A People's War (The Oligarchy Book 2)

by Stewart Hotston

  ‘Amazing isn’t it,’ said Jane. ‘They still use traditional materials here; nothing’s changed for three centuries, if not longer.’

  ‘How do they build something like that?’ asked David.

  ‘It takes weeks,’ said Jane. ‘Mainly by hand; of course it’s cheaper for them than using technology. They only pay for the energy required to secure the materials and out here that’s an inexpensive undertaking.’ The village shrank behind them, visible for kilometres across the flat landscape, its size distorted by the lack of landmarks.

  Jane fell back into silence and David took up his explanation. ‘When I became aware of your remit, it seemed sensible to contact Andreas Kohl.’

  ‘You’ve still not explained why,’ said Jane, casually.

  David coughed. ‘There’s reason to believe our mutual quarries have converged.’

  ‘Excuse me?’ asked Jane.

  Helena enjoyed seeing him squirm under Jane’s nonchalant refusal to follow his drift. His fingers altered their grip on the controls before he answered again, ‘I believed I was looking for a group of Normal dissidents, ones who had given up on peaceful debate. However, just over a week ago I was assaulted by an Oligarch, one of our own.’

  ‘How awful,’ said Helena.

  ‘I don’t see the link,’ said Jane, catching Helena’s eye briefly and letting a small smile flash across her lips. Helena surprised herself by smiling back.

  ‘The Oligarch was in possession of restricted technology and accompanied by Normals. One of whom I was fortunate enough to recognise.’

  ‘I knew it!’ said Jane. Helena knew she should have stopped her, but since David knew directly just how little information Helena’s team had, there was little point. ‘Technology. Commander, just what technology did they have?’

  ‘Stealth technology; they can make people not see them.’ replied David smoothly. Helena noted how he had managed to both tell the truth and conceal it at the same time.

  ‘Is that all?’ said Jane disappointedly.

  ‘It’s enough,’ said David, ‘not only to give them an edge they haven’t had in the past, but also to help us halt Indexiv’s hostile takeover.’

  Jane shrugged. ‘So we’re here.’ After a few moments of silence, Jane asked, ‘So why you?’ Helena noticed something else in her voice, an undertone. Unable to place it, she listened to David.

  ‘Why me?’ he laughed. ‘It’s my job.’ He looked at Helena before continuing. ‘For the last eight years, I’ve been running a small team tasked with monitoring dissent amongst the population. Most of the time it’s a piece of piss. To be honest, I’ve spent more time watching dodgeball than chasing potential revolutionaries, but in the last three years the seeds of a network of coordinated thinking have begun to emerge.’ He looked unhappy. ‘As is always the case, I was caught by surprise and those responsible for its development were a combination of those I’d suspected, those I had passed over as unlikely and those whose involvement has come as a complete surprise to me. If you were to ask me, I’d say it’s followed on from the development of ideas such as those propounded by Indexiv. They’re two sides of the same coin.’

  Jane tilted her head slightly and sat back, clearly satisfied for now.

  ‘Eight years?’ asked Helena, trying to seem careless about her comment.

  ‘Yes, you wouldn’t credit it, would you?’ said David softly.

  ‘How does it differ from other security work?’ asked Helena. ‘Most crime is perpetrated by Normals anyway isn’t it?’ It was blindingly obvious to her now that David had known vastly more about her when he’d turned up at her flat following Henry’s death than he’d let on. What else does he know that he isn’t telling me? She corrected herself; that he isn’t telling us. Just how alone am I? Neither of her colleagues were turning out to be what she classified as trustworthy; neither appeared to be on her side. She thought about Machiavelli and wondered what the Prince would do. Make friends, assess their strengths and identify the weakest.

  David snorted. ‘Depends on how you define crime I suppose, but technically I can’t argue with you.’

  ‘I define crime as breaking the laws established by the corporations,’ said Helena, feeling bile rise up from her gut. ‘What other type is there? Lying certainly isn’t a crime even if it is manipulative and morally questionable.’

