The Far Side (75 page)

“I’ll send that upstairs right away,” the captain told him.  “Is there anything else you need?”

“We’ll supply our own heavy weapons and will expedite their arrival, along with the shooters.  We’ll need ammo, flash bangs, and tear gas grenades -- that sort of thing.”

“We will have that on site for you as you require; just give me a list of your requirements.  There are currently about forty officers there, all with body armor and with automatic weapons and some crew-served weapons.”

“To keep the switch off?” Kris asked nastily.

“In case they can open the door from the other side,” the captain told her.  “Unless you can assure me that it’s impossible.”

“That I can’t do,” Kris agreed.  “I’m sorry to say that we’ve hit a stumbling block in that regards.  Even the heavy math and theory hitters are coming up with zeros when it comes to these doors.  They don’t know how they form, where they form, or why they form.  Since we can empirically show them that they do form, they are still working on it.”

General Briggs spoke up.  “Major Sandusky, I’d like to appoint Captain Stone as my liaison to your group, if I may.”

“Of course, General -- this is your mission, really.  Structure it as you wish.”

The general laughed.  “I could knock you on the head and go off in your place -- except then my wife would want to go as well.  No, I’m a general.  In this case, I’ll content myself with listening to the after-action report and offering my 20-20 hindsight.”

“Sounds fair, sir!”  Kurt turned to Kris.  “We’ll meet in front of the dorm in an hour, okay?”

“Okay.”

Kris went back into the dorm room; her roommate was still lying in bed, but now facing the door and propped up on one arm.  “I’ll be another few minutes,” Kris told her.  “Then I’ll be out of your hair.  I’m sorry, Erica.”

“You’re leaving?”

“Temporarily.  A lot of people’s heart’s desire, but it is suddenly ashes.”

“Ashes?  I don’t understand?”

“I thought I’d be riding a white charger, swooping in to rescue clever peers.  Instead, I’m morally sure that they’re all dead.”

“Oh!”

“Still, nothing is a sure thing.”

Erica Mirableu grinned.  “Except death and taxes.”

“My father says that good tax lawyers can work miracles.”

Mirableu laughed.  “Okay.  Kris...”

“What?”

“Not this time -- but another time.  Just so I’ll know what it’s like.  If you have another mission like this, could you think of me, when you’re thinking about staffing?”

Kris sighed.  “You understand that the odds are that some or all of us will get killed?”

“Even that.  Going off-world, Kris!  Who hasn’t dreamed of that?”  She paused.  “And what about Diyala?”

“She’s living with her tutor.  In a month we’ll see if she is ready for junior high.  It’s amazing how fast she is learning English.”

She saw her roommate’s expression.  “I know, I know.  I’m a lousy mother.  I never said I was going to be good at it.  I can’t wake her in the middle of the night and drag her halfway across the country and maybe get her killed if she’s too close.  Not to mention that Arvalans aren’t like us; once they go to sleep it messes them up to wake them ahead of time.”

She didn’t want to talk about it.  She wasn’t supposed to see Diyala until Saturday, and today was only Tuesday.  The odds were they’d be done by tomorrow evening.

She packed quickly and then went down the steps and outside.  Captain Stone had a Norwich van parked there, the engine running.  Kris was pleased that she’d beat Ezra, even if she hadn’t beaten Kurt.  Ezra wasn’t but two minutes behind her, and then they were off to the airport.

When they reached the airport, Captain Stone was directed through a gate to the civil aviation hanger.  They all climbed out and most everyone started for the aircraft, while Captain Stone spoke to someone about returning the school van to Norwich.

Kris’ eye lit on a familiar face -- the Northfield city cop she had seen in the dorm hallway and who was now talking to another Northfield cop.  She walked over to the two men, who stopped talking as she approached.  Kris wasn’t entirely sure what was running through her mind, but focused as best as she could.  “Busy?” she asked the young officer.

