dull whistle, the copter stopped suddenly, suspended in the sky, it then started to slowly turn on itself then tipped over on one side, falling like a stone on the roof of a garage in an explosion of fire.
To the west there was the first glow in the sky announcing a day that would not be like others. They ran without paying attention to the people who were coming out of their houses and flats woken by the noise of gunfire and explosions that now continued without interruption.
Twenty minutes later they were in Rue de Lagny by a small cemetery where they saw a large van marked Transport de Meuble. They ran towards the van, there was nobody in the driving seat. Ennis then saw a man slumped on the pavement, he was dead, his head in a pool of blood.
“Shit, what do we do now?”
“You can drive?”
“I’ve never driven this type of vehicle!”
“Where are the keys?”
Ennis looked inside, the keys were not in the contact.
“Shit! They must be in his pocket.”
He turned the body over; the driver had been hit in the head. He searched in the trouser pockets and pulled out the keys.
“Here.”
“Christ that’s lucky.”
They climbed into the van; it was an old model, very old.
“You think we can make it in this pile of junk?”
“It’s our only chance.”
He put the key in the contact and turned it, the motor started first go; apparently the van was well maintained.
He looked for the gear in the half-light put it into first and they jerkily pulled away.
“Where to?”
“There’s no choice, to the east, we’ll turn north later.”
They took the back streets and were out of Vincennes in ten minutes. Then the road became difficult, the streets were full of old abandoned cars. It was the result of the expulsions and the rapid abandon of petrol driven private cars. The close suburbs had been emptied of their populations. Further on the conditions were better and they took the main road in the direction of Soissons.
“Switch on the radio.”
“Who killed the driver?”
“I don’t know, maybe the Drogos or the RASE, I don’t know,” Asma replied exhausted by the tension and their efforts to escape. She then turned her attention to the radio looking for the news programme that she found after some searching.
The newsreader was announcing that all Parisians and commuters should remain at home, a general curfew had been declared. Then he read a communiqué,
‘Units of the RASE Special Security Forces of the capital that moved into the Zone this morning as part of the government Rehabilitation programme were met by terrorist gunfire.
The programme announced by le Martel is destined to re-house the residents of the Zone after sanitary conditions had deteriorated. The new housing conditions that will ensure the health and well being of those persons concerned whilst removing the criminal and illegal elements that have been a continuing source of serious problems of law and order.
The Special Forces have returned the fire after several members of the RASE were wounded by the terrorists.
The Brigadier in Chief has announced that the situation is under control and the operations should be terminated in the course of the day.’
“We’d better stay on this road, there’ll be fewer check points than on the autoroute, they’ll all be heading towards Paris for the moment.”
They arrived in the suburbs of Lille towards midday where they abandoned the van. The morning news had tried to assure the population that all was under control could not hide the dimension of the drama that was unfolding in the capital.
The Paris Zone was taken by the forces of the RASE in a bloody battle that raged for six days. Many of the resistance fighters had escaped through the Metro and sewers to the no go Zones in the rundown suburbs of Montreuil, Bagnolet and Vincennes that lay to the east of Paris.
During the battle there was almost a total silence from the Brussels, the Federal Capital. A security clam surrounded the Paris Zone. It was declared off limits to all reporters and international news media. All direct satellite transmissions by the resistance were jammed. News was limited to laconic declarations by Boublil’s ministry that sanitary and rehabilitation operations were running according to plan, though unruly elements had tried to prevent the police from carrying out their orders.
In spite of that it was impossible to impose a total news blanket but what leaked out provoked few demonstrations in European. Those who demonstrated were looked on as the usual lunatic fringe, students and various anarchist extremists groups. Internal conflicts were common place in many parts of the world where overflowing populations confronted the forces of law and order to press their demands for food and employment.
The Federal Capital
After entering Wallonia they took a commuter train to the Federal Capital, Brussels, without any sign of the French RASE other than a few units of the special forces posted at road blocks. Once in Federal Territory they relaxed and less than half an hour later they arrived at the Gare du Midi. It was the end of the line and they joined the morning crowd of commuters, following them down the escalator to the main concourse where a worried Smets was discreetly waiting for his friends.
Brussels was Federal Territory, a kind of no-man's-land between France and the Netherlands. On the one hand it was the seat of the powerful Federal government and on the other it a seething hive filled with political activists who sought to influence the decisions of the Federal Assembly. They included not only those from the Federation, but also lobbyists and representatives of almost every nation on earth. The Federation had the world's largest economy, but also the most chaotic political structure.
Brussels had become a paradise for all kinds of infiltrators, asylum seekers, and national opposition leaders protected by the special protective status offered to all political parties by Federal Territory law; for certain it was the Promised Land. The representatives of certain groups including the Muslims found a certain degree of sympathy from Federal Government officials, whilst others from Russia and neighbouring countries outside the Federation faced rejection. Over fifty percent of the population was composed of Arabo-Muslims and Africans, employed in practically every service of the sprawling Federal Administration. Though the elected officials and their immediate staff were nationals of the Federal States they represented, all other services were staffed to a large extent by of persons of Arabo-Muslims extraction.
