The Far Side (69 page)

“Well, I guess I really am my father’s daughter, sir.  He hates it at a restaurant when my mother takes too much time deciding from the menu.  My mother has taken to calling ahead and getting a copy of the menu, deciding in advance, and being able to order almost at once when we’re there.”

“What do you do?” he asked.

Kris looked at him.  “I know what I like.  I read the menu, and I read quickly and make up my mind.  Mostly, though, I have something I want and as soon as I find it, I order.”

He nodded as if that explained volumes.  He stretched out his hand and picked up his phone and dialed a number.  “Have Captain Stone come in, please.”

Captain Stone was a version of Andie Schulz from Andie’s dreams.  She had the same short hair, but the captain’s was black as the ace of spades -- and she was well over six feet tall.  She wasn’t heavy-set, but she probably weighed upwards of 160 pounds, Kris thought.  The word “buff” fit her nicely.

“Captain Stone, this is Miss Bee.”

“Miss Bee, sir?”

“Yes.  I spoke to you earlier about escorting someone around the campus for an hour.”

“Yes, sir.  A prospective student, sir?  Shouldn’t you assign someone from Maroon and Gold?”

“A prospective lecturer and consultant.  Don’t let Miss Bee fool you, Captain.  Please, the VIP tour.  When you are in the outer office, be sure to invite Major Sandusky and the others with him along.”

“That major?  The one you talk about?”

“The very same one.  Miss Bee recently commanded him on a combat patrol.”

The woman’s eyebrows went up, first one, and then the other a few seconds later.  Kris contemplated saying something, but couldn’t figure out what to say, so she kept her mouth shut.

Kurt and Ezra opted to stay at the administration building.  Diyala was bored by all of the talk, although she’d been fascinated at first by Captain Stone.  When she understood that the captain was just another soldier, she promptly lost interest.  Captain Stone had no idea that there was anything different about Diyala and paid her little attention.

The captain led Kris around the campus, showing her the dorms, the classrooms, the playing fields, the parade and drill grounds, more classrooms, and finally ended back by the administration building.  General Briggs was waiting for them by the time they returned.

The general loaded everyone into a golf cart that had been extended and seated six instead of four.

He drove out to the main street, and when there was a break in the traffic, crossed.  Then he drove them up a ways on a hill, to a construction site.  He stopped at a parking lot filled with four-wheel drive pickups, dualie pickups, and only a few sedans.

There was a steel building about twenty yards away and he led the way towards it.  Instead of heading towards an open door, he went around the side, and Kris could see that there was no wall there.  Men worked inside on three chambers made of thick steel plates, and, interestingly enough, the plates were on wheels.

Kris saw that and laughed.  “An elegant solution, General!”

Captain Stone looked at Kris.  “You know what this is?  The general has a pool where the winner gets a hundred dollars if you can name what it is.”

“That would be cheating,” Kris told her, “but yes, I know what it is.”

“A hint?”

“Cheating!” the general laughed.

“I’m Miss Bee; that’s the hint,” Kris told her.  She looked at General Briggs.

“It’s something I learned up there on my own ridge, sir.  How to concentrate on what’s important, how to ignore things that aren’t important and above all, never to forget my humanity.

“I’m not sure where wheels fall in there, though,” Kris told him.

“Nowhere,” he said cheerfully.  He turned to the dark-haired captain.  “Captain Stone, you are disqualified for the contest.”  He turned back to Kris.  “You see, no one here would dream that I’m breaking three dozen federal laws building this.  Not the Commandant of Cadets, not the rest of my Board, not the professors, not even, I’m sorry to say, any of the students.  All are free to rubberneck, and everyone, except Captain Stone now, is eligible to win.  But their minds just won’t stretch that far.”

Kris nodded.

Captain Stone frowned.  “I’m missing something here, sir.  This is against the law?  How?  Why?”  She waved at the construction going on.

“Good grief, yes!” Ezra said.

