Ambassador 12, page 23
“Quite a lot.”
He told me how from the moment he took the position, certain groups of delegates demanded special concessions because Dekker needed their support. They wanted their supporters in key positions in important departments and agencies. They’d seen their opportunity to do this when Margarethe stepped down and a power vacuum emerged because a new president usually employed all new staff and the administration’s grip on the situation loosened.
“The trouble first started out of a small group in America Free State,” Dekker said. “But the free world movement existed when America Free State was formed. They existed during the Second Civil War. They’ve always existed in some form. Most of the time, they were embedded in our society and we didn’t notice them.”
“Such as Midway space station,” I said.
His face grew dark. “Don Sullivan. He was one of their leaders.”
Yes, I remembered him.
“They operated out of America Free State?”
“Most of the time, yes, especially after Midway, when their plans to take one of the shuttles to a secret location were discovered.”
“I was there and involved in that.”
“I have said before that you are a cocky, arrogant bastard.”
“It’s true. If I actually was a cocky, arrogant bastard, I wouldn’t have missed, for all those years since the Midway Incident, that obviously these people didn’t just go and behave nicely after their attempts came to nothing. They couldn’t misappropriate a shuttle, so they built their own. They’d been building prototypes for years, and some of those had come to grief on various worlds. They’d attempted to set up groups against gamra, against Nations of Earth. It’s been going on for a while.”
He nodded. “For years.”
“We travelled to America Free State especially to look for them,” I said. “We couldn’t find any recent trace of the organisation.”
“How did you search?”
“We knew some of the research facilities where they had been building spaceships. Most of them are abandoned, and we spoke to locals and asked them if they knew what happened to the people who worked for these organisations. None of them knew. One of them even gave me a long list of people who went missing.”
Dekker said, “Yeah. That was what they called the great leap. Many of them went into space.”
It was as I had suspected. “But they said they knew nothing about any sympathisers remaining.”
“Did you talk to the churches?”
I frowned at him. Were we meant to have talked to the churches? Of course, with our very Coldi sensibilities, we tended to ignore institutes of religion, because Coldi didn’t like or understand religion and I was uncomfortable engaging with it for fear of upsetting old relationships made between churches and Nations of Earth, relationships and agreements that were between two groups on Earth and nothing to do with me or my work.
He met my eyes in a sage expression and nodded. “The churches. That’s where you should have looked, especially those churches that were founded less than a century ago. Although I must stress that not all churches are involved, and some are involved, but not knowingly or willingly. But they preach the notion that all these aliens…” He looked around the craft a little self-consciously. “… Need to get out of here, and that we can manage space exploration and settlement just as well by ourselves.”
“Is that something you believe?”
“To a point. But I am also willing to accept the reality that it’s probably easier to just cooperate with the devil.”
“So, I’m the devil.”
“You work for the devil.”
“Just so that we are level. I don’t work for him. He is my business partner.”
“Great. Two devils.”
“We are also in contact with a few other devils, and I might as well point them out to you before we get started.”
He gave me a wary glance.
“Anyway, the election was a tumultuous time. Fredrickson was a very good and popular candidate and when he had to withdraw and I had to carry the flag, I never thought I’d win. I was up against a really popular candidate who was outspoken and colourful, all the things I’m not. So I campaigned on a rational platform: being careful about what we signed. The conservative forces flocked around me. I consider myself only a moderate conservative.”
I raised my eyebrows.
He continued, “That may surprise you, but it’s true. Many people gathered around me who were far more conservative. In the end, I didn’t win the election. The other party lost it. But having won, I needed to work with the people who had promised me allegiance. And that proved hard. We descended into a blazing argument about the rejoining of the American states. I didn’t understand why the ultra-conservatives wanted to pick a fight about that. Celia Braddock is a long-standing friend and she and Governor Sukar of Prairie were very much for rejoining Nations of Earth. Sukar has been trying for years to revitalise his country’s devastated agriculture industry. He’d make deals with Nations of Earth and gamra. But the ultra-conservatives wanted me to stop doing that. The arguments they used were ridiculous and made no sense. I often thought they wanted Nations of Earth to remain separate from the American states. When I continued talking to Braddock and Sukar, the conservatives sent people to talk to me, sometimes a couple. They were usually junior members or staff members of the assembly, so they could always come to me without profiling by security. I objected to the pressure or the bullying they were trying to apply to me and to the things they wanted me to do. Me breaking off contact with Braddock or Sukar wasn’t in the pre-election agreements between me and the conservative factions, and I wasn’t going to agree. The threats grew worse. Celia offered me a reason for a brief trip away as a circuit breaker. But when I got to New York, Celia was there to meet me, but soon it was obvious she hadn’t come of her own volition and I was, in fact, under siege.”
He sipped from his drink.
