War To The Knife

by Grant, Peter

  “Her work is certainly going to kick off with a bang. We have a news conference scheduled at noon. Where only half a dozen journalists were present yesterday, because Laredo was so insignificant no-one bothered about it, Gretchen tells us we can expect several hundred today – so many, in fact, that the Handelsbank has offered us the use of their auditorium. It can seat a thousand, and has all the facilities a major news conference will need. I’ve accepted their offer on her advice, and Elisabeta is working with their staff to set it up. It’ll be good practice for dealing with this sort of thing in future. I’m going to use the conference to blast Bactria, blame them for the murder of Vice-President Johns, and appeal for interplanetary aid and assistance for our mission. I’m going to make hay while the sun shines, in publicity terms.

  “You’ll notice I’ll be wearing a civilian suit at the conference. That’s because yesterday I was the Commanding Officer of a detachment of the Laredo Army, arriving here on official business. Today I’m the President Pro Tem of the Government-in-Exile of the Republic of Laredo. That’s a totally different job, and I’m going to dress accordingly. Over the next few days we’ll all be fitted for suits and transition to civilian clothing while we’re on Neue Helvetica. However, don’t throw your uniforms away. We’ll all need them again.”

  He began to pace up and down behind the table as he spoke. “Gretchen provided a lot of background information that was new to Tamsin and I, and pointed us to several information resources that we spent all night studying. Briefly, here’s what I have in mind. You all remember what General Allred’s wife asked me to do with our archives, right?” Everyone nodded. He’d briefed them about it during their journey from Laredo to New Brisbane. “We’re going to honor her request, and make copies of all our data available to Commonwealth University. We probably won’t be able to go there, but if they’re interested enough – Gretchen says she thinks they’ll jump at it – they’ll send a team to work with us wherever we are. Some of them can help us get over our own stresses, while others discuss questions arising out of the archive and add our recollections to the record. Gretchen is also very interested in writing the book Gloria Allred had in mind. She can bring in an award-winning documentary maker to work with her on a movie to go with it, so that both can be released together. If she proves herself on our behalf over the next few weeks, I see no reason not to give her the larger job as well.”

  “If this story becomes as big as I think it will, it’ll make her an even bigger interplanetary news star – not to mention a lot of money,” Elisabeta observed. “She’s not just offering out of the goodness of her heart.”

  “That’s OK. It’ll motivate her to work harder. Our success will mean her success, and vice versa.” The others rumbled their agreement. “I’ll insist that we share in the royalties, though.”

  Dave paused to take a mouthful of coffee. “Any team from Commonwealth U. is going to have to work around our other activities, because we’re going to be very busy indeed. The murder of Vice-President Johns looks like it’ll blow the lid right off our war with Bactria. Gretchen says it’s bound to give an almighty great kick in the behind to the United Planets to take seriously Laredo’s call for an investigation, particularly since our funds to pay the initial fees have just been unlocked. I drew a bank draft for them yesterday. She says Neue Helvetica will almost certainly support our call, because its government will be furious at having an assassination take place on its soil. It’ll be the first major planet to line up with us, which may help to persuade many others to follow its example.

  “She told us that in the absence of direct evidence, the authorities would probably have preferred to portray this as a murder committed during the course of an armed robbery, rather than an assassination – criminal rather than political, in other words. However, we’ve proved conclusively through DNA swabs that our stolen evidence suitcase was opened inside the Bactrian Consulate. Gretchen’s special report this morning blows that wide open. It means this incident can’t be written off as a simple crime. She says that for a start, the entire Bactrian consulate staff is likely to be declared persona non grata. Sergeant Higgs, we owe you big-time for your suggestion to use that security cartridge. It’s put enormous leverage into our hands, and I intend to make full use of it.”

  Higgs flushed as others called their approval or reached over to clap him on the shoulder. “Thank you, Sir. What’s going to happen to our former Ambassador?”

