“We’ve got ‘em on the run, Dan.” William smiled, a manic glint in his eye. “Dennis Billings, Sharon Redding, and Edmund Adeleke all have reached out to us. They don’t trust us, but they absolutely hate each other. It sounds like they’re willing to fade back into the woodwork, so long as they aren’t punished too severely for their attempted coup. Even better, they’ll settle for releasing their technological advancements to us in exchange for royalties on any production.”
Dan glanced around the Viceroy’s boardroom. Sam and Jennifer looked like they were thinking the deal over, but Abe was livid. Dan wasn’t sure he blamed Abe.
“William, I want to end the war as much as the next guy, but they literally destroyed the United States. It’ll be years before we know how many thousands of people died in the disruptions their rebellion caused. We can’t let them off.”
William frowned slightly. “Dan, I don’t think you understand. We’re more powerful than any of the warlords I’ve just listed, but any one of them could make things hard for us. If they stop and fight, we might not be able to make it to New York in time to stop the Orakh. I know they’re assholes, but there’s nothing we can do about it. The stakes are just too high.”
“No.” Dan cut in. “This is exactly the kind of reasoning that got us here in the first place. Each of them can walk away with their lives and one million dollars. That’s all the amnesty they’re going to get from me. If we let them get away with it and turn our backs on them, we’re just asking for a knife between our shoulderblades later. If I have to airdrop from the Viceroy into their goddamn houses and kill them in their sleep to get this done, I will.”
William’s bushy eyebrows furrowed as he tried to assuage Dan’s wrath. “My boy, I know it’s distasteful, but this is just how politics happens. Sometimes you need to let the small fish off the line so that you can hook the big one.”
“Those are the rules to the old game.” A touch of heat colored Dan’s voice. “We almost lost everything because of them. Billings, Redding, and Adeleke have seen how we handled the other traitors. They know that their time is up, and they’re literally willing to use the American people as hostages to secure an advantage for themselves. If we let them get away with this, even if they stay on their best behavior for the rest of their lives, others will see that they got away with it. It will empower the worst among us.”
“But what if we do a truth and reconciliation–” William began, his further arguments cut off by a snort from Abe.
“I’ve seen your truth and reconciliation commissions.” Abe rolled his eyes, leaning back in one of the plus-sized chairs they’d brought in to decorate the conference room. “I helped the locals organize a couple of them in Indonesia. We all knew to look the other way when some Captain from stateside came out to the jungle, not a speck of mud on him, to let the ‘local authorities’ know who they were supposed to forgive and who they could punish.”
He leaned forward, his muscles rippling slightly as he turned to stare at William. “It was an ugly business, but we kept our mouths shut. That was our job. We did dirty, shitty jobs in a corrupt and unpleasant world. We need to get rid of the Orakh, that’s true, but Dan’s dead right. If we let this sort of sickness fester, we’re going to regret it for generations. There are plenty of wealthy and powerful people working together with their communities right now. We only ended up with a handful of these warlords or tech lords, or whatever the hell else they want to call themselves.”
Abe’s elbow was on the table, his finger pointing like a dark spear at William while the old man frowned. “They chose to tip this country into chaos for no reason other than a lust for power. After things didn’t work out with Ibis, they chose to become war profiteers. Rather than protect what was left of their homeland, they tried ot snatch the last crumbs of value from her corpse.”
“It’ll be almost impossible to transfer the entire army via the Viceroy!” William burst out, standing up from his chair. “We need to use the rail lines and highways, and Redding controls almost all of the Great Plains. We won’t even be able to get our army to New York without her standing down.”
“Tatiana,” Dan replied, keeping his gaze locked on William. “Can you ascertain where Sharon Redding is at this moment?”
“She’s at a private museum in Billings, Montana,” Tatiana chimed in. “If you’re planning on killing her, she has ten guards with her, two of whom appear to have some interesting prosthetics on them.”
“Cybernetics,” William responded woodenly. “Her field of research was replacing human limbs with better metal versions.”
“That sounds like something that we don’t need.” Dan’s eyes didn’t leave William. “Mana accumulates in the entire body. Prosthetics might be useful if someone loses a limb, but I don’t see people voluntarily going under the knife once magic is an option. In short, she’s a perfect test case. I don’t see any reason why we can’t make an example of her and kill her right now, if she doesn’t agree to our demands.”