It was strange that Europe half way through the twenty first century was administered by Arabo-Muslims and Africans government servants, and at the same time in France the same population was deported to Algharb.
This loss of sovereignty had been one of the major causes of loss of national pride in France, its population accusing its politicians of treason. The other cause was the transformation of the face of Europe. For two and a half millennium Europe had formed itself with its indigenous peoples flowing to and forth across Europe from the Urals to the Atlantic, and from the Baltic to the Mediterranean. They had been essentially one race and finally one religion in spite of its numerous schisms.
From the middle of the twentieth century new populations arrived, mostly from Africa, bringing with them different cultures and a different religion. It was a religion that had looked at Europe from its eastern and southern flanks, at certain moments making incursions, but never really taking hold. Historically it had been the religion of invading monarchs and their armies, Turks and Arabs, who had been vigorously pushed back by Europe's rulers, from Moscow to Vienna and Paris to Madrid.
The new invasion insinuated itself silently, encouraged by blind politicians, encouraged by leftist intellectuals in the name of open hearted brotherly love, encouraged by economists who preached globalisation and low wages. By the time Europe awoke to take stock of itself it had changed profoundly. The New Europeans were second-class citizens, boiling with anger at the status that had been attribute
d to them, the bottom of the social scale.
The New Europeans looked on as the white Christians dominated politics and business, whilst the salaried classes took the choice jobs, leaving at the best the lowest paid positions to the New Europeans and at the worst no jobs at all.
Their religion was rejected, feared and suspected of sedition and terrorism. They were most affected by unemployment, which was not due to an economic crisis as such but a lack of jobs. The economy was typical of post industrial economies, industries existed and prospered, but demanded little manpower, mostly jobs in services, at the top end of the scale were those in the financial and banking sectors, or engineering and consultancy, at the bottom end of the scale were the jobs in transport and services.
The New French had difficulty in climbing the ladder to better paid positions and survived in the lowlier paid sectors. They were incapable of taking off and their discontent simmered when they were often left in the ranks of by more recently arrived Settlers.
As a consequence France had become divided, in a face off by two unequal social communities, and its politicians incapable of finding adequate solutions faced with the rulings handed down from Brussels.
o0o
The first thing that Ennis did was to link up to Steiner in Boston from his hotel room, which had been booked under a false name by Smets's friends.
“Where the fuck are you man?” shouted Steiner.
“Keep calm.”
“Calm, you've been gone nearly four weeks and you ask me to keep calm!”
“I’ve been in Paris.”
“Paris, Jesus Christ, there's a fucking war going on there from what we can figure out!”
“You're right and I’ve been in the middle of it.”
“Are you alright, you’re not hurt or anything?”
“No."
"What about this murder thing?”
“Nothing to do with me, a frame up.”
“Thank God for that!”
“When are you coming back?”
“I’m working on that, first I have some unfinished business here. I’ll send you up my notes, just give me a day or two, then we'll speak together again.”
“Okay, listen, be careful.”
They hung up and Ennis started to prepare his notes that he had kept over the last weeks.
o0o
Two days later he linked up to Steiner again. He had not decided what his next move would be, he expected Asma to arrive that evening.
“How are you?” asked Steiner. “You’re looking better, even though it sounds like you've had a rough time.”
Ennis saw him shifting in his seat uncomfortably, Steiner was safe in Boston, he was still on the run, though relatively safe in Brussels for the moment.
“Listen if you have a problem get your arse down to the embassy, I’ll warn them.”
“Don’t do that. It’s okay for now. I’ve rested. I’m safe here for the moment. I can't be sure for how long. I don’t know how the laws work in the Federation.”
“Listen, your notes, this is fantastic stuff. We’ll get top ratings for a story like this.”
Ennis was pleased, he had not realised until then how dramatic his adventure in Algharb and France had been. He was not an adventurer; he was a political analyst, not a war reporter.
“That’s good.”
“Tell me what about this Savannah thing?”
“I don't know much more than what I given you in my reports.”
“Can you get anything more?”
“That won’t be easy, at least without going back.”
“Forget that!”
Ennis had other things on his mind, Asma had not shown up. Smets had told him not to worry, but he could not help thinking of the risks if Boublil’s Guards arrested her. If she were in trouble he would have to return.
“It would be a hell of a story if we could find out exactly what le Martel’s plans were for his so called re-colonisation.”
“I told you I’m not a reporter.”
“Okay, okay, think about it, call me tomorrow.” The image on the screen faded.
Steiner’s insensitivity was something extraordinary, he lived on another planet, sitting safe in his New York office
For the first time in weeks he relaxed. Seen from Brussels things looked different. Once Asma appeared they would head for London, leaving France and Europe to their problems. Nations with such long histories and which had been sovereign states for a dozen centuries or more found it difficult to adapt to their new condition, they continued to function as independent nations when if fact the seat of power had been transferred to Brussels.
