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When David Valentine visited Liberty, it was the finest facility of its kind in the Texas and Ozark Free Republics-and it was still under construction.
* * * *
After checking their luggage at the station, Valentine paid for a horse cart so he and his new sergeant major could ride through town-or the camp, rather-saving Patel's legs from the walk.
They passed through two checkpoints-there were no wire, towers, or searchlights at least visible from Main Street, as Valentine learned. There were guards watching from a balcony or two, and more mounted officers riding horses chatted and swapped news with the locals.
They held handkerchiefs over their faces as they passed through construction dust. Men in dungarees with sleeves and trouser legs of different colors were digging a foundation.
"POWs?" Patel asked.
"Doesn't look like it. I don't see a single guard," Valentine said.
"Look at all the signage," Patel said, gesturing to a general store. A universal white stick figure pushed a wheeled basket across a plain green background. Iconography for beds, phones, and even babies and animals hung over other doors or were stuck into second-floor windows. The streets, too, were color coded and marked with animal-cracker outlines.
Valentine had visited more Kurian Zones than even an experienced soldier like Patel. He was used to signs both written and in iconography. It hadn't registered this time for some reason.
"It's for illiterates," Valentine said. "Shopping cart for store, dollar sign for bank, syringe for medical center . . ."
Of course in the Free Territory there wouldn't be a smiley face for the NUC building.
They ate in a diner, killing time until Valentine's appointment with the camp supervisor.
Which was just as well, as the service was slow to the point that Valentine got their own coffee refills.
Valentine helped the attendant at the register make change for his bill, when Valentine threw him off by paying a $12.62 tab with $13.12.
"I'm all muddled up from multiplication and division, sir," the attendant said, tucking his head in that old Kurian Zone gesture of submission. "Clean forgot my subtraction."
"Take your time," Valentine said. "I just wanted a couple of dollars to buy a paper."
"Always amazes me that they can even find their way to the Territory," Patel said once they were back on the street.
"West to the big river and freedom," Valentine said. "The underground helps some of them along."
Valentine turned a WET PAINT sign right side up as they walked down the sidewalk, and the gap-toothed painter gave them a Morse-code grin and a thumbs-up.
Liberty's administration building looked like an old town hall or possibly a courthouse.
They got directions from a bright and attentive young woman in another strange dual-color outfit.
Supervisor Felshtinsky had a nice corner office with a view of the towering rice mills and a staff of three. One was arguing over the phone with someone about duck poaching and the other two were buried in paperwork.
"My name's Argent," Valentine said. "Southern Command. I've got a two o'clock appointment."
"The super is out on the grounds," an older woman said. "I can page him on the walkie-talkie."
"I'd appreciate that."
"Sorry he's out, but you never know with the trains," she said, smiling. "He's a very busy man."
The other put down his pencil and turned around and took a plastic bag off a bureau.
"Welcome to Camp Liberty. Visitor ID tags and a house key," he explained, handing the bag to Valentine. "You can use the ID tag to eat in any of the cafeterias. Your trailer's in the southeast quadrant, just behind this building. Go in through the green arch. You can see it from the south side of this building. You're lucky: As guests, you have a kitchen with a fridge and everything. We'd appreciate it if you didn't wear pistols, and you can check any other guns in at the armory. It's in this building's basement."
"Why no pistols?" Patel asked.
"Most of the folks here, they just wilt when they see someone with a gun," the older woman with the walkie-talkie said. She spoke into it again and then returned her attention to Patel. "Might as well put on a pair of lifts and a Reaper's hood."
