Expert Assistance: Ten (Part 2)
Blows To The Head (Part 2)
***
A few days later another protest march was to be held. This one was to specifically call for reduced hours, profit-sharing, and better contacts with off-worlders. Jake and Evvie sat on the upper level of the bridge to monitor the action.
This time, though, there were a few things different. The first was that Jake sent down to the Rosens earpieces for the clandestine comm unit he’d sent them previously. Jake was worried that this time around the marchers might run into more serious trouble. He didn’t want them to respond to any situation unwisely. He gave the Rosens the earpieces and told them, “Do exactly as I tell you, or you’re on your own.”
Jake was proved right before the march began, for unlike last time guards and guardbots appeared when the marchers began to assemble. “Keep everyone calm,” he told the Rosens. “Do this just like last time.”
The protesters formed up to march. Once they were formed but before they started moving, the lead guard motioned to his subordinates. The other guards fell in behind him in a line. The bots moved out the flanks of the body of marchers.
“What do we do?” someone said.
“Bring out the big guns,” Jake said quietly.
Daniel waved to three people behind him and they stepped forward. “What’s going here?” one of them demanded.
The trio were forepersons. This was the last element that was different from the previous march. All three had expressed interest in the ALG over the last few days. After Jake did some checking he cleared them for entrance into the movement. He told the Rosens to keep them part of the crowd and not to make any big deal about their support until he said so. He suspected that their sudden appearance would unnerve the guards blocking the march.
Like clockwork the head guard was surprised. “Uh, we’ve been instructed to, uh, stop this march.”
“Why?” the foreman asked.
“Uh, Mister Maxis ordered us to.”
“And why did he order this march stopped? It isn’t a violation of our contracts.”
“I dunno, sir. Orders are orders.”
“This isn’t a violation?” The youngest-looking guard in the group stepped forward. Jake guessed that he couldn’t have been more than twenty. He appeared to be a clean-cut, fair-haired, stereotypical straight arrow.
Jake glanced at Evvie. “He looks like a nice kid. Maybe your mother would like me to introduce him to you.”
“Shut up, Jake.”
“What’s your name, young man?” the foreman said to him.
“Riggs, sir. Andrew Riggs.”
“Well, Andrew, marching is not against the rules. We have the right to be anywhere we want to be before ten.” He looked at the other guards. “I think the rest of you should keep that in mind.”
“Sir, my orders...”
“Maybe we should let them go,” Riggs said to his superior. “If it’s not illegal, and they don’t harm anything,...”
“Get back into line!”
The foreman took a step towards the head guard. “What’s your name? I think I should put you on report.”
“You can’t do that.”
“Yes I can. I can put any of you on report if I choose to. So either you let us march, or you all go on report.”
The head guard stood his ground, but the others backed up one by one. Soon he was the only person blocking the marchers’ path. He glanced around for a moment, then walked entirely away. A few of the guards followed him, a few remained in place, and Riggs and another joined the marchers.
“I guess this means we’re winning,” Evvie said as the march got underway.
“It means we’re making progress,” Jake replied. “This isn’t over just yet. We...”
“Jake, I have some information for you,” Odin interrupted.
“What?”
“The guard commander has just spoken to Maxis. He’s reporting on what’s happened.”
“And?”
“Stand by. Maxis is calling yet another executive meeting.”
“For when?”
“Now.”
A grin crept onto Jake’s face. “Really? I’ll bet that means a late night for the execs, including our man Thorne.”
“So what?” Evvie asked him.
“So maybe Thorne needs another late-night visit from his conscience.”
***
The meeting went on far longer than Jake had hoped it would. He decided that he needed sleep more than Thorne needed further needling. He also decided that, because of how long the meeting ran, Thorne would want to get a full night’s sleep the following night. That, Jake felt, made that night perfect for another conversation between him and Thorne.
Jake followed the same routine as his first visit to Thorne. This time the other man was not quite so surprised and slightly more annoyed with his uninvited guest. “You couldn’t allow me to sleep tonight?” he asked Jake with a sigh.
“Why don’t you just sleep in, come in late?”
“I’d never get away with that.”
“And yet, I believe Sordius has. I guess rank really does have its privileges.”
Thorne raised his right hand. “Look, pal, I read through all that data you left, okay? So Sordius’ father and grandfather broke the law getting this world. So what?”