  ‘Good thing too,’ said David smartly. ‘Otherwise we’d all be in hock.’

  ‘Just how well do you two know each other?’ asked Jane suspiciously.

  Helena immediately relaxed; David said nothing. ‘We’ve met once or twice — business on both occasions,’ said Helena by way of explanation.

  ‘Oh,’ said Jane in a voice Helena took to mean she didn’t believe that at all. ‘You must get me an invite next time; I never get to the best corporate jollies.’

  ‘I’m not interested in petty crime, violence or energy fraud,’ said David, neatly changing direction. ‘Organised crime, systematic and widespread attempts at gaining access to high technology, people trafficking, illegal research, sponsors of politically destabilising acts, these are the things I spend my time thinking about.’

  ‘Organised crime?’ asked Jane incredulously. Helena agreed, his expressed mandate pointed at Family members before Normals.

  ‘Normals are quite capable — can I call you Jane, Jane?’

  ‘Yes, but how do they benefit? They can’t exactly spend their proceeds without someone noticing can they? Any jobs out there are supplied by Companies. I’m pretty sure we’d notice if they started building mansions,’ said Jane.

  ‘It’s not about energy Jane. It’s about power: who rules whom. The best of these Normals can separate themselves from society, live independently of us.’

  ‘How ghastly,’ cooed Jane sympathetically.

  ‘I’d hardly choose to describe them as the best,’ said Helena, knowing Jane was truly horrified at the idea of Normals acting on their own.

  ‘Perhaps.’ said David. ‘Still, it neatly sums up their abilities to generate an underground movement able to function with almost no dependence on the formal economy.’ He turned his head to catch Helena’s eyes. ‘By anyone’s measure that’s bad news for profit lines.’

  ‘It makes a nonsense of the market,’ said Jane, following David’s statement through out loud. ‘If people don’t operate within its framework, how can one control inflation or growth?’

  Helena agreed completely, but David was irritating her with his slightly condescending exposition, his patristic tone.

  ‘So where’s the rest of your team?’ asked Helena, feeling irked enough to not care whether Jane plumbed their relationship or not.

  ‘Busy: the bombings have us running about all over the City. The war has made everyone jittery; as a result, few are inclined to see these events as solely originating within the Normal community. More than a few have suggested these actions have been instigated by the two Companies in an effort to garner publicity of one sort or another.’

  ‘It does seem more likely than Normals acting with such efficiency and intelligence,’ said Helena.

  ‘That’s what the parliament thinks,’ sighed David.

  ‘What about you?’ asked Jane.

  ‘Me?’ replied David, seemingly surprised at the question. ‘They’re separate. We’ve underestimated the level of resentment among Normals for decades now. The rise of policies, such as Indexiv’s, provides fertile soil for more extreme elements to grow.’

  ‘You’re trying to say it’s our fault?’ said Helena.

  ‘No. However, I have wondered a few times of late whether or not we’d be facing this problem now if Indexiv had refrained from so openly downgrading the rights of its Normals. Two sides of the same coin Helena. The same coin.’

  ‘So you keep saying,’ said Helena tartly. ‘I don’t see it. From what I’ve experienced, I find it hard to exclude the probability that one of the Companies is behind the violence in the City.’

  ‘It’s not beyond my t
hinking. They had to get their arms from somewhere, but if so, whoever made the deal had better be prepared to write off their investment. These dissidents are singing their own tune.’

  ‘You believe our rogues and your Normals are working together?’ asked Jane. ‘One can hardly think what they could offer our rogues,’ said Helena.

  ‘I’m at a loss too,’ said David calmly. ‘Knowing what the two parties gain from their relationship would go a long way to explaining their actions and helping me bring them in.’

  ‘Bring them to justice,’ said Helena.

  ‘Indeed.’ said David quietly. Begrudgingly, thought Helena. Like he was being forced to agree that storm clouds were really sunshine.

