L'Gem

  Chapter Fourteen

  When the light flashed, "Ready," Knight tapped, "Open." The garage door was going up as he turned in the drive. He shut off the shield as soon as the car was in and the door closed behind them. Danny opened the kitchen door.

  "They found them fast. They were on comm reporting the lack of warning and stupidity of endangering essential personnel. We've got identities. Seven people screamed, 'Incompetent fools!' None were Warkerdoll. All images fit. Three fit the nine-year criteria. Five are headquarters posted. None extremely high-ranking, except Warkerdoll's aide. Holloch Alladisi is our would-be dictator. He's the only one who has enough rank and knowledge to step into Warkerdoll's office. Two are second in command of Operations and Investigation. The other two headquarters are third in Technical and Tactical Support. Both others are second in west coast posts, the Command Training School and Ordinance Depot. They've got someone every place they need to take over. Investigation has been yelling monitoring should be under them and it never would have happened if it had been, since seventeen seventeen eighteen."

  "How did we miss the aide?"

  "Very, very discreet. Nothing comes out of his office, at all, only Warkerdoll's. His record is as staff as one can get and has 'clerk' written all over it. The two were valuable. They don't have replacements for them. They are sure it was a landslide. They went over the whole area with sniffers looking for traces of explosive. A geologist told them it wouldn't be that steep if they didn't happen frequently. They discovered 'frequent' and 'due' have a much different meaning to geologists."

  "I remember noticing that. Comm?"

  "Bance picked the time, Nev, right after you checked in. Case told Tarn he was on your comm and got in first. Nobody carried on conversations. Now, they're all calling someone just because they don't have to watch what they say. Seventeen-seventeen celebrations start at curfew. You're attending one at Bance and Ronnie's. Theirs is semiformal."

  "Semiformal?!"

  "You aren't expected to remain, Blade, but your champagne glass is part of your party costume. Everyone's invited to a party to start. There's a beach party, a nightclub, several theme masquerades and a whole bunch of other great ones. Ronnie's is society evening. If you had a party the first night, even if your party was at a neighbors house and theirs too, you're a guest tonight. A party-hopping list was assembled by comm. There are three children's parties going on now and they're party hopping too. The list is a house on each block of the connected blocks. The guest list for each is the people on that block. Want to guess who came up with a way to keep everyone busy planning and decorating, and not coming here to see you three, or expecting to see you elsewhere?"

  "What a team."

  "This is primarily an inside party night. People will serve refreshments appropriate to the theme. Everyone was reminded to eat before they go, because party supplies are running a little short. Bance said the object is to let some of the people who don't have party places, or a great deal to spend, use imagination to supplement and become more than 'she lives on so-and-so's block,' to people who don't live on that block. Your costumes are in your rooms."

  "I have a semiformal outfit?"

  "Yes, Blade. You didn't have right, and you do not fit in off-the-rack, so Bance called a friend with your measurements, and you paid for a rush order from a fast tailor, who said you, Knight and Nev, whose were just tailored, should come in for a proper fitting after Nev finishes changing shape and before you wear them again. They were just picked up. Your bank accounts say you were here all evening. I've got to go get ready. Oh! Doc Larry messaged. He said, 'Giggle.' I didn't think clarification was needed."

  An IS patrol car pulled up in front of the Teal Valley police station and an officer walked in. The desk sergeant smiled and asked if he could help him. The officer told him their commanding officers had died in an accident, but they'd told them they wouldn't need breakfast in the morning. Since they'd received no orders to remain until a new commander was assigned, nor new orders, they were reporting to their regular duty stations. They assumed the combination of the comm system failure and their commanders' deaths had interrupted orders for the reassignment.

  "Accident?"

  "They were at Knockoff Stream, when the front of the hill fell off. No weather report."

  "It'll work, kid. Get home to a bath and bed, before some idiot sends you somewhere else without supplies."