“So what? So maybe lawbreaking is a Maxis family tradition.”
“I don’t know anything about that.”
“Gee, buddy, could you sound any less sincere?”
Thorne shook his head and waved his hand. “Look, I’m not going to argue with you about that. Some unsavory shit happens. It’s just credits passing back and forth.”
“I don’t think that view would go over well at trial. Anyway, you wouldn’t have to be passing credits under the table if this planet was an actual colony and not Maxis’ private property.”
“What am I supposed to do? Join your little band of malcontents? Sordius would have my head on a platter if I betrayed him.”
“You’re no dummy, Thorne. You know how the law treats accomplices, especially those who know what they’re doing is illegal. Think about this; so far you’re just paying off greedy, low-rent companies. What if they stop dealing with you? You know what’s below them.”
“We are not going to deal with crime gangs, pal. I don’t think Sordius would be that stupid.”
“But is he that greedy?”
“Look, go back to where you came from. I can handle myself just fine.”
“Oh, yeah? Suppose he doesn’t deal with criminals. He and his family have been lucky not to have run into a sting operation by some government. How long do you think that streak’s gonna last? Surely you know that when it ends it’ll be an asteroid none of you can dodge.”
“I’m not gonna sell out my friend, okay?”
“’Friend?’ You mean the same friend who won’t let you date any woman prettier that the women he gets? The same friend who would abandon you if things went to Hell? The same friend who isn’t sharing his ill-gotten gains from his retirement scheme?”
Thorne paused for an instant. “What retirement scheme?”
Jake smiled. “You don’t know about that? You haven’t been listening to Edie Freedom’s audiocasts?”
“I thought... You mean it’s true? You have proof?”
“Of course. Why do you ask?”
“Well...it's just that...um...”
“Worried that your friend, or his kid, will get rich off your retirement savings?” Jake took in a breath. “Sordius made promises to the other execs, didn’t he? You guys think you won’t be victims of that scam, don’t you?” He grinned. “Man, you are so gullible for so smart a guy.
“Tell you what. Tomorrow morning there will be a little more data for you to look over. Same deal as before. Look it over and see what you think. Maybe in a week or so we’ll talk again.
“Oh, one other thing. I’m going to add some dramas to that batch of data. I think these will prove thought-provoking.”
“Dramas? What kind?”
“You’ll find out. T-T-F-N.”
“Hey, whoever you are, if you’re gonna just drop in, can’t you do it when I’m awake and dressed?”
“I’m not the one who works late.”
Thorne glared at Jake. Jake waved once, tapped the keypad on his bracelet, and disappeared. If Thorne had been aware of Alice in Wonderland, he might have thought that Jake resembled the Cheshire Cat; his smile seemed to be the last part of him to dematerialize.
***
Jake kept a tight reign on the Antioch Two revolution as it accelerated. Not that he particularly wanted to. He would have been happy to allow the Rosens some latitude on the ground and Evvie in her broadcasts. Unfortunately for his happiness, the three continued to show they were not experts in the business of overthrowing a corrupt regime.
A few nights after Jake’s second talk with Thorne, he was again plotting strategy with the Rosens. A slight hope sprang into Jake’s heart when Daniel said to him, “We’ve been doing some thinking about what to do next.” Could it be that they were learning? he asked himself.
“Okay. What’s your idea?”
Daniel and Clarissa exchanged smiles. “A work stoppage.”
“You mean a strike?”
“Yeah, I guess so.”
“Aside from the break stoppages? A full-blown, day-long strike?”
“Not just a day-long strike,” Clarissa said. “We stop working until Maxis negotiates with us.”
Jake let out a groan and a sigh. “Clarissa...”
“No, wait, listen. We present him with a bunch of demands he can’t possibly meet, like complete profit-sharing, and full disclosure of his budget.”
Jake sighed again. “Look, for starters, those aren’t demands that are impossible for him to meet. He’d probably agree to them to quiet things down. If he did agree to, say, those terms you just mentioned, how are you going to be certain that he isn’t cheating you?”
“We couldn’t ask for an outside audit?”
“How many auditors do you know? You think he’s going to let a government auditor in? The only way that would happen is if whoever conducts the audit can’t, or won’t, prosecute him if they find any violations. I would think at this point you would not be willing to trust him.”