  The flyer sped across the plains, following the remains of a decaying road. Helena assumed the overgrown tarmac surface was a residue from the days of fossil fuel. The roadway itself had crumbled since falling into disuse. Wild grasses and small saplings thrust up from holes in its surface. White and yellow flowers bent flat as the hovercraft passed overhead only to spring back as if nothing had ever disturbed their reaching for the sun.

  Helena had never seen them, but she had been assured by friends at dinner parties that ancient roads and ruins still existed, some thousands of years old. Even in and around the city there were conservation zones, paths of stone blocks placed by hand, standing stones and painfully old houses, their frames dolefully sagging with age. If all of London’s inhabitants disappeared tomorrow how long would our echo sound? thought Helena.

  David took the hovercraft east, up and over the shallow hills of the peninsula. From the maps she’d downloaded, Helena saw they peaked at less than a hundred metres above sea level. The route was secluded, more so than if they had been travelling directly north to Hjørring. From their current course, they were heading for the old port of Frederikshavn and would then follow the coast round to Ålbæk before coming into Skagen. Her secondary AI informed her politely that the ‘ø’ was pronounced as the ‘ur’ from purple whilst the ‘Å’ was pronounced ‘aa’.

  ‘Do you have a lead when we arrive in Skagen?’ she asked David.

  ‘Skagen,’ said Jane. ‘The g is soft, like a y.’

  ‘You speak Danish?’ asked David.

  ‘Yeah,’ said Jane lightly. ‘Jeg kan snakke det.’

  ‘Impressive.’ said David, laughing.

  Helena tried her best not to huff, but couldn’t resist saying, ‘I never understand why people choose to learn dead languages.’

  Jane, without blinking replied, ‘Oh I know Japanese, French, German, Cantonese, Mandarin and Arabic too. The dead ones are just a hobby really.’

  ‘Really?’ asked David. ‘Just how many do you know?’

  ‘Without my AIs, I’ve learnt about nine; aided, about two dozen. Solely AI, probably closer to forty, but they don’t count do they? I don’t like to list them; it seems awfully brazen,’ said Jane, enjoying the attention.

  ‘I’m a one-language man, Globish suits me fine,’ said David. ‘What about you, Helena?’

  ‘Three,’ said Helena, annoyed at how easily he was impressed. ‘English, French and German.’

  ‘Well you’re both more knowledgeable than me.’ If he was trying to flatter them, he was failing, thought Helena, feeling thoroughly annoyed and determined to say as little as she could for the rest of the journey.

  FREDERIKSHAVN was far from deserted. Time had treated the former port kindly and thirty thousand Normals called it home. If Indexiv were rampaging across the region, there was no sign of them there. Whatever intelligence their welcoming committee had been privy to, the soldier hadn’t shared its finer details with Helena, David or Jane.

  In the end, they decided to skirt round the edge of the town, thinking it prudent not to be seen or remembered. A number of small organic spires gave testament to the presence of at least one Company. Helena’s swiftly compiled notes on the peninsula suggested it was one of the smaller corporations, Insel at a guess. The only thing that explained their presence was the fish stocks in the fertile seas which met at the tip of the peninsula. The gulf stream curled lazily around the northernmost reaches of Jutland and fed into the Baltic, warming the rest of Scandinavia.

  Whatever Insel pulled from the sea would fetch a high price in the City. Oligarchs liked real food wherever possible; synthetics were poor man’s fare.

  After a quick discussion, they disengaged the camouflage as they passed along Frederikshavn’s boundary. The adaptive mesh wasn’t completely effective in an urban environment and, if noticed, it would only make the natives suspicious. Instead, they stuck to side streets, snaking their way through quiet neighbourhoods where, at most, their vehicle would only draw admiring gazes.

  David was able to take them through the town without any serious trouble. Once or twice they slowed down in order to pass other vehicles, mostly small hoppers and flyers, but there was little to cause tension.

  Emerging from between the last few streets, a mixture of nanotech grown and traditionally built homes, David accelerated away. He hugged the coast as they travelled north. The roads petered out less than ten kilometres from the edge of Frederikshavn, the boundary marking the edge of the town’s duty of care. Beyond that, the biggest challenge was to avoid the occasional birch tree which had managed to find a footing in the crumbling remnants of ancient highways.