Dekker continued, “Once they got me, they took me to Patterson’s beach house where you found me. I managed to get onto your people for a short moment before they shut the connection. After that, they tried to re-educate me, and when that didn’t work, ignore me. But Yoon Ha had more guts than I gave him credit for. When Patterson’s militia broke into the assembly, he wouldn’t step aside, as they expected him to do. That’s why he was killed.”
“And the fact that this wasn’t big news means that the killers are still in power?”
“You got it. MacArthur and his cronies.”
Well, about that… “When we came here, we attempted to deal with Nations of Earth and came to Rotterdam first.”
“God. You walked right into the trap.”
“You can say that again. I thought you might still be there. I’m afraid we left a bit of a mess. It involves MacArthur.”
His dark eyes met mine. “Is he dead?”
“As a doornail. Him and a bunch of his staff.”
“Hmm. Anyway. That’s no great loss. He’s one of the moles, but unfortunately, I only realised that after you gave us the data connecting the old Southern Californian Aerospace Corps with the recent events and we passed it around the entire assembly.”
“Including to the traitors.”
“Yeah. We were perhaps naïve and misled. We had no sign that we should distrust a good chunk of the Emergency Council. The fact that many people distrusted ‘aliens’ and didn’t believe you was not out of character. But all their pieces were in the right place and they played us like a fiddle. It’s a mess and I’m not sure that we can get out the other end safely.”
“I’m convinced that if we get everyone together, we can find a way. Where we’re going, we are going to be talking to the Pretoria Cartel and the Tamer Collective. Most of these are devils and you can’t trust them. This is where we stand. We want to defend our home, and we want to make sure that there is a planet left at the end of this, where everyone who abides the law can come and be fairly treated.”
Just as I said this, I realised it would make Earth just about the only entire world where that could be said. Earth was going to be a powerhouse, just as Asto was a powerhouse. If only Nations of Earth would understand the importance of that position. On the other hand, I figured that one day they would have a president who understood, and would misuse every aspect of it. That was only a matter of time.
“All this brings me to the reason I came to Rotterdam. I need someone in authority to sign the next stage of the gamra agreement that spells out the right of gamra to defend member entities with military force.”
“I know your visit is about that rule, and debating it got us into this trouble in the first place. I would need to study the document.”
“It’s part of the original agreement, signed two years ago.”
He gave me a pointed look. “I was under the understanding that aspects of that document were in draft mode and subject to change.”
“All gamra entities have signed the same document.”
“Let me read it again. We can’t rush this sort of thing. Trouble erupts when you try that. We tried and failed before.”
I gave him the document, and also impressed upon him that the gamra deadline would soon expire, but he wouldn’t be hurried.
Why did I still suspect he didn’t want to sign this at all?
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Dekker further told me other things about North American history I was not aware of, or was likely to have misunderstood, as he put it. I sensed that seeing this part of the world in a “proper” light was important to him.
He wanted me to understand that the split of the former United States into four semi-independent nations was because of differences in philosophy, and not because of riots and street protests. That the four nations were all upset with Nations of Earth for being excluded from membership. That Governor Patterson was privately prepared to talk about a truce with Nations of Earth because although America Free State was large, it was also mostly desert and had little export opportunities since agriculture was marginal at best, the tourism industry was non-existent and oil exploration ceased being profitable a long time ago, and trade boycotts had done the rest.
He was at pains to point out that Atlantia was by far the most progressive of the North American states, and that Prairie was so poor they’d go along with everything Atlantia did. Celia Braddock had tried for most of her career to bring all the states together to give a unified response to Nations of Earth.
“But he just doesn’t want any public part in it.” He, being governor Patterson, who had the temerity to call himself president, and Dekker pointed out that a strong line of thought was that there was only one president—and no, it wasn’t Simon Dekker or Celia Braddock—but President Alaina Sherbourg, whose deposing and later murder late last century had been the final trigger that started the Second Civil War and the irretrievable split of the North American states into four countries.
It was all stuff I’d heard about long ago in school and had, rightly or wrongly, banished to the part of my mind where quaint, Earth-based facts lived.
Dekker got really fired up. “Those interested in reconciliation in north America don’t subsume the word president and he who does so seeks to impose his will over the other countries. They did not stand up for their fellow poor and outcast citizens to have to accept his bullshit years later.”
And I also thought about my travels to America Free State and wondered whether Dekker had been there recently and whether he or Celia Braddock knew who those poor and outcast citizens actually were. Because I’d met them. Sage and Junco both seemed decent men to me. They’d even continued sending me occasional messages. They didn’t dwell on injustices and carried on with their lives. The militia we had grappled with, they probably considered themselves outcasts with an interest in maintaining the current state of outraged status quo.
But heads had rolled over arguments less contentious than this, and if I gave my opinion, Dekker would probably—rightly—shout me down.
