A People's War (The Oligarchy Book 2)

by Stewart Hotston

  ‘How did they end their days?’ asked Helena wolfishly.

  ‘Perhaps that was a poor comparison,’ said David wryly.

  ‘If you’re so independent, then why the need to gain my Uncle’s permission to come away?’

  David laughed. ‘Your Uncle is a shadow director. The board is accustomed to hearing his opinion. If I was to obtain a channel through to Jutland on my own recognizance, everyone would suspect something unusual was going on out here. Since the assassination attempt on him, Johannes has been quite keen on running to ground any links between the Company and our militant Normals. His involvement keeps ours discrete.’

  It was hardly an assassination attempt, thought Helena.

  ‘So all you have to report to him is any evidence of links between Euros and a Normal rebellion?’ asked Helena.

  David nodded unhappily.

  ‘One wonders if he knows of Edith’s project,’ said Helena.

  ‘Unlikely,’ said David.

  ‘There’s probably no link between the Normals in Skagen and our militants. The rogues are at the heart of it, not traitors within the Families,’ said Helena. I’m caught again in a situation of someone else’s making.

  ‘Perhaps…’ said David, letting the word trail an unfinished pregnancy of secrets.

  ‘There’s more?’ asked Helena. Do the secrets know no end?

  ‘I don’t know. But think about it: if Euros are arming Normals here, then why not elsewhere? As we experienced brutally today, giving Normals high technology has unexpected consequences. There’s every reason to believe some of those weapons have slipped through to those who would use them for their own ends.’

  ‘By itself that makes sense,’ said Helena. ‘But when we first met you seemed pretty sure the explosives used at the trade centre were a century old.’

  ‘Fair enough,’ said David. ‘Whoever’s driving this strategy for resisting Indexiv has slightly more sense than handing out high technology to Normals, but it’s still the most plausible explanation for how Normals have been able to source ordnance here and in London.’

  ‘We’re arming them,’ said Helena darkly. ‘I’m not sure my Uncle will want to know that.’

  ‘I’m not sure he’ll be interested. He’s as focussed on staving off Indexiv as all of the senior execs. What he wants to know is who they are.’

  ‘If you’re right, there is no who. It’s a side effect of our war — a war initiated because of Normals,’ said Helena; the confusion of events whirled around her mind.

  ‘Do you believe that?’ asked David, the disbelief plain on his face.

  ‘I was there,’ said Helena. ‘I hosted the negotiation; the entire European parliament declared its will to resist Indexiv’s economic plans.’

  ‘Which is just code for saying Indexiv want to rule the roost,’ said David. ‘They want to aggrandise themselves.’

  ‘Yes,’ said Helena, ‘that’s capitalism for you.’

  David shifted in his chair. ‘What do you think of Jane?’

  Helena’s heart sank. ‘She’s naive and I’d rather she wasn’t here,’ she said bluntly.

  ‘There’s something about her,’ said David. ‘I can’t put my finger on it.’

  Helena tried not to sigh and said, ‘She will be a liability tomorrow.’

  ‘There are moments…’ said David thoughtfully. ‘It doesn’t matter.’ He stood up. ‘I didn’t sleep last night, too much going on up here.’ He tapped his temple. ‘So need to recharge. Helena, I’ll see you in a few hours.’

  The sound of his departure died away and Helena was alone again. Her AI was quiet, wrapped up in its own inner life. In the slowly creeping onset of dawn, she thought about David, her Uncle, Edith, which of them would win the prize for successfully hiding the most from her.

  At seven, Helena roused herself from what had turned into a drowsy contemplation. Satisfied there were no sounds coming from the rooms above her, she let herself out of the manse quietly.

  As she expected, a small light flickered atop the lighthouse. She made her way to the base of the tower and began climbing. One of the concubines emerged from the shadows on the third floor, but seeing her clambering up the stairs sank back listlessly into his position against the wall. I’ve been given a pass, she thought suspiciously.

  Emerging into the open air, Helena was greeted by the continuing signs of orbital bombardment. Thin slivers of red and orange pierced the clouds in the distance, bright enough, even from this distance, to cut through the obscuring rainfall. She watched it for a moment before ducking into the top of the lighthouse.

