Brierson looked through the window at the bright winter"s day. The land was familiar. He was back in Michigan, probably at Okemos Central Medical. But Beth didn"t look much older. "Around six months, I"d guess."
Big Al nodded. "And, no, I haven"t been sitting here every day watching your face for some sign of life. I happened to be in East Lansing today. My Protection Racket still has some insurance claims against your company. MSP paid off all the big items quick, but some of the little things-bullet holes in outbuildings, stuff like that-they"re dragging their heels on. Anyway, I thought I"d drop by and... see how you"re doing."
"Hmm. So you"re not saluting the New Mexican flag down there in Manhattan?"
"What? h.e.l.l no, we"re not!" Then Al seemed to remember who he was talking to. "Look, Wil, in a few minutes you"re gonna have the medical staff in here patting themselves on the back for pulling off another medical miracle, and your family will be right on top of that. And after that, your Colonel Potts will fill you in again on everything that"s happened. Do you really want Al Swensen s Three Minute History of the Great Plains War?"
Wil nodded.
"Okay." Big Al moved his chair close to the bed. "The New Mexicans pulled back from the ungoverned lands less than three days after they grabbed you and me and Jim Turner..." The official Republic view was that the Great Plains Action was a victory for the decisive and restrained use of military force. The "roving gangster bands" of the ungoverned wastes had been punished for their abuse of New Mexican settlers, and one W. W. Brierson, the ringleader of the northern criminals, had been killed.
"I"m dead?" said Wil.
"Dead enough for their purposes." Big Al seemed momentarily uneasy. "I don"t know whether I should tell a sick man how much sicker he once was-but you got hit in the back of the head with a five-millimeter exploder. The Newmex didn"t hurt me or Jim, so I don"t think it was vengeance. But when they blew in the door, there you were, doing something with their command equipment. They were already hurting, and they didn"t have any stun guns, I guess."
A five-millimeter exploder. Wil knew what they could do. He should be dead. If it hit near the neck, there might be some forebrain tissue left, but the front of his face would have been blown out. He touched his nose wonderingly.
Al saw the motion. "Don"t worry. You"re as beautiful as ever. But at the time, you looked very dead-even to their best medics. They popped you into stasis. The three of us spent nearly a month in detention in Oklahoma. When we were "repatriated," the people at Okemos Central didn"t have any trouble growing back the front of your face. Maybe even the New Mexicans could do that. The problem is, you"re missing a chunk of brain," he made patted the back of his head. "That they couldn"t grow back. So they replaced it with processing equipment, and tried to interface that with what was left." they couldn"t grow back. So they replaced it with processing equipment, and tried to interface that with what was left."
Wil experienced a sudden, chilling moment of introspection. He really should be dead. Could this all be in the imagination of some d.a.m.ned prosthesis program?
Al saw his face, and looked stricken. "Honest, Wil, it wasn"t that large a piece. Just big enough to fool those dumba.s.s New Mexicans."
The moment pa.s.sed and Brierson almost chuckled. If self-awareness were suspect, there could scarcely be certainty of anything.
"Okay. So the New Mexican incursion was a great success. Now tell me why they really left. Was it simply the Schwartz bomb?"
"I think that was part of it." Even with the nuke, the casualties had not been high. Only the troops and tankers within three or four thousand meters of the blast were killed-perhaps twenty-five hundred men. This was enormous by the standards Wil was used to, but not by the measure of the Water Wars. Overall, the New Mexicans could claim that it had been an "inexpensive" action.
But the evidence of casual acceptance of nuclear warfare, all the way down to the level of an ordinary farmer, was terrifying to the New Mexican bra.s.s. Annexing the Midwest would be like running a gradeschool where the kids carry slug guns. They probably didn"t realize that Schwartz would have been lynched the first time he stepped off his property if his neighbors had realized beforehand that he was nuke-armed.
"But I think your little phone call was just as important."