  "They're too busy yelling at each other about their 'tragic loss' to take a comm call from us. I tried, once."

  "You tried. Thanks for coming by and telling us."

  "You don't like us, but you made sure we got enough to eat anyway. You're all nice to everybody here. And people like you. I don't know about the others, but I learned something."

  As soon as the rather young IS officer left, the sergeant called Chief Dennon. He told him he had several miracles to report. When he finished telling him, Chief Dennon said the young IS officer made him feel guilty about his motives, but he was real pleased. Nev was admiring his image when Chief Dennon commed.

  "Hi, Chief, that's a nice smile."

  "I got two prayers answered and a bonus. Those two scary IS officers had an accident a long way from here and won't be back, anywhere. All thirty-two here are running home and one stopped by the station to say thanks and he'd learned something."

  "Only the middle piece doesn't give me an odd feeling, but I don't mind."

  "I understand that. Nice outfit."

  "We're going to a seventeen-seventeen celebration at Bance and Ronnie's. There's a theme party on each block. Ours may be society evening so Bance could say, 'I'll take care of it. All done. Pay the nice tailor.' He and Ronnie built the idea, comms chimed all over and everyone kept busy all day, except the people who put the parties together the first night. They found a way for those who don't have enough money to feed a multitude, and are usually known as lives-on-so-and-so's-block to also have a party for everybody. I'm awed and spent the whole evening just sitting."

  "The west side went from the cheap place to live to 'the neighborhood' everyone follows as social example in two days. West Side is now capitalized, a name, not a location. We're going to put a park over there and keep those mountainsides forest cultivation, if we have to annex and zone them agriculture to do it. You people replanned the West Side to be the type of neighborhood and community that towns point to with pride. The only thing it needs is a park. The Planning Commission office isn't open and the plan will be ready for the Town Council meeting in two days."

  "Thank you. Yes, we need a park. If the town gives us the land, we'll build it. If the town needs help giving us the land, tell me."

  Chief Dennon laughed and disconnected. Nev whooped and danced into the hall and to the kitchen. He gave Knight and Blade each a hug, then danced to the front door. They grinned and followed. Nev obviously had good news to share, but it wasn't just for them. After the seventeen-seventeen toast, Nev raised his glass and grinned widely. Everyone waited. They could all see he was brimming with good news.

  "The West Side, now name and not location, is getting a park on the land west of the belt road. I said we'd build it if they gave us the land, and let me know if they needed help giving it to us. I don't think they will. The town wants to give us a park."

  "Ressen Development owns most of that, Nev. I don't think the town will need any help. Jaril Ressen's great-granddaughter has a cargo chute on her bedroom window. Make the toast."

  "I'm working on the wording, Bance. To West Side, the neighborhood that earned the name, and Teal Valley, the town that found a great way to say they're proud of us."

  "To West Side."

  "West Side."

  Bance called for comm connect to the party house list, then 'reported the news' and repeated Nev's toast. Jace, with Day and not at his block party, noted Bance had to be reminded something was supposed to be a surprise at fifteen seco
nd intervals. Nev said the chief wouldn't have told him if it was. Kendra said she now knew why her boss had asked her to work some figures that evening.

  They finished off the two bottles of champagne and stuffed themselves with real food, then Bance and Ronnie set out canapés. They nibbled a bit, so the trays had appropriate gaps, then Nev, Knight and Blade started on the party-hopping list, champagne glasses in hand. When they arrived at the first house on the list, four from there began their party hopping. That's when they realized someone from each of several locations began the hopping and it was designed to be a continual flow, not overstuff some houses and leave others bereft of guests.

  They checked and no two household lists were identical. People all over the neighborhood were checking. Before long, they pegged who had done it. The Junior League soccer coach protested she'd had a lot of help setting up the big round-robin. The lists were designed to probably bring every household together with every other household in the connected neighborhood at some time that evening.

