AllFreeNovel
Share Us
These tunnels were wood paneled, with real door handles separating the garage-sized offices from the carpeted corridor. Soft music played through speakers hidden within the electrical and water conduits. She stopped at a door with a laminated plate that read "Senator John Bey, Senior Senator From Oklahoma", and knocked.
The door opened a crack, and Valentine saw a ferretlike man with a widow's peak. "Ducks".
"Visitor for the senator, Larry".
"Okay, but it has to be fast. He's got a party dinner to attend".
Valentine entered the office, lit by soft bulbs in tasteful lamps. The senator sat in a little chair by a porcelain sink, being shaved by an attendant while another staffer changed his shoes and socks. Valentine thought his face looked careworn.
A bodyguard with a holster bulging under his paper jacket stood in a corner with a good view of the whole room.
* * *
Ducks led him to the end of the room and Valentine checked himself in the mirror. "Senator, this is Major David Valentine, Pacific Command by way of Southern Command. Major, this of course is Senator Bey". She turned to the man with the widow's peak. "And this is Larry Decasse, the senator's chief of staff".
"Fourteen and counting", Decasse said. "I could use three more if we could just get the funding".
Valentine remembered hearing that Southern Command's commander in chief, General Phillips, ran his office with the help of two staffers and a communications officer, and had refused the protection of a bodyguard.
"I think I know your name, son. How can I help the Cause and the people I represent?"
"Sir", Valentine said, suddenly unsure about how one addressed a senator, "I've got two reports. One needs to be transmitted to Southern Command". Valentine laid the first document, his one-page report on finding Sir and relaying the message that Southern Command desperately needed Lifeweaver help, down on the desk.
"The second is more for your eyes, though I ask it to go to Southern Command as well. It concerns what can only be called war crimes carried out by Pacific Command".
"War crimes?" the senator asked, and Decasse hurried to the senator's side. "Who? What? We just voted a commendation for Adler for opening a new line to British Columbia".
Mr. A. "It's in the report. They slaughter Kurian populations. That's why Adler is so successful. He murders whole towns".
"It's not slaughter", Decasse said. "They're relocating populations. He's the most effective commander in the Resistance. Very popular on the Hill".
Valentine ignored the chief of staff and stared at the senator. "Call it what you like, it's deliberate murder of civilians. Lot easier to win battles when the other side can't shoot back".
"I don't like this", the senator said. "Staff, give me and the major here a moment of privacy. Yes, you too, Ducks. You're not in trouble... you did your job".
Everyone passed out into the hall, save the senator and the bodyguard. He wiped the rest of the lather from his face and tossed the towel in the sink.
"Major, you think we're insulated here from the world, and about as useful as your grandfather's third nipple.
We've got channels of communication all over the country, even a couple of fake ones we let the Kurians listen to going overseas. But for all the folderol, Mount Omega is still wired into the world better than most any other place I can think of. I probably know more about operations in the Cascades than you do".
Valentine felt gut-kicked. "So you approve?"
"If you're asking me if I like it, no, I don't. Do I condone it? Yes. It's a hard truth of this war. We just lost a Freehold in the Balkans and as far as we can tell, the Koreans no longer exist. If it weren't for the Australians, bits of Alaska, and the del Fuegans, the Pacific Rim would be a giant Kurian circle. Southern Command got lucky, but it's about exhausted, and Denver doesn't have electricity anymore. The only victories being won are up in Pacific Command, and he's taking on the toughest, best-organized Kurians west of the Mississippi. Now's not the time for some kind of purge. We do those kind of blood sports here, but nothing that gets said or done in Mount Omega makes a damn bit of difference. I'm under no illusions about matters here. But if we're ever going to win this thing, it'll take leadership from men like Adler. There's even talk of making him commander in chief, if his plan to drive down into California succeeds. We haven't had a president since 'twenty-two".
The gut-kick turned his meal to bile. Bile that had to come up and out.
"Some leadership. Your speech code in the guidebook says that 'no person is to be addressed in a derogatory or demeaning fashion.' But murder is just fine for someone a couple hundred miles away".
Senator Bey's face reddened. "Sure, it's a silly bit of pantomime. But we can afford the niceties of civilization here. The trick is to get the rest of the country back to the point where we can sue each other over passing gas while someone else is speaking. I'm going to paraphrase Lincoln here. The objective is to win the war. If we can win it by killing every last person in a Kurian Zone, I want to win that way. If we can win it without killing anyone, even better. If we can win it by killing some and letting others alone, I'd be for that too".
A strong knock sounded at the door. "Senator!" Decasse's voice sounded. "The Capitol Police are here".
"Now what?"
Valentine suspected he knew what. The bodyguard went to the door.
"Yes?" the bodyguard asked as he opened it.