Kurt just grinned.  Diyala had the most revealing comment.  “This doesn’t look like the other machine you showed me.  Is it the same?”

“It is the same idea, it’s just a different way of doing it,” Kris told her.  “I hope you won’t mind, General, if I send Andie a note about wheels?”

“No, no.  That was actually my idea, I’m pleased to say.  There are still a few new things left in my ancient brain.”

Kris faced him directly.  “You understand that I came here with every intention of saying yes.  That hasn’t changed.  But I can’t be a lecturer and consultant.  I just don’t have the qualifications.”

He shook his head.  “You gave an amazing brief in just a few minutes.”

Ezra said something to Kurt, and it was Kurt who spoke up.  “I’d like to put in my two cents, General.”

“Go ahead, Major.”

“There are security concerns here, sir.  At some point in time where Kris is will leak.  That will be a distraction and a half for your corps of cadets.  The longer it takes for that leak to happen, though, the more likely something will come along and replace it in the news cycle.”

“I don’t think that’s very likely,” General Briggs told him.  “Not with Miss Bee’s father’s plans.  He’s going to be in the news for months, at the very least, and if he starts securing indictments, as I suspect he will, the attention will redouble.  I am prepared for that.”

“I don’t suppose I could be a slightly inexperienced Rook?” Kris asked.

“You could be,” the general told her, “but you’d be a lion amongst the lambs, and a good part of your schedule is going to be what I want, not what you want.  There are a lot of routine things that you can dispense with or learn on your own time.  It’s not like close order drill requires any real thought.”

Kris wasn’t sure why the others all laughed.

“A student entering now, sir?” Captain Stone asked.  “I mean...”

“I know.  However, it is probably for the best.  She’ll be a part-time student, Captain.  Most of the time she’ll be working for me, here.”  He waved at the construction.

“I’m afraid what this is still escapes me, sir,” the captain told him.  “Actually, this whole conversation pretty much escapes me.”

Kurt Sandusky exclaimed, “General!  You’ve trained her well!  She has the guts to make an observation, even if she doesn’t know what to make of it!”

The captain seemed upset but managed to contain herself.

“General,” Kris told him, “I know about security concerns.  For the last three and a half months people have been trying to kill me.  I am not going to live the rest of my life like this -- in hiding.  Ezra and Kurt will get with you and work out security.  It will not be overpowering.  If I can’t be one of your students, even if in name only, I’d rather be someplace else.”

“As you wish.  You understand, I thought I was supposed to be shy about using your name.”

“You didn’t hear that from me, sir.  My father worries, as well he should -- of course, I’m not the one trying to pull down half the government.  I’m more like Bilbo Baggins -- There and Back Again.”

That brought a laugh from the men and blank stares from the two women at Kris’ words.

“I would just as soon be myself, and I hope you aren’t trying to hide that,” Kris waved at the construction.

“No, I’m not trying to hide it, although the Board has had a couple of questions about the money.”

“Kris,” Kurt said, speaking up, “your mother and Mrs. Briggs are old friends.  Otto left a large chunk of his fortune in your father’s care, and he agreed with Helen to support this research.”  He chuckled, “Andie has donated a quarter of the money in her father’s name, even if she doesn’t know it.  Your father has donated forty-five percent in Marjorie Briggs’ name and another fifteen percent in the name of Norwich.  The rest came from Norwich proper.”

Captain Stone was more focused on something else.  “Your father is trying to bring down the government?  Is he one of the protestors?”

Kurt roared with laughter, but General Briggs held up his hand.  “I haven’t said this before, and I guess I should make it known now, Captain.

“On the Fourth of July the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the individual Chiefs, the heads of all Reserve and National Guard formations, regiment-sized or larger, along with all state and local police agencies, were ordered by the President to use, and I quote ‘all necessary means’ to prevent the general strike and to suppress any protests.