  People followed their lists and didn't stay long anywhere. It worked beautifully. Everyone met everyone and all recognized where they lived by costumes.

  Around three thirty, everyone who still wanted to party, including hosts, was heading for the two covered backyards designated as, "The After-hours Club." They were in the middle of the area and opened at three thirty. No one was told they had a band, but they all knew it at three thirty. That's where Nev made the last big announcement.

  "West Side neighbors, the IS patrols left. Wait! The commanders, who were the real danger to us, were killed by a landslide on Route Six. The patrols used it as an excuse to leave. Before they did one stopped by the police station to say thanks for assuring they had food, and that he'd learned something here. Patrols may return, but they won't be as dangerous. That man may return, but he won't be in an IS uniform, unless he thinks it will help our police protect us. I believe he'll teach what he learned here. That's a gift from us to the world and the future. And I feel guilty I thought of it as feeding the dogs. So they'd be reluctant to bite us if their masters ordered it!"

  People burst into laughter and applause and several shouted they felt guilty too. Others yelled, "We'd have fed them, anyway." Nev agreed, but said he still didn't plan to tell IS his actual opinion of their irresponsibility.

  The after-hours club was only open until five, but there weren't many who sighed because it was closing time. At five twelve, far to the south, a fourteen-year-old boy and his 'aunt' carried a body to a public waste cycler. They were under her shield. When they reached it, she turned off the shield and his 'mom,' helped put it in. They turned on their shields and walked back to their invisible car. They towed the one behind it to where the shuttles had been. They were a good team, a programmer, a chemist and a high-tech maintenance prac.

  Household comps had records of security monitoring being turned off by the house owners. People still in those houses had gone from sleep to unconscious to sleep. Waste cyclers had no record of large organics and the car had a record of a long drive. A car that had been going very fast, slowed and became visible on a deserted street of closed businesses and entered a garage at ten sixteen.

  The mining corp execs had obviously left the planet. They didn't tell anyone they'd decided they should. Others would know someone had, but it would bother many, especially Blade, to know the boy had planned and performed the executions for intent to enslave thousands. The boy, who hadn't been a child since his arrest, had breakfast, played a game for a while, then called his parents on the northwest continent. IS wasn't going to last long enough to learn they'd received a call from his location.

  At ten thirty-eight, Danny check on IS again. They still hadn't noticed the patrols in the area were gone. Too many others had just gone home for their vehicles to be noticed and an operation commander hadn't yet been assigned. IS headquarters didn't know if anyone assigned somewhere was there. Area commanders didn't know, and some of them weren't there. She was looking through communication records when she saw one that was very unexpected.

  "Comm connect Nev's."

  "Good morning, Danny, I think."

  "Knight, the mining execs are gone. They left sometime between one and six. A missing car was found at a corp office. A nine-passenger executive sedan is missing from there. IS thinks they ran off. I don't think they did. IS doesn't look that weak from the outside yet. It's a perfect removal and I don't know who did it. It took more than very good programming. I don't know who's that good."

  "Do we need to know, Danny? Do we, Knight?"

  "No, Blade, we don't. Someone decided those people and their plan should no longer be a factor to consider. I suspect the sedan is where the shuttles were."

  "I don't think we need to know who either. They chose not to tell us. I think asking would be a retraction of the statement we trust their judgment. Someone decided those people were not going to have the opportunity to dump proof and be just business people, and to cover the missing shuttles."

  "All right, Nev, but my curiosity may kill me. There was nothing in anyone's--"

  "Danny, don't look."

  "You figured it out and it made you sad."

  "That's why I try to leave Knight and Nev at home. What else?"

  "Warkerdoll is becoming an irritation. Alladisi and cohorts are trying to reassemble their plan and he's squawking about money that's not going in his pocket. They may be planning to use him as an excuse or he'd already be dead."

  "Can we start a rumor?"

  "I think I can find a way, Knight."

