The Lotus Eaters cl-3

by Tom Kratman

  Then his eyes traveled up the beam. "Oh, my God!" he exclaimed.

  In a loose circle, there by the beach, fourteen men and four women hung on rough wooden crosses. The men all showed marks of hideous torture. Through the feet and wrists of each had been driven large spikes. Crusted blood marked their bodies and the wood. The emissary recognized many of his former business associates, and the wives and mistresses of others.

  "You know," said Carrera, conversationally, "No one really knows what kills someone who has been crucified. The best theory I've read is that the strain on the diaphragm when the victim hangs by his wrists keeps his chest muscles from emptying his lungs normally. Eventually this tires the diaphragm until the victim suffocates. Of course, with the feet supported—by more spikes, as these are—the victim can push up, at the cost of some ah, discomfort, and rest the diaphragm. That way the victim conspires with the killers to draw each life out to its last strength. These . . . might live three days more. Less for the women . . . probably."

  "We took these a little less than a month ago. They were turned over to my intelligence people. With some effort, we think they have surrendered everything they ever owned. A lot of pain, then a little period of relief for turning over a few score million in assets. Then more pain until more assets were given up. It must have seemed a good deal to these people at the time. I understand there are computer nerds in the Federated States tearing their hair out because so many of the assets we grabbed they had spent months and years trying to uncover. It was really quite a haul."

  Carrera stopped briefly while the Santandern reeled in disgust. He continued, nonchalantly, "I imagine you think that you can better use the money I demand to get to me and mine. It's been tried. Or maybe you think you can hire soldiers to protect you. These thought that. And with a tiny fraction of my force we took them and did . . . this. I control a country's army, you know, while you just have a petty little concern.

  "Do you think you might be able to hire mercenaries? They often find it easier to rob the paymaster than to fight for him. No, mercenaries would be more dangerous to you than I am. I have a finite appetite and no interest whatsoever in taking your business from you. Besides, you can't offer them what I can, what they really crave; legitimacy, recognition, traditions, a uniform, a real army to be a part of. I think any you might hire will be second rate, no matter what they charge.

  "Professional hit men? They could get to me, I imagine." Carrera turned to Menshikov and asked, "What are your orders if I am assassinated?"

  The paratrooper answered, "Sir, to attack the Santandern drug cartels, butcher their followers, then take them, their wives and children back to Balboa for crucifixion."

  "Will you follow those orders?"

  "To the letter, sir."

  To the shaking Santandern, who understood English perfectly well, Carrera said, "Perhaps it would not be such a good idea to kill me after all."

  Ochoa leaned against a cross briefly, then recoiled in disgust, unconsciously wiping a blood stained hand on his trouser leg. He risked a sally. "How is it you are better than us? We both kill innocents; we both use torture. What makes you so moral."

  "I never claimed to be more moral than you. As far as the drug trade goes, I really don't care one way or the other, as long as it stays out of Balboa. The only difference is that you failed to understand me; to understand that I would never give in, that no measure could deter me. So all the evil you did was wasted. But I did understand you, and I knew, as I know now, that you would give in. So the lives I took and the pain I inflicted were not wasted. That's the difference. That . . . and that I won, and you lost."

  The Santandern took a last look at the writhing bodies of his former compatriots. One of them, Señor Escobedo, soundlessly mouthed a cry for help. The emissary turned away. "Duque Carrera, I will tell my associates that I believe your offer is fair. My counsel carries weight. I think we can agree to your terms."

  "There is one more set of terms," Carrera said.

  Ochoa raised an eyebrow.

  "Nothing too onerous," Carrera continued, reaching into a pocket to pull out a small typewritten note. "These names popped up on some of the computers we captured. I want them and their families dead."

  Ochoa took the note and read alone only the first name before going silent. "Piedad Andalusia, eh? Why her?"

  "Because she sides now with the Marxists in Santander, likewise the Progressives in the Federated States, and so can be predicted to side with the Marxists of the Tauran Union at some future and inconvenient time," Carrera answered.

  "We can do this," the Santandern agreed.

  "I was certain you could."

  Ochoa took a last look at the crosses and suppressed the urge to vomit.

  Carrera said, "I was sure we could come to an amicable understanding. Now, back to the tent for a drink before your flight?"

  As Carrera and the other turned to leave, Menshikov asked what to do about the poor people hanging on their crosses.

  Carrera considered, then said, "Kill the women and the accountants, silently. I'd let them go but . . . no, too risky. Still, there's no further reason for them to suffer. Let the others die naturally. Bomb my people, will they?"

  * * *

  The fact that Balboa was behind the raid did not become widely known for some years, at which point it was far too late to matter. The ACCS crew, if they had ever entertained doubts, had those doubts dispelled when they were individually interrogated by civilian clad security agents who then swore the crew to secrecy. Shortly after the President of the Federated States' television address, strong young men with good bearing and very little hair began using hints that they had been in Santander for recent bloody missions as devices to attract women in places like Oglethorpe and Wilkes' Folly. Some were believed. Occasionally, so it was reported in various barracks, the technique worked. A few of the Volgans tried the same thing in Balboa, but were not believed.

