A Tale Of The Continuing Time - The Last Dancer Part 64

"Virtually. We've been watching the city ever since we got the spysats back with reasonable confidence; that's the Latham Building. It sits up close to the water; plaza facing westward is full of rebel military hardware. And Reb traffic moves in and out of there pretty heavily. DataWatch confirms, it's the endpoint of much of their communications."

"Troop strength?"

"Hard to say. They've been recruiting like crazy, of course; and their cause is awfully popular. This is a guess, Commissionaire-"

"I'll accept it as such."

"Forty-five to fifty-five thousand under arms, seven or eight thousand of them core Reb, maybe a thousand core Claw; probably the Claw are running the recruitment effort. The Temples are popular in California, it was their birthplace. Another half million to three quarters million will fight if given arms to do so."

"It will take us four to five days to follow the rebel retreat overland, all the way back to San Diego."

"Yes, sir. That's correct. And another week to two weeks, likely, to completely secure the city."

"How many semiballistics can we drop on them?"

"At once? Sixteen hundred and forty-five."

"The strike force that dropped on Los Angeles," said Vance quietly. "Prepare plans to drop the same group on San Diego. Donot let anyone except me see these plans."

"Yes, Commissionaire."

After Hile had left, Vance placed a call to Secretary General Eddore.

Eddore took his call instantly; a sign of how things had changed in the last few weeks. His image appeared floating in s.p.a.ce in front of Vance; and when he spoke, he used French, something he had never done before in speaking with Vance. "Commissionaire Vance."

It was not difficult for Vance to hide his amus.e.m.e.nt. "Sir."

"We received a communique from the rebels this afternoon."

It was news to Vance. "Indeed?" he said cautiously.

"Mister Obodi and I talked briefly. He wants a meeting."

"For?"

Eddore shook his head. "He would not say. At a guess, he wants to negotiate a surrender."

"And when does he wish to have this meeting?"

Eddore said, "He suggested Monday. The twentieth. And he is offering a cease-fire until that date, starting Friday at midnight."

Elite Commissionaire Mohammed Vance smiled at the Secretary General. It was always a difficult thing for him to do, with his face so stiff; but this was a less difficult occasion than usual. He was genuinely pleased. "Monday would be a fine day."

Eddore studied Vance. Eddore's use of French made all of his speech sound more formal, as he a.s.sembled each sentence in his head. Vance understood the problem; he had it himself with English.

"That is not, to be honest, quite the reaction I was expecting from you, Commissionaire Vance."

Vance shrugged. "Let's see what Mister Obodi has to offer us."

"I will announce the cease-fire this afternoon at four, to take effect at midnight tonight. Will that give you time to inform your troops?"

"You're thoughtful, sir. I wouldn't like them to learn it from the Boards."

Eddore seemed on the verge of speaking, then nodded and vanished.

"Command, call Captain Hile."

Hile's image appeared in front of Vance almost instantaneously. "Sir?"

"Captain, two things; first, announce to the troops that a cease-fire will take place tonight, at midnight local time; that negotiations for surrender of the rebels will commence Monday."

The officer stiffened. "Sir."

"Second, the plans we discussed."

"Yes, sir."

"I want them ready by tomorrow morning."

"Yes, sir."

"I want the strike force ready to go Sat.u.r.day, at first darkness."

"Yes,sir !"

"That will be all, Captain."

- 25 -.

David Castanaveras awoke in a cold sweat.

He groped for the wire, hands shaking, wondering what had awakened him. He sat in the darkness of his quarters for a long time, wire in hand, fighting against the strength of his need, searching for the willpower to put the wire down. He needed to think, and he couldn't do that when the wire was in.

Finally he shuddered, set it for the lowest current, and plugged it in, and then sat in the darkness of his quarters, smiling blissfully under the caress of electric ecstasy.

His room was a converted office; the systerm had been ripped out, so that he could not call out; but otherwise it was as its previous owner had left it, down to the desk and the personal holos on the desk.

He slept on a cot in the corner.

At length, he was not sure how long it was, it occurred to him that he was hungry. He brushed his hair to hide the plug and, wearing a dreamy juice-junkie smile, went to look for something to eat. The waldo that had been a.s.signed to guard him padded down the corridor after him, eight metal legs making gentle clicking sounds on the gleaming tile.

The cafeteria-it had been a public restaurant until the rebels took over the building-sat on the third floor, immediately beside Operations. Operations had quite recently been the offices of Greenberg & Ba.s.s. David's room was on the nineteenth floor, immediately beneath the penthouse, and Obodi; he took the lift, asked for the third floor.

The entire fourth floor was the health club where they had been letting his sister work out.

He pa.s.sed through Operations on the way to the cafeteria, and paused briefly to watch the colored lights that showed the positions of rebel and Unification forces, against a map of California. The rebel forces were shown in red, the Unification forces in blue; there was vastly more blue territory on the maps than red-significantly more than there had been only a few days prior.

