Troy Rising 1 - Live Free or Die (16 page)

The Marine Corps Commandant leaned back and started tapping his mouth, as if to erase a
smile.

“Commandant?” the President said. “You have a comment.”

“Rather refrain, Mr. President,” the Commandant said, still trying not to smile. “But I
think I know what he meant. Graduated from the Citadel, Mr. President.”

“So you're 'of the South' as well?” the President said. “And?”

“Really rather refrain, Mr. President,” the Commandant said then barked a laugh as if at a
joke he'd just told. “Seriously. You do not want to know at this time. Possibly ever.”

“I will, currently, accept your position,” the President said, warily. “And where is Mr.
Vernon? He is the one person of note who has not been heard of recently.”

“Moving, mostly,” the Director of the FBI said. “Scattered meetings. Turned up by surprise
at some town hall meetings in New Hampshire and Vermont. Even back and forth across the
border to Canada though we're not sure where or how. We're only catching traces of him.
Frankly, he's about as hard to find as a much taller... insurgent. We're not even sure
he's part of the insurgency. He's acting more like a neutral.”

“I'm the President of the United States!” the President snapped. “This is... insane! I'm
responsible
for this nation! People are going to
die
!
Cities
are going to die!”

“Depends on whether he's right or not, Mr. President,” the Marine Corps Commandant said,
still smiling slightly. He tapped his lips again. “Depends on whether he's right about
ways of the South.”

***

“On Friday night at eight-thirty, Fox News is pleased to announce an exclusive broadcast
from none other than Tyler Vernon, the maple sugar king and the man at the
center
of the current controversy over maple syrup production, direct and live from his home in
New Hampshire. With the deadline for tapping fast approaching, we are
all
looking forward to what Mr. Vernon has to say...”

***

“Are we sure this is going to work?” Tyler asked, adjusting his jacket. He'd gone for the
informal look for the broadcast. The jacket was a necessity because it was cold in the
former mine.

“Not sure,” Bruce Dennison said. “But from what we've been able to figure out, the Horvath
are technologically advanced but not technologically
sophisticated
. They can tap any standard system. But this laser relay is going to a secure Glatun
hypernode link which is, in turn, hooked up to Fox. It
should
look like you're broadcasting from your house.”

Tyler glanced over his shoulder at the green wall then at the TV tech.

“And the green screen is... ?”

“Good,” Ryan Gill said. He was wearing an incongruous Scottish WWI military outfit
including tartan trews because, as he said, 'if he was going down he was going down in the
uniform of his regiment.' “Looks just like your front room. Except for the occasional
bloody puff of fog when you exhale. Hopefully, they won't notice that.”

“And we're on in five, four, three, two...”

"Hello, Fox and thank you for being willing to make this broadcast. I feel rather odd
doing this. Just a few short months ago my days were filled with the mundane tasks of
small jobs. To make ends meet I worked in a grocery store, a mill and cut wood during my
free time. Now, as most people know, I'm at the center of this controversy over, of all
things, maple syrup and one of the richest men in the world. It has been an odd transition.

"The Horvath have demanded that everyone in this region collect maple syrup and turn it
over to them, presumably for later sale to the Glatun since it is unusable by the Horvath.
Just as they have demanded all this world's production of useful heavy metals. Their
stated reason for this tribute is so that they can maintain the defense of this world.
Tribute, however, is tribute and let us not mince words. For we have come to an important
time of decision. Within the next week, the people of this region must make preparation
for the collection of maple sap to be boiled into syrup. The weather is turning and the
sap is starting to run. According to both the US weather service and projections by the
Glatun this should be a spring of good harvest. If there is any harvest at all.

"Were I so inclined, one pair of hands simply cannot collect all the sap that must be
collected. It requires many hands, many people, going out into the cold of a New England
and Canadian spring, working hard for a bounty that will, in turn, continue to keep the
Horvath in our skies.