“No, I guess not,” Daniel said.
“Then there’s the principle of the thing. Once you negotiate with him, you give him legitimacy. Now, hasn’t the ALG insisted that his family got this planet illegally? Isn’t that how he’s getting away with oppressing you?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, the moment you talk to Maxis, you concede that he has some right to be in charge. The point of all this is to remove him from power, not solidify his place in power. Rule of revolutions number one: you don’t negotiate with leaders who you don’t think are legitimate.”
“I guess you’re right, Jake.”
“That is why you hired me. Now, a work stoppage is fine, so long as there’s a point to it as a protect action. Can either of you think of a reason for a strike?”
“Um, to say that we’re not getting our due for our work?” Clarissa asked. “That our work isn’t worth anything?”
Jake smiled, somewhat cynically. “That’s much better. Now, draft a statement along those lines. Let’s see.” He paused to consider what should be said. “Not getting your due for your work is good line. So is your work isn’t worth anything. Hmm. Say something like, a fair day’s wage for a fair day’s work. No reason to rewrite a classic. Put in a sentence or two about leveling compensation rates between workers, foremen, and executives. A good closer would ask some questions, like ‘We’re mining all this gold and silver, why isn’t it going to us’; ‘Where are the credits from this mineral wealth going’; maybe, ‘What’s more important, credits or people.’ The statement shouldn’t be long; it should take a minute or two to read.”
“And we read it out where?”
“Not just you. Someone at every worksite reads it out when the stoppage begins. That way no one person gets fingered. We’ll arrange up here to broadcast the audio around the planet.”
“After the statement is read,” said Clarissa, “we stop working.”
“Everyone sits down and does nothing. We’ll need to make sure some of the foremen on our side take part. If some of them don’t work, this planet shuts down completely.”
“Do we do that all day? I mean, I like the idea, but it could get kinda boring.”
“Yeah, maybe. We’ll get on the audio-net and broadcast. You get the worksite leaders to talk about why this is going on. Maxis doesn’t have enough warm bodies to force you to work. Guardbots have overrides to prevent them from shooting at people who aren’t doing anything. I think after an hour or so he’ll just order everyone to go home.”
“So when do we do this?”
“Today’s what, Thursday? Let’s set it for Monday. Great way to start the week. Take the rest of the night to draft that statement. Send it to me first thing tomorrow. I’ll look it over, suggest any revisions, then we’ll send it out to the worksite leaders. Spread the word about it Sunday. Let’s see if we can’t get it as topic one at every meeting Sunday. With luck, the only ones who won’t see it coming will be Maxis and his cronies.”
“Is this stoppage a one-day thing,” Daniel asked, “or are we still going to march? Do we do both? What?”
“I think we could do another stoppage next Monday, and that’s it. About then the aftereffects of getting off Relaxafin should be peaking. But, yeah, the marches are wearing a bit thin. I think it’s time we switch to rallies. Stir up passions just a bit. You two try to think up some good speakers in the ALG.”
“Um, Jake, we are supposed to be in charge down here. Shouldn’t we be the speakers?”
“Not to get the crowd going. For that you need rabble-rousers, loud voices and flailing arms types. Once they have everyone excited, you two can come up and lay out the argument. Just make sure I either write or revise your speeches. None of this ‘new business’ and ‘old business’ stuff, got it?”
“Got it.”
“Good. We’ll set the first rally for next Wednesday. We’ll see how it goes, and how everything else happens, but I’d like another one the following Sunday.”
“That’s followed by the second work stoppage, and then what?”
“Then we’ll see where we are. Patience, kids, patience.”
“We did hire you to help us overthrow Maxis,” Clarissa told him. “When do we get to the ‘overthrow’ part of this?”
“If everything goes okay, two weeks, three at the most.”
“All right.”
“Great. I’ll get back to you tomorrow night.”
“Bye. Thanks.”
The image of the Rosens faded from the screen in front of Jake. He leaned back in his chair and sighed. He didn’t have time to recover, though. Evvie chose that moment to wander up to him. She was carrying a piece of paper in one hand.
“I’ve been doing some research, Jake. I’d like to add some songs to my playlist.” She handed him the sheet. “I overheard about that stoppage thing. I think it might be spiff to have some new tunes to ‘cast.”
