Miriam cleared her throat. “But. You’d need to break the Clan’s entire structure to do that,” she said conversationally. She could hear the blood throbbing in her ears.
“Yes,” said Iris. “You see? You’re not the only one of us who wants a revolution.” Her voice dropped a notch. “The trouble is, like I said: I can’t make it work without your help. You’re in a powerful position, and better still, you’ve got a perfect excuse for moving across social boundaries rather than obeying convention. It’s not going to be obvious to onlookers whether you’re doing stuff deliberately or because you don’t know better. Which gives you a certain freedom of action. . . . Meanwhile, my plan depends on us agreeing to cooperate, and that’s something the braid system tends to discourage. See? A year ago you wouldn’t have been this suspicious of my motives. That’s part of the problem. I know it’s a lot to ask of you—but I want you to trust me to help you.”
Miriam stared at the back of her mother’s head, her mind a whirl of emotions. Once, a year ago, she’d have trusted Iris implicitly, but now that she knew the forge her mother had been tempered in, a tiny voice urged caution. “Tell me exactly what you’re planning,” she said slowly, “then I’ll tell you what I’m planning.”
“And then?”
“Then perhaps we can do a deal.”
Working in the belly of the beast, supervising the electrically-driven presses of the Petrograd Times and minding the telautograph senders that broadcast the message of the Committee for Democratic Accountability up and down the western seaboard, Erasmus had little time to spare for mundane tasks—he slept under his desk, having not had time even to requisition a room in a miner’s flophouse—but a superb perspective on the revolution. “We’re going to succeed,” he told John Winstanley one morning, over tea. “I think this time it’s actually going to work.”
Winstanley had stared at him. “You thought it might not? Careful, citizen!”
“Feh.” Burgeson snorted. “I’ve spent half my life in exile, citizen, working underground for a second chance. Ask Sir Adam, or Lady Bishop, if you doubt my commitment. And I’ll willingly do it all over again and go for third time lucky, and even a fourth, if this one doesn’t succeed. I’m just pleased to note that it probably won’t be necessary and taking advantage of your discretion to vent a little steam in company where it won’t fog the minds of the new fish.”
“Ahem. Well, then, I certainly can’t find fault with that. I’m sorry, Erasmus. Sometimes it’s hard to be sure who’s reliable and who isn’t.”
Burgeson turned his attention back to the pile of communiques on the table, studiously ignoring the Truth Commissioner. He was rapidly developing a jaundiced view of many of his fellow revolutionaries, now that the time to come out of the shadows and march for freedom and democracy had arrived; too many of them stood revealed as time-servers and insidious busybodies, who glowingly talked up their activities in the underground struggle with scant evidence of actually having done anything. I didn’t spend twenty years as a fugitive just so the likes of you could criticize me for pessimism, citizen. The New Men seemed to be more preoccupied with rooting out dissenters and those lacking in ideological zeal than in actually building a better nation, but Erasmus wasn’t yet sure enough of his footing to speak out against them. The rot had spread surprisingly far in a matter of weeks. Not so surprising, if what the membership subcommittee reports is right, he reminded himself; the council’s declared members—whose number could all count on a short drop to the end of a rope if the revolution failed—had quadrupled in the past two weeks, and just keeping Polis informers out of the rank and file was proving a challenge.
“Let’s see,” he said. “Jim, if you’d be so good? . . .”
“Ayup.” Jim, who Erasmus had drafted as a sub-editor as soon as he’d ascertained his literacy, picked up the top of the pile. “Lessee now. Yesterday, Telegraph Street, Cyprus Hilclass="underline" A people’s collective has seized control of the Jevons Ironworks and Steam Corporation factory and is restarting the manufacturing of parts for the war effort, with the arming of the Cyprus Hill militia as a first priority. The first four armored steamers have been delivered and are patrolling the Hispaniola Reaches already.”
“Bottom drawer,” Erasmus said instantly. “Next.”
“Yesterday, Dunedin: The ships of the Ontario patrol have put into harbor and their officers and men have raised the people’s flag. That’s the last of the undeclared territorial and riverine patrols—”
“Get that on the wire. Hold page three, this sounds promising.”
“A moment.” Winstanley leaned forward. “Are those ships under control of people’s commissioners? Because if not, how do we know they’re not planning—”
Burgeson glared at him. “That’s not your department,” he said, “nor mine. If you want to waste your time, make inquiries; my job is to get the news out, and this is news.” He turned back to Jim. “Get someone to look for some stock pictures of the Ontario patrol. I know: you, Bill. Go now, find pictures.”
Bill, the put-upon trainee sub, darted off through the news room towards the stairs down to the library. “Next story,” Erasmus said wearily.
“Yesterday. People’s courts in Santiago have arrested and tried sixteen Polis commissars and eleven informers for crimes against the people: Three have been executed for ordering the arrest and torture of patriots during the Andean campaign last fall. More details . . .”
“Run it. Paper only, inside pages.” Erasmus jotted down a quick note on his pad. “Next.”
“Today. Communique from the New London people’s committee: A people’s provisional council will be voted in, by open polling next Tuesday, to form a constitutional convention that will determine the structure of the people’s congress and establish a timetable for its election. Lots of details here. Um, delegates from the provinces are to attend, as are members of the inner council—”
“Stop.” Erasmus stood. “That’s the front page for you, right there, and get it on the wire. I’ll need a copy for reference while I write the editorial. Go get it now.” He glanced at Winstanley, who was examining his fingernails. “Coming?”
“What? Where?”
Erasmus closed his eyes for a few seconds, feeling every second of his years. Give me strength. When he opened them again, he spoke evenly. “I don’t know about you, but I am going to see Sir Adam, who will surely be preparing to depart very shortly, in order to learn what he expects of me in his absence.” He paused. Winstanley was looking at him dumbly. “I expect he’ll have some errands for you to run,” he added, not unkindly.
“What—oh? But. Surely? . . .” Winstanley looked confused.
“You weren’t listening, were you? Or rather, you were listening to the voice, not to the words.”
Winstanley flinched. “I say, there’s no need for—”
“Negativism?” Erasmus smiled humorlessly. “Get your jacket, man. We have to see the chief right away.”
“The correct salutation is ‘citizen.’ ” Winstanley levered himself out of his chair with a glare.
“Certainly, citizen.” Erasmus headed for the door.
Over in the Committee Palace (its new name hastily hacked into a layer of fresh cement that covered the carved lintel of the former mayoral mansion), Erasmus found the usual ant-heap a-buzzing with petitioners, delegates from regional committees from places as far afield as Chihuahua and North Cascadia, guards drawn from the local militia, and the anxious families of arrested king’s men. “Commissioner Burgeson, to see Sir Adam,” he told the harried page waiting in the Hall of People’s Justice (formerly the western state dining room).