"About using the tornado killers?"
"Yeah. It"s one thing to step on a rattlesnake-and another to suddenly realize you"re up to your ankles in "em. I bet the weather services have equipped hundreds of farms with killers-all the way from Okemos to Greeley." And, as Wil had realized on that summer day when last he was truly conscious, a tornado killer is essentially an aerial torpedo. Their use was coordinated by the meteorological companies, which paid individual farmers to house them. During severe weather alerts, coordinating processors at a met service headquarters monitored remote sensors, and launched killers from appropriate points in the countryside. Normally, they would be airborne for minutes, but they could loiter for hours. When remote sensing found a twister, the killers came in at the top of the funnel, generated a fifty-meter bobble-and destabilized the vortex.
Take that loiter capability, make trivial changes in the flight software-and you have a weapon capable of flying hundreds of kilometers and delivering a one tonne payload with pinpoint accuracy. "Even without nukes they"re pretty fearsome. Especially if used like you suggested."
Wil shrugged. Actually, the target he had suggested was the usual one when dealing with marauding gangs. Only the scale was different.
"You know the Trasks-that family you called right at the end? Bill Trask"s brother rents s.p.a.ce for three killers to Topeka Met. They stole one of them and did just like you said. The news services had spotted Martinez"s location; the Trasks flew the killer right into the roof of the mansion he and his staff were using down in Oklahoma. We got satellite pics of what happened. Those New Mexican big shots came storming out of there like ants in a meth fire." Even now, months later, the memory made Big Al laugh. "Bill Trask told me he painted something like "Hey, hey Hastings, the next one is for real!" on the fuselage. I bet even yet, their top people are living under concrete, wondering whether to keep their bobble suppressors up or down.
"But they got the message. Inside of twelve hours, their troops were moving back south and they were starting to talk about their statesmanship and the lesson they had taught..."
Wil started to laugh, too. The room shimmered colorfully in time with his laughter. It was not painful, but it was disconcerting enough to make him stop. "Good. So we didn"t need those b.u.ms from Topeka Met."
"Right. Fact is, they had me arrest the Trasks for theft. But when they finally got their corporate head out of the dirt, they dropped charges and tried to pretend it had been their idea all along. Now they"re modifying their killers and selling the emergency control rights."
Far away (he remembered the long hallways at Okemos Central), he heard voices. And none familiar. d.a.m.n. The medics were going to get to him before his family. Big Al heard the commotion, too. He stuck his head out the door, then said to Wil, "Well, Lieutenant, this is where I dessert, You know the short version, anyway." He walked across the room to pick up his data set.
Wil followed him with his eyes. "So it all ended for the best, except..." except for all those poor New Mexican souls caught under a light brighter than any Kansas sun, except for except for all those poor New Mexican souls caught under a light brighter than any Kansas sun, except for...
"Kiki and Schwartz. I wish they could know how thing turned out."
Big Al stopped halfway to the door, a surprised look on his face. "Kiki and Jake? One is too smart to die and the other is too mean! She knew Jake would thump her for bringing the New Mexicans across his land. She and my boys were way underground long before he wiped off: And Jake was dug in even deeper.
"h.e.l.l, Wil, they"re even bigger celebrities than you are! Old Jake has become the Midwest"s pop armadillo. None of us ever guessed, least of all him: he enjoys enjoys being a public person. He and Kiki have buried the hatchet. Now they"re talking about a world-wide club for armadillos. They figure if one can stop an entire nation state, what can a bunch of them do? You know: "Make the world safe for the ungoverned." " being a public person. He and Kiki have buried the hatchet. Now they"re talking about a world-wide club for armadillos. They figure if one can stop an entire nation state, what can a bunch of them do? You know: "Make the world safe for the ungoverned." "
Then he was gone. Wil had just a moment to chew on the problems van Steen and Schwartz would cause the Michigan State Police before the triumphant med techs crowded into his room.