Bruce Sterling - Distraction

“I can’t possibly fire the police. That’s crazy.”

“The police have to go as soon as possible. Hire your own po-lice. If you don’t control your own police, you live on sufferance. The police are the core of any society, and if you don’t have them on your side, you can’t hold power. Huey knows that. That’s why Huey owns the cops in here. They may be feds officially, but they’re all in his pockets.”

The car jostled with a thump and a creak. Oscar yelped. A shapeless black beast was bumping and clawing at the hood.

“It’s a lemur,” Greta said. “They’re nocturnal.”

The lemur stared through the windshield with yellow eyes the size and shape of golf balls. Pressed flat against the glass, its eldritch protohuman mitts gave him a serious turn. “I’ve had it with these animals!” Oscar shouted. “They’re like Banquo’s ghost, they never let us alone! Whose bright idea was this anyway? Wild animals loose in a science lab? It doesn’t make any sense!”

“They are ghosts,” Greta said. “We raised them from the dead. It’s something we learned how to do here.” She opened her door and stepped half out, waving one arm. “Go on. Shoo.”

The lemur sidled off reluctantly.

Oscar had broken into a cold sweat. His hair was standing on end and his hands were shaking. He could actually smell his own fear: a sharp pheromonal reek. He crossed his arms and shivered violently. His reaction was all out of whack, but he couldn’t help it: he was very inspired tonight. “Give me a minute … Sorry … Where were we?”

“I can’t stand up in public and start screaming for people to be fired.”

“Don’t prejudge the evidence. Try it out first. Just suggest that a few of these creeps should be fired, and see what the public response is.” He drew a breath. “Remember the climax — you do have a final ace to play.”

“Where I say that I refuse my own salary.”

“Yeah, I thought voluntarily cutting it in half might be good — I’d like to see the Collaboratory’s budget cut about in half — but it’s a better and stronger gesture if you just refuse your pay altogether. You refuse to take government pay until the lab is put back in order. That’s a great conclusion, it shows you’re really serious and it gets you out with a punch, and a nice hot sound bite. Then you sit back and watch the fireworks.”

“I sit back, and the Director fires me on the spot.”

“No, he won’t. He won’t dare. He’s never been his own man, and he’s just not bright enough to react that quickly. He’ll stall for time, and he’s all out of time. Getting the Director out of office is not a problem. The next big step is getting you in as Director. And the real challenge will be keeping you in office — long enough for you to push some real reforms through.”

She sighed. “And then, finally, when that’s all over, do I get to go back and do my labwork?”

“Probably.” He paused. “No, sure, of course. If that’s what you really want.”

“How am I supposed to eat with no salary?”

“You’ve got your Nobel Prize money, Greta. You’ve got big piles of Swedish kronor that you’ve never even touched.”

She frowned. “I kept thinking I would buy new equipment with it, but the lab procurement people wouldn’t let me do all the paper-work.”

“Okay, that’s your problem in a nutshell. Fire all those sorry bastards first thing.”

She shut her laptop. “This is serious. When I do this, it will make a terrible stink. Something will happen.”

“We want things to happen. That’s why we’re doing all this.” She turned in her seat, anxiously poking him with a kneecap. “I just want to be truthful. Not political. Truthful.”

“This is an honest political speech! Everything there can be doc-umented.”

“It’s honest about everything but you and me.”

Oscar exhaled slowly. He’d been expecting this development.

“Well, that’s where we have to pay the price. After tomorrow, you’re on campaign. Even with the best will and intention, we won’t have any time for ourselves anymore. When we had our stolen moments, we could meet in Boston or Louisiana, and that was lovely, and we could get away with that. But we lose that privilege from now on. This is the last time that you and I can meet privately. I won’t even be in the audience when you speak tomorrow. It mustn’t look like I’m prompting you.”

“But people know about us. A lot of people know. I want people to know.”

“All political leaders lead double lives. Public, and private. That’s not hypocrisy. That’s just reality.”

“What if we’re outed?”

“Well, there’s two ways to play that development. We could stonewall. That’s simplest and easiest — just deny everything, and let them try to prove it. Or, we could be very coy and provocative, and say that we’re flattered by their matchmaking. We could lead them on a little, we could be sexy and glamorous. You know, play it the good old Hollywood way. That’s a dangerous game, but I know that game pretty well, and I like that one better, myself.”

She was silent for a moment. “Won’t you miss me?”

“How can I miss you? I’m managing you. You’re the very center of my life now. You’re my candidate.”

Oscar and Yosh Pelicanos were enjoying a healthful stroll around the china tower of the Hot Zone. Pelicanos wore a billed hat, khaki walk-ing shorts, and a sleeveless pullover. Two months inside the dome had caused almost all of Oscar’s krewe to go native. Oscar, by stark con-trast, wore his nattiest suit and a sharp new steam-blocked hat. Oscar rarely felt the need of serious exercise, since his metabolic rate was eight percent higher than that of a normal human.

Their walk was a deliberate and public promenade. The Col-laboratory’s board was meeting, Greta was about to speak, and Oscar was very conspicuously nowhere near the scene. Oscar was especially hard to miss when publicly trailed by his bodyguard: the spectral Kevin Hamilton, parading in his motorized wheelchair.

“What is it with this Hamilton guy?” Pelicanos grumbled, glanc-ing over his shoulder. “Why on earth did you have to hire some Anglo hustler? His only credential is that he limps even worse than Fontenot. ”

“Kevin’s very gifted. He got that netwar program off my back. Besides, he works cheap.”

“He dresses like a loan shark. The guy gets eighteen package deliveries a day. And that headphone and the scanning gear — he’s sleeping in it! He’s getting on our nerves.”

“Kevin will grow on you. I know he’s not the standard team player. Be tolerant.”

“I’m nervous,” Pelicanos admitted.

“No need for that. We’ve laid all the groundwork perfectly,” Oscar said. “I’ve got to hand it to the krewe, you’ve really done me proud here.” Oscar’s mood was radiant. Unbearable personal tension, stress, and agonizing suspense always brought out his boyish, endearing side. “Yosh, you did first-class work on those audits. And the push-polling was superb, you handled that beautifully. A few dozen loaded questions on the Science Committee letterhead, and the locals are hopping like puppets, they’re gun-shy now, they’re ready for anything. It’s been a tour de force all around. Even the hotel’s making money! Especially now that we lured in all those expense-account headhunters from out of state.”

“Yeah, you’ve got us all working like mules — you don’t have to tell me that. The question is, is it enough?”

“Well, nothing’s ever enough… Politics isn’t precision ma-chinery, it’s a performance art. It’s stage magic. It’s a brand-new year, and now the curtain’s going up. We’ve got our plants primed in the audience, we’ve got scarves and ribbons up our sleeve, we’ve saturated the playing field with extra hats and rabbits…”