  They travelled until midday, at which time Jane requested a short stop to stretch her legs. Helena was more than happy to get out of the vehicle. Their proximity to the sea drew her down, away from the other two, to the beach. The opaque water was deep blue, almost green, where it deepened away from the fine pale sand and lapped cosily against the shallow shoreline. The breakers were dispersed enough for the sound of the sea to be gently rhythmic, a feeling of anticipation emerging out of the ocean each time a large wave crested the shore. Helena sat down on the shale at the head of the beach, shifting around until she was comfortable, and gazed out across the water, regarding the stillness of the horizon.

  There was something peaceful about the unending crash of the waves; the bitter smell of ocean spray brought back memories of happier times. Her family owned a number of properties across the globe and one of her favourite retreats was an ancestral residence on the western coast of the French province. Locally the region was called Vendee and their chateau looked south-west from St. Jean de Monts. Perhaps thirty of the Woolfs were welcomed there and one or two, a second uncle and his partner, made it their permanent home. Helena’s mother had spent many years there, on and off, her perpetual love of painting drawing her, and hence her progeny, back there decade after decade.

  Watching the gulls wheel and dive, Helena thought of her mother. It was years since she had last seen Edith. The woman was infamous and her adherence to the ideal of hedonism was legendary. Coupled with an approach which suffered no fools she carved out a life she found interesting and challenging. She didn’t regard children as either interesting or challenging, nor sexual partners who outstayed their welcome. What Helena knew of her she’d gleaned from her brother Michael. He seemed to be better connected, despite the fact that he was in orbit. Helena half expected her mother to have forgotten her name.

  Edith, Edith Anna Woolf. Woolf was the family name, the name of her maternal grandfather. None of the men her mother had ever dallied with convinced her to exchange Woolf for something else.

  Out in the distance, Helena could see a slight shadow on the horizon. For a moment she thought she could see the province of Sweden, run by a Corporation which had emerged from the sovereign legislature two centuries before. Her secondary AI was quick to point out that it was impossible to see so far and, given the weather conditions, she was unlikely to be able to pick out the far coastline even if she tried.

  Her curiosity piqued, Helena extended her far point, trying to bring the shadow into resolution. She was only partially successful, but what it revealed was enough: a flotilla of ships heading towards the eastern coast of the peninsula. They were fa
r enough out that Helena was unable to resolve where one boat ended, but the fleet was large enough to rule out any possibility of it being a fishing expedition.

  That only left the worst possibility: Indexiv were moving in. Helena looked south, unable to see Frederikshavn around the bend in the coast. Insel were about to cede this region, like it or not.

  The town hadn’t seemed panicked as they passed through, nor did it seem ready to greet an invasion force, and Helena questioned what warning they had of the approaching fleet.

  Her primary AI said,their vessels are moving south, towards the port. From there a suitable strategy would be to fan out, moving the bulk of their forces south and into the heart of the peninsula. Given their arrival point, it is adequate to suppose only a splinter force will remain to make this area safe.

  Helena stood to her feet, straining pointlessly to see the ships moving past her.Given current information, I would project their arrival in Skagen in four days, plus or minus one. Helena breathed a wretched sigh. That was more than enough time to reach her mother and leave.

  Helena arrived back at the hovercraft to discover Jane and David deep in conversation. She slowed her pace when she noticed their openly flirtatious body language. Taking a deep breath and then letting it out, she approached, taking good care to announce her arrival with loud, crunching footfalls on the tarmac. David and Jane turned casually to greet her. Not even feeling guilty, thought Helena.

  ‘We’ve got to go,’ she said and climbed into the flyer.

  ‘There’s no rush,’ said Jane, staying put.

  ‘What’s the matter?’ said David.

  Helena said nothing, but gave him enough of a glance for him to realise something was up. As he climbed up and in after her, Jane folded her arms in disappointment. Helena’s secondary AI accessed the flyer’s navigation systems then opened a link to Euros’ satellite network.