“Until not so long ago, it was a typical early autumn night,” the fellow told her.  “Now, a little less normal.”

He had short, well-trimmed, black hair.  He wasn’t as tall as Ezra, but he seemed to move with the same lithe confidence.

“I was speaking in a more general sense,” Kris told him.  “Want a free trip to Chicago?  There would be money in it for you.”

“I’m on duty for another three hours,” he replied.  “And frankly, I’d rather have crabs than go to Chicago.”

“Have you ever thought about attending Norwich?”

He laughed. “I had trouble affording community college.  Do you know how much Norwich costs?”

That was a low blow, because Kris knew it was expensive -- but she’d never checked.  Money wasn’t an issue with her.

“No, but I know it’s expensive.  I was thinking, maybe you’d like to ride along, to see how we do it.”

That was something she’d heard when she was a junior, going along with an LAPD officer as a “volunteer.”  It had been mandatory, which had made not only her father get angry, but had made her mother laugh.

“Like I said, I’m on duty.”

Kris looked at Kurt and grinned.  “And if I can get you a ‘get-off-duty-free card?’  What then?”

“Then I’d wonder why you’re hitting on me.”

Kris blushed.  She was wondering that herself.

He saw her expression and pressed his point.  “I understand you don’t like cops.”

“No, I don’t.”

“I’m a cop.  My father and older brother are cops.  My little sister is trying to get on the job in Boston.”

Kris decided that there is a time to advance and there is a time to retreat.  “It’s up to you.  How would I know that cops can be different unless I meet one that’s different?”

“You won’t.  We’re all alike, under the collar.”

“You mean, like the men who killed Xin and we can’t find out from their fellows what the names of those involved are?  The cowards who nearly beat a graduate student to death and broke her legs, but whose coworkers won’t rat them out?  The men who broke my father’s wrist and a thumb when he wouldn’t answer questions that he had no answers for?  The names of the men who beat my mother several times?  All those nameless people, none of whom were seen to do anything wrong by their brother and sister officers?”

The officer eyed her.  “Okay, maybe we’re not so much alike.”

Kris waved at the aircraft.  “If you want, get aboard.  I will go to bat for you with anyone who objects.”

“And if I get fired?”

“I’ll offer you a better job -- certainly one with wider travel benefits.”

Ezra doubled over, trying not to laugh, while Kurt Sandusky grinned.

“I’m not stupid,” the policeman told Kris.  “I know who you are, I know what General Briggs is building at Norwich, and I know what sort of travel you are offering.”

“Did you know that it took four hours for the first suggestion that he was building Far Side door fusors at Norwich after he introduced me?”

“No.  I would have thought it would have been less.”

“So did the general.  But you, you know.  How is that?”

“It’s not a secret.  Norwich was on the cutting edge of reform for a long time; it’s only lately it’s turned into ‘one of many.’  I’m not surprised that General Briggs is trying something radical.  They weren’t the first military academy to accept black students, but they were the first where they were welcomed.  Norwich was also the first military school to integrate women into their program.”

“We digress,” Kris told him.  She waved at the aircraft.  “The lady, the tiger, or a doughnut when you go off shift?”
 

“Kris,” Kurt said roughly, “we’re getting the ‘let’s get moving’ sign from the Chicago cop.”

Kris spoke only a few more words.  “I don’t know if you saw the movie ‘Transformers.’  I rather liked the young woman, and more importantly I admired her reaction to the question ‘Are you going to get in the car?’ with the very credible threat that if she didn’t she’d spend the rest of her life regretting not having done it.”

“And you think if I don’t say yes I’ll spend the rest of my life pining for my lost opportunity?”

“At the very least.  Or, on the other hand, if you stay here and I come to an untimely death later today, you can pat yourself on the back for making a good call.”

He smiled wryly.  “Well, I guess I’ll call in sick.”

