“That was a good morning’s work, Sergeant Major. I think we have a leisurely lunch and then pick up the judges.”
“We going into their courtrooms for that, Sir?”
“No. That’s subject to all those ‘in the building’ issues we want to avoid if we can. I think we just wait for them to come out of their courthouses on their way home for the evening. Let them come to us. Let’s work up a deployment plan for that.”
“Yes, Sir. Lunch for the arrestees as well?”
“Sure. No stretching their legs, though, Sergeant Major. They can stay in the APCs. It won’t be that long before we head back to the barn.”
Frazzled
Friday was a day off of arresting people. The APCs needed attention, and the base support personnel were running out of detainee room. They had prepared a deployment building, but they would need at least two more before the next round of arrests took place. Each deployment building normally had a thousand sailors in residence, but they couldn’t pack prisoners in that tight. Plus the locks needed to be changed, the cafeterias staffed. There was a lot of work to do and they needed time to do it.
Turley had been in VR almost all day Friday. With all the high-level people in sector, provincial, and planetary government – at least for the provincial capitals – gone, all the mid-level people wanted guidance from somebody, and she was the only superior in sight. She had taken a short break for lunch and gone right back into it. Finally, at five o’clock, she dropped out of VR with a sigh.
“Wow. You look beat, and you haven’t moved all day,” Gulliver said.
“I feel like a wrung-out dishrag. Everybody only needs fifteen minutes of your time, but if you got enough everybodies, there’s just not enough time to go around.”
“You need to prioritize. Shed the things that can wait.”
“Then they’ll turn into disasters,” Turley said.
“Well, then they won’t be able to wait anymore, but that will be then, not now.”
“I’m not sure that works out well long-term. I’ll be building up a bigger mountain in front of me.”
“Yeah, but you have relief coming, right?” Gulliver asked.
“Should. Not sure how long, though.”
“Let’s take a shot at prioritizing anyway. First, what have we got done so far? Let’s start with that.”
“Well, we found out what was going on right off, within hours of getting here,” Turley said.
“Right. Then we annoyed the powers that be until they did something stupid.”
“And I shot their thugs and we got their VR IDs.”
“And you got arrested, and I turned over the VR IDs to Investigations,” Gulliver said.
“Then you got Major Parnell to bust me out of jail.”
“Yeah, after you killed your cellmate.”
“In self-defense,” Turley said. “Right. Then the Emperor made me Imperial Guard, and Lieutenant General, and Sector Commander, and Sector Governor, basically all at once.”
“Then you arrested the major players, except for the ones who managed to kill themselves.”
“Right. Then we arrested the media people.”
“First, we published the Arrest List,” Gulliver said.
“Right. Right. So we published the Arrest List. And then we arrested the media people.”
“Then you interviewed the commanders and found out they weren’t corrupt, the system was, including both political parties.”
“Right,” Turley said. “So we got that taken care of, and today we arrested the police and the judges.”
“Right. How’d that go, by the way?”
“Really well. Parnell was force commander, and they picked everybody up with no losses of their own, though they did kill one of the arrestees.”
“They did?” Gulliver asked.
“Yeah. He holed up with a hostage, and threatened to kill her. So they killed him.”
“OK. That makes sense.”
“Yeah,” Turley said. “The rest they got without incident. That was yesterday. They had to take a day off today to service vehicles and integrate the new wave of prisoners into temporary brig facilities.”
The major domo came in and, without a word, set a small tray of appetizers on the table between them, then withdrew.
“So things are going really well.”
“Yeah, I just don’t know what’s next.”
“How about picking up the political types?” Gulliver asked. “Does that wait until Monday?”
“No. The weekend is actually the best time. They’re all at home or out on the golf course or something. Isolated. We can do it all onesies.”
“And is that all set up?”
“Yes,” Turley said as she picked an appetizer from the tray. Some kind of cheese and pâté on a cracker. “Parnell is going to take two full battalions into town tomorrow. Thirty-two platoons, in a hundred and six APCs.”
“OK. That’s impressive. Wait. A hundred and six?”
“Yeah. Two per platoon for the troops, and one per platoon for the paddy wagon. Plus ten command APCSs, eight for platoon commanders and two for battalion commanders.”
“And the motor pool got all those worked up?” Gulliver asked.
“Yeah. I think some of the paddy wagons may not have working impellers, but otherwise they’re good.”
“How are the other provincial capitals doing?”
“They’re running a day or so behind,” Turley said. “They picked up most of the media people today. Or are still in process on that, at least. We’re not all on the same clock time. And Earth is going to have problems because their arrestees aren’t all concentrated in the capital like they are here. The sector capital, the provincial capital, and the planetary capital are actually in different cities.”
“So now, reviewing all that, what’s next?”
“I don’t know. My mind is mush by this point.”
Turley pointed to the appetizers.
“By the way, these are really good.”
“How about determining punishments?” Gulliver asked as he selected a treat from the tray.