  "The rumor is the upper ranks are trying to find out who's still around because they're going to make quitting desertion and not exactly following orders insubordination, and the commandant isn't being told."

  "Which is all true, I'm sure. I found the perfect place. We have a rumor that could have come from anywhere, right in the middle of mid-rank lunch orders in the commissary, where low ranks have to go and eat whatever's served. There are many there now."

  Three hours later, Danny checked on the rumor result and smiled. Some of the upper and mid ranks were trying to quell it. Others had run out the doors with many others. She decided 'someone' was real nervous, but not a great programmer, and turned loose a mediocre adaptation of a simple scramble-letters game program in personnel's records. It wouldn't take them long to find and stop it, but it would take a good programmer to write a fix.

  She checked on results through the evening and smiled every time she did. Alladisi and group couldn't use Warkerdoll as an excuse, or get rid of any other irritations, without confirming the rumor. She suspected many who were leaving were just getting out while everyone else was. They weren't getting any of that nice gov money they'd expected and everything done so far had cost them. She giggled when she saw someone had set the personnel comp to auto-approve retirements and move them directly to the pension disbursement list, with only pension amount and deposit codes listed, as soon as names and addresses were unscrambled.

  The old-timers were leaving and they weren't leaving their addresses behind. They knew IS could trace them by bank account records, but their retirements had all been officially approved, and they didn't expect IS ranks to expend the effort. The mid-rank and senior tech-support personnel lists were getting shorter. She began looking through the list of who had just retired.

  "Comm connect Nev's!"

  "Hi, Danny."

  "Warkerdoll retired!"

  "What?!"

  "The personnel comp is set to auto-approve and his went through, Nev. I don't know if he did it or Alladisi did."

  "Neither do I. Nothing about us?"

  "Not a thing."

  They just watched for two days. On the third, the headquarters personnel computer began a muster call. At seven, in each time zone, all listed personnel were sent a message to report to an area command center at eight for personnel reassignment. Between eight thi
rty and nine, area command centers sent reporting rosters to IS personnel. The next morning, two hours after the final report came in, they discovered they had a problem.

  The level eight financial manager had issued final pay deposits and deleted the nonreporting list files. Military downsizing was an allowed and expected gameplay. It was one of the ways one got more money to expand the private sector, to have more to invest in research and development. When the play was made, the entire government budget was restructured and taxes recomputed. Since the recomputation showed a budget surplus of over five percent, tax refunds were issued to reduce it to three percent.

  Danny giggle-staggered to the big house, got in the front door, collapsed on the living room floor and giggled. Knight, Nev and Blade looked at each other, sat down around her and waited. Nev said she'd made it to their house, so there was hope she'd be able to talk, at least in short bursts, soon.

  "I didn't do it!"

  "One burst."

  "They did!"

  "Two."

  "All those retirements!"

  "It's about IS. We're making progress."

  "They made a new directory."

  "Oh, they didn't."

  "And gave the total for each rank!"

  "Nev knows."

  "We may find out, Blade."

  Knight and Blade got the explanation. Nev's bursts were longer, so it didn't really take long. They were all laughing when Ronnie called. Nev answered, then burst into laughter again and just beckoned. Ronnie yelled, "Comm out!" In a very short time, everyone on the block was running for the big house and Jace, Essa and Silky were on the way in Jace's car.

  Four of the others didn't know the game. Bance got a very fast explanation out before he collapsed in a chair. Ronnie yelled, "I'm awed!" As soon as they were capable of talking, they went to work on how to keep IS from taking credit for the tax refund. They decided the truth was best. Bance called Hammison, and burst into laughter again, as soon as he saw him. Hammison grinned and waited.

  "Boss, there's a reason the gov is still functioning perfectly. There's a game loose in it."

  "A game?"

  "I heard this a while back, but it was an odd story. IS tapped a kid's computer. Today, I got proof that's where his game went. Do you know what World Builder Eleven, level eight is?"