  ‘Good morning Helena,’ said Edith. She was sitting on her stool, a paintbrush in her right hand, held absently, the paint had dried while waiting to be applied.

  ‘They’re still at it,’ said Helena.

  ‘The landfalls you see now are further to the south. They stopped firing on Skagen an hour ago.’

  ‘Edith, we’re unarmed and unprepared. You’ve seen that apart from David the others are hopeless. I know you won’t leave without attempting to complete Insel’s plan, but I need more than your orders if we’re going to go back there.’

  ‘The others will go, orders or not,’ said Edith sniffily.

  ‘Edith,’ said Helena. ‘They will not go if I stay here. I will call our extraction team if you don’t give me more than the bare bones you’ve felt fit to throw our way thus far.’

  ‘It’s nice to see you’re not completely identical to your father,’ said Edith warmly. Helena said nothing. I know better than to push on the door once it’s open.

  ‘What do you need?’ asked Edith.

  ‘At the very minimum I need small arms, enough for myself, David and perhaps Daniel.’

  ‘Not Jane?’ asked Edith. ‘How interesting. There’s something about her you know.’

  Helena shook her head in disbelief. ‘Not you as well?’

  ‘Darling, I enjoy a good woman as much as the next man, but don’t be so foolish. I mean, watch her; there’s something about her.’

  ‘We retrieved a rifle from our encounter yesterday. I’ve convinced David we need to avoid any sort of engagement with the Normals at all.’ Helena folded her arms. ‘But it’s always good to be prepared.’

  ‘You know I prefer your brother Michael, out of all my children,’ said Edith.

  ‘Yes,’ said Helena. ‘I got over it a long time ago.’ Why has she brought this up now?

  ‘Perhaps you grew accustomed to it, but you’ve never forgiven me for leaving you with Elaine.’

  ‘She is my sister, Edith; you are my mother. Forgiveness is irrelevant, but I have learnt not to trust you or to rely on you,’ said Helena coldly.

  ‘It amounts to the same thing,’ said Edith; Helena thought she detected a hint of regret in her mother’s voice.

  ‘It was your choice,’ she said unkindly.

  Edith showed no sign of having heard her response. ‘If you leave the manse by the back door and turn left you’ll see an old fuel store. There are small arms in there. You may also find low-grade explosives, should you think it necessary take them. I have no transportation here; you will have to return on foot. Helena, if you manage this, Euros will be grateful.’

  Helena pursed her lips. ‘I’ve experienced that gratitude already. It’s overrated.’

  ‘I will be grateful,’ said Edith.

  Helena said nothing for a while. She knew what it took for her mother to admit she cared for anyone except herself, but she also found it hard to believe it meant anything at all any more. ‘I appreciate the sentiment, but it’s not worth dying for,’ she said eventually.

  Edith didn’t move and made no indication of whether Helena’s comment had hurt her. ‘You won’t be coming with us then,’ said Helena caustically.

  ‘No,’ said Edith, ‘I have other duties to attend to. Euros asks something of all of us, daughter.’

  How quickly you rush to answer their call, Helena thought bitterly.

  ‘One wonders w
hether Euros knows what it wants,’ said Helena

  ‘It wants to survive,’ said Edith.

  ‘What if surviving this war only brought about our bankruptcy?’ asked Helena.

  She expected some retort or dismissal from her mother, but instead was greeted with, ‘That is the route we must navigate, like it or not. Just as you face danger in returning to Skagen, we all face uncertainty because of the plans we have made.’ Edith stood up from her stool and walked to the south of the room. Daylight soaked bleakly through the clouds, dulling the power of the bombardment of Jutland. ‘Helena, we have maintained a balance of power for two centuries. No one has challenged us. It is lunacy to believe self-aggrandisement can buy any of us a hegemony. Yet Indexiv try. They willingly seek to overturn the order of things. If we are so greedy as to destroy our own apotheosis, then why not the Normals as well? Make no mistake, I despise them for their worship of us, for their fawning and deference, regardless of how deserved it is. Yet if their masters fight amongst themselves, what other model do they have to emulate? Even now, when some small element comes to think they should determine their own fates, they are incapable of overcoming us. We can only defeat ourselves. I will let you have your father’s diary, but do not believe it will provide you with what you seek. He was one of the fools who set us on the road which has brought us here.’ Edith turned from the window and looked directly at Helena. ‘Do not believe everything you read.’