“Well, let’s see what you’ve come up with.” Part of him wanted to hope, but most of his mind still had the discussion with the Rosens suppressing that hope.
He looked at the list. The very first song stood out like a palm tree on Antioch Two. He shook his head and put the list down for an instant. “’Hot and Cold Love,’ Evvie? That is your last single. What does that have to do with revolution?”
“Well...”
“No.” He reached for a pointer. He found it in front of the other chair. He tapped it on and ran the tiny light across the page, crossing out the title. “This is not a promotional opportunity.”
“How about ‘That Could Be Us?’”
“Slightly better, but it’s a ballad. We need more up-tempo songs.”
He resumed his examination of the list. The rest of her choices were a variety of somewhat appropriate material. Her selections, however, were a mix of now-obscure fist-pounding hits and hokey anthems that hadn’t worn well over the decades. One of her few good choices was the Pink Floyd classic “Money,” but linking it to the present was a bit of a stretch. Two others were good songs, but she’d named inferior remakes instead of the better originals. Unfortunately another song on her list was “Fight For Your Right To Party,” a tune he had specifically warned her about when she was writing her own revolution anthem.
He let out a sigh when he was done. “I appreciate your effort, Evvie, really. There’s some real bottom-of-the-container junk on this list. Lame remakes, outdated hits, stuff like that. And these are all pop songs. Where’s the classical music? I mean, where’s the 1812 Overture on this list? How could you miss that, or Beethoven’s Ninth?”
He handed the list back to her. “Expand your horizons and try again.”
“I can try again?”
“Yes.”
“So, I can have some say?”
“If you do a better job.”
“Spiff. Thanks.” She trotted off.
He let out a long breath. “Am I the only intelligent person taking part in this?”
“I can honestly say, yes,” Odin told him, “unless you want to count myself as a ‘person’ for the sake of this argument.”
Jake shook his head. “If I give you an inch, you’ll take a mile. Note that I said ‘intelligent person,’ not ‘intelligent being.’”
“Freedom for humans, not for machines?”
“Odin, if this is an attempt at humor, thanks. If not, I’m too tired.”
“You cannot fault me for trying.”
“Trying what?”
***
As it happened, the work stoppage went off just as Jake had said. Most of the workers, the forepersons, and even some of the guards took part. There wasn’t near enough non-participants to get anything done. After an hour and a half of the stoppage Maxis ordered everyone back to their quarters. Anyone who left their quarters the rest of that day would be “punished,” Maxis stated.
There was no executive meeting about the matter, however. Instead the executives were forced to do the essential heavy work needed to keep the planet functioning on some level. The next day things returned to some semblance of normalcy. Maxis and the other executives decided to ignore the previous day’s action, although one suggested forming a plan to react if it happened again.
Two nights later Jake paid another late-night visit on Thorne. Once the other man was awake and alert Jake asked, “Say, calling you by your last name seems a bit informal; what’s your first name?”
“We’re not friends,” Thorne snapped.
“Not yet. But we can at least be polite to each other.”
“This is your idea of polite?”
“Hey, I think you’re a smart man. You don’t mean to do bad things. I’m coming here to wake you up because I think deep down you want to do what’s right. Besides, when else would I have a chance to talk to you, man to man?”
When Thorne motioned that he’d given in, Jake gently touched his chest. “My name is Jake.”
“Jake what?”
“For now, Jake.”
“I’m Del.”
“Del? Is that short for something?”
Thorne sighed loudly. “Delbert, okay?”
“Oh. Long story?”
“Something like that.”
“Still, Del’s pretty good. Short, to the point, has a nice sound.”
“Thank you. Now, why are you here?”
“Just wanted to see if you’d caught up on those dramas I left for you.”
“I watched them, yeah.”
“Pull any lessons from those stories? Say, about what happens to right-hand men when the masses rise?”
“Huh?” An instant later Thorne’s eyes widened. “Oh.” He pointed to himself. “And you think that I’ll...?”
“Well, your options aren’t great, Del. Either you stick with Sordius to the bitter end and meet his fate, or you switch sides and survive.”
“Why should I switch sides?”
“You mean, aside from the fact that Sordius is lying to you, planning to rip you off, and mismanaging things?”
