you will be seen as the trigger that made her think of those threats since she never brought them up before. I implore you, find some other subject. I promise I will give you a wonderful assessment on any other paper. I wish to avert this being released if it is within my power to kill it.”

  “I can sort of understand it at an intellectual level,” Anna said, “but I don’t feel it and you obviously have very strong feelings about it. I’ll respect your experience and guidance. What should I do with it if not publish it?”

  “Give me a copy. I have friends in the diplomatic services who can forward it to the North Americans without fear. That’s their business to do, and they can offer it as a piece of intelligence without personal risk. You may resist the idea, but if it were me I would do a hard delete of the video. If you are connected to it after she performs her threat you will be blamed as much for failing to publish. It’s a no-win situation. Have you uploaded it to storage services?”

/>   “Just to my backup files at school,” Anna said.

  “Thank Goodness for that. I have influence with the proper authorities to make sure it is wiped on our own servers. It was ill-conceived, but brilliant, simply brilliant to think to call up such a prominent public figure directly,” he praised her.

  “Thank you,” Anna said. At this point, the promise of a good grade was more important to her than the compliment he was dishing out.

  * * *

  “Read this list and tell me what I need to add,” Vic said. “I want to be sure I have everything before I call Cal. I don’t want to end the call and think of something else we need five minutes later.”

  Eileen’s eyebrows shot up. “You’re going to buy a bicycle for Alice too?”

  Vic shrugged. “I don’t see an end date to her being here. If we need to go somewhere on our bikes what is she going to do? I can’t ask her to run to keep pace. We might have Tommy and Pearl watch our place again but that is no guarantee we could leave her here with them. It’s not like it is a huge amount of money given we’re using very little of what we have in the account. I’ll also tell Cal to give it a lower priority after our own bikes. He’ll finish bringing them in as he is able once he starts flying again in the spring.”

  “Then I need to tell Cal her inseam and height so he can talk to the dealer and buy something she can ride now but will be adjustable to accommodate her growth for a while. She already has disproportionally long legs and the rest of her will catch up pretty fast. I know them from measuring her for clothes. I’ll write it down for you.

  “I’d also like you to buy some pool chlorine. Laundry bleach is too heavy to fly in and Cal might not want to carry it in his plane. I can make up bleach from the pool chemicals and it stores better anyway. We really need it to sanitize things.

  “It may seem a luxury, but I’d like you to buy more menstrual pads. They’re light and I’m not ready to go back to using rags. We don’t really have an abundance of rags now, even with the bleach to sanitize them.”

  “I thought with your implant that would taper off quickly,” Vic said.

  “Not me silly, Alice. I should have realized it would happen. She was on a near starvation diet with the Olsens and that delayed it. It’s ironic that it worked for her protection that they starved her. You might have noticed she has been really packing it in. I’m worried that by spring festival we’ll be looking for bigger clothes.”

  “Well, at least if that happens there is a market for the old stuff,” Vic said. “That will help balance it out.”

  “I’ve been thinking about something else. You’ve dressed out deer before haven’t you?” Eileen asked.

  “It’s been a few years but I did that with my grandfather years ago,” Vic said.

  “Have you ever done a pig?” Eileen asked.

  “No. we never kept swine and I’m not sure I’d care to start,” Vic said heading that off.

  “I’m thinking you can keep some of those curing salts and maybe get a whole pig from Mr. Locke next fall. I’d be willing to try my hand at sausage making since we’d have the casings, and if you can get a deer there should be enough fat from the pig to use venison in the sausages too. What do you think?” Eileen asked.

  “My mouth is watering already,” Vic admitted.

  That evening they listened to the local radio net. It gave a very brief summary of the problems between North America and Texas, even less time on foreign news, and then spent more time with a weather forecast that was of more immediate interest and value to the people in their listening range.

  “In local news, our broadcast is going to have a stronger signal due to help from a local radio Ham. Since the boost is technically illegal he has opted to remain anonymous, but it should make our signal useful out to about sixty or seventy kilometers depending on the terrain. We’d appreciate if you are on the fringes of our broadcast areas telling your neighbors to try listening for us. We’ll report if we get messages from new listeners.

  “John Fellows wants to tell his in-laws and the rest of you that his wife Marlene is expecting for a spring arrival. Congratulations to the Fellows.

  “The Locke family wishes to tell Vic Foy the numbers he wants are as follows:”

  Vic scrambled to get the note pad off the counter.

  The announcer read off right and left and didn’t explain they were a prescription for glasses, but most people would know that. He repeated them carefully so Vic hadn’t needed to scramble to get the pad. He still wrote them down for the second recitation just to compare and make sure he had them right.

  “I’m glad I didn’t call our order in yet,” Vic said. “I’ll just have Cal bring them to O’Neil’s on his first flight in the spring. There’s no point in making Cal do a separate drop here.”

