4. For your private information, Captain Thomas Danielis has been appointed senior aide to Colonel Hollis.
5. You are again reminded that the Pacific States of America are under martial law because of a national emergency. Complete loyalty to the legal government is required. Any mutinous talk must be severely punished. Anyone giving aid or comfort to the Brodsky faction is guilty of treason and will be dealt with accordingly.
Thunder went off in the mountains like artillery. It was a while before Mackenzie stirred, and then merely to lay the paper on his desk. He could only summon feeling slowly, up into a hollowness that filled his skin.
“They dared,” Speyer said without tone. “They really did.”
“Huh?” Mackenzie swiveled eyes around to the major’s face. Speyer didn’t meet that stare. He was concentrating his own gaze on his hands, which were now rolling a cigarette. So the words jerked from him, harsh and quick:
“I can guess what happened. The warhawks have been hollering for impeachment ever since Brodsky compromised the border dispute with West Canada. And Fallon, yeah, he’s got ambitions of his own. But his partisans are a minority an he knows it. Electing him Vice helped soothe the warhawks some, but he’d never make Judge the regular way,.because Brodsky isn’t going to die of old age before Fallon does, and anyhow more than fifty percent of the Senate are sober, satisfied bossmen who don’t agree that the PSA has a divine mandate to reunify the continent. I don’t see how an impeachment could get through an honestly convened Senate. More likely they’d vote out Fallon.”
“But a Senate had been called,” Mackenzie said. The words sounded to him like someone else talking. “The newscasts told us.”
“Sure. Called for yesterday ‘to debate ratification of the treaty with West Canada.’ But the bossmen are scattered up and down the country, each at his own Station. They have to get to San Francisco. A couple of arranged delays—hell, if a bridge just happened to be blown on the Boise railroad, a round dozen of Brodsky’s staunchest supporters wouldn’t arrive on time—so the Senate has a quorum, all right, but every one of Fallon’s supporters are there, and so many of the rest are missing that the warhawks have a clear majority. Then they meet on a holiday, when no cityman is paying attention. Presto, impeachment and a new Judge!” Speyer finished his cigarette and stuck it between his lips while he fumbled for a match. A muscle twitched in his jaw.
“You sure?” Mackenzie mumbled. He thought dimly that this moment was like one time he’d visited Puget City and was invited for a sail on the Guardiaii’s yacht, and a fog had set in. Everything was cold and blind, with nothing you could catch in your hands.
“Of course I’m not sure!” Speyer snarled. “Nobody will be sure till it’s too late.” The matchbox shook in his grasp.
“They, uh, they got a new Cinc too, I noticed.”
“Uh-huh. They’d want to replace everybody they cant trust, as possible, and De Barros was a Brodsky appointee.” The match flared with a hellish scrit. Speyer inhaled till his cheeks collapsed. “You and me included, naturally. The regiment reduced to minimum armament so that nobody will get ideas about resistance when the new colonel arrives, You’ll note he’s coming with a battalion at his heels just the same, just in case. Otherwise he could take a plane and be here tomorrow.”
“Why not a train?” Mackenzie caught a whiff of smoke and felt for his pipe. The bowl was hot in his tunic pocket.
“Probably all rolling stock has to head north. Get troops among the bossmen there to forestall a revolt. The valleys are safe enough, peaceful ranchers and Esper colonies. None of them’ll pot-shot Fallonite soldiers marching to garrison Echo and Donner outposts.” A dreadful scorn weighted Speyer’s words.
“What are we going to do?”
“I assume Fallen’s take-over followed legal forms; that there was a quorum,” Speyer said, “Nobody will ever agree whether it was really Constitutional ... I’ve been reading this damned message over and over since Irwin decoded it. There’s a lot between the lines. I think Brodsky’s at large, for instance. If he were under arrest this would’ve said as much, and there’d have been less worry about rebellion. Maybe some of his household troops smuggled him away in time. He’ll be.. hunted like a jackrabbit, of course.”
Mackenzie took out his pipe but forgot he had done so, “Tom’s coming with our replacements,” he said thinly.
“Yeah. Your son-in-law. That was a smart touch, wasnt it? A kind of hostage for your good behavior, but also a back-hand promise that you and yours won’t suffer if you report in as ordered. Tom’s a good kid. He’ll stand by his own.”
“This is his regiment too,” Mackenzie said. He squared his shoulders. “He wanted to fight West Canada, sure. Young and ... and a lot of Pacificans did get killed in the Idaho Panhandle during the skirmishes. Women and kids among ’em.”
“Well,” Speyer said, “you’re the colonel, Jimbo. What should we do?”
“Oh, Jesus, I don’t know. I’m nothing but a soldier.” The pipestem broke in Mackenzie’s fingers. “But we’re not some bossman’s personal militia here. We swore to support the Constitution.”
“I can’t see where Brodsky’s yielding some of our claims in Idaho is grounds for impeachment. I think he was right.”
“Well—”
“A coup d’état by any other name would stink as bad. You may not be much of a student of current events, Jimbo, but you know as well as I do what Fallon’s Judgeship will mean. War with West Canada is almost the least of it. Fallon also stands for a strong central government. He’ll find ways to down the old bossman families. A lot of their heads and scions will die in the front lines; that stunt goes back to David and Uriah. Others will be accused of collusion with the Brodsky people—not altogether falsely—and impoverished by fines. Esper communities will get nice big land grants, so their economic competition can bankrupt still other estates. Later wars will keep bossmen away for years at a time, unable to supervise their own affairs, which will therefore go to the devil. And thus we march toward the glorious goal, of Reunification”
“If Esper Central favors him, what can we do? I’ve heard enough about psi blasts. I can’t ask my men to face them.”
“You could ask your men to face the Hellbomb itself, Jimbo, and they would. A Mackenzie has commanded the Rolling Stones for over fifty years.”
“Yes. I thought Tom, someday—”
“We’ve watched this brewing for a long time. Remember the talk we had about it last week?”
“Uh-huh.”
“I might also remind you that the Constitution was written explicitly ‘to confirm the separate regions in their ancient liberties.’ ”
“Let me alone!” Mackenzie shouted. “I don’t know what’s right or wrong, I tell you! Let me alone!”
Speyer fell silent, watching him through a screen of foul smoke. Mackenzie walked back and forth a while, boots slamming the floor like drumbeats. Finally he threw the broken pipe across the room so it shattered.
“Okay.” He must ram each word past the tension in his throat. “Irwin’s a good man who can keep his lip buttoned. Send him out to cut the telegraph line a few miles downhill. Make it look as if the storm did it. The wire breaks often enough, heaven knows. Officially, then, we never got GHQ’s message. That gives us a few days to contact Sierra Command HQ. I won’t go against General Cruikshank ... but I’m pretty sure which way he’ll go if he sees a chance. Tomorrow prepare for action. It’ll be no trick to throw back Hollis’ battalion, and they’ll need a while to bring some real strength against us. Before then the first snow should be along and we’ll be shut off for the winter. Only we can use skis snowshoes, ourselves, to keep in touch with the other units and organize something. By spring—we’ll see what happens.”