Asterion (10 page)

His radio crackles, “Sir, we found a remote operated rifle hidden in the bushes.”

“What, how could that happen? We sweep the area twice daily and we have sensors on the perimeter. Did they fail?”

“No sir, they are functional. On closer inspection of this device, it is a high tensile strength ceramic device. Everything else is either plastic or too tiny to register on our sweeps. You are not going to believe this; it looks to be of twenty millimeter caliber and it used paper casing for the charge.”

Another agent pipes in from Burnsom’s office on the radio. “Sir, we’ve dug the round out of the wall. It’s not lead or metal in construction, it’s ceramic also and it didn’t even shatter when it hit the wall.”

“I want to know how they got this thing inside the walls of this place.”

“Given the construction of this thing it could have been here for some time. The only people who could have discovered it are the grounds keeping staff.”

“Then we start with them. Round them up and bring them here.”

The commander sits back and ponders his future.

Burnsom is in a private study off his primary office. Still shaken from the near miss his hands shake as he pours himself a scotch. The bottle rattles on the glass. He sets the open bottle down on the credenza and downs the shot. Pouring another, he slowly sips that one.

Tom bursts into his office, “Ira, are you alright?”

“I will be, in a while anyway.”

“Heads will roll for this one. That’s too close, way too close.”

“We’ll see what our crack security force has to tell us. He is on his way now.”

“Neil Crandall?”

Taking another sip, he swallows and looks at Tom, “Yup, that bozo.”

“Nepotism never works when it comes to security.”

“He may be my nephew, but I won’t spare him if it’s incompetence. Has this leaked outside of the building?”

“No it hasn’t. It’s probably better if it doesn’t”

“Agreed,” Burnsom looks at the door when he hears a knock. “Come in.”

Crandall nervously enters and approaches Burnsom’s desk. “Sir, we have located the grounds crew.”

“Well what can they tell us?”

“We found them tied up at their warehouse. They were accosted at gunpoint, tied up and told that someone would be coming for them in several hours.”

“How did they pass through security at the gate?”

“Weekly shift change took place this morning. The crew that let them in yesterday is not the same as the one that let the intruders in.”

Burnsom is enraged, “You’re telling me that your detail didn’t search the crew.”

“The agents on duty said that they did not seem nervous or evasive, so they did not look closely at their equipment.”

“Those agents are terminated from this duty immediately and reassigned to military duty to be reevaluated and retrained at a lower rank.”

“Yes Sir.”

“And you,” Burnsom pauses as he watches Crandall swallow hard. “Make sure that this can never happen again and you find me the perpetrators of this treasonous act.”

“I’ll work with every agency to make it happen.”

“Dismissed, now get to it.”

“Thank you sir,” Crandall turns and hurriedly leaves the office.

Tom smiles, “You let him live.”

“He could do damage to our image we fired or demoted him. He could start talking or something. I’ll offer him some position that sounds good. Tom, set up a meeting between the Vice Leader and us. We need to figure out who did this.”

“Do you really think she would have any idea who could have done this?”

“I want to see how she reacts. After that meeting, I want my military advisors to meet with us.”

“Should I tell them anything about the meeting?”

“I want their best intel on who might have done this.”

Tom stands up, “I’ll get on it.” He turns and leaves the office.

Burnsom squeezes the bridge of his nose and pops a couple of aspirins down his throat. Swallowing hard he gets back to work.

Vice Leader, Jean Patrick sits in the conference room waiting for Burnsom and Tom. In politics for years, she witnessed the changes Burnsom enacted. She is part of the small minority that opposed the changes. In her late fifties, she exuded confidence and a strong will. Her greying hair and reading glasses gave her an air of authority and a matronly appearance. She is a businessperson before pursuing political office. She had an excellent grasp of how they worked together or against each other. Burnsom thought she would appease his detractors and she accepted the position to try to temper his policies. Checking her watch, she impatiently taps her foot. The door bursts open and they enter the room and take their seats.

Burnsom smiles at Jean, “By now you know about the attempt on my life. We need to figure out who did this. Any ideas?”

She mulls the question over for a few seconds, “Ira, there are so many problems out there that any number of factions would like to see you harmed.”

“There are not many that are capable of pulling off something that sophisticated. That has to narrow it down. I would not put it past Stanley.”

She looks surprised, “John Stanley, Governor John Stanley, are you kidding?”

“I almost got my head taken off; I’m not in a jovial mood.”

“Sorry, I did not mean it that way.”

Tom interjects, “We have to consider the usual suspects as well as the unusual.”

Jean turns to Tom, “Usual suspects. There’re not criminals. They are the duly elected officials of their areas.”

Burnsom puts his hand between them, “Look, our relationship with the South Central Province has never been good and the tensions are rising. We can’t rule out that Stanley, General Sanderson or some religious element hiding out there might have done this.”

Jean turns to Burnsom, “Ira, I can’t believe that any of them did this. However, there is enough dissension in the other provinces that might have encouraged some elements there to perpetrate this heinous action.”

“Nevertheless, I’m going to move troops to the border to control travel between the provinces”

“Ira, if you do that it’s going to be seen as a provocation and further escalate the tensions between you and them. I can’t support that, not when your policies are starting to fail in the other provinces. We have to move toward a free enterprise system if we want this to work.”