  In the Federated States' counter-drug operational funds for the next three years were severely curtailed as acquisitions from seized assets took a sharp downturn. (Fernandez' methods were much faster if lower tech.) For years to come, rarely would a Drug Interdiction Task Force accountant or computer hacker say the name of Balboa without a snarl. This was one reason why, when Balboa turned over extensive evidence that the old government, in Old Balboa, was deeply involved in the drug trade, that evidence was suppressed.

  The fifteen children found at the various targets, such as had not been killed by the attack or released, were brought back to Balboa. Lourdes arranged to place the youngest in good homes. The older ones were to be supported by Carrera himself in a foster home until they were old enough to join the army.

  In Santander one voice insisted that the Federated States was not responsible for the attack. This was young Santandern Air Force Captain Hartmann. True to his word, in as sincere a voice and expression as he could muster, Hartmann insisted to one and all that it had been Balboa which had raided Santander.

  Excursus

  Criminal Justice in the Timocratic Republic of Balboa: Barbarism at the Bar, Bianca Meister, from University of Starvation Cove Law Review, Spring, AC 488

  Largely the product of people untrained in the nuances of the law, the saving graces, the implicit mercies, and the law's civilizing influences, criminal justice in the Central Columbian nation of Balboa is itself the greatest crime in the country. Indeed, it is a blight upon the Family of Man and an insult to the evolution of the law on two planets over more than four millennia . . .

  * * *

  In reviewing the Balboan Code of Criminal Justice one is struck immediately by its almost unremitting harshness. The least penalty for anything we in the more enlightened parts of the world would think of as a common law felony is death by hanging. The maximum punishments increase in severity from there. Counterfeiters are hanged, arsonists are burned, rapists impaled, premeditated murderers and traitors are crucified. Even the lightest of felonies, robbery and
burglary, or lesser forms of non-justifiable homicide, for example, receive the rope as their reward. And conspiracy law carries this unremitting bloodthirstiness and sadism over to group crimes as well . . .

  * * *

  In the case of crimes against the person, as opposed to against the state, executions are in preference carried out by either the victims or the victims' nearest kin. They may be, and often are, delegated to the state to perform on behalf of the aggrieved. The law, such as it is, requires that executions be public, and performed in a prominent and accessible spot. This, too, seems to drive the choice of state as executioner.

  One of the few instances of mercy permissible within the code is that the victim, if alive, may choose a lesser penalty, for example, hanging for rape, rather than impalement. Even there, hangings come in several varieties and it is the rare criminal who receives the more merciful long drop as opposed to the slow strangle . . .

  * * *

  The philosophy, if such it may be called, behind this ultra draconian code is nowhere made explicit within that code. Instead, one must delve into the legislative history. This makes it plain that, for example, Balboa—rather, the dictatorship of those who have sold themselves to state's military—believes that deadly force is authorized to any potential immediate victim, or a third party acting in their behalf, to deter or prevent any of the common law felonies. This value judgment being made, they further hold that what the victim, or someone acting on the victim's behalf, may do to prevent a crime, the state may do or permit to deter or avenge.

  Also express, within the legislative history, is the value judgment that man has no natural rights, but rather only those rights which arise within the social compact. Logically enough, given that Balboa does not require but only permits its residents to take on the "burdens" of citizenship, the state also holds that anyone may voluntarily withdraw from the social compact, thereby giving up all rights and losing all protections. Committing a common law felony is considered to be such a renunciation of rights and duties. That this is simply barbaric bothers the Balboan timocrats not a whit . . .

  * * *

  The crime of rape is a peculiarity, as, admittedly, it is around the planet. It is almost always a case of conflicting stories and ambiguous evidence, even when the evidence is clear that intercourse took place. Moreover, because of the tendency to put the victim on trial, more enlightened polities have shielded the victims from having their past sexual conduct introduced at trial, thus somewhat reducing the probability of genuine proof beyond a reasonable doubt being presented at trial. They have, correspondingly, reduced the penalties inflicted. Of course, this was done in goodly part to prevent the murder of the victims of rape.

  Balboa is having none of that. They've made the value judgment that it is better that one girl be raped and murdered, and her murderer be put to death, than that ten girls be raped, and better that the victim be put on trial than that an innocent man be put to death.

  And they insist upon death. Complete pardon by the victim is not permitted, as the culprit represents not merely an enemy of the people, but a renouncer of the social compact, a threat, and an educational example to be made for the public . . .

  * * *

  Besides sparing themselves the expense of caring for many convicted criminals humanely, the effect of Balboa's extraordinary liberality with regards to the death penalty, and limited right to appeal, is that somewhat more money is available (from an admittedly small pot) for the rehabilitation of those convicted of lesser crimes. By and large, so it must be admitted, this rehabilitation seems to work somewhat better than rehabilitation does in most states.