"Over the last month and a half I have been travelling throughout this region, talking to
people of every persuasion, getting the tenor of the residents of this region, people who
do the tapping and boiling, people who depend upon the trade. I haven't been speaking with
governors or Congressmen, just common folk like myself.

"There is great fear and consternation. Like myself, the people of this region never
expected to be embroiled in an international, inter
stellar
, controversy. They,
we
, are simple folk of the rural lands of these great nations. We get up every day and do
our jobs, letting the great matters of this land and this world be handled by others. We,
until this time of controversy, did not care for such matters. The seasons of the year
affected us more than the decisions made in Washington and Ontario.

"Now, as a people, we have been called upon to make great and momentous decisions.
Decisions reflecting both liberty and security. Liberty is an odd word. And for a long
time it has been, in truth, degraded. Many who used the term
liberty
in truth meant
libertine
. And even those who fought in our courts and legislature over questions of liberty, in
truth meant things that are minor at best and puerile at worst. As we have now found out,
liberty is not about where you can put your sexual organs but about the essential question
of whether we, as a people, can make our own decisions. And security is not about whether
the government should be able to tap our phone but about whether we are going to be
allowed to take the next breath. Will our cities be ashes? Will we live? Will our children
live?

"Yet... to battle over maple syrup? The inherent humor of the situation sometimes clouds
the truly vast nature of the struggle. For it is not, in the end, what we give up, maple
syrup or gold or platinum. It is of a piece. It is about whether we, as a people, as
nations that were both conceived in liberty, will continue to cherish that concept.

“Benjamin Franklin once said: 'Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a
little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.' And in this current
condition there is, in fact, neither. I understand, as few but the most specialized
experts understand, the strategic situation. The Horvath control our orbitals. We can
fight but there is simply
no way
to win. Fighting would appear to be a pointless exercise.”

The producer made a rolling motion and pointed to the ceiling of the mine. Time to speed
it up.

Tyler breathed out, hard, and let loose a puff of smoky breath.
Oops.

"But collecting this maple syrup requires the willing cooperation of thousands of people.
Men and women, Canadian and American, who have been born in the concept, instilled in the
idea, of liberty. These people of the fields, woods and mountains, pour from these regions
to fill our military. Not, as many city folk think, because they're poor or desperate but
because this is their essential nature. No person is happy to give their life, but the
people of this region believe that there is something larger than their selves. Not just
God, although many are believers in God, but a vision, a philosophy, a shared belief in
freedom and justice and the battle against tyranny. From their very mother's milk they are
filled with this belief, that to die in the cause of freedom brings not heaven but a
better place here on earth for succeeding generations.

"I have taken the tenor of these people and they are determined against yielding. As
stubborn as the granite of their mountains, they, almost in unanimity,
refuse
to yield. They may, perhaps will, be destroyed. But they, and, yes, their children, will
die
free
.

"
They
, however, are not under threat. The Horvath threaten to destroy our cities, not these
woods, mountains and fields. Let me touch upon that.

"The Horvath are a very monolithic and communal culture. The very concept of liberty is
foreign to them. So I'm going to have to explain something to the Horvath. You may be
looking upon our cities as sort of communal groups for which the people of this region are
gatherers. This is not, in fact, the case. The people of this region are their
own
communal grouping, connected to but not of the cities. They are, in fact, almost
invariably at odds with the groups of the cities. The cities, you dumb
squids
, are our
enemies
. You're threatening our
enemies
you morons! We
hate
the people of the cities.
I
hate the people of the cities! Liberal, whining, socialist
pussies
! They've never given us anything but
trouble
! Please, please,
please
nuke Washington! What has Washington ever done for
us
? They just take and take and take! The bastards! Kill them all!

“As for me, I'll tell you what
I
think!” Tyler said, shouting. He jumped to his feet and flipped a bird at the ceiling,
looking straight up. “GIVE ME LIBERTY OR GIVE ME DEATH YOU BASTARDS! LIVE FREE OR...”

“Lost the signal from the cabin,” Ryan said. “Switching to... secondary remote.”

On homes across the nation the view was now of Tyler in front of the 1997 World Series.