  “I’m going to bring criminal and civil charges against him for the theft of the money from Vice-President Johns’ account, because he was fired and lost the right to access it half an hour before he did so. I think we can make that stick, and since he also lost his diplomatic immunity half an hour before the crime, I hope he’ll be convicted and jailed under local law. I’m personally sure he knew in advance about a plot to steal the suitcase, if not to murder the Vice-President, but we can’t charge him with that without direct evidence. The fact that he ducked early is circumstantial evidence, not enough to convict him.”

  “Permission to gut him like a fish, please, Sir?” The others growled their angry agreement.

  “Yesterday afternoon I’d have said ‘Yes’ without a second thought, but after thinking about it I’m afraid we have to stay strictly within the law in everything we do on Neue Helvetica. We’ve gained enormous public sympathy since the murder as the ‘good guys’ in this fight, but if we break the law ourselves that’ll change overnight. We’ll be dismissed as nothing more than a gang of thugs who got into a fight with another gang. We daren’t take that chance.”

  Higgs nodded reluctantly. “I guess not, Sir. If he does hard time, maybe we can arrange a really nasty cellmate for him.” His comment drew a grim, angry, bitter laugh from around the table.

  Captain Deacon remarked, his voice baffled, “What I can’t get my head around is why the Bactrian Consulate did something so stupid. Surely they could see they’d harm their own cause, rather than help it, by murdering the Vice-President in public like that?”

  Corporal Bujold raised his hand. “Sir,” he responded thoughtfully, “perhaps they’d just had confirmation of the death of the Satrap. They’ve said nothing publicly about that yet, but if they’d just received a message from Bactria – couriers arrive at this planet every week from all over, so that’s possible – it might have made them lose their tempers. The murder might have been an eye-for-an-eye tit-for-tat response – ‘you kill our Satrap, we kill the leader of your Government-in-Exile’, that sort of thing. They may not have had enough time to calm down and think about the likely consequences.”

  “Now that is a very interesting thought, Corporal!” A buzz of agreement greeted Dave’s enthusiastic reaction. “You may have put your finger on it. In fact, the idea may have come from someone at low level in the Consulate. It’s even possible the shooting wasn’t planned at all – it might have been a spur-of-the-moment knee-jerk reaction to the news. Planned or not, the Consul and his senior staff might have known nothing about it until after the event.”

  “That makes me wonder about an item on the early news this morning,” Elisabeta said in a musing tone. “The Bactrian Consulate announced that one of their drivers was killed in an accident in their parking garage yesterday evening. A vehicle crushed him against a wall.”

  “A-ha!” Dave exclaimed triumphantly. “Ten will get you one he was the shooter yesterday morning, or issued the orders to shoot. Dead men tell no tales. They also make useful scapegoats. You can blame them to your superiors for anything and everything, and they can’t argue or object.”

  “Then we’ll still blame Bactria for the murder, Sir?” Sergeant Hein asked.

  “Oh, yes! We’re going to publicly blame Bactria at every opportunity, because ultimately they’re responsible for anything done by their people or in their name. Of course, the only thing we can actually prove for certain is that our stolen suitcase was opened in their consulate. That’s not the same as proving they stole it or murdered Vice
-President Johns. They’ll probably claim the case was delivered to them anonymously without their knowing what it was or how it was obtained.”

  Deacon frowned incredulously. “Surely they can’t expect anyone to believe that?”

  “Have you ever heard of the so-called ‘Big Lie’ theory? It says that if you tell a big enough lie often enough, sooner or later at least some people will start to believe it. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Bactrian consulate tries to do that in this case. If they do, we’re going to mock the hell out of their claims, of course.”

  “What role d’you think our former Ambassador played, Sir?” Bujold asked.

