Vernor Vinge - Across Realtime 2 - The Ungoverned

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Police - Wil's outfit - capitalized on the public's feeling of trust for old

names, old traditions.

Even so, there's something more dignified about a company with a

name like "Michigan State Police," thought Brierson as he brought his flier

down on the pad next to Al's HQ. He stepped out of the cockpit into an

eerie morning silence: It was close to sunrise, yet the sky remained dark,

the air humid. Thunderheads march around half the horizon. A constant

flicker of lightning chased back and forth within those clouds, yet there was

not the faintest sound of thunder. He had seen a tornado killer on his way

in, a lone eagle in the far sky. The weather was almost as ominous as the

plea East Lansing HQ had received from Al's just four hours earlier.

A spindly figure came bouncing out of the shadows. "Am I glad to see

you! The name's Alvin Swensen. I'm the proprietor." He shook Wil's hand

enthusiastically. "I was afraid you might wait till the front passed though."

Swensen was dressed in baggy pants and a padded jacket that would have

made Frank Nitti proud. The local police chief urged the other officer up the

steps. No one else was outside; the place seemed just as deserted as one

might expect a rural police station early on a weekday morning. Where was

the emergency?

Inside, a clerk (cop?) dressed very much like Al sat before a comm con-

sole. Swensen grinned at the other. "It's the MSP, all right. They're really

the woo, floor beneath settled perceptibly under Wil's ninety kilo tread. Bri-

erson almost smiled: maybe Al wasn't so crazy. The gangster motif ex-

cused absolutely slovenly maintenance Few customers would trust a nor-

mal police organization that kept its buildings like this.

Big Al urged Brierson into the light and waved him to an overstuffed

chair. Though tall and angular, Swensen looker more like a school teacher

than a cop - or a gangster. Hi reddish-blond hair stood out raggedly from

his head, a though he had been pulling at it, or had just been wakened

From the man's fidgety pacing about the room, Wil guesses the first possi-

bility more likely. Swensen seemed about at the end of his rope, and Wil's

arrival was some kind of reprieve. He glanced at Wil's name plate and his

grin spread even further. "W W Brierson. I've heard of you. I knew the

Michigan State Police wouldn't let me down; they've sent their best."

Wil smiled in return, hoping his embarrassment didn't show. Part of his

present fame was a company hype that h, had come to loathe. "Thank you,

uh, Big Al. We feel a special obligation to small police companies that serve

no-right-to bear-arms customers. But you're going to have to tell m( more.

Why so secretive?"

A1 waved his hands. "I'm afraid of blabbermouths. :: couldn't take a

chance on the enemy learning I was bringing you into it until you were on

the scene and in action."

always had plenty of internal troubles. And even though they claim all lands

south of the Arkansas River,

258

they have no settlements within hundreds of kilometers of here. Even

now I think this is a bit of adventurism that can be squelched by an applica-

tion of point force." He glanced at his watch. "Look, no matter how impor-

tant speed is, we've got to do some coordinating. How many attack patrols

are coming in after you?"

He saw the look on Brierson's face. "What? Only one? Damn. Well I

suppose it's my fault, being secret like, but-"

Wil cleared his throat. "Big Al, there's only me. I'm the only agent MSP

sent."

The other's face seemed to collapse, the relief changing to despair, then

to a weak rage. "G-God d-damn you to hell, Brierson. I may lose everything

I've built here, and the people who trusted me may lose everything they

own. But I swear I'm going to sue your Michigan State Police into oblivion.

Fifteen years I've paid you guys premiums and never a claim. And now

when I need max firepower, they send me one asshole with a ten-millimeter

popgun."

"You're right. I'm sorry. . . . I'm paying for the results, not the methods.

But I know what we're up against . . . and I'm damned scared."

"And that's one reason why I'm here, Al: To find out exactly what we're

up against before we jump in with our guns blazing and our pants down.

What are you expecting?"

AI leaned back in the softly creaking chair. He looked out through the

window into the dark silence of the morning and for a moment seemed to

relax. However improbably, someone else was going to take on his prob-

lems. "They started about three years ago. It seemed innocent enough and

it was certainly legal . . . ." Though the Republic of New Mexico claimed the

lands from the Colorado on the west to

259

gration from the Republic toward the more prosperous north had been

steadily increasing. Few of the southerners stayed in the Manhattan area:

most jobs were further north. But during these last three years, wealth, New

Mexicans had moved into the area, men willing to pa almost any price for

farmland.

"It's clear now that these people were stooges for the Republic govern-

ment. They paid more money than the could reasonably recoup from farm-

ing-and the purchase started right after the election of their latest president.

