Chapter 7: Ned Sobered Up

Ned wanted to refuse the instant sobriety treatment. He deserved to get drunk. He wanted to be hung over. Like his daughter Karen Amanda Coalfield, Senior Agent Nathan "Ned" Clifford of the Office of Military Intelligence felt a need to be punished. Ned tried to argue with Beverly Albertson and her enslaved husband Emmet about becoming sober. But then Ned held his head and groaned.

"Damn you, Hank Dalton! Get out of my head!" Ned growled. "Okay. I'll take the cure. Thank you Beverly. Thank you Emmet."

It took the draught just fifteen minutes to clear the alcohol from Ned's system. A few minutes later Hank entered the room.

"Emmet, you need to rehearse with Beverly," Hank announced. "Beverly, this is your time to be with Emmet. Thank you both for helping my friend. Ned has had a hard day."

After the couple had left, Ned snarled at Hank.

"You did it to me again, Hank. When I get myself in trouble you bail me out. Well, I deserved a horsewhipping!"

"Because you feel guilty about a daughter you didn't know you had? An unlicensed daughter by an old lover? You weren't consulted." Hank shook his head. "Or is it that you cannot give your little girl what she needs? Yes, Amanda is one messed up woman, but I'm going to determine what she can do and then, no matter what, she will come with me. It is what she needs. I just need to verify something."

"What?"

"Ned, you and I are rare birds. We can kill our fellow man and survive the experience."

"I have trouble sleeping at night afterwards," Ned peered at his old friend. "You, on the other hand, seem to thrive on it."

"I compensate. I can help you, too."

"You mean well, old friend," Ned said. "I'd rather you not tinker with my mind. I make exceptions for emergencies, but I like who I am."

"So do I, Ned. I like who you are. I'm offering you something I know that you will refuse, but your girl needs you there when I take her virginity." Hank stared through his friend. "She needs unconditional acceptance. Your acceptance. She doesn't know me yet. Tomorrow I'm going to hand Amanda a stunner and command her to stun Nancy."

"What?"

"Nancy will be happy to comply. I will modify the stunner so that it merely activates Nancy's implants."

"If your slaves are anything like your team, you can order them to march into Hell to fight Satan hand-to-hand and they'll get fitted with Nomex combat gear. Or not, if you say so." Ned sighed. "Looking back on it I do wonder if you were taking charge of our minds. Then slave control implants came out and I realized that you were just a very effective leader with a little extra capability. I don't know if I believe that psychic stuff or not. I saw what you did with a handful of volunteers. How you took some weekend sailboat enthusiasts and in a few hours drilled them to handle the Constitution."

"They were hardly weekend enthusiasts," Hank objected. "Six of them were crewmen on that 19th Century frigate back in the USA days. The rest were crew on large sailing ships. It was all a matter of asking the right questions of the automated database. I needed only a dozen and managed to get 19, plus a sailing master."

"Yes, too bad Benton wasn't it."

"He did know how to follow from the front," Hank said, "and when. I knew that Benton was desperate enough when I handed him the completed plan."

"How did you know about the kidnapping before it happened?"

"Lucky guess?" Hank smiled. "I knew that the Boston crowd was divided over Capitallia's slavery laws. Massachusetts has a long history of anti-slavery. There are worse things than slavery--and the old USA made most people de facto slaves. So before the delegation left for Boston I did what they should have done--I set up their escape routes. I was their final option. I had the prize crew gathered before I told the platoon about our mission. I briefed all of you before I let Benton know that there was an alternative to either ignoring an outrage or making futile warlike gestures that would only get the wrong people killed."

"There was that time in Africa where you had three rockets in the air at the same time," Ned chuckled. "Benton was going to chew you out, but those three gun trucks were spraying us with cannon fire. You grabbed a box of those old light anti-tank weapons and fired them off from a moving platform. Then you armed the last rocket launcher and waited. Boom. Boom. Boom. You hit with all three."