“Dan,” William cut in. “We can’t just go around killing enemy leaders. If we start down that path, everyone else will end up doing the same thing. It’ll destabilize everything.”
Abe shook his head. “That’s not what we did in Jakarta. Why was it ok to send my team to collect heads when it was across an ocean, but now that we’re in America, suddenly you’re squeamish about everything?”
“That was different, Abraham.” William scowled at Abe. “We only sent your team after terrorists and cult leaders. Everyone you killed was a murderer a hundred times over, beyond redemption. The warlords are bad people, but they’re not terribly worse than lobbyists. We’ll fix their rot eventually, but until then, they’re a necessary evil.”
“Bullshit,” Sam’s voice shocked everyone else into silence. It’d been months since she’d spoken at a meeting without a question being asked directly of her, and it almost seemed like the others had forgotten her presence. “The warlords are directly responsible for more American deaths than any guerilla leader in Indonesia. Hell, I’m pretty sure most of them actually profited off of clandestinely selling technology to the nationalist forces during our invasion. I literally think they were supporting the people you had Abe kill. These people aren’t misunderstood; I understand them perfectly. They’re monsters, and they need to be removed if society is going to grow.”
“But,” William began before Sam cut him off once again.
“They look like you, sit on the same nonprofit boards as you, and go to the same country clubs with you.” She shook her head, her eyes flashing. “I get it. It’s hard for you to think of them as ‘the bad guy.’ It might be easier to think of some poor sod plotting against America while hiding in a cave in the mountains as the bad guy, but that’s exactly the blind spot that got us where we are today. This isn’t about left or right, religion or race. People can disagree about tax policy or immigration and genuinely love this country, and many of them did.”
“But our government is gone because we looked the other way while this ‘illuminati’ group consolidated power,” Sam fumed. “Dan and Abe are right. These people will see mercy as a sign of weakness and an invitation to try again. Unless we pull this weed out, root and stem, we will never truly be safe.”
William looked around the room, failing to find a friendly face. Finally, he turned to Jennifer.
“What about you, pumpkin?” He asked the question without much hope in his eyes, his voice plaintive. “Surely you understand that this is just a compromise that we need to make?”
“I’m sorry, Daddy.” She shook her head. “I’m not opposed to making deals with the devil if we have to. It would speed things along if we compromised, but everyone is right. The warlords are responsible for almost as many deaths as the Orakh. If we let them walk away, no one will ever trust any government we try to set up.”
Dan stood up and walked over to him. “William, I understand why you want to offer them amnesty, but we’re unanimous other than you. Plus, it’s not like this is actually a democracy. The only vote that matters is mine. They can keep one million dollars and retire from public life. If they don’t want to negotiate with you, they can negotiate with Abe and me at three am. The discussion will last about thirty seconds, and it will end with a small box being mailed to their next of kin.
“You’re right that we don’t have time to fight them.” He shook his head slightly, his hand on William’s shoulder. “It won’t be a fight. We’ll just kill the leaders, one-by-one, until they get out of the way.”
Even if William disagreed with their decision, he executed it perfectly. The various tech lords objected and blustered when he delivered his terms, but after William pointed out that they had a teleporting space battleship, and had Tatiana describe their surroundings perfectly, they folded quietly.
Ibis’ old allies might have been assholes, but they weren’t stupid. A million dollars was still a lot of money. As long as they weren’t idiots about it, they’d be able to live out the rest of their lives comfortably. The offer was still more than Dan wanted to give them, but it got the job done.
It still took almost a week to get their entire army across the country. The Viceroy’s Pride needed to make a couple of final trips in order to pick up the last couple of suits of armor from Peter Best’s old factory, but eventually their forces were arrayed just outside of New York City.
Refugees streamed past their encampment. The Orakh had broken out of Manhattan days ago. The NYPD and the national guard were trying to hold back the alien swarm, but each day saw them pushed further back. Already, tens of thousands were dead, and the alien forces grew in size each day.
Dan surveyed the gleaming city as swarms of desperate souls fled away from it, the rattle of guns and the deep boom of explosions driving them to move faster. Behind him, Abe stood in a tank top and shorts, talking to William, already in his armor, putting the final touches on their battle plan.
The ten mechs lined the road into the city, tanks and armored vehicles clustered around them as infantry checked their weapons. They’d delayed and prepared long enough. New York was falling to the Orakh, and it was time for Dan to act.