  * * *

  “I’m applying what you suggested about the rods to this warhead,” April said. “We just copied old reentry vehicle designs and never tested them at low angles, so there is a limit on how low I want to push it. It’s maneuverable, but if it gets too slow I won’t be able to trade speed for lift and it could fall short of the planned impact area.”

  “What happens then? Would it just crash?” Chen asked.

  “No, this sort of warhead has proprietary tech so it will detonate. There’s only one place to the west that could be damaged, a sort of resort town with casinos. It apparently isn’t doing so hot with the current economy. On satellite images, the parking lots look sadly empty. I’ll bring my warhead in from the northwest to avoid endangering it. Otherwise, it is all desert and salt flats out there,” April said, with a dismissive wave.

  “Then how long from that detonation until you hit the data site?” Chen asked.

  “I have rods and three penetrating warheads all stacked up with just enough delay to keep them off their radar until the first warhead blinds them. The first will be two minutes out, but the penetrators are so far behind I could abort dropping them from orbit if it doesn’t seem to be going well.”

  “When does this happen? Chen wondered.

  “In about forty minutes, which means it’s time for me to briefly tell the North Americans I’ll going to escalate. If they want me to hold off hitting them again they are going to have to surrender in a hurry. I can’t imagine they will do that but I have it all automated to abort from a single command.”

  “I’ll have all my contacts primed to feed us any reaction,” Chen assured her.

  * * *

  “Mr. Hall?” A new fellow appeared on the screen. He was older than Irwin’s appointed attorney, but Irwin immediately had him pegged as another lawyer. He was dressed much too nicely to be a government functionary from any level that would deign to speak with him.

  “Yes?” Irwin answered simply. He wasn’t willing to be formal or needy with his captors.

  “Mr. Brooks has been removed as your court-appointed attorney. He was unable and unwilling to continue to represent you. My name is Dennis Howard. I’ve reviewed all the recordings of your conversations with Mr. Brooks.”

  “Then you are aware I didn’t accept him as my attorney. You may assume I regard you the same. Just the fact that there are recordings shows how farcical this whole matter is.”

  “I hear your objection, but the fact is I am charged with developing your defense if not directly representing you in court. I’ll be doing that even over your objections. You can not be allowed to waste the court’s time by refusing a defense and then claiming you had none. I have to ask, do you feel you are able to act on your own behalf? I could ask for an expert psych evaluation, but first I’d like to hear your assessment of your own state of mind for my own reasons.”

  “You are concerned with being judged guilty of war crimes later,” Irwin said with conviction and no hint of a question in his voice.

  “I consider being brought to such trial a very unlikely end to this matter,” Howard objected. That fell short of a denial.

  “So do I,” Irwin agreed. “Home has no
ability to occupy a nation so much bigger than us. That is the only circumstance in which you would ever stand before an international court. That was always the problem after we demanded and accepted your surrender. There is really no way to enforce our terms except to go to war again. Still, you may be accused both from Home and in the sight of other nations. It might even make visiting European nations risky if they issued indictments against you. Some of them would enjoy discomforting North America that way even though they otherwise tread carefully with the North American giant. The rest of the world probably thinks the whole thing is silly.”

  “You don’t sound like someone unhinged from isolation,” Howard said cautiously.

  “I’m sure your government has any number of pet psychologists willing to testify to my stability or insanity upon need. I remember reading that some experts regard isolation as a form of torture now. Let me assure you this incarceration has been an eye-opener for me, and of immense benefit. I’m not the delicate sort like many now who have to be constantly stimulated by externals lest they are left with their own uncomfortable thoughts. Rather, I am amazed by how much time I used to waste every day monitoring the news flow and silly mundane things. Very little of it was of personal benefit or even relevant. If I am not assassinated I will conduct my life very differently. I’ve started exercising again and I’ve explored the limits of my memory and found I could remember more of the books I have read and music heard than I expected. I’d take the time to add to those treasures.”

  “Yes, well, the guards who monitor you reported you sing a great deal. That wasn’t actually taken as a positive sign by several experts of whom they inquired. I can’t imagine anyone would think to assassinate you.”

  “Then you have little imagination. You and your government should be much more concerned with the mental state of my friends on Home than my mind. I’ve had occasion to wonder how stable Jeff Singh is myself, given some of his actions. He is definitely the sort of overly intelligent person who has issues with socialization. After considering some of the things Mr. Brooks said, I decided you are probably dealing with April Lewis. She is much more secretive than her partners and I have far fewer clues what her thoughts and limits are. Both have demonstrated a willingness to fight for each other and one assumes their Lunar partner, the Moon Queen as your press styles her. How I rank in their eyes and what they will do for me is a bit of a mystery to me too. Brooks intimated he’d seen a video purported to be made by me denouncing any violent support of my cause. So I assume April has taken some punitive actions. You aren’t a big enough fool to believe those fabricated videos, are you? The young fellow swallowed it hook line and sinker.”