Troy Rising 1 - Live Free or Die (14 page)

“And Tyler Vernon didn't run for office,” Tyler said, smiling thinly. “In case nobody
covered this in history class, when you work to get into the chair you're occupying, that
comes with a lot of responsibility. That's why you get perks like a car and driver and
your own airplane. Not to mention a nice crash pad.”

“Can we cut the verbal fencing?” the President asked.

“Gladly.”

“You're really upsetting the Horvath,” the President said.

“Are we reasonably secure?” Tyler asked.

“We are, as far as can be determined, very secure,” the President said. “One of the things
we've been using the credits we've gotten for is getting something resembling security
back in our systems.”

“Which, I'm sure doesn't upset the Horvath at all,” Tyler said. “And I'm planning on
upsetting them even more.”

“Why in God's name?” the President said, angrily. “Damnit, Vernon, this is not a game!
There are people's lives at stake.
Millions
of people's lives at stake.”

“Yes, there are,” Tyler said. “And I'm fully cognizant of that. I'm going to do my level
best,
am
doing my level best, to keep them alive. But there is more to life than simple existence,
Mr. President. Sorry, but this country was not founded on existing under tyranny. Quite
the opposite.”

“That is a very nice sentiment,” the President said. “But in the Revolutionary War, the
nation did not face extermination.”

“Did it not?” Tyler asked. “ 'Those who would surrender essential liberties for a little
temporary security shall receive neither security nor liberty.' That gets thrown around a
lot in terms of whether we incarcerate terrorists, tap communications, what we're allowed
to do with our sexual organs. Essential liberties before the Horvath
used
to mean, or seem to mean, whether we had the right to get drunk on a flight and insult
stewardesses. Whether marriage was between any two people whatever their gender! But what
Ben Franklin meant by
security
was whether your home was going to be burned to the ground. Whether you were going to be
killed without rhyme nor reason. Whether property and businesses would be seized.
This
is what essential liberties really
mean
, Mr. President. And what temporary security really
means
. And we have given up
essential
liberties for temporary security and how very secure do
you
feel, Mr. President? Sitting at ground zero of Horvath target number one?
How secure?
”

“Then do
you
have a plan to get the Horvath from the sky?” the President asked, angrily. “Because the
Joint Chiefs are the people who are
hottest
on my neck to get you under control. They don't want to lock you up, they want to bury
you!”

“I've got about as much of a plan as the Continental Congress had in 1775,” Tyler said.

“And that is... ?”

“Win or go down fighting.”

“That's suicide,” the President said. “You're nuts.”

“'Our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.' They want the maple syrup, let them send
their own troops down. And then things will get
really
hot.”

“They won't send
their
troops,” the President said, touching a folder.

“Oh,” Tyler said as if gut punched. “You have to be
kidding
! That is
low
. Not to mention unconstitutional.”

“I'll give you a quote,” the President said. “ 'The Constitution is a document, not a
suicide pact.' We've been in... close negotiations. Send in our troops and get the maple
syrup or they start with DC and work their way down a list.”

“So are your troops planning on extracting, and processing mind you, the maple syrup?”

“If necessary,” the President said. “The Pentagon can come up with the most amazing plans
on the spur of the moment. We are hoping for widespread support as a patriotic gesture.”

“You need to look up the definition of patriotism,” Tyler said. “Although you'd probably
have to use a dictionary from before the PC era. So am I under arrest to be delivered to
our benefactors or am I free to go?”

“I'm hoping for your support in this necessary action,” the President said.

“Will you settle for neutrality?” Tyler said. “ 'While I, personally, am grieved by this
gesture by our government, any armed resistance would be both counter-productive and mean
that fine Americans would simply be killing other fine Americans. It's really a very sad
day.'”

“Glib.”

“Thank you. I used to write.”

“I'm quite serious about sending in troops.”

“I'm sure you are. And I'm quite serious that it will be a sad day.”

"This is Courtney Courtney with CNN and I'm in beautiful Northfield, Vermont where after a
series of record lows the temperature has climbed to a balmy forty-seven degrees and you
can simply smell spring in the air! I'm embedded with Company A of the First Battalion
Eighty-Seventh Infantry of the Army's Tenth Mountain Division. The company has been given
the mission of tapping local maple trees to supply syrup for our Horvath friends!

