Chapter 60

0640 hours, local time,
Monday, 30 June, 2014
Temporary Clarke Residence,
Roanoke, Virginia

I was jostled awake, having dozed off some unknown time last night, by Austin, of all people, and with him, Chief of Police Blair Urgel. Urgel was one of those folks who had so far avoided Schumacher Syndrome, which wasn’t easy to do, but he had managed. His wife, Cynthia, had also evaded it for some reason, that I knew of, at any rate. They were still devout Roman Catholics, for whatever reason. So, he was a bit awkward and nervous around so many naked folks and others in states of semi-undress. We were in various positions that made it obvious that we had been intimate with multiple partners, of course.

“Your Honor ... Chief. To what do we owe the pleasure?” I asked aloud.

“Well, the Chief awoke me before you, because I was ... well, a bit more to the front of the house than you. It seems that our ... surgically altered prisoner killed himself by hanging himself with his undershirt. Not a pleasant way to go, strangled rather than neck broken, but I’m not surprised. That kind of humiliation must be ... difficult to stomach. I’ve ordered his cremation, of course, per protocol. Nowadays, making that SOP just makes sense,” Chief Urgel coughed.

“Yeah, that’s true enough. All of it. Did the Mayor fill you in on the incident in question? The attempted assassination, the second this weekend, in fact?” I asked him now.

“Very much so, sir. Look, I don’t claim to understand how your status as a political and spiritual leader ties in with my lifelong Christian faith, or the current schism in my own church, for that matter. I don’t know what is up and what is down anymore. So much has been turned on its head. I just know that Nazis are scum and they’re the enemy of everyone, myself included. I’m descended from Basques, Catalans, and Moors, this last something that doesn’t exactly make me an ‘Aryan superman.’

“Oddly, I’m also descended from an English officer who served in the Peninsular War, hence my given name. I won’t go into that. Anyway, Eckart is my enemy, too. Just for the record. And I’m grateful that I was trusted with this post, whatever differences we might have about our private lives. I won’t claim to be comfortable with every aspect of the new society, which hasn’t made it easy to be faithful to Cynthia or her to me, but I appreciate that my choices have been shown a certain amount of respect,” Urgel stipulated hesitantly.

“Well, we’re not going to shove our lifestyle down unwilling throats, especially not when there are plenty who are much more willing. It has to be a voluntary thing. Always voluntary. I didn’t grow up as you or your wife with your background. We have different worldviews, but it’s not my place to judge, condemn, or accuse you for simple dissent. I respect you for having the courage of your convictions at any rate. Which is a large part of why I trust you with this position,” I told him.

“I couldn’t have said it better myself, though I would certainly try,” Austin added, “I’m the Mayor, yes, but I’m still younger and somewhat less articulate than our fearless leader here.”

“In any case, we should probably increase security for the last two remaining prisoners. We want to be able to interrogate them, after all, as to what ... was really behind all of this. Then again, this might well fall under military rather than civilian jurisdiction,” Chief Urgel stated.

“That could well be the case. This was a raid motivated by military objectives, by members of the ASF armed forces. Yes, transfer them to the stockade. There need to be MPs involved. They were clothed by jail staff, I gather. They were naked when they were taken into custody, of course. For reasons that I don’t need to clarify, I trust,” I decided.

“It was initially treated as a crime, due to being an attempted murder, but all things considered, yes, this could well be regarded as a military operation, and a war crime to boot. Also, things were done in a bit of rush and the city jail was the closest thing available,” Austin confirmed.

“I see ... well, I would recommend a shower for them prior to transfer. They show signs of ... bodily secretions, to put it mildly. For ... reasons that are pretty obvious, of course. We don’t want people smelling things and unfortunate questions being asked, where people might not understand the context of the answers,” Urgel cautioned.

“Well said. Make it so, as Captain Picard would say,” I ordered him, getting a nod from Austin.

“Very well. Will do,” Urgel clicked his heels half-seriously and turned around to carry out my instructions ... and Austin’s, of course.

“In any case, it’s time to shower, get ready, and have breakfast. We have work to do,” I informed my inner circle.

We had a long day ahead of us.