  There seem to be three factors at work here. One is that prison sentences in Balboa tend to be comparatively short but, as with everything else in the penal system, comparatively harsh. Rather than, for example, awarding twenty years for larceny, Balboa is more likely to give six to eight, but of penal servitude—hard labor under the sun and under the lash—rather than mere imprisonment. This leaves less time, less energy, and less inclination for incarcerated criminals to treat their incarcerations as post-graduate courses in effective criminal behavior. A second factor is that with so many criminals put to death, there are virtually none left in prison to teach that post-graduate course. Thirdly, while completely ignoring the needs of criminals for psychiatric treatment, Balboa does, in approximately the last third of a criminal sentence, teach at least some of them job skills more useful than making license plates . . .

  There are persistent rumors that incarcerated prisoners are used for biological warfare experimentation . . .

  * * *

  In any given month, somewhere in the Republic of Balboa, a man or a woman is hanged, or burned, or impaled, or crucified. Some months it is more than one. And the world seems impotent to put a stop to it. Economic sanctions do not work, as the Balboa Transitway and the InterColumbian Highway allow the government there to retaliate, tit for tat. Military measures, given the large, well equipped, well led, and well trained legions of Balboa, are impossible. All that remains are diplomatic efforts and the disapproval of the enlightened peoples of the world, and at both of these the Balboans sneer.

  Moreover, such unremitting brutality has the effect of making the entire people of the nation harsh and inhuman. For example, when the convicted felon, Neron Leonardo de Lingero, was crucified, in the spring of AC 475, a crowd estimated at over one hundred thousand turned out to jeer. Worse, Mr. de Lingero had been convicted without the testimony of a single eyewitness, nor even a body . . .

  * * *

  Letters to the Editor, University of Starvation Cove Law Review, Fall, AC 488

  Dear Sir:

  A translation of your article of your last edition, entitled Criminal Justice in the Timocratic Republic of Balboa: Barbarism at the Bar, has been published within the Republic of Balboa. While it had most of its facts right, there were some glaring omissions I thought I might acquaint you with. For example, in discussing the method and mechanism of the admittedly frightful death of Neron Leonardo de Lingero, the author, Ms Meister, failed, curiously, to discuss Mr. de Lingero's crime.

  You see, Mr. de Lingero was convicted of a series of crimes involving Ana-Barbara Encito-Espera, aged eight years. Mr. de Lingero had kidnapped Ana-Barbara from in front of her home. He had then subjected her to a lengthy period of rape, forcible sodomy, and torture, before killing her, and finally cooking and eating her. And, while it is true that there were neither eyewitnesses nor a body, the jury in the case thought the evidence sufficient, said evidence being in the form of video recordings Mr. de Lingero had made of young Ana-Barbara's ordeal, presumably so he could enjoy her suffering after she was gone.

  Oh, and it was closer to two hundred thousand people who came to see justice done.

  Very Truly Yours,

  Lourdes Nuñez de Carrera

  Second Vice President

  Ciudad Balboa, Republic of Balboa

  PS: We don't use prisoners for biological warfare experimentation. We don't have an offensive biological warfare program. We do permit a certain number of non-violent prisoners to volunteer to test vaccines developed by your country which your government refuses to permit human testing on. These prisoners are given substantial time off of their sentences. Again, all are volunteers.

  Chapter Twenty

  Any example of power without the sense of, and acceptance of, responsibility is doomed to disaster.

  The elites separate themselves out in space from the ill effects of their ill-conceived programs and inane philosophies. They separate themselves socially and informationally from being reminded or informed. Thus, they award themselves power and influence without any concomitant responsibility. This, however, is not the only way that the separation of power and responsibility can occur.

  As the elites separate themselves in space, so do the masses separate themselves in time, voting for the immediately good and pleasurable and leaving it to their heirs, should they have any, to pay
the price. The people may vote themselves hefty pension and retiree medical programs from their governments. If they have neither the sense of responsibility to save on their own behalf, nor to bear and raise the children who will work on their behalf, such irresponsible schemes are doomed . . .

  In no area is irresponsibility as likely to grow as in matters of sex. Elites, being irresponsible and especially sexually irresponsible, encourage this sort of irresponsibility on the part of the people . . .

  —Jorge y Marqueli Mendoza,

  Historia y Filosofia Moral,

  Legionary Press, Balboa,

  Terra Nova, Copyright AC 468

  Anno Domini 2525–2526 Anno Condita 471 UEPF Spirit of Peace, Lunar Orbit

  Maneuvering in zero G, while carrying a cup of coffee, was no mean feat. Fortunately, the cup was sealed and Esmeralda had had some chance to practice. She smiled shyly as she placed the magnetic-bottomed cup into an indentation in the arm of Richard's command chair.

  The Earl of Care couldn't help but notice how the girl's midnight hair billowed out in a sort of halo framing her face. He thought she was unbearably lovely.

  "Thank you, Esma," Richard said warmly. "Any last message from the High Admiral?"

  Esmeralda leaned close and whispered, "She says, 'Do it. Now.' "

  The Earl of Care and Captain of the Peace sighed. "I was afraid of that. Wish me luck."

  "You know I do, Richard," said the Isthmian girl.