  “They must have suborned him some time ago – his coming out of their Consulate yesterday certainly suggests that. Vice-President Johns would have told him about our courier message from New Brisbane, and he would have passed on the news to them. They’d have been desperate to stop the evidence reaching her, because if it was released it’d do serious damage to their planet’s reputation throughout the settled galaxy. I think they sent McNairy to try to get the evidence from us the night we arrived by running a bluff. When that didn’t work, they must have decided to steal it by force before we could hand it over – but they should have drawn the line at theft. To assassinate the Vice-President as well was sheer lunacy. I think Corporal Bujold’s theory is the only one that makes sense of that under the circumstances.”

  Dave drank some more coffee, then looked around the room. “We have a number of tasks ahead of us in the short term. We need to establish contact with Commonwealth University on Lancaster and begin the process of turning over copies of Laredo’s archives to them. We’ll also need to liaise with their medical personnel concerning the debriefings and counseling Gloria Allred said we’d all need. I think we’ve all realized the truth of her words in the six weeks we’ve been out of a combat zone. Tamsin and I have noticed the amount of sheer stress we’re carrying, and I’m pretty sure we’re not alone.” Nods of understanding and agreement came from all of his colleagues.

  “Second, we have to restructure our Embassy to the United Planets, which will incorporate the office of our Government-in-Exile. Everything done before our arrival and its entire present staff must be considered compromised, thanks to McNairy’s defection. We’ll have to recruit new staff, then the Embassy will have to take part in the UP inquiry and mobilize public opinion on our side. It must also try to obtain assistance from other planets, financial and material. I think the assassination of Vice-President Johns will lend a powerful emotional appeal to those efforts, and I’m going to play that hand for all it’s worth. I think she’d understand and approve.

  “I’m thinking of asking Captain Deacon to act as our Ambassador for a year or two. He’s the most experienced of us, and also the oldest and most decorated. He’ll be a good public face for Laredo. We can’t afford to leave him in that post, of course, because we’ll need him operationally; but in the short term I think he’s our best choice.” Smiles and nods from most of the others indicated their agreement. “What do you think, Captain? You’re free to disagree if you wish.”

  Deacon grimaced. “I’m no politician, Sir.”

  “I’m not either, but as a Sergeant-Major you were the main regimental liaison between officers on the one hand, and NCO’s and enlisted personnel on the other, weren’t you?”

  “Yes, Sir, I suppose I was.”

  “That strikes me as pretty much the work of a diplomat – acting as liaison between different groups of people. The only difference is that if you don’t like one group as a diplomat, you can’t scream at them while double-timing them around the parade-ground!” A roar of laughter greeted his words.

  “I’ll try not to give in to that temptation, Sir,” Deacon agreed, shaking with amusement.

  “As an incentive, Elisabeta will be stationed at our Embassy because most of our relations with the media will flow through it. You’ll be working closely together.”

  “Ah! That’s good to know.” He winked at Elisabeta, who blushed, eliciting knowing smiles from the rest of the group. “You said you’d need me operationally, Sir. What will that involve?”

  “I was coming to that. I’m going to soft-pedal the military aspects for a year or so while we reorganize our Embassy, start the United Planets inquiry, and work with Commonwealth University. Furthermore, as we deal with the stresses and tensions of three and a half years of war, some of us may decide that they’d prefer to make a fresh start in civilian life. That’s OK with me – they’ve absolutely earned the right to do so.

  “Oh – speaking of earning, we all have back pay coming. Most of us haven’t been paid for at least two years, some for three or more, and General Allred authorized me to pay everyone what they were owed. I couldn’t possibly figure out individual amounts without records, so I asked Mr. Gottschalk to find out the annual salary of a First Lieutenant in Neue Helvetica’s armed forces and multiplied it by three. The total came to just under a hundred and fifty thousand Neue Helvetica francs, so I rounded it up to that figure.”