“That’s up to His Majesty.”
“Yes, but he’ll ask you for input.”
“You’re probably right,” Turley said. “And I’m going to ask you. Where are you at on that point?”
“Well, I spent my time today reviewing interviews of the media people you picked up day before yesterday.”
“OK. Now you’ve got my attention. But those interviews were just going to start today.”
“Right, and they had four interviewers going at once,” Gulliver said. “I had plenty of material very quickly.”
“So what did you find out?”
“They basically split into three groups,” Gulliver said and ticked them off on his fingers. “The ones who didn’t know anything was going on, they just got side bonuses for doing what they thought was a good job. The ones who knew there was some scam going and played along. And the ones who were in on the scam with the politicians and funneling money to people.”
“So you think three levels of punishment.”
“At least. I don’t think it should be criminal to do what you know your boss wants and take something on the side for it. It might be incredibly naive to think there’s nothing shady there, but I don’t think we want being naive to be a crime, either. Now, the guys at the other end of the spectrum, the guys who accepted what they knew was illicit money to bend the news to some politician’s desire, willfully slam the other party with lies – thereby affecting elections – and cover up wrongdoing up to and including murder? That’s a different story.”
“That’s probably a capital crime,” Turley said.
“I would think so. For the guys in the middle, I don’t know. Not my savvy. But something more than a ‘Don’t do that again.’”
Turley nodded and grabbed another cheese-pâté-cracker thingie. Whatever they were.
“OK, that all makes sense,” she said. “Now at
least when we see His Majesty tonight, I’ll have thought about it a bit. Thanks.”
“Oh, but there’s two more issues. What about the other party’s politicians? We’ve been following the corruption thread through the ruling party. What about the opposition party?”
“Why would anybody be paying them off?”
“Just in case,” Gulliver said. “If they do win, now what do you do? Your safety play is to pay them both off.”
“Because then they owe you if and when they get in.”
“Of course. They wouldn’t be getting as much as the ruling party, but they’d be getting paid off, too.”
“OK, that’s a mess,” Turley said. “What’s the other issue?”
“Why were the corporations paying off the politicians in the first place? What were they buying with their money?”
“Oh, no. What a bucket of worms.”
“Yeah,” Gulliver said. “But we need to have people looking into what decisions were being made, and how those were affected by who was paying what to whom.”
“There’s just no time for all this.”
“Ask Investigations to do it. They’re going to be running dry on this one soon anyway. Have them investigate the other party and the quid pro quos.”
“OK, I get it,” Turley said. “It needs doing, but I can’t do it. So let them do it.”
“Exactly. And I have another idea. How much of your talks with the mid-level bureaucrats is the same thing, over and over?”
“A lot of it. I basically end up telling them it’s going to be OK, we’re working on getting a new structure in place. They should carry on with their duties, but put the emphasis now on what’s best for the common man. Always think, ‘What do I think the Emperor would want me to do, to make life better for everyman, the common Joe.’”
“That’s what I figured,” Gulliver said. “So schedule a presentation. Get everybody whose boss got arrested into VR, and give them all the same spiel. Then send the recording to everybody who couldn’t be there. You can also tell them they can consult with each other to determine best course of action if they get stuck. And if they’re really stuck, then they can call you.”
“That would probably help a lot.”
“I think so. I think most of them are just afraid of making a wrong move and getting shot for their trouble. Give them all the ‘We’re all only human’ speech, and make sure they know it’s OK to make mistakes, but it’s not OK to be corrupt. Two different things.”
Gulliver paused, then continued.
“Actually, you might get His Majesty to help you with that. Have him talk to them briefly. Get them thinking again about serving the greater good, not following corrupt orders from criminals.”
“That would get their attention.”
“It sure would.”
At that point, the major domo came in and announced dinner. It was a good thing, as all the appetizers were gone.
After another wonderful dinner – pot roast with a port wine demi-glace, new potatoes, and blanched asparagus tips – Turley and Gulliver moved back into the living room. The major domo followed them with a tray of fresh-baked cookies, ginger snaps still soft and hot from the oven.
Turley sat back with a cookie and sighed.
“You realize it’s only been four days since the attack, right?” Gulliver asked. “Just coming up on ninety-six hours. Can you hold out for a month until your relief shows up?”
“God, it feels like it’s been a month already.”
“I know. Maybe you should ask the Emperor for a temporary situation.”
“Like what?” Turley asked.
“Well, this Derwinsky fellow.”
“Eugene Derwinsky.”
“Right. He’s a retired sector governor. If he could take on the sector governor role until the permanent appointment arrived, and you could just be sector commander, that would split the job up. And he’s already been a sector governor. Even with the provincial and planetary governorships still open, he wouldn’t be as at sea as you are.”
Turley was nodding.
“That makes a lot of sense, actually. I should probably propose that to His Majesty this evening.”