“I’m not a violent person.”
“Hey, that’s another thing we have in common.”
“What?”
“I don’t want this to turn violent. That would be messy. And expensive.”
“So what am I supposed to do?”
“Well, you agree that Sordius’ way of managing this world isn’t helping anyone but himself, don’t you?”
“Your data was impressive.”
“You think black-market deals are cheap?”
“I guess not.”
“You think that now that the workers are aware that this situation is immoral, that they’ll continue to go along with it?”
“Probably not.”
“Okay. Now, even if you executives get back control of the situation, do you think you can keep doing what you were doing forever?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, sooner or later someone’s going to slip up on one of those under-the-table deals. Those deals form an easy trail right back to Antioch Two. Now, Del, if Sordius could be persuaded to reform his methods, not only would you put down all this unrest, but you’d be safe from future danger.”
Thorne didn’t respond immediately. He seemed to consider what Jake had said. A long moment later he nodded slightly. “I suppose that makes sense.”
“Of course it does. Look over all that data again. Watch those dramas again. Think about some more, and you’ll see I’m right.”
“Yeah.” He shook his head. “No. Sordius is pretty stubborn. He’s used to getting his way. And if I go to him privately, he might not listen.”
“I thought you two were friends.”
“We are.”
“Well, I don’t know about you, but I was raised to take what my friends said seriously. That’s one reason why they’re my friends.”
“Well, yeah, but still. I don’t want to walk into his quarters and start challenging him. It just seems, well,...”
“What about in a meeting?”
“You mean in front of the other execs?” Thorne shook his head. “That seems even worse.”
“Why? What if you’re not the only one who feels this way?”
“What if I am?”
“That’s their problem.”
“No, Jake, I think it would be mine.”
“That they would be wrong and you would be right?” Jake shook his head. “Del, I think you better watch those dramas again, and pay attention to what happens to those on the wrong side of justice. Watch them with someone, aside from me or Sordius. Get a second opinion, one way or the other.”
“All right.”
“Cheer up, Del. Like I said, you’re a smart man. The smart guys usually come out of these things just fine. Unless Sordius thinks you’ve betrayed him, and then he kills you.”
“What?”
“Oh, don’t worry. That rarely happens.”
“Jake...”
“Hey, I’ll watch your back. Don’t worry.” Jake glanced at his wrist. “Would you look at the time?” He smiled to Thorne. “Gotta run. Keep that mind working, Del. Remember, smart guys usually find a way.”
***
The following Monday saw the second stoppage, and this time all but a handful of workers and a couple of forepersons took part. This time after only an hour Maxis ordered everyone to their quarters. Jake was certain that this repeat would lead to another executive meeting, and he was right. He was also certain that the meeting would be contentious. He was, however, surprised at how nasty it actually was.
It started off tense but polite. “This nonsense is simply unacceptable,” Maxis said as everyone sat down. “We can’t have another incident like this morning’s. I’m ready to take the gloves off. How are we going to do it?”
“Work ‘em till they die,” one of the male executives said.
“Don’t be an idiot,” snapped Thorne. “Once they die then what?”
“We bring in new workers.”
“From where? Where could we possibly find new workers who won’t start complaining and protesting once they find out what’s going on here?”
“What is going on here, Thorne?” Maxis asked.
“We’re breaking all sorts of galactic laws. You know that. Our risk of exposure is serious right now. The only way we’re going to stay off some prison planet is to make some changes around here.”
“Oh, no. I’m not going to put my fortune and my father at risk for some group of uncooperative workers.”
“Sir, I agree with Thorne,” Tina said. “We have got to fix what’s broken.”
“Why?” a second man asked. “Look, if we confine those workers to their quarters, feed them onsite, and cut out all this recreation, we’ll put an end to their subversion.”
“Or we’ll so piss them off that they’ll resort to violence to get back what we’ve taken away,” Thorne said. “Look, so far this has just been marches, and meetings, and stoppages. There’s been no sabotage...”
“Except to the injection system.”
“No sabotage of essential equipment, then, and no one’s been attacked or harmed. We don’t have enough guards to monitor every piece of equipment. We can’t program the bots to shoot workers who get next to the equipment.”
“Why not?”
“How will they work?”
“Then we program them to shoot at off-work times,” Maxis said, his voice rising.