“I'm talking with Specialist Benjamin Putman who is the company's designated maple tapping
expert. So, Specialist, did you go a special school to learn maple tapping?”

“Yes, ma'am,” the specialist said, smiling fatuously. “It's called my mama's knee.”

“Excuse me?”

“I'm from about thirty miles from here, ma'am. I was born and raised in Caledonia county.”

“So you learned maple syrup processing at your mother's knee,” the reporter said, smiling
thinly at the joke. “I guess that makes you an expert, then. But on a personal note. Since
you are from this area, what do you think of the military being sent in to, basically,
take this sap?”

“Just following orders, ma'am,” the specialist said. “Just like every soldier whose ever
followed an order that people might not like. Like, you know, the SS comes to mind.”

“It's not quite that bad, specialist.”

“As you say, ma'am,” the specialist said. “On the other hand, I think you might want to
read up on your history a bit more. The SS didn't
start
by killing six million Jews. Started by taking their homes and businesses. Got around to
the gas chambers later.”

“Why don't we just concentrate on the process of extracting maple syrup,” the reporter
said. “I understand that it's not exactly hard.”

“Well, it's not exactly hard and it's not exactly easy, ma'am,” the specialist said.

“Why don't you show us how it works?”

“First you take a drill of the right diameter and you tap the tree,” the specialist said,
knocking with his knuckles on the maple. “This one is below ten inches in diameter so you
can only get one tap in. You apply your drill and drill in just far enough to get into the
wood. You don't want to drill too far. Just enough to get through the bark and set the
tap. Then you take your tap and a hammer and you hammer the... Oh f... udge.”

“What's wrong?”

“Well, see how the wood split up like that? That's bad. You don't get a seal with a crack
like that. This tree's basically useless for this year. Oh... darn!”

“What?”

“I forgot! When it's too warm the trees'll crack if you try to tap 'em! I've got to go
check on the rest of the company's work. They've been tapping all morning. If they're
all
split... !”

“Well, there you have it,” the reporter said through gritted teeth. “Even experts in this
business can make... mistakes. This is Courtney Courtney with CNN...”

“And we're... clear.”

“They are going to flatten New York.”

“Yeah. But Atlanta's waaay down the list.”

“I'm not from Atlanta.”

“I am.”

***

“This is Desiree Romane with the Canadian Broadcasting Service interviewing residents in
the Trois Riveaux area of Quebec province, a major area of maple sugar production. Excuse
me, sir?
Excuse moi, monsieur?”

“Quoi?”
the heavily clad man asked without pulling down his scarf. The balmy temperatures of the
day before were dropping like a rock.

“
Vous travaillez dans l'industrie du sucre d'Žrable?
Do you work in the maple sugar industry?”

“Oui.”

“And what is your opinion of the Horvath demand that we turn over all our maple sugar?”

What exploded from the man was a torrent of Quebequois too fast for even the Quebec native
to understand.

“Perhaps for our English speaking viewers?” the reporter asked, desperately.

“Pox upon English viewers,” the man said in a thick Quebequois accent, “Pah! What I said
is that the cheese of a donkey aliens can go eat
merde
! We are finally paid what our sugar is worth and they wish us to give it to them for
nothing
? They may nibble upon the end of my manhood! They may kiss my very hairy bottom which has
some boils... !”

“And we're having technical difficulties with the transmission from Trois Riveaux. But
here is Madeline Bathsome in Ontario province speaking to... ?”

“Mr. Duncan McKenzie who is the owner of a large maple distillery here in Chapleau. Good
afternoon, Mr. McKenzie.”

“Good afternoon, lassie.”

“So, how is the maple tapping going?”

“Well, unless you're a complete moron you don't tap yet. But it's not looking so good.”

“Really?”

“Ach. Terrible. Weather's all wrong. Not going to get much sap no how. No way. And we've
had a real rash of injuries this winter. Lots of slips on the ice and such. I completely
threw out my back carrying in firewood. Can't hardly get out of bed.”