  A thundering of droplets on the windows signalled the return of the storm to the peninsula. Even the brightest glimmers of plasma were blotted out by the unrelenting downpour. The dawn twisted thickly in the rain.

  ‘You had better go,’ said Edith. ‘Your companions are awake.’

  Helena wanted to stay and talk, to get in while her mother’s defences were lowered, but it was too late. Edith calmly washed the dried paint from the brush in her hand and paid her daughter no further attention.

  Helena found Jens and Daniel in the kitchen, eating breakfast.

  ‘Good morning,’ said Jens with a brief smile.

  ‘How are you feeling?’ asked Helena.

  ‘Much better,’ said Jens, rubbing his chest. ‘Thank you for not leaving me behind.’

  ‘Don’t mention it,’ said Helena.

  Within half an hour, Jane and David had appeared. No one spoke directly about the day ahead, but there were a number of comments about the dreadful weather. Eventually, over a cup of coffee, David asked Jens about the viral program.

  Jens was forthcoming, but it emerged early on that he was an execution specialist, someone who worked on bringing completed components of an application together and integrating them. He didn’t know how the program would work; he just knew how to get it into Indexiv’s systems as a functioning virus.

  ‘Is that enough?’ asked David.

  ‘I think yes,’ said Jens. ‘The others had finished their objectives and we were finalising the execution sequence when the Normals assaulted us.’ Daniel nodded his agreement.

  Throughout breakfast Jane looked disturbed and said nothing, holding back thoughts she was struggling with. Helena noted her discomfort but decided not to broach it. There was little she could imagine Jane bringing to the party, except anxiety, and she felt better if that angst was bottled up.

  As they finished, Jane wiped her mouth with a folded napkin and, placing it carefully on the table, asked, ‘What happened when they attacked?’

  Jens placed a fork piled with scrambled eggs onto his plate and sat in silence for a moment, staring at his food as if it might speak on his behalf. ‘We knew something was coming; the Normals had been behaving oddly.’ He paused. ‘They knew we were leaving, we were, are, the last of Insel’s staff here. Most of those Normals we considered key personnel had also been relocated. Yet discipline held and respect remained. I can’t say what changed, but I remember the moment I realised it was out of control. I was walking to the office from my flat and stopped at a nearby bakery to get a pastry. They have a tradition of baking here. They really do make some of the most indulgent cakes I have ever eaten.’ Helena could see sugar icing glimmering in his eyes.

  ‘Where was I? As I got to the spire, a Lifter from the docks was stood outside. I didn’t take much notice; I rarely do. Normals come and go. I ran up the steps but found his arm placed across the doorway. For sure, this brought me to a stop. Before I could speak it removed its arm, smiling at me before walking towards the street. I remember watching him stroll back towards the dockyard without a backwards glance, utterly confident in his actions. We’d heard rumours of Euros’ involvement but I’d not given it any more credence than I’d give any rumour of that category. Seeing him depart I rushed in to warn the others.’

  They listened.

  ‘Did they attack you?’ asked Jane, her voice quavering.

  ‘No, truth be told; the others thought I was overreacting,’ said Jens.

  ‘So how did you come to be locked up?’ asked Helena. ‘Something prompted that.’

  Jens nodded. ‘We were unarmed. I don’t know about you but I’ve not been in a fight for more than a hundred years and that was a drunken brawl with my brother in law at a barbecue. I wouldn’t know where to start. We hid because we heard gunfire from town. We’d had communications telling us Indexiv had a task force headed for the peninsula from Goteborg and panicked.’

  ‘Your response probably saved your life,’ said Jane.

  Helena felt frustrated they had been so easily thrashed trying to leave Skagen. She felt worse about getting three of them killed.