I was no expert.
It mattered less to find someone to blame for their current misery than that we had at least one North American person who was happy to talk.
Dekker said that Celia Braddock had always been happy to talk to Nations of Earth, but “authoritarian” people like Margarethe Ollund imposed impossible conditions.
I did not question his characterisation of Margarethe, since we had also invited her to the upcoming meeting, and she indicated she might come. Let’s see whether Dekker was up to facing that particular devil. Or Braddock, for that matter.
Because I wanted Braddock to attend. Probably not in person, but remotely.
Simon Dekker told me, “Patterson is a man with a deep sense of betrayal. Do or say something he doesn’t like once, and he will forever consider you an enemy.”
That was funny, coming out of his mouth. But I chose not to bring up the nuke from orbit incident.
The crew member brought us drinks and a packet of food, and I retreated to an alcove at the back of the craft to make notes and gather my thoughts.
I needed to catch some sleep, or I would fall over in the middle of a discussion.
But as I went into the back of the craft where the cabins were, Isharu came to see me.
“We got a response. We’re still tracking the origin.”
Whoa. Total change of subject.
She was talking about my mysterious stalker.
We went into one of the cabins, where she handed me the cheap reader. The screen said, Your futile actions will all come to nothing. We can easily defeat your puppet army. Your arrogance won’t help you this time.
Just bluff. I’d have to craft another response aimed at keeping the mudslinging feast going so my team could continue its tracking.
But it was the first time that anyone from the enemy directly communicated with us in a meaningful way.
Isharu said that she and Reida had monitored the device at all times and picked up an incoming signal from a communications company called Fayu. I recognised the name as one of the major personal telecommunications services people used worldwide.
At the time of the referendum a few years back, the Exchange ordered an audit of all these companies for their trustworthiness, but I had to admit to not having taken much interest in the results.
“Are you investigating the company or asking for records?” I asked.
“Investigating, yes, but to get the records for this user, we need to convince the law enforcement authorities to ask for them. It might take a long time for them to respond, and you have to prove that the operator was acting outside the law.”
Yeah, like that was going to happen. Plus, who knew how compromised those authorities would be?
Not like the Exchange where you could just ask for this data. Then again, the company was probably nothing more than a vehicle used by the person at the other end of the message. These large companies owned networks and satellites and drowned in their own bureaucracy.
Then another thought. “Technically, for them to have obtained my contact details is a breach of trust.” Especially since I hadn’t given out those details to anyone, let alone attached my name or identity to this device. How had they known that I owned it?
“Could be, if this is what they used.” Her expression showed she was working hard to grasp the concept of “breach of trust”, which I’d roughly translated as breach of loyalty, except I’d never held any loyalty ties with any of these people. So that confused the heck out of her.
Ah, the fun of dealing with different cultures.
It was a mystery that could probably be solved by following the message trail.
Whenever we’d have time to do that.
Not now anyway.
I wrote a snarky response and sent it while Reida and Isharu were scanning the device, and then left the thing with them. It knew where I was and posed a security risk.
Of course, this conversation between me and my mysterious stalker was bluff and bluster designed only for the purpose of creating messages for my team to track, but the last sentence of their response gave me pause.
The words this time suggested prior involvement.
I was never much good with the whole going with your gut advice. I didn’t trust my judgement to be right unless backed up by additional data.
But somehow I couldn’t escape the feeling that these messages came from someone I knew. Or at least someone I’d been involved with in the past. That included an incredible number of people and was a rather meaningless realisation. When I started in the job, I’d consider almost all of Nations of Earth hostile to gamra. Did I think that someone like Eva’s father would support attacks like this? Of course not, but stranger things had happened.
Not Piotr Zbrowski, but Jarek Malicki, Eva’s ex-husband. Yeah, he might do something like this.
After giving the device back, I found a quiet corner. Most other people in the team were also asleep.
Thayu came to sit with me.
Of course, she had been listening in on my conversation with Dekker, and wanted to voice her own opinions.
She said, “This world of yours has more dark corners than the Aghyrian political labyrinths.”
Probably an apt comparison.
“As with the Aghyrian labyrinth and the Aghyrian situation, ignoring any of those corners can cost us dearly. We have ignored this North America part of the Earth population, written them off as a quaint old-fashioned minority, and they have developed into a formidable enemy who wants to see us gone.”
“That’s what enemies do in dark corners,” she said. “They multiply. So, you can do two things: eradicate them, or negotiate them into backing down.”
“It’s the second I’m interested in.” Also, because I was no longer sure we could do the first, since they’d spread to other parts of the galaxy, and because they possessed technology to replicate drones out of nothing and hide their point of origin so well that not even the Asto military could locate it. Those were technologies we would understand, given time, but we didn’t have that time.