“It’s morning in Imperial City, right? But is it Friday or Saturday there? Are they ahead of us twelve hours, or are they twelve hours behind us?”
Turley checked in VR.
“Shit. It’s Saturday morning there. I wonder if His Majesty will even be available to me this morning.”
“Well, put in the meeting request to him and Sandy Hayes and see what you get. No way to know without asking.”
Turley put in the meeting request and sighed. At least she had cookies.
Some Relief
At eight forty-five Friday night, just as the cookies were running out, Turley and Gulliver both got a meeting acknowledgment from the Emperor. Also invited to the nine o’clock meeting were Sanford Hayes of Investigations and Patrizia Gallo of the new ideas group. They checked into the channel just before nine, and found Hayes and Gallo already there, in a viewing room with the investigation maps in front of them. There were now seventy-nine investigation maps, though many were small, and Turley gasped as she realized the import.
At nine o’clock, the Emperor and Empress appeared.
“Remain seated, everyone,” Dunham said as they popped into the channel.
Dunham turned to Turley.
“You requested this meeting, Governor Turley. You may begin.”
“Thank you, Your Majesty. And thank you for taking this meeting on what is, in Imperial City, Saturday morning.”
Dunham chuckled.
“Seldom a weekend day goes by there isn’t some business on my schedule, Governor Turley. That’s been true for over fifty years. Proceed.”
“Yes, Sire. The detention of people on the Arrest List is continuing across the sector. Some of the provincial capitals are further along than others, but all are making progress. My reports detail the particulars.
“There are three additional items I want to talk about this morning. The first is we have been told both political parties are corrupt. We discussed this day before yesterday. What we did not discuss, and which has come up since, is the question of whether we should be investigating payments within the other party as well.”
Dunham looked to Hayes.
“Let me take that, Governor Turley. After the meeting Thursday morning – uh, that would be Wednesday night for you, right? Let’s just say forty-eight hours ago. Well after that meeting in which you disclosed that General Daltrey and Admiral Pachner thought both parties were corrupt, we started looking into payment chains from the same companies. We tracked those down into the other party as well.”
He turned to the map.
“Isolate Earth Sector. Split parties.”
One investigation map came to the fore while the other receded. It rotated, and she could see it was in two hierarchical trees down from the top, with the companies paying the bribes at the top between the two trees. The companies were paying bribes to both sides.
“As you can see here, we’ve tracked payments within the ‘out’ party as well. They aren’t as large, of course, but they are as pervasive. And they’re being paid by a lot of the same companies and individuals who are paying the ‘in’ party.”
“What a mess.”
“Indeed, Governor Turley,” Dunham said. “I’m still thinking about punishments. If I executed everybody in those trees, I could depopulate the planet.”
Turley laughed aloud.
“Well, probably not, Sire, but I take your point. So what do you do about punishments?”
“Some people – those involved in murder and covering up murder, for example – are headed to the wall, Governor Turley. No doubt about that. For the others I was thinking about banning them from politics for life.”
“How do you enforce that, Sire?”
“A suspended death sentence, dependent on good behavior, Governor Turley. If they get caught messing
in politics again, the death sentence is reinstated.”
“They’ll have to get productive jobs, Sire.”
“Yes. Do you think that’s too harsh, Governor Turley? Some of these people have never done an honest day’s work at anything.”
Turley suppressed a giggle.
“No, Sire. I think it’s perfect, actually.”
Dunham nodded.
“Your second point, Governor Turley.”
“We know these companies were paying both parties, Sire, but what were they paying for? Companies don’t just give away large sums of money for nothing, so what were they getting in return?”
“Mr. Hayes?” Dunham asked the Investigations chief.
“Yes, Sire. We’ve started looking into that as well. Contracts, regulations, court decisions. All that sort of thing. It’s harder to sort out than the payments, of course, but we are making progress.”
Dunham turned back to Turley and nodded.
“Excellent, Sire. Once again, Mr. Hayes has anticipated me. I don’t think he anticipated this one, though. I am having real problems keeping up with everything. I was wondering if Governor Derwinsky or his equal couldn’t take the sector governor role on a temporary basis until the permanent appointee arrives. Then he could take that part of what I have now, and I could take the sector commander part. We would split the load, and he has the experience as a sector governor I lack.”
Dunham looked at Peters, and she raised an eyebrow. Turley didn’t try to interpret that. The Emperor and Empress had been together over fifty years, and no doubt had their own language.
“That’s an interesting proposal, Governor Turley. You are finding it that difficult to keep up?”
“Yes, Sire. There’s another thing we can do to take some of the pressure off. Could you talk to the people who lost their direct reports to arrest, and give them the same talk you gave me? You know. Do the best you can, you’ll make mistakes and that’s OK, but corruption is another matter. I think many of them are afraid to make any decisions, for fear of getting caught up in all this, so even decisions they should be making get referred to me. My meeting request queue is miles long and growing.”
EMPIRE: Investigation Page 21
