Chapter 16: the real story of that midnight raid

"Manny" was actually Herman Fredrick Herring, a fact that he gave up immediately when he was in the pod. "Manny" didn't have all the information that Hank Dalton desired. "Manny"--or Herman, as he prefered when he wasn't working--was expendable and was told only what the job required. Inside the pod Manny was made to believe that he was the only survivor of a raid gone wrong.

"It was a trap!" Herman told his nameless boss. "They gunned us down. I managed to escape. If any of the others got away, they didn't meet at the rally point. I need to get out of Florida. Somehow they knew we were coming and they ambushed us at the listening post. We did kill off the occupants of the Baker Family General Store..."

"He's babbling again," Deputy Director Robin Tyson remarked.

"Ma'am," Bill Moses was Robin Tyson's other personal assistant, "I must protest! This isn't legal according to the Geneva Convention!"

"Where'd you pick this one up?" Hank asked. "The Geneva Convention doesn't cover this case--and Capitallia never signed the Geneva or Hague Accords. Capitallia doesn't do war. Florida law criminalizes kidnap and murder. Director, I'm doing no more than your pioneering effort to punish shoplifters. Joan's commandos caught him and his boys red handed. He didn't have to wake up. Castle doctrine--Florida law states that when someone invades your home, you don't have to retreat and you may do whatever it takes to eject the invaders. If we let them go or even just turned them over to the police, others would take their place. You heard them--there was a back-up team. The commandos from PAM were helping out a neighbor in need under the good Samaritan laws. Mrs. Baker will verify that. If the police had been involved there would have been real deaths--perhaps Mrs. Baker, perhaps her son, perhaps a cop or two. Remember, they had automatic weapons."

"You said those guns were no match for police," Director Tyson said.

"I said soldiers--and society's leaders," Hank responded. "Capitallia's police often don't wear body armor because there is so little crime here. This isn't the United States of America. When they do wear body armor, it is light and only covers part of the torso. A squirt or two from a submachine gun may not penetrate the armor, but pistol bullets can sure penetrate flesh that isn't covered by armor. Your 6.5mm will punch through old-fashioned Kevlar body armor--the modern stuff is stiff composite plates."

"Hank, dear," Joan gently reminded, "you are getting too technical again. What Hank means is that the police could still be injured or killed. My girls simply stunned everything in the building through the walls. We just aimed using Guy's eyes and triangulated fire."

"I only was caught in the fringes," a coyote said. "It hurts less to get a direct hit on full stun, but I'll survive."

"I'm still creeped out by talking animals," Bill Moses muttered. "They're almost human."

"Anyway, we are just going to question him and let him go," Hank said. "The information we get cannot be used in court. We can't even get a warrant based on that information. If he wants to bring it up in court, though, we've got the moral high ground. His kind doesn't drag people into court. His bosses will, but Herman Herring prefers to get justice his own way. And his bosses will have some questions for him."

"But we're kidnapping him!" Bill Moses complained.

"Are YOU going to press charges?" Hank asked. "Somebody has to prefer charges. Herman Herring won't."

"Stand down, Bill. Doctor Dalton will release this man unharmed." Director Tyson glared at Hank. "You are going to release this man, aren't you?"

"Sure, soon," Hank promised. "We are going to tag him and leave him with the false memories we're programming into him. Where do you want him released? I could release him here in Florida, or we could get him out of the country. I just want to hold onto him for 48 hours. When he shows up in public his boss will take care of him for us. You'll have all the names Herman Herring knows--I suspect there are no names. What I'm getting are the low-level support systems Hank used in Florida--safe houses, illegal arms dealers, money launderers, reporting procedures. When we release Herman here, he will try to get back in touch with his network. Director, what happens when a store detective captures a kleptomaniac? Someone who cannot resist the urge to steal because they are mentally ill? Is that a defense in Capitallia? Is it, Mr. Moses?"

"No, of course not!" Bill Moses huffed. "We'd arrest the shoplifter and when it was determined that mental illness was the cause, the shoplifter would be enslaved for the crime, but the judge would make medical treatment part of the sentence. Don't look at me that way! Adults are responsible for their actions. If the shoplifter didn't seek treatment for a medical condition, then being irresponsible was justification for enslavement."

