John Barnes - Daybreak Zero

“Our?”

“You always tell me that a general is political but the Army is not, baby. So, our. You’ve got a political side, and it’s the one Daddy’s on.”

He kissed her lightly. “What if we’re ever on opposite sides?”

“Unthinkable, baby, but fortunately you have a whole weekend off from thinking, courtesy of the Natcon. I’m looking forward to this so much I’m almost grateful to the little turd.”

“Everyone else is celebrating,” Cam said, coming in with a picnic basket, “and I need someone to celebrate with, so you’re it. I know you don’t drink so I brought along an amazing find: pre-Daybreak Perrier.”

“Last for a long time,” Phat said. “The spring is around on the Mediterranean side of France. Does anyone have any contact there at all?”

“ Discovery ’s first mission, next year, is to explore the north shore of the Med. But there hasn’t been any radio contact since March and all the Argentine expedition is finding around the Med are tribes, and a few dug-in fortified settlements just barely hanging on. Somehow I doubt restoring the trade in Perrier will be a priority for a while.” Cam set out the fresh sliced ham, bread, and sliced vegetables. “I also brought red wine. We are going to celebrate avec des baguettes et du jambon et des crudités, l’eau gasseuse , and of course le vin tres ordinaire . In honor of a place the world doesn’t have anymore.”

“Wow, you sure know how to throw a cheerful event, Cam.” Nonetheless, Lyndon Phat held up his glass of Perrier, and clinked it with Cameron’s glass of red wine. “To our billions of absent friends.”

“Yeah.” They dedicated themselves to the good food, and Cameron said, “I am having a thought that you will not approve of. I think I would like to let you out of jail.”

“Like hell. If you let me go, I’m going to have to flee for my life—and the only place to flee to will be Olympia. And if they give me asylum, you’ll have Civil War Two on your hands for sure.”

“Would you be willing to reassume command of the Army and jail me ? On grounds that I exceeded my authority by not putting Graham Weisbrod in as Acting President?”

“Well, it’s a nice prison, as prisons go, Cam, but it’s still a prison. Why are you so eager to move into it?”

“Because I’ve just slapped down the Post Rapturals and their allies in the Army, and given Grayson a political wedgie along the way. I’m guessing I’ve got a couple weeks before they hit back hard. And after due consideration, as a serious constitutionalist—and sometimes I feel like the last one in America—right now the God-Army-flag team here is proclaiming their loyalty to the Constitution like a rooster crowing that he’s the best hen-impregnator in the county, but they’re violating half or more of it. The Provis at least try to go through the forms; they’re also doing things that were never envisioned in the Constitution, but my feeling is they’re closer to the original intent. At least they’re not trying to set up an established church, abolish the rights of defendants, or carve out huge exceptions to freedom of speech, press, and assembly. I wish the Provis weren’t so loaded up with university types and career Civil Service, and that they had a keener sense of the possible, but their hearts are in a better place.

“So my thinking is this. You and I made a huge mistake. Me by not putting Graham in, and you by not kicking my ass out and putting Graham in. If we’d just stuck to our oaths, swallowed our doubts, and followed the rules, we’d have lived through our disagreements with Graham. He’s a smart, persuasible guy, and we’d have brought him around to our side on anything crucial that we were right about. So… we broke it. Can we fix it?”

Phat leaned back, swishing the Perrier in his mouth, and swallowed, relishing it. “I guess we owe it to the absent friends. I think you’ve got reach out via Pueblo; you surely don’t want Grayson and Whilmire to catch you talking to Olympia on a back channel, but they can’t object to your working more closely with the RRC. Do you have a channel for contacting Heather O’Grainne?”

“Not yet, but I’m expecting an opportunity soon. Or maybe I should say my opportunity is expecting soon.”

“Boo. We’ll talk again, Cameron, but if you don’t mind, since we can’t accomplish much else just now, let’s declare business concluded. I think we should just enjoy the food you’ve brought, especially since either of us might soon be strictly on jail food.”

“Remember how much business in DC used to turn around getting somewhere in time for reservations?” Heather asked Arnie, cheerfully, as she dragged herself over to her main worktable. “Well, we have’em at Johanna’s, so we need to finish this quick. Wow, all those stairs are a climb in the heat.”

“Enjoy heat while you can—the weather forecasters are saying this couple of weeks might be our only real summer, and what’s coming is going to be like a volcano winter, cold, wet, and early. All the soot.”

“Yeah, I know, and I intend to bitch about that when that happens, too. Right here—this is eyes-only stuff for me and my top analyst, and no matter how secure Johanna tries to keep her upper room, it can’t be secure enough for this conversation.”

Intrigued, Arnie joined her at the worktable. She laid out three single sheets of paper from a black folder. “Critical facts. Agents in TNG territory confirm that Cam handed weekend passes out like candy to base and fort commanders, and sent General Grayson out of town, just after dissolving the Board. Looks like he was afraid of a coup. Two, Cam communicated a request to Graham Weisbrod to discuss an earlier merger of the two governments, last night. So it looks like Cam is moving toward resolving the two-government problem by dissolving his own, and it also looks like he’s scared that he won’t be able to.”

Arnie felt strangely numb and confused, as if he’d been told that nothing he was doing mattered, but he made himself say the expected thing: “That might be good news if he pulls it off.”

“It might. But this morning, our highest placed agent in Athens—Red Dog—reported that the Post Raptural Church is gearing up for massive protests, and Red Dog thinks Cam might be in danger of being overthrown by a religious revolution, at least as much as he might be by a coup. Red Dog’s super-deep source”— as close as I will ever get to breathing the fact that Shorty Phat is reporting his conversations with Cam to us through Red Dog —“and Red Dog himself recommend we move strongly to support Cameron. What’s your take, Arnie?”

Arnie Yang froze in thought; there was nothing unusual about that, and given how complex the problem was, Heather preferred that he take his time. But when he finally spoke he said, “I guess you have to pay attention to Athens but I’m still really worried about the tribes, and I want to keep focusing on investigating Daybreak.”

“Lobby me all through lunch about that and I’ll not only listen, I might be persuaded, Arnie. But I really want your take on this. Should Red Dog approach Cam, try to set up a back channel alliance? There’s a lot to gain, but if Red Dog is blown, the whole network could be rolled up. Come on, you are the best analyst I’ve got and my right hand. Analyze.”

He looked down at the papers and said, “For some reason, I just can’t seem to form a conclusion.”

She gave him a full minute before she said, “Well, if that’s really your answer—”