  "You're kidding."

  "IS doesn't know who's not there. You know they did a muster yesterday?"

  "Yes, it turned out to be a small one."

  "Exactly, and personnel must have split the files because… Everybody got a tax refund!"

  "What?!"

  "They made the military downsize move and there was more than a five percent surplus. Boss, they did it, but they shouldn't get credit for it. People would think they did something right. I know they wouldn't give money back. We'd all know it, if we knew what I didn't pass on. It just sounded so kid imagination. I'm sure of it, but I can't check it."

  "I may know someone who can."

  Hammison commed another editor. She had a source. The person who worked for the gov would only give yes or no answers, but would give those, to one person. It was almost two hours before she called back. She was laughing.

  'Everybody' knew why they'd gotten a tax refund before IS announced they gave one. They also announced the ten-together order was rescinded.

  Grocery stores opened, grocery distributors opened, produce growers began shipping, the headquarters commissary got food to send to the cafeteria, and the cafeteria began taking orders from officers again. Produce had to be thrown away, and income had been lost, but no one was hurt by it. Their tax refunds had been for more. Employees were allowed to claim the days as vacation, so even the lowest income, who had little to tax, weren't damaged. Curfew wasn't lifted. Black plas walks weren't taken down.

  People began to notice how few IS uniforms they saw. They began to do strange things. In Kellerton, a bullying pair of police officers knocked a man down and were suddenly facing a dozen people with rocks in their hands. In Richland, an IS officer grabbed a woman and ran from a mob. In Jenneara, a police officer stuck out his hand and an old woman spit in it. He raised his arm to strike her and a vine wrapped around it. When he turned, he was facing a half-dozen children with blowguns to their lips. Everywhere, people just stopped paying bribes. Everywhere, bullying was met with superior numbers and threat. When violence came, it was in Kellerton.

  Police questioned a man with truncheons and the city exploded. Police, government officials and 'friendly' business people ran for their lives. Missiles were yanked off IS cars and mounted weapons were battered. The IS patrols ran. The four police who'd beaten the man died. No one else was injured. Before IS reinforcements reached it, Kellerton was a peaceful place.

  The people ignored IS vehicles driving through the streets. When they began to set up roadblocks, people parked and walked home. IS discovered every city office, court building and police station was bare desks, blank computers and immaculately clean. When they checked the city comp, the only one working, they learned there was nothing in the database but city utilities service records and maintenance schedules.

  Corrupt police and city officials in other cities and towns began to flee. Within two days, offices were being cleaned everywhere but the capital, Lodestar. Knight messaged for a noon meeting at the mine.

  No one saw over two hundred fifty cars disappear then drive into mine adits. Swords were built and mounted in fourteen of them. People chose their assignments, often suggesting them. The "basin bunch" were reminded to eat early and not snack. They'd be coming down from the portal twice.

  Sixteen invisible cars, with swords mounted in them, and thirty-nine others left the area at various times. All would reach their destinations at four gov center time. At one thirty local time, all the other invisible cars drove back to the mine. Many of them had rented cleaning equipment in them. At four oh eight, gov central time, everyone was in position, most in the portal in space. At four ten, everyone began their tasks.

  Finger holes were made in shields and key codes tapped in. In other places, security systems were dismantled before they registered something was there. Six men died in their beds. People came down from the portal and went to work as soon as the dizziness and nausea passed. Carts with containers on them were pushed through 'doors.' Empty containers were placed on them, then they were pushed back.

  Knight, Blade and Nev made a hole large enough for the car in the side of IS headquarters armory, shorted weapons and drove through it. Blade used the sword as a knife to slice through racks of missiles and weapons. Knight drove out of the armory slowly, but he didn't have to push anyone out the way. They'd all run. Nev got his turn with the sword on vehicles. Inside the headquarters, eleven empty offices were being cleaned. Gov center was being cleaned, as well. None took long. Everything in them was just dumped in containers. Lodestar city offices and court rooms were cleaned. Unconscious police were moved aside and stations were cleaned.