"We only took the actions required to stop the illegal and unjustified deadly attack on an innocent family," Hank said. "We did stop a future attack on eight slaves working under warrant on federal business--and that attack was motivated by the fact that the slaves were conducting official business. Director Tyson, when you get word that our listening post has been destroyed, find out who told you. Then find out where they learned of it. Nothing was destroyed this morning in that operation. I passed on some tagged files, some false and some real, that will blow open this case. You might get a formal complaint from the United States of America Department of State on 'illegal wiretapping--' I have a full report for your techie geeks. When that information comes up, it will be your call as to what you reveal to the United States. If you do it right, you'll harm the Conspiracy of Dreams in both the United states and Capitallia."

"How so?" Bill Moses asked.

"Where did you get your law degree?" Joan scolded. "When do criminals bring civil suits against citizens for interference with their crimes? They still do that in the USR. Besides, the CPL established the precedent of private investigations."

"CPL?" Moses asked.

"He's a good boy," Director Tyson said," but Bill doesn't know about the Capitallian Protection League. It is a volunteer organization that conducts workplace surveillance to prevent illegal strikes, to stop illegal unions from forming."

"Vigilantism is why Capitallia has low crime rates," Joan said. "With citizens watching out for crime, instead of limiting crime watching to official government informers, fewer criminals escape detection."

"The CPL is based on the old American Protective League of the World War One period," Hank began.

"Professor," Joan cautioned, "We are not your history students."

"I want to hear this," Guy said.

"Later, Guy," Joan said.

"Us talking animals get no respect," Guy the coyote muttered.

"You just like to hear Hank talk," Joan said.

"I like school," Guy remarked. "I like it better when Hank is teaching."

"You go to school?" Bill asked.

"Talking animals attend classes," Hank explained. "Their brains have been modified to process human speech. Part of that is being culturally literate. Just simple taking commands and describing what they see isn't enough. Guy and his partner Faline can be sent into a village and tell me what is going on in each house. They can do that in three human languages--"

"English, Spanish and French," Guy interrupted.

"It isn't enough to be able to say 'bonjour' and understand 'buenos dias'--these enhanced animals have to know something of the culture. Mammals can generally tell male from female."

"I get confused around Joan's clinic," Guy said. "The one where people walk in as a man and walk out as a woman. Then there are all those new people--I can't tell if they are men or women."

"Drones," Joan said. "I'll introduce you to them later."

"This process will take another 20 or 30 hours," Hank said, "and Mrs. Baker is getting sleepy. Do you want to interview her? The slaves? Guy here is a very reliable source."

"I'm over-educated," Guy said, "but I have the intelligence level of a 10 year old human. Or that's what the head doctors tell me. Modern psychology has enough trouble trying to figure out what animals think. The old school is that we don't think."

"Our research has found out different," Joan said, "and all we have to do is wait for independent verification."

"When other animal researchers duplicate our talking animals," Hank said. "Talking animals are very useful. I started the program as a means to better communicate with working animals. I found out that animals were an excellent way for troubled people to get therapy. Sometimes the talking animal will just listen, sometimes talk. Some talking animals make excellent nannies for human children. Lately a pod of talking dolphins has been working with cetacean scientists. The Animal-Human Communications Interface Device-equipped dolphins have been communicating with other cetaceans in the Gulf and on the Atlantic side of Florida. The things they're finding out about whales will have greater effect than publishing Darwin's 'Origin of the Species.' Guy and Faline have been telling me things about the dogs in the neighborhood, and about the local coyote population."

"Coyotes are desert animals," Bill Moses said. "There are no coyotes around here."

"I suppose Faline and I are chopped liver," Guy said. "And all those other coyote are just something we imagined. Never mind the coyote pelts that the State of Florida paid bounties on the last five years."

A second coyote trotted into the room.

"I called Faline using commando implants," Hank explained. "The son is sleeping, but if you want to interview the mother, we'd better do it now. It is nearly five. She needs some sleep. Mrs. Baker is not your slave."

Hank and Joan led Director Tyson and her assistant Bill Moses out of the pod room and down the long hallway. The two coyotes followed.

"Cheese and crackers!" Bill exclaimed. "Doesn't anybody wear clothes in this place?"

"Cheese and crackers?" the naked Mrs. Baker asked.

"I don't take the Lord's Name in vain," Bill Moses said. "Look, I apologize for my outburst. Naked people bother me."

"Oh, well," Mrs. Baker blushed. "George moved to Florida for the naturalist lifestyle. I don't own clothes anymore. I just got used to being naked all the time. I forget that not everybody liked the naturalist lifestyle. Hank has bought my slaves and store and I'm going to live in Silver Orb for a while, until I figure out what I want to do."