“Along with a number of other commanders in the various services in the rank of colonel and above, I signed a joint letter that we sent to the President.  The first sentence was hotly debated and consisted of polite noise.  The rest was two sentences and that was what counted: ‘Mr. President we, the undersigned, officers of the Armed Forces of the United States of America, took oaths to defend the United States of America and its Constitution -- there was nothing in any of those oaths suggesting that we defend you.  With respect, sir, your order is refused.’”

Ezra whistled.  “You mutinied?”

“The UCMJ specifies circumstances when members of the armed forces are to refuse orders and how it is to be done.  That’s what we did.”  He turned to Kris.  “So your parents could walk to the podium in downtown LA, and people all over the United States walked to podiums and aired their grievances in peace, while the troops and police stayed home.”

“I spent the summer serving with Linda Wallace,” Kurt told the general.  I have never met anyone braver.  Not ever.”

“She is who?” the general asked.

“She is Andie Schulz’s friend; she’s the woman who leaked to the Internet the nature of the questioning she underwent.  Mine was not as bad, but one of the six of us vanished the first day and they later said he was a Chinese spy shot while trying to escape.  That’s part of the discovery Ollie Boyle is seeking.”

“Linda Wallace was the one they beat, over and over, stripped nude, and then they broke her legs?” General Briggs asked.

“That’s the lady.  She has more balls than you and I, sir.”

“Good God!  I thought she was still in the hospital!”

“Sir, as soon as she could get around in a power chair and then a walker, she was working on rescuing Kris, Andie and Ezra.  There were times when she would stand in pain that left her weak and trembling.  Then she’d get it together again and continue.  Not just once, but over and over.

“She went through with us when we did the first survey.  She went through with us when we went to stay.  Like I said, I’ve never met anyone braver.”

Diyala, the only one who hadn’t talked until then, spoke up.  “Don’t forget to tell them that your soldiers killed my mother, my uncle, my aunt, their two sons, their daughter who was an infant, and more than four hundred others.”

Kurt spoke first.  “You make it sound like a bad thing, girl.  And you were where you were, doing what, eh?  Did you sail all that distance across the sea to make friends -- or take slaves?”

“Slaves, of course.  You are barbarians.”  She looked around and closed her mouth.

“Well, girl, you might as well know that I was the one who did the killing, not Kris.  She commanded, but it wasn’t as though I needed to be told what to do.”

Kris could see Captain Stone looking at her when Kurt said she’d commanded.  There was no doubt that Melek had put her in charge.  Ezra was considered on the edge of nobility to the Arvalans -- but Kurt was an unknown factor.  Sure, she’d actually gone along to translate, but it had been made clear to Collum and Melek that she was in charge, no matter how hollow that was.

Kurt had hardly said six words to her -- he’d set up the mortar in the right spot, and when the time came, she told him to shoot, and he fired one shell that, unexpectedly, did the trick.  None of them had expected what happened, but the fact was it happened.

Diyala bowed slightly to Kris.  “You captured me.”

Kris lifted her head and looked at Captain Stone, who was still working through the whole thing.

“Captain, those devices will, in the next few months, be fusor containment chambers -- the sort that open doors on other planets.  The wheels will facilitate moving them, trying to find a good place to explore.  They are, so far as I know, still not permitted, except the one that was built to rescue Andie, Ezra and myself.

“The government has let the first one remain in operation, because there are human beings on the other side, and all sorts of scientists have questions they are desperate to ask them.  It’s kind of slid under the radar.”

“Oh!  Kristine Boyle!  I heard the name but not much more!”

“I’m hiring Miss Boyle to consult with us on exploration beyond the Far Side doors, not to mention on the doors themselves.  She’s interested in learning from us as well,” General Briggs added.

Kris nodded.  “Captain,” Kris said, pulling Diyala lightly to stand next to her.  “One thing about blue doors to the Far Side -- prejudice and political correctness have to stay on this side.  There are objective truths and realities, and everything is not relative.  Diyala Trennys is the daughter of the man sent to conquer a continent that is probably at least the size of Asia -- and enslave every man, woman and child he doesn’t kill.