  Knight, Blade and Nev went into IS headquarters again, on foot. They had every key code, so it didn't take them long to reach Interrogation. They tossed in a gas pellet, then walked in, still shielded. They killed the interrogators, then passed their battered victim through the door to the portal. The cell doors swung open and more captives were passed across. IS didn't have as many as usual.

  The captives were passed to the mine, treated for their injuries, cleaned and dressed, passed back to the portal, then down to a shelter in a public park in Jenneara. A man there would get them all home. People came into the interrogation area and began cleaning.

  Danny cleaned computers from the mine. She copied essential records and programs from the gov computer, deleted the game program and reinstalled them. She just wiped IS computers.

  Knight, Blade and Nev left IS headquarters. Alladisi was the only remaining target. Danny had assured no comm calls reached him very simply. She'd canceled
his comm service. No messages reached his guards either. IS comps didn't have comm codes and no one had run to warn anyone. They just ran. Twelve other IS interrogators known for their skill died in their sleep.

  On the way home, the sword car with the shortest distance to travel stopped off and got one woman out of Fataner. They didn't take her to the mine. All records of arrests and convictions of the people freed from the two prisons and drug labs were disappearing. They'd decided to gas her, give her a printout message and leave her with her daughter.

  Knight, Nev and Blade were working their way through Alladisi's multiple independent security systems. The outside guards were unconscious, but there were two inside. Knight suddenly got tired of it. He turned off his shield. He said he was going to make a hole and turned it back on. Nev and Blade got on their scooters and headed for the car. When they got in, Blade pointed out the guards now knew they were there.

  "I know, Blade, but I don't really want to assassinate him. I just want to kill him. I don't need him to see us, but I don't care if he does. He's guided the abuse of thousands and he dies."

  "Let's go kill him."

  "Discreet is a habit. It's been a good one, but it may be time to break it."

  "You drive. It's my turn to use the sword."

  "May I drive, please?"

  "Fine with me, Nev. Knight, the prince is driving. Get away fast if you feel the ground start to move."

  Knight didn't make a hole. Just as Nev got in the driver's seat and switched on, an armored staff car burst through the gates. Nev spun the car, went through the corner of the wall, at the corner where it turned, and was on its tail before it reached the end of the block. Blade giggled and Knight grinned widely.

  "Now we know why he decided he wanted to drive."

  "I'd have gone around that corner."

  "I would have in the T, Blade, but this car doesn't turn as tight or accelerate as fast. The wall was just an object hitting the shield. It didn't impact the car, which is the moving object, so didn't slow us and the corner would have."

  "I wouldn't have remembered that. I'm too used to dodging things."

  "I'm going to short the weapons on that car. They might hit something else."

  "You think they'd realize they weren't stopping what's just stopping the beams. Thank you. They were making it difficult to see."

  "Blade, find out who's with him."

  Blade squeezed past Knight's legs, then between the sword mount and Nev's seat. It was a tight fit, but not uncomfortable once he made it. He requested identities from Danny. When they came back, Knight sighed.

  "Just two assigned the duty."

  "You were thinking of just making a hole in it."

  "Yes, Nev. Now I'm trying to think of where to make a hole that will stop it, but not kill them. Alladisi scares them too much to just stop and run."

  "I think they'll change their minds if it just starts developing holes. He'd duck, I'm sure, and they could stop and run."

  "Make a nice design, Knight."

  The car started swerving when Knight began writing "run," so he just made holes. Blade made a suggestion and Nev turned off the shield for two seconds. He and Blade in 'face smear,' smiled and waved. Knight made a hole. It worked well. The staff car slowed and two dove out of it. It didn't stay slow long, so Alladisi was driving.