You know - Hastings whatever his name is. Anyway, it made pleasant

boom time for a lot of us. If some wealthy New Mexicans wanted isolated

estates in the ungoverned land that was certainly their business. All the

wealth in New Mexico couldn't buy one tenth of Kansas, anyway." At first

the settlers had been model neighbors. They even signed u; with Al's Pro-

tection Racket and Midwest Jurisprudence. Bt as the months passed, it

became obvious that they were neither farmers nor leisured rich. As near

as the locals could figure it, they were some kind of labor contractors. An

tin ending stream of trucks brought raggedly dressed men am women from

the cities of the south: Galveston, Corpus Christi, even from the capital,

Albuquerque. These folk were housed in barracks the owners had built on

the farms Anyone could see -looking in from above - that the newcomers

spent long hours working in the fields.

their contract bosses would truck'em back to the barracks, so our farm-

ers had scarcely more overhead than they would with automatics. Overall,

the NMs underbid the equipment rental people by five percent or so."

Wil began to see where all this was leading. Someone in the Republic

seemed to understand Midwest Jurisprudence. "Hmm, you know, AI, if I

were one of those laborers, I wouldn't hang around in farm country. There

are labor services up north that can get an apprentice butler more money

than some rookie cops make. Rich people will always want servants, and

nowadays the pay is tremendous."

Big Al nodded. "We've got rich folks, too. When they saw what these

newcomers would work for, they started drooling. And that's when things

began to get sticky." At first the NM laborers could scarcely understand

what they were being offered. They insisted that they were required to work

when and where they were told. A few, a very few at first, took the job of-

fers. "They were really scared, those first ones. Over and over, they wanted

assurances that they would be allowed to return to their families at the end

of the work day. They seemed to think the deal was some kidnap plot

rather than an offer of employment. Then it was like an explosion: they

couldn't wait to drop the farm jobs. They wanted to bring their families with

them."

"And that's when your new neighbors closed up the camps?"

tlements and explain to those poor folks how they stood with the law. I went

along with a couple of my boys. They refused to let us in and punched out

the Red Cross fellow when he got insistent. Their chief thug- fellow named

Strong - gave me a signed policy cancellation, and told me that from now

on they would handle all their own

261

Wil nodded. "Right. You're only choice was to call in someone with fire-

power, namely my company."

Big Al leaned forward, his indignation retreating before fear. "Of course.

But there's more, Lieutenant. Those workers - those slaves -were part of

the trap that was set for us. But most of them are brave, honest people.

They know what's happening, and they aren't any happier about it than I

am. Last night, after we got our butts kicked, three of them escaped. They

walked fifteen kilometers into Manhattan to see me, to beg me not to inter-

vene. To beg me not to honor the contract.

"And they told me why: For a hundred kilometer stretch of their truck

ride up here, they weren't allowed to see the country they were going

through. But they heard plenty. And one of them managed to work a peep

hole in the side of the truck. He saw armored vehicles and attack aircraft

under heavy camouflage just south of the Arkansas. The damn New Mexi-

cans have taken part of their Texas garrison force and holed it up less than

ten minutes flying time from Manhattan. And they're ready to move."

It was possible. The Water Wars with Aztlan had been winding down

these last few years. The New Mexicans should have equipment reserves,

even counting what they needed to keep the Gulf Coast cities in line. Wil

got up and walked to the window. Dawn was lighting the sky above the far

cloud banks. There was green in the rolling land that stretched away from

262

him - would be contractually obligated to use force against their settle-

ments.

"So. If we hold off on enforcement, how long do you think the invasion

would be postponed?" It hurt to suggest bending a contract like that, but

there was precedent: in hostage cases you often used time as a weapon.

"It wouldn't slow 'em up a second. One way or another they're moving

on us. I figure if we don't do anything, they'll use my `raid' yesterday as

their excuse. The only thing I can see is for MSP to put everything it can

spare on the line when those bastards come across. That sort of massive

resistance might be enough to scare 'em back."

Brierson turned from the window to look at Big Al. He understood now

the shaking fear in the other. It had taken guts for the other to wait here

through the night. But now it was W. W. Brierson's baby. "Okay, Big Al.

With your permission, I'll take charge."

"You got it, Lieutenant!" Al was out of his chair, a smile splitting his face.

Wil was already starting for the door. "The first thing to do is get away

from this particular ground zero. How many in the building?"

`Just two besides me."

"Round 'em up and bring them to the front room. If you have any fire-

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摘要：

Police-Wil'soutfit-capitalizedonthepublic'sfeelingoftrustforoldnames,oldtraditions.Evenso,there'ssomethingmoredignifiedaboutacompanywithanamelike"MichiganStatePolice,"thoughtBriersonashebroughthisflierdownonthepadnexttoAl'sHQ.Hesteppedoutofthecockpitintoaneeriemorningsilence:Itwasclosetosunrise,yett...

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Vernor Vinge - Across Realtime 2 - The Ungoverned

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