It was 12:12 a.m., just after midnight on Sat.u.r.day.

The cease-fire had been in effect for twelve minutes.

In the restaurant, he found Callia Sierran sitting at one of the tables, with coffee and toast before her.

That late at night the restaurant was nearly empty-Callia at one table, half a dozen Johnny Rebs at another, only a couple of staff on duty in the restaurant-but she did not look surprised when he sat down across from her. She was auditing text on her handheld, and seemed weary.

A large pack of Wrigley's Spearmint gum sat on the table in front of her.

He thought about what to say to her. She did not know him, not really; had no idea that he was Denice's brother; did not know that Denice was a Castanaveras. All she knew was that he worked for Mister Obodi, and that he was a juice junkie. She wasn't certain about his name.

She knew interesting things about Denice. He sat quietly with her for a while, remembering conversations she'd had with his sister.

Finally he said, "How are you, Callia Sierran?"

She did not look at him. "I've been better. We're getting slaughtered. PKF took back San Francisco, they're through with Los Angeles, and moving south about forty klicks a day. And we're not doing a d.a.m.n thing to stop them. We're still holding through San Diego County and south down into Mexico, including Baja I'm told, but I don't know for how long. It surprises me we got this cease-fire; I wouldn't have done it in their skin. However it happened, though, it's a good thing; we need it desperately."

David said mildly, "I wouldn't worry."

The flash of pity he felt from her did not even bother him. Callia said wearily, "I'm sure you wouldn't."

David smiled at her. "Obodi's got it figured out. It'll be fine."

"He sure has people thinking so."

David nodded. "He really does. I've seen the simulations, the real ones. He probably won't have to destroy more than two or three cities, no more than four for sure."

Callia turned off her handheld and sat looking at him. Behind her, through the restaurant's windows, David could see San Diego's nighttime sky. "What?"

"The warheads." At her uncomprehending look, David said, "The j.a.panese. They gave him nuclear warheads." He smiled at her again. "Twenty-two of them."

Callia Sierran tried calling Riverside. Communication was temporarily out, the operator told her, in a voice that was nothing even remotely human.

"Ring? Is that you?"

"Yes."

"You're managing communications now."

"Mister Obodi requested it."

"I see."

She left the building, requisitioned a jeep and had it drive her over to the local Temple. Lan was there, in the outer building, running the recruiting drive; despite the hour, nearly 2:00 a.m., they were still processing volunteers by the hundreds, issuing them American flag armbands and laser rifles. The rifles would not actually fire until one of the several thousand authorized core members of the Claw or Reb activated them.

Callia waited until Lan was done with his applicant, and called him away. The Reverend herself took over Lan's table, and sat down with the next applicant.

They went on into the Temple proper. Four rows of pews, pseudowood, faced inward to the central area where the Reverend gave her sermons. Stained-gla.s.s windows, showing scenes from the life of the Prophet Harry, were backlit by spotlights, sending light showering down into the Temple in a shattered rainbow.

Callia said softly, "Pray with me."

They knelt together, inside the brilliant rainbow at the center of the circle, facing one another.

"I can't get ahold of Domino or Nicole."

"They're not answering? Lovely doesn't surprise me, but Domino?"

"I'm not getting through. I think I'm being stopped by Ring."

"So?"

"Obodi," Callia told him, "has hydrogen bombs. And he's prepared to use them."

Lan was silent for a long moment. "Okay."

"What?"

"I will pray with you."

Probably the greatest accompishment of the Unification was that it made nuclear weapons unnecessary. You don't remember, for I have made a world where you don't need to remember.

But when I was a child we lived in the shadow of the Bomb. You capitalize that word.Bomb.It was the thing that would destroy everything, all of us, all at once. We had the ability to fry each other whenever we all finally got up the nerve. To end humanity forever on any given day.

Wehadto have the Unification. Today you all remember that we fought the Unification War because the ecosphere was failing, because we had poisoned and overpopulated the world to the point where we were dying of our own wastes. You remember this, because you are still dealing with it today.

But you do not remember the Bomb. Because once we won, the Bomb went away. We destroyed them, all the city-killers. And we'd have destroyed the tacnukes if I'd had my way-and today you, and your children, remember only that the Unification was fought to save Mother Earth.

So you've forgotten that it was also fought because we were terrified of the Bomb. But if anyone ever comes among you, and suggests using such weapons again, I think you will remember your fear, and quickly.

Ecological catastrophes take time; time to build up, time to cure.

The Bomb is a one-day eternal mistake.

If anyone ever comes among you again, and suggests using such weapons, you will be afraid.

Youshouldbe afraid.

-Sarah Almundsen, founder of the Unification, in an interview shortly before her death in 2028.

When they had finished praying, Callia said, "You stay here; I'm going to go talk to him, first thing in the morning."

"Okay."

"I'll probably try to kill him."

"The rebellion's over if that happens. You know that."