“You... look perfectly fine.”

“Hurts terrible. Need an MRI. But Health Service is backed up months. May not be on my
feet till summer.”

“And you...”

“Do most of the tapping on my land, aye. Probably not going to get naught this year.
Terrible shame.”

***

“We're in Littleton, New Hampshire speaking to Captain Michael ”Werewolf“ Wolff, commander
of Bravo Company, Fourth Battalion, Thirty-First Infantry. Captain, you've been getting
armed resistance I understand.”

“Yes, ma'am,” the captain said. He had his helmet locked in place and body armor and
battle rattle over his cold weather gear. “A bit. We've some vehicle damage as well as
three men in the hospital and one lightly wounded. That's ignoring the men we have in
medical for cold weather injuries.”

“Have you been taking a lot of fire?”

“Not a lot so much as
how
, ma'am,” the captain said, clearly frustrated. “The majority is what is defined as
harassing fire. Just enough to get the troops' heads down and keep them from tapping the
trees. Occasionally we've gotten some sniper fire. That's what's put my boys in the
hospital and I'm not real pleased about that. So far, fortunately, there have been no
deaths.”

“Have your troops been returning fire?”

“Yes, ma'am. As has been said, it's a terribly sad day when Americans are fighting
Americans. Over maple syrup.”

“And have your men killed or injured any of the enemy?”

“I'm having a hard time using the term enemy, ma'am. But if you're talking about the local
aggressors, not to my knowledge, ma'am.”

“Your troops have taken fire. And they've returned fire. And they haven't hit any of
the... local aggressors?”

“Not to my knowledge, ma'am.”

“Captain, we did some research on your unit. It has been in combat in Afghanistan against
the Taliban and Pashtun tribesmen. They are considered some of the best mountain troops in
the world. And this unit, with many of these same soldiers, scored an impressive record of
kills. You're saying that you haven't killed or injured any of the... local aggressors.”

“That would seem to be the case, ma'am.”

“That doesn't make much sense to me, captain.”

“Sorry about that.”

“Perhaps you could explain to your viewers what the difference is here in New Hampshire?
Is it possible that your troops are simply not aiming because these are people who matter
and Afghan tribesmen don't?”

“You mean these are American citizens and Afghan terrorists aren't, ma'am? That would seem
to be a tautology.”

“I believe I said
matter
, captain.”

“Have you been to Afghanistan, ma'am?”

“No, I haven't, captain. Does that matter?”

“Only to particulars like why it's harder to hit someone who is bellied down in snow,
using camouflage and cover and an expert sniper versus tribesmen who run screaming at you
firing from the hip in the open, ma'am. I don't know exactly who told you that Taliban are
crack mountain fighters, ma'am, but they're not. Not anymore, anyway. Here we're dealing
with fellas that not only know the woods like the back of their hand but are, in many
cases, former US military. And until recently this was a pretty hardscrabble area. They
did a lot of hunting for the dinner table. That tends to dial up your targeting skills,
ma'am. And what they are targeting, with some care I might add, are my troops. Who, yes,
don't particularly want to be doing this job but they're following orders.”

“I see,” the reporter said. “And when you collect the sap?”

“We process it,” the captain said, obviously growing impatient. “You put it in pans and
boil it over an open flame. We'll be mostly using local wood.”

“Wood?” the reporter said. “Isn't that a bit... Doesn't that release a lot of greenhouse
gases?”

“Greenhouse gases?”

“Yes, captain. Carbon dioxide.”

“You're talking about global warming? Yes, it releases a lot of greenhouse gases. Even
worse
than the smoke from the fires is what gets boiled off of the
sap
! It's the most powerful greenhouse gas on earth!”

“I thought... doesn't it just release steam?”

“Water vapor!” the captain said, practically shouting. “Look it up! It's the most powerful
greenhouse gas on earth! We're up here trying to keep our cities from being
nuked
, trying to collect sap, SAP! while UNDER FIRE and you're worried about GREENHOUSE GASES?
Are you absolutely INSANE? You didn't ask me about the vehicle damage! Go ahead and ask me
about the vehicle damage, Miss Smarty-Pants!”