“Hah!” Tyler said, still flipping a bird at the ceiling. “Missed me you egg-sucking
ignoramuses! Never heard of a laser relay or a green-screen,
have
you? Go ahead and
try
to take our maple syrup! Dumb-asses!”

“And secondary remote is gone,” Ryan said.

“I think that's good enough,” Tyler said.

“The Horvath are taking over all the broadcast airwaves,” Bruce said.

“Let's hear it,” Tyler said.

“PEOPLE OF THE MAPLE REGION. YOU WILL DELIVER THE SYRUP OR YOU WILL BE DESTROYED. WE WILL
DESTROY EVERY HOME, EVERY TOWN, EVERY PERSON. YOU WILL
ALL
DIE.”

***

“You will deliver the maple syrup,” the speakerphone said in metallic tones. “You will
execute Tyler Vernon. You will destroy the resistance in the region. Or you will be
eliminated.”

“We're
trying
,” the President said. “You've seen that we are trying! Those people may nominally be
under our authority but they are not under our control. We have an arrest warrant out for
Tyler Vernon but our agents, those that survive going up to the hills, have been unable to
find him. Our military is half in mutiny and half pinned down by fire. Some of it from our
own
forces
! Is there anything that you can do?”

“Remove your loyal troops,” the Horvath said a few moments later. “We will eliminate the
resistance of the rural infesters and then you will send people of the urban colonies to
collect the syrup.”

“You're going to... kill them?” the President said.

“We will eliminate all resistors,” the Horvath replied.

“I...” the President said, gulping. “I can't...” He paused at a raised hand from the
Marine Corps Commandant.

The Commandant looked at the ceiling for a moment in thought then nodded, hard. The
President made a face but the Commandant just raised his hand in an OK symbol.

“Very well...” the President said, dubiously. “Feel free to eliminate the resistors in the
region.”

“We did not need your permission.” The call cut off with a click.

“I just condemned the people of New England to aerial bombardment,” the President said.

“Most of them have moved their families out of the region,” the Commandant said. “Women
and kids, mostly. Not even
most
of the women. The rest have dug in hard. You'd be surprised how many old mines, caves and
such there are in that area. Which is probably where Vernon is hiding.”

“The Horvath have kinetic bombardment systems and heavy lasers,” the National Security
Advisor said, dryly. “That area is going to take a pasting.”

“How much can they do without seriously affecting the maple crop?” the Commandant said.
“And we're talking about a dispersed population, dug in. Think how much trouble we've been
having in Afghanistan. Furthermore, that ship looks big to
us
. But if you actually do the tonnage and make a good guess on engine size compared to the
Glatun ships we've seen, they can't actually be carrying
that
many KEW. Our estimate is, what? Sixteen city killers, max? What, exactly, are they going
to do with sixteen nukes, that don't even spread radiation, against that area? Bomb
Manchester? It's almost entirely evacuated. Lasers? Footprint of a meter. They can get the
woods burning. Oh, boy. Let them bomb the area. Encourage it. That's Vernon's whole plan.”

***

“Mr. Vernon,” the reporter said. “We're very pleased to have this opportunity to interview
you. Given that the Horvath have ordered you be delivered to them, there is a warrant out
for your arrest for high treason and you are under continual threat, isn't this just a
little risky?”

“Risk is part of life, Jamie,” Tyler said. “Given the situation, I'll admit I don't have a
lot of freedom of movement. But freedom is a philosophy, not a condition. No truly free
man can be made a slave. I will not be a slave to the Horvath or to a tyrannical
government of socialists.”

“You have some hard things to say about the residents of cities, Mr. Vernon,” the reporter
said. “Since we
all
can't hide, is that particularly fair?”

“Jamie, I've been fighting the tyranny of you lefty jerks my whole life. If you want to
submit to the Horvath, that's up to you.
I'm
not willing to...” He paused at a raised hand.

“I'm not sure how much of that got out,” Ryan said as the room rumbled and dust fell from
the roof. “And we're losing transceivers.”