  He reached into Vice-President Johns’ – now his – attaché case and produced a handful of debit chips. “Each of these has been pre-loaded with that amount. It should be more than any of you were owed, and I’m not going to worry about different salary scales or rates of exchange. It’s enough to live reasonably comfortably for two to three years in civilian life on Neue Helvetica, or serve as a nest egg for you to start a new life anywhere you please. You’re welcome to deposit it in your own bank accounts – I’ve asked our specialist at the Handelsbank to open personal accounts for everyone who wants one – or you can spend it using these chips. It’s your call.” He passed the chips around the table, each soldier taking one and pocketing it.

  “I’m in the process of discussing our present rank structure with Captain Deacon,” he continued. “I think we’re going to promote all who aren’t yet Staff Sergeants to that rank, because we’ll all be working at that level at least, and everyone has more than enough combat experience to justify the rank. I’ve put us all on Neue Helvetica rates of pay for our rank and grade with effect from this month, since we’ll be living here for the foreseeable future. As I said earlier, we’ll transition to civilian clothing for the duration of our stay, and I’ll probably buy or lease a building – perhaps a small hotel or apartment block – so we can live together. We’ll move the Embassy offices to the building, too. That’ll make it easier to consolidate security arrangements for all of us and our work, and the entire premises will be covered by diplomatic immunity. That might come in useful.”

  He looked around the table. “Once we’ve taken care of the initial tasks I mentioned, we have unfinished business with Bactria.” There was a growl of angry agreement. “All of us choosing to continue the fight will train as Spacers, because our fight is likely to continue in space rather than planetside. We’ll have to buy spaceships, equip them with weapons, and select targets where we can cause the maximum damage to the Bactrian economy at minimal cost to ourselves. That’ll almost certainly mean hiring mercenaries to work with us. That’s risky business, because there are an awful lot of shysters and conmen in that field, but I think between our combat experience and the advice of the most trustworthy advisers we can hire, we’ll be able to work around those problems.

  “Gretchen opened our eyes to a much more important implication of all this. Tamsin and I spent all night discussing and researching it. I’m going to ask her to speak to that.”

  He sat down as his wife rose from her seat next to him. She smiled at him and squeezed his shoulder before turning to the others.

  “Gretchen pointed out that there are well over a hundred planets in the settled galaxy that are plus-or-minus the same size as Laredo in terms of population. All have small economies and relatively ill-equipped military forces. A lot of them live in a permanent state of worry that someone with a stronger military and a bigger economy might decide to take what they’ve got. Our war with Bactria is by no m
eans the first time something like that has happened.

  “Dave and I thought about what she’d said after she left. The Vice-President’s murder is bound to get the attention of other small planets, even if the Bactrian invasion didn’t. If we approach them, pointing out that they’re as vulnerable as Laredo was, we might be able to interest some of them in working with us to not only kick Bactria out of Laredo, but set up a shared security mechanism – a loose defensive alliance – that will be available to all participants to deter aggressors in future.”

  She began to pace back and forth, her brow furrowing in thought as she continued. “They’d have to contribute money and people to a joint force. It wouldn’t be on the size and scale of the battle fleets maintained by the major powers, because small planets don’t usually face threats that big. Let’s face it, if a big power were to move in on a minor planet, the war would be over before it began! No, small planets need protection against the Bactrias of the settled galaxy. Why shouldn’t we provide it, or at least help start it?

  “We could build up a squadron or two of warships. Spread over a number of minor worlds, the cost per planet wouldn’t be prohibitive, and they’d all benefit from the deterrent effect of a shared force big enough to deal with a typical aggressor. If another Bactria reared its head, the joint force would be big enough to destroy its orbital and space-based economy and blockade it, isolating it from the rest of the settled galaxy. That’s a big deterrent, right there; and if it wasn’t enough, the blockading force could begin bombarding critical installations with kinetic projectiles from orbit – avoiding population centers, of course, and giving warnings to target areas in time to evacuate everyone. A few flattened dams, roads, airports and harbors should drive home the message.”