Burnsom sits back for a minute, then leans forward, “Jean, you may have a point. I tell you what, I want you to visit with our friends abroad and determine what might be the best way to do that with the least pain on the people. All of those countries went through a lot of misery to modify their economies.”

Jean pauses for a moment. “That’s not a bad idea. I’ll get on it right away.”

“Another task you can perform while there is to state our case to them and elicit their support for the effort.”

“They may not want to get involved in our internal matters.”

“Maybe not, but if their government and news press are favorable to us, it further isolates those who oppose us.”

“I’ll do what I can.”

“Good, then we won’t keep you. Good luck and stay safe.”

Tom opens the door and lets Jean out. He sits opposite of Burnsom. “Let me guess, get her out of our hair.”

“You bet. Either she does not know anything or she is good at hiding it. Either way, she can’t know what we are planning. She would fight us and it could get ugly because we would have to arrange something. Besides, as the face of capitalism in the country, they like her over there. We need them to at least be neutral in the matter.”

Tom stands up and turns to the door, “I’ll see to it she gets out of the country quickly.”

“Thank you Tom, close the door on the way out.”

Jean packs her things at home thinking, “I don’t want to be around when this blows up in his face and I don’t want anyone to think I’m in on his plans.” She types on her laptop for a while and dramatically hits the enter key. She hears the taxi horn and heads out the door and to the airport.

CHAPTER 12 - STATE OF THE MONOCRACY

Tom is working at his desk when Burnsom’s voice comes over the intercom. “Tom, I want a conference meeting with you, the department heads and my military advisors.”

“Sure, any particular reason?”

“Given the attempt on my life, we have to assess the mood of the public and the readiness of our military and local policing personnel.”

“When?”

“Tomorrow, 8 a.m. for the whole day at least.”

“Will do.” The intercom snaps and goes silent. Tom starts sending out invitation emails.”

The conference room, filled with officials of the government are chatting and laughing as they wait for Burnsom. Tom and Burnsom come through the door closing it behind them. Burnsom steps to the head of the table with Tom sitting on his right. The room goes silent.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, a few days ago an attempt on my life was made when a shot was fired at my head while I was in my office.”

Gasps of shock break out as one voice in the crowd asks, “Are you alright?”

“Yes, I’m uninjured, but that incident is the reason for this meeting today. We need to cover three things. The first topic is the mood of the populace and how do we answer it. The second topic is local security, how to tweak it to meet future problems and thirdly, our military readiness and ability to back up local police and to deal with our enemies. I want to hear from those of you close to the people.”

One of the government officials stands up, “Sir, many of those I come in contact with have several concerns. They felt that the security they once enjoyed is slowly turning to uncertainty in several areas. The food supply is the first issue. The normally stocked shelves are sometimes near or completely bare. They are worried about shortages and rationing. The second is utility outages. They grew from minutes to hours to days in some cases. They are also concerned that those convicted of even minor crimes never return home after their sentence is served.”

Several other officials nod in agreement. Some say, “That’s what I hear also.”

Burnsom quiets the crowd, “Tell them that a worldwide lack of rain is causing the shortage of food. Tom, find out what kind of basic staples are available for the people. They are not tasty, but they prevent hunger. The power outages, well, we can blame that on malcontents and vandals destroying some equipment. That gives the impression of a temporary problem. That will buy us some time. Say that there have been many prison breakouts and the escapees avoid going home or contacting family to avoid recapture. If things get worse just blame the excesses and greediness of the South Central Province are enticing them to seek fertile ground for illegal activities.”

The officials nod and smile. Propaganda is their stock and trade and plenty of it makes them happy.

“Now, the local security of our provinces is our next topic. Anyone want to go first?”

Reluctantly, one police chief stands and speaks. “Along the lines of what was already said. There are protests over the shortages of food and utility services. They are increasing as it occurs more often. I get the same complaints from family members about the length of incarceration and some not coming home after their time. We feel that we may not have enough people and resources to deal with any increase in protests and theft.”

Burnsom smiles “Repeat what I told the officials and impress upon them that help is on the way. Say that policing of the utility services has increased, but damaged equipment takes time to fix. If it gets to hot out there, place the blame on the South Central Province as they are our bogeyman for all our problems. Say that they slipped into that province where there is plenty to steal. Now we need to speak about our military status.”

One military advisor speaks up. “Sir, your diversion of resources to other areas has left us short of soldiers and material. We are close to becoming a paper tiger. We could not win a battle much less a protracted war. Development of weapon systems is at least ten years behind the South Central Province. Our automated drones are outdated and in short supply. After the conflicts of the last decade, we had no compelling reason to develop better systems and our budgets wouldn’t support it.”

“I have a grand plan that is now starting to bear fruit. We will fight our battles not with human assets, but with a weapon we are developing now. It will be ready in just a few months to go out into the field of battle, ahead of our men and women in uniform. I can’t tell you more now. The military folks here will start getting information soon, so that they can prepare to integrate it into our war machine. I want to thank all of you for coming. We will make things better. I will be in contact with all of you soon. Burnsom walks out the room without taking a question.

The crowd is shouting questions about the new weapon. Tom stands and they become quiet. “We can’t reveal our secret weapon now. Too many prying eyes and just the chance that someone slips and says something is enough reason to play it close to the vest. Share your other needs with me and we’ll work to help you. We’ll help our most affected areas first to alleviate their pain. That will take the pressure off government and policing personnel.”