Thorne’s voice followed his superior’s upward. “You don’t think that whoever’s penetrated our systems might figure that out? They could be this close to breaking into our security system. Hell, I’ll bet they’re listening in right now!”
“Don’t be ridiculous! The only spies those malcontents have is in this room.”
“Unless this room is bugged, Sordius.”
“Oh, really? I don’t see any bugs. None of the furniture’s been tampered with. How would you know if this room was bugged?”
“We’re getting off track here,” Tina interrupted. The room was quiet for a moment. “Mister Thorne is right. We have to make some concessions to the workers to calm this situation down. If they think violence is their only alternative, we’ll all be going down a road with no turning back.”
“Once we make one concession,” the first man said, “they’ll ask for another, and another, and another. If we don’t show them who’s in charge, we’ll never get them under control again.”
“If we go too far, controlling them will be the least of our worries. If it’s concessions or shooting, I vote for concessions.”
“Shoot.”
“I agree,” Maxis said.
“I don’t,” Thorne said. “How about you two?”
“I’m with Mister Maxis,” the second man answered.
“I don’t know,” said a third man. “This whole thing is a mess.”
“Make up your mind, Ross,” Maxis ordered.
“Think about it,” urged Thorne.
“That’s it! I won’t have you contradicting me anymore!”
“What are you gonna do, fire me? Who are you gonna replace me with? Most of the foremen are against us. Half the guards are, too.”
“Fine, then. Quit.”
“No way.”
“Why not?”
The room fell silent again, only this time Jake could sense that is was far more uncomfortable. He suspected that Thorne was about to say, “Because I don’t trust you,” but had hesitated. He wondered if that thought had crossed Maxis’s mind as well.
Apparently it didn’t, for Maxis broke the silence with, “I didn’t think you had a reason.”
“I think that any more discussion at this point would be stupid,” the third man told the others. “We can’t agree on what to do next.”
“I take it you’re on Thorne’s side.”
“I suppose so, sir. Well, I’m not sure if I’m on any side. It’s just that, well, we’re split, maybe down the middle. Anything that you decide to do won’t go over with some of us.”
“So what?”
“Well, sir, if the workers sense that we’re arguing, they’ll feel empowered. Empowered to reject any concessions. Empowered to fight back. Seems to me that if we aren’t unanimous, or five of six, anything we try that deals with this mess won’t work. Well, maybe it works for a week or two, or a few days, or whatever, but then we’ll either be right back here, or we’ll be at each other’s throats. I guess what I’m saying is until there’s a consensus, you shouldn’t do anything.”
“Hesitation is weakness, Ross.”
“What other options are there, sir? Take some action that two or three of us aren’t comfortable with?”
“I think what Ross means, Sordius,” Thorne said slowly, “is that someone unhappy with your decision might take matters into their own hands to correct what they perceive as your mistake.”
“Someone like you?”
“Or like them.” Thorne clearly meant the two executives supporting Maxis. “If you listened to me, would they go along with you?”
“We aren’t disloyal,” one of the two said.
“But are you passionate about your position? Are your certain you’re right and I’m wrong?”
“We’re all pretty worked up about this,” Tina observed. “We’re not going to get anywhere pointing fingers, or yelling at each other, or not listening to each other. Face it, guys, we’re stalemated. I say we go back to our quarters and do some thinking. We don’t get together again until Wednesday, and if our positions haven’t changed from today, we wait another two days. Still nothing, try again next Monday.”
“Only if we agree not to talk to each other until the next meeting,” Maxis said.
One of his supporters tried to object. “But, sir,...”
“That’s a good idea, Sordius,” Thorne told him. “That way we can’t accuse each other of plotting behind the others’ backs, or trying to get at each other in secret. You and I will give Morgan the orders.”
“Fine. If that’s it? Great. Go.” This six drifted out of the room without a word.
“Jake,” Odin asked, “do you believe this impasse will last?”
“I hope not, but I think it will.”
“Then, would it not be wise to accelerate your plan of revolution?”
“Not yet. Thorne’s still a work in progress. I don’t think he’s completely persuaded just yet.”
“Another late-night visit, then?”
“Oh, I think I’ll be nice this time. I’ll visit before he goes to bed tonight.”
***
(End of Part 2)
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