Smets appeared at six, his face was grim, the good news was Asma should arrive in the city later that same evening, but their opposition losses in Paris had been great. Smets zapped the TS, catching a brief report on mopping-up operations in Paris and an official declaration from Boublil, who announced that an attempted terrorist attack in the Nation’s capital by extremist Anarchist New World groups had been foiled, thanks to the government’s prompt reaction.
Two days later he left for London on a direct intercity flight with diplomatic cover arranged by the US consular service and the help of Steiner’s political friends.
New England
Ennis found New England a strange place. It reminded him of the classic television series of the twentieth century ‘The Prisoner’. Scotland and Wales had gained their independence, the United Kingdom had ceased to exist and Northern Ireland had sullenly edged towards the Irish Republic. To the visitor London had taken on the air of Tel-Aviv or Cape Town, little resembling the capital of the mid-twentieth century.
His work was almost complete and he would be back in Boston in a week’s time. Asma had decided to join him to help in the preparation of the series, but before that she had work in Brussels investigating le Martel’s ‘Project Savannah’ which would be the culminating factor in the series.
In the meantime at the London offices of Global Focus he started to collect information for the New England segment of the series. He commenced with a political map of the country that showed a patchwork of what were in effect settlements, reminiscent of the occupied territories in the now defunct Palestine. Settlements such as Bradford or Slough were composed almost entirely of Neo populations whose population had their origins in the Indian Sub-continent, who had brought their culture with them which they refused to abandon.
The settlements had grown over half a century. Ennis remembered that even when he was a child they had been considered as a temporary phenomenon. However, they already displayed their difference, saris, turbans, temples and brightly coloured mosques in the middle of the sad English working class landscapes where they had settled. Integration would follow explained politicians, social commentators and intellectuals, who could see no further than their own narrow experience, when a simple glance at cities such as Durban in South Africa would have given them a glimpse of the future.
Those communities, as did the Chinese and Jews, were bound by strong cultural links compared to the West Indian or African communities in England. Though as a reaction the blacks formed their own political groupings that fought against racism, defending black rights and inadvertently reinforcing the demands from the Asian communities.
The Asians did not want integration with the whites and especially blacks; they wanted the best of both worlds, rights and respect, whilst rejecting the values of their new homeland and its traditional English values.
They elected their representatives to Parliament, adhering initially to all parties, who represented their electors on community lines voting against any issue that appeared prejudicial to them, however out of context to their political principles. Later they established their own parties, whose main political platform was for community rights, crying racism, real or false, whenever it served their purpose.
As a consequence their towns and cities took on the appearance of uni-cultural settlements, magnets attracting new comers, a g
reat number of whom slid naturally into their own cultural environment without ever really knowing that of their host country.
The Lord Lieutenant, in a tradition that had been well exploited by the English, had accepted the concept of separate development of different communities with the Anglo-Saxons nominally on top. This system had functioned efficiently either by partition in parts of the world as diverse as Ireland, on the sub-Continent itself, through apartheid in Africa and the ad hoc separation of indigenous populations in Australia and New Zealand.
Though the system had been seriously weakened by the rise of International Communism and de-colonisation in the twentieth century, it was rediscovered with a certain enthusiasm at end of the Cold War, when fractures appeared in the blocs after the ideological veil of brotherhood and common interest was torn aside.
The Islamic community was composed of Neos and refugees from the Middle East, more recently Iraq and both Arabias, from Pakistan and India after their recent war, and minorities from Kurdistan, Afghanistan, Central Asia and many other distant countries such as Malaysia whose only point in common was the English language and Islam. In their voluntary exile they were joined together in a loose Ouma that rejected links to any specific ethnic community, and whose ambition was the creation of a new Emirate, a London, governed by the laws of the Sharia.
Many of them saw London as the capital of international Islam whose object was none other than a revolutionary Islam a community based the Koran and on the laws of the Sharia.
The Muslims from the sub-continent could not accept the Anglo Christian way of life of the larger community that they lived in whilst the nominal and most vulnerable Anglos were more willing to accept the Muslims and certain even started to mimic them in their way of dress whilst others even sought conversion to Islam.
The Muslims gathered together in their own communities, erected their own barriers as they occupied whole districts in towns such as Bradford where they represented ninety-nine percent of the population in certain areas. The primary and secondary schools in those districts were attended almost exclusively by Muslims who in addition attended classes in Koranic schools for religious instruction.
They had their own radio, press, shops, businesses, cinemas and of course mosques. The children frequented other Muslim children, they married within their own communities, in a large number of cases shopped in shops own by other Muslims or worked in businesses own by Muslims. Their life was a kind of apartheid refusing integration with the English and as their population increased they colonised new districts where the white population moved on as the Muslims moved in.
The non-Anglos demanded concessions and whilst they made few concessions to their host country maintaining their links with their home country, their priority being to conserve their own way of life and seeing English culture as foreign.
But there were not only Asians and Africans, there were also those