  Knight stopped making holes. He reset the size and waited. Alladisi was headed for IS headquarters. When he turned, they decided he'd learned there was no one there. He was headed for a gravway to outrun them with the staff car, but he wouldn't.

  Their Tourline was an odd model. Tourline made all-terrain vehicles and cars built for speed, and had made a few models that were both, but not recently.

  Alladisi got on Route Four west and got in the high speed lane. It was six oh four and there was no other traffic. Curfew had just ended. As soon as they were in open country, Knight warned Nev, counted it, then made a large hole where the disk 'met' the road. The power plant hit the road and exploded. Nev drove by in the other lane. Forty-six K later, he went north on Route Eight.

  The people cleaning the interrogation area were the last to finish. There were a lot of them, but it was big and there was a lot to do. The people hated the decor. The entire cell area was cut into chunks and carted out. As soon as an area was empty it was colorbonded. When all that was done, it was carpeted.

  When they finished, Case, Stats and Dawn cut out the security door and replaced it with a door. They finished at six forty-nine, looked around the huge empty room, pushed the last cart through, turned off the doorway, turned on their shields and walked out through the large, empty foyer, then through the door into the hall. They noticed someone had removed the "Interrogation" nameplate on the door as they left.

  They stepped through a 'flicker,' got in Stats transport and headed home. They didn't go up Route Six. It still wasn't clear. They took turns driving and sleeping on the way. It had been a long drive down, a lot of hard work and was a long way home. Then the little light flashed, "Meet for breakfast." Dawn tapped, "Where." Forty-eight minutes later, the transport became visible as it went around a curve, just before a turnoff.

  The restaurant beside the road had a huge hauler parking lot. It was hauler drivers' "most highly recommended" on the north third of Route Eight. Friends in Teal Valley had told them the buffet was worth the trip.

  Dawn smiled when she saw Danny's car on one side of Knight and Blade's. The mobile unit, which now looked like any other enclosed light hauler, ELH, was on the other side. Beyond it, was Day's car. The three weren't surprised the others had just arrived. Danny, Day and Essa had come from the north. The others had all come from the south. They'd adjusted speed to arrive at near the same time.

  "It smells as good as they said."

  "It was hard to come to a table first, Case. My nose was pulling me that way."

  "You'll love it, Day. It's worth the trip down once in a while, especially this time of year. They get the best of the forest harvest and put more different things on one long table than anywhere else."

  "It was hard to resist stuffing myself before I got here, Jace."

  "It's only eight twenty-six, Case."

  "I know, but my stomach is sure it's lunchtime and I skipped breakfast."

  "We're ready. Thirteen buffet, on me."

  "Nev!"

  "I got the biggest tax refund, Danny."

  "True."

  "The news is on!"

  "Bance!"

  "He's got to call Hammison, Ronnie. He'll tell him where we are and we're about to eat."

  "How long has the news been on, please?"

  "It just came on. GGN just started. IS is just gone."

  "What?"

  "Table six speaker on. Grab plates at the end of the buffet. They restart the bulletin every two minutes. They'll begin reporting on the situation at eight thirty-two, our time, and space bulletins ten minutes apart."

  "Ronnie load Bance a plate!"

  Bance came back in and sat down behind a full plate. Hammison had told him he'd have called if they were going to be doing anything local. He didn't expect they'd do any live feed for hours. Bance, Jace and Silky hadn't either, but had been running with a finger hole over their comm receiver since Ronnie had left home. She'd been with the basin bunch, so she would be home if Hammison called.

  They ate breakfast, looked at what they'd all done during the night and listened to others' views of it. IS was "just gone." Missiles and weapons were in pieces, and there were large holes in the walls where they were located, but everything else was as clean and empty as city offices in other places had been, and gov and city offices were the same. By the time they finished breakfast, it was known there were some dead. It was also known the city officials had fled when they saw empty offices. As they were about to leave, GGN cut to a reporter who'd found a source.