  ‘It wasn’t your fault,’ said Jens looking at her. Helena was startled by his words. ‘You weren’t to know any of this: we hid because we thought the real threat lay with Indexiv. We were all wrong. I know you can’t apologise for this. It doesn’t matter.’

  Helena, glad of his understanding, doubted she would have been so forgiving if the situation were reversed. In her mind, she had failed to prepare properly and had been as responsible as anyone else for keeping her companions alive.

  With Jens’ story over, Helena let them discuss how long it would take to finish the implementation of the virus while she went to find the weapons cache. To her surprise, the fuel store was unlocked and the small arms were stored in a small polysteel case just inside the door. The cache was tiny by anyone’s standards, just five Euros branded pistols with forty cartridges of high explosive rounds and one hundred and twenty standard shots. The guns were low tech, firing projectiles rather than energy. Playing with one of the pistols, she was more certain than ever she wanted to avoid combat. Underneath the top layer were two automatic pistols, both of which had a small, non-recharging energy capability. She’d not seen their type before.

  They are at least nine decades old,said her AI.

  More ancient weaponry of the type the militants in the City have been using, thought Helena. None of the weapons had genetic keying, meaning anyone could use them. Euros has been unwittingly arming the rebellious Normals alongside those they hoped would resist Indexiv.

  The explosives her mother had mentioned weren’t in the box. Looking around in the dusty gloom of the store, she saw some loose bricks in the wall of the house. Teasing one out with her fingers, she revealed a large dusty white ceramic cube. Inside, each in their own compartment, were thirty-six miniature black pineapples.

  How do these work? She asked

  There is a small pin in the top of the mechanism; removing this primes the explosive and, once the pressure on the handle is relieved, the bomb explodes on a short timer, said her AI.

  How old are they? asked Helena.

  Judging by the trace minerals, less than six months, but the design is older than my records,responded her AI.

  Helena piled one box on another and took them into the house.

  The look of relief on David’s face was comical. Jane’s was equally gloomy, as if she were only then realising that they were actually going back to Skagen.

  ‘Take one of these,’ said
Helena to David, picking out one of the energy weapons for herself. She still had the rifle in her room, and it was something which, despite her determination to avoid any fighting, she wasn’t going to let anyone else carry.

  David picked out one of the small explosives. ‘Where’d you find these Helena?’ he asked.

  ‘Euros has been making them,’ was all she said.

  ‘Indeed,’ said David. Helena paused as she swallowed the realisation that he had already known.

  ‘What are they?’ asked Jane.

  ‘Throwing explosives, grenades,’ said David. He showed how they worked to the others and laughed at how antiquated they were. ‘At worst they’ll blow a limb off,’ he said. Seeing Jane’s whitened face, he continued. ‘Jane, something like this is highly unlikely to kill you, even if it were to go off in your hand. They simply aren’t powerful enough. What they will do is disorient your enemy, leave him confused and probably deafened. That’s enough to finish them yourself.’

  Helena noticed that Jane hadn’t taken a weapon. ‘Jane, there’re enough pistols for everyone.’

  Jane looked at her, reached out and took one at random. It looks like she’s trying to keep it as far away from her as possible, thought Helena.

  ‘You know how to use one, I presume?’ said Helena.

  ‘Why wouldn’t I?’ asked Jane sharply.

  ‘What else have you got?’ asked Daniel expectantly.

  ‘This is it,’ snorted Helena. ‘The rest of our gear was in the hovercraft.’

  ‘This is it?’ asked Jens in disbelief.

  ‘Euros must have distributed everything else. Seems to me the best strategy involves not engaging the Normals,’ said David. ‘Our aim is to get in there without alerting anyone to our presence.’

  ‘So these are for what?’ asked Jens, checking the sights along the barrel of his pistol.

  ‘In case we have to engage,’ said David.

  ‘I’ve got what, eight rounds of HE and 29 rounds of standard shot. You’ve got to be joking,’ said Jens, looking despondent.

  ‘Jens,’ said David, ‘we will not be engaging the people of Skagen.’

  ‘Then why have we got these?’ asked Jens again, sounding flat.