Michael Williamson - When Diplomacy Fails…

“Yes.”

Alex nodded, waved and went to compose a draft. He wondered if drinking heavily would help, though he couldn’t do so.

Just then his phone beeped.

“Marlow.”

“Alex, Captain Das.”

“What can I do for you, Captain?”

“I must relay some bad news.”

Alex sighed. “Go ahead.”

“Ms. Highland requested military escort for her transport. That request has been categorically denied.”

“I see. She won’t like that at all. I can’t say I’m thrilled with it myself.”

“I understand. Can you guarantee Ms. Highland will not mention her campaign in her appearances?”

“What? No, she generally mentions it every time.”

“Yes, which makes her ‘candidate’ Highland. ‘Minister’ Highland is an official representative of the government, and can have as much escort as we can spare. ‘Candidate’ Highland must provide her own support. She’s certainly in violation of BuState regulations, too, but that’s not an issue we have jurisdiction over. We cannot, however, allow a candidate to make use of our taxpayer resources.”

“I completely understand. That’s most unfortunate.”

“We’ll be letting her know, of course. I wanted to make sure you could plan accordingly.”

“Thanks. I appreciate it.”

It was Bart who brought up the next issue. “News,” he said. “Churp from JessieM.”

He let it scroll on his glasses, then scrolled it again.

Then he sighed. He talked to his phone.

“Cady, are you free? Priority Three.”

“Sure, I’ll be right there.”

Turning to the others he said, “I’ll use the armory for this discussion.”

Jason said, “Go ahead, boss, I’ll clean later.”

Cady arrived at once, looking unbothered but concerned. She knew most of what had happened. He motioned her back into the room.

As soon as she closed the door he said, “I need to give you a status update. This is official, but personal.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah, JessieM put the word out that you’re trans. It’s no one’s business, but that’s the business she’s in. And Highland likes having ‘diversity’ to point to politically.”

Cady looked confused rather than offended. “Are you saying I’m here because I’m trans?”

“No, you’re here because you do damned good facilities. The principal wants you here because you’re trans.”

She nodded thoughtfully. “I see. Well, I don’t like that, but I don’t have much choice unless I want to leave, which defeats my moral purposes and affects the mission.”

Alex said, “Yeah. Sorry you’re getting caught up in it.”

She looked a bit wistful as she said, “It’s something we get from time to time even in modern societies. I expected trouble from the locals here if word got out. I had hoped our principal would be diplomatically savvy.”

“She is, and she sees a benefit back home, among her potential voters.”

Cady sighed. “Yes, the opposite of what works here. I could offer a comment on that.”

Alex said, “It’s been made.”

She nodded. “Well, I’ll do the best I can.”

“The locals know now, of course.”

“I understand.” She looked sad. This couldn’t be a new event, and had to be tiresome and irritating. “It doesn’t affect what I do, unless you’d like me to leave to preserve order.”

Yes, this had to be a tender subject for her.

“That’s very professional of you. No. Even if it would help, I’d say no. You’re not an interchangeable unit. You’re our best facilities expert. They’ll just have to deal with it.”

“So will I.”

“Yeah, that’s the part I don’t like.”

She shrugged. “As I said, it’s an old story. I’ll manage. Thanks for the update.”

“I think we both favor a free media,” he said. “I know there’s no real privacy. But some things shouldn’t be dug out and promoted. No one should care about our names, backgrounds, locations.”

“Except the enemy. We’re not allowed to say that, though.”

“There is no enemy. They’re just misunderstood. Anyway, that’s the brief, I’m back on duty.” He started for the door.

Cady said, “I have a standard statement I can give her if she asks. You know why I transitioned, yes?”

He halted. “I never asked. It’s not my business.”

“Well, we need to work together and it’s come up, so it’s your business now. Genetic irregularity. XXY chromosomes, and at puberty I seemed to lean more toward female both mentally and physiologically. So they finished with modern science what nature got half-assed.”

“Got it.”

Truth be told, he found it uncomfortable, even if it was a fairly straightforward process anymore. She did good work, though, and there was no reason for personal details to be public.

In her quarters and well away from any military or contractors, Highland let out a tight sigh and asked Jessie, “Okay, give me the bad news on the numbers.”

“Actually, it’s not bad.”

“Really?”

“It’s polling well. Large numbers of rural and wealthy urban demographics support it being a legitimate return of fire.”

Again, she said, “Really?”

“You lost eight percent of the lower income brackets, but gained twenty-three percent in the ones I mentioned, for a net gain, population adjusted, of three percent. That puts you back at thirty-one percent, and a credible threat to Cruk.”

“I haven’t heard anything good about Ripple Creek.”

“Oh, they’re widely hated. The bounce seems to be a perception of your strength.”

“Well, then I supposed I need to spin it that way. I’m strong, not afraid, and these manipulated attacks aren’t a credible threat. I can denounce the excessive violence.”

“That’s not very fair to our guards.”

“This isn’t fair. It’s a campaign.”

Elke paused the replay and looked around. This was a type of issue she didn’t understand.

Jason was angry. His reply was moderate. That was scary.

“Well, we expected to get bent over. It’s part of the job, and why we get paid so much. But she actually wants to use us not only as muscle, but to then decry our techniques, while sobbing about her compassion. That’s an election strategy?”

Aramis of all people looked very calm.

“Sadly, I think it will work. She can play good cop/bad cop, blame the SecGen for our presence, play the victim and compassion cards, promise vague, undefined ‘difference. ’ ”

Elke asked, “How will the blame affect us?”

Alex said, “That is a good question. It can play out as more of the same, nobody cares. It could turn into nuisance suits that hurt the company. It could get very ugly with some kind of General Assembly investigation that has us being deposed, and charged with perjury for saying we had eggs for breakfast when the camera clearly shows turkey ham.”

“I could persuade her to be nice,” Bart said.

Alex looked around. “Are we positive we’re not being scanned? Aerospace Force was able to hack us quite well the first time.”

Elke said, “I am sure. I’m also not as worried about them as her.”

Jason nodded in agreement. “Yeah, though she may have friends, and they may decide the info is worth money.”

Aramis sat back and stared at the wall. “I guess we need to make sure Captain Das is on our side.”

“He seems like a good man,” Elke said.

Alex said, “I’ll draw some materials. Jason can you work out a polite trade, so he’s slightly beholden?”

“I can. No specific requests, just ‘we heard you needed this’?”

“Exactly. We have the Golden Cargotainer. We’re good people.”

Elke said, “I guess I’m unhappy protecting someone who will use us so hypocritically. It’s not that we’re enemies, nor that we’re conspirators. She means to play us as fools.”