  "This was all done by people with something
totally new. IS had been hunting new tech since the Horgen Field escape. The description is 'invisible.' Something large was there, but it couldn't be seen by sensors. People could only see it as an odd reflection of other things for an instant. Weapons were shorted, then holes appeared. The holes 'just appeared' in the walls. Nothing behind those walls was damaged. Someone on this world has made a discovery that is going to make Gradelode the destination of every physicist who can buy passage and every trader with a full hold. The people who used the tech know it. Everything we've seen shows they would not allow that until the government corruption and the brutality of IS were ended. We've watched it falling apart, worked to help that fall and been sure no rebel organization could exist. This shows there was a cadre, but they didn't recruit. They gave us the opportunity to change things. They knew that's all we needed, because we were all rebels. We want all those physicists and all that trade. If we make good use of the opportunity we've been given, we'll get it. Who do we ask for help? Where do we find guidance?"

  "Teal Valley."

  "Teal Valley."

  "Computer, can you long-distance comm link from here?"

  "Audio link only. Long-distance charges will be added to your bill."

  "Comm connect Gradelode Global Network, Vanson Taskell, Bance Neardon, Channel Forty-eight News. Subject: The location of the guidance."

  "Connect being attempted. GGN computer routing. Connect made."

  "Yes, Gen Neardon?"

  "The center continent northwest forest farming and vacation area is totally democratic. It has no corruption and the police don't need weapons. They're friends to all. Teal Valley is large enough to provide the type of example needed to structure a democratic system. We were such a thorn in the side of IS, that the ten together order was to give an excuse for slaughter of kids at a beach party, and when the people arose in fury, to send missiles into town center. The 'no news vehicles' was timed to catch me, my editor and cam op too far from 'in.' I'm the roving star reporter for the entire region and all of us are from old families, which was very newsworthy the day before. Holloch Alladisi wanted to destroy Teal Valley, as example of what would happen if anyone disobeyed his orders. Warkerdoll was a puppet. Alladisi ran IS. He and a cadre within it, intended to institute a fascist police state. If the guidance wasn't there, he wouldn't have feared Teal Valley."

  "We just learned he's dead. How did you know?"

  "They wouldn't have let him get away and the placement of six others say that's the cadre. Seconds and thirds, the tops were all just greedy puppets. That's what the gov expected and it kept the oligarchy from knowing the real plan. IS never had the families of the oligarchy. My source said they were 'exiled,' on the ship intended to carry gov 'leased' forced labor to mine a non-habitable planet. The spermicide in our drinking water was replaced with a mild immuno-boost. The population is two-thirds of what the gov said, but that's changing fast."

  "You know who they are."

  "Everyone does. Horgen Fields and Fataner weren't emptied. They were the only places a rebel organization could come into existence. My source said they had no intention of 'getting stuck with running things.' So, look for guidance in building the support structure for the democratic process in Teal Valley, and we'll learn who they are, when no one will try to get them to do it for us."

  "It's finished and they gave you everything they needed to tell us."

  "They didn't give me Teal Valley. I'm with a group of neighbors. You asked where and got a chorused answer. Don't say you got the rest from me, just a source. I don't want your job. I just got married and we're sure ours is the best neighborhood there is for our children."

  "You think that's the only place true democracy exists on Gradelode?"

  "I'm sure there are others, other towns and regions on other continents, but ours has stood firm against the gov and IS since the constitution was gutted, on this continent, and they knew it. You've never been there. If you had, you'd have known exactly why IS feared it."

  "I'll be there in a few hours."

  "And you can fly."

  "Yes, I can. Comm out."

  "He'll be even more relieved you don't want his job, when he yells for a bio and sees an image, Bance."

  "He's got my job for the world, Jace, but people don't wave and ask if his dad's sleeping in the equipment shed next to his new harvester."

  "That's how we found out his dad bought one, Ronnie. He called and asked him, said the people wanted to know."