“Oh, no,” Kris told him.  “I’ll call in for you.  We’re on a secret mission for the President of the United States.”  She giggled.  “Well, he thinks it’s secret, any way.

* * *

The young policeman’s name was Peter Sharp and, Kris quickly learned, he was indeed sharp.

Flying from Los Angeles to New York and then on to Vermont, you get a sense of the huge breadth of the United States.  Flying from Vermont to Chicago you get the impression that it’s not as big as you thought.

They were met at the airport by a couple of SWAT vans and a deputy chief of police, a deputy police commissioner, a deputy mayor, and a deputy Secretary of Homeland Security.  The Homeland Security deputy asked for Kurt and then handed him a manila folder with papers in it.

He addressed Kurt, saying, “These contain the following:

“An executive order permitting the Department of Homeland Security to waive Far Side quarantines when human lives are at stake.  It reduces the time required in quarantine to a week for worlds that have been medically certified -- currently only the planet known as ‘Arvala’ is so certified.  Planets where humans have spent more than ninety Earth days without infection require two weeks and the rest require four weeks quarantine.

“They had to wake the President up to get this, I might add.”

“My heart bleeds for him,” Kris said nastily.

“Young women should be seen and not heard,” the man retorted.

“Is that a fact?  In that case, we’re out of here, unless you want to wing this on your own, Kurt.”

“No, thanks.  If I’m not supposed to listen to you, I sure don’t want to get into a firefight listening to a pompous snot nose from Washington.”

Kurt jerked his head at Captain Wolford and the Chicago officials.  “Better luck with the second string, gentleman.”

“What?” the deputy mayor said.  “You’re just going to walk away?  Without doing anything?”

Kris nodded at the Washington suit.  “He just told us that I’m supposed to shut my mouth.  I’m sure you’ll find his advice just as valuable as mine would have been.  Obviously Major Sandusky doesn’t feel comfortable without my advice, and I can’t say as I blame him.”

The deputy mayor dragged the Homeland Security man away and spoke heatedly in his ear.  The man laughed, turned and walked away.

The deputy mayor’s face turned hard and he came back.  “Miss Boyle, that man does not speak for Chicago in any way, means, manner, or fashion.  We solicited your assistance and we were fully aware of who you are.  Please, I won’t apologize on his behalf, but I do wish to assure you on behalf of his Honor the mayor, the chief of police, and on behalf of the families of the five missing individuals that we don’t share his opinion.”

His eyes got even harder.  “As soon as I get to a phone, I’ll apprise the mayor of what has transpired, and then his Honor will get on the phone to his good friend in DC, and that man will have a nasty surprise waiting for him when he gets back to his office.”

Kurt spoke quickly.  “The non-apology is accepted.  What I’m going to do is fax these papers he’s given us to our lawyers to make sure that there aren’t any surprises.”

“Fine, in the meantime, we have set up a command post about a block from the location of the device, and that’s where your additional personnel will be arriving in about an hour.  In the meantime, you can make whatever preparations you wish, pending your legal review.”

“Thanks,” Kurt told them.  “Let’s go!”

They carried a half-dozen bags from the aircraft and loaded them into the SWAT vans.  Each van had a couple of uniformed officers in them, and they helped stow the bags in secure lockers.

The drive through the city occurred just as dawn was breaking.  The trip wasn’t as long as Kris expected, and before she was quite ready, the SWAT van pulled to a stop.  Captain Wolford climbed out and stretched.  “Sorry, it’s been a long day.”

Kris looked around.  They were standing in front of a medium-sized house in the midst of some of the scruffiest looking woods Kris had ever seen.

The house was about the same size as her parent’s home had been before it had been burned, Kris thought.  Otto Schulz’s home had been larger -- before it was burned as well.  In the direction the sun was rising was a small cluster of homes, and a local road ran to their north, with an intersection of another street to the northwest.

Farther to the north was a divided street, with nothing but straggly trees in the median, and four or five hundred feet beyond that, some sort of larger building.