Chapter 88

1710 hours, local time
Monday, 3 November, 2014
City Hall
The City of Vancouver, BC

“And so, with this delivery of the keys of the City of Vancouver to the Lawgiver, Chancellor, and Prophet of Haven, Mark T. Schumacher, and this lowering of the old Maple Leaf flag that has remained on the pole at half-mast ever since Fireball Day, as well as the raising of the flag of the Commonwealth of Haven, I hereby formally surrender the residual and default sovereignty of said city to said nation. As of today, the City of Vancouver has been fully annexed as the integral territory of the Commonwealth of Haven. It is now Havenite soil and we are now Havenites, citizens of the Commonwealth of Haven. Havenite law is now the law of the land here. Father Mark, we await your instructions,” the incumbent Mayor of Vancouver, Alton J. Delbert intoned as the Havenite flag was hoist at City Hall in Vancouver, marking our possession of the large Canadian metropolis and its suburbs.

Delbert had emerged only in the past year or so after the Vancouver Riots that resulted in the violent demise of his more photogenic and charming, rather progressive predecessor. By contrast, Delbert was a short, thin, raspy, bespectacled fellow who looked like a stressed and hassled accountant who probably suffered stomach ulcers. Even so, he had provided sufficient effective leadership to keep the city afloat in the wake of an apocalypse, had restored law and order, had wisely converted to Havenism himself, and had prudently agreed to the complete surrender of Vancouver to me and to Haven.

“I am very pleased by this development, sir, to say the least. Let me assure you that you shall retain your present office, though you will have to host the Prophet Adam Clarke and his entourage in your fair city for now. He will supervise the integration process that ensures the full incorporation of Vancouver into the Commonwealth of Haven as a territory as well as the restoration of the former province of British Columbia. He will temporarily hold the post of Commissar of Canadian Territories, an office that will eventually cease to exist.

“The Province of British Columbia will be reconstituted, in time, but we need to work toward that objective. The administrative structure will be largely the same for BC as for Oregon and Washington, naturally. It’s just a matter of time. Ditto for Alaska and whatever parts of Idaho and California might join us in the near future. Reorganization or reconstruction won’t happen overnight. When enough territory and population are properly absorbed into the Commonwealth of Haven, these lands will become official provinces. Any questions?” I clarified for everyone’s benefit after the ceremony concluded.

“What will happen to Yukon, Nunavut, and Northwest Territories?” Mayor Delbert dared to probe.

“Eventually, they will be annexed, too. Someone has to do it. They can’t be thrown to the wolves to fend for themselves, right? I envision that we will have to annex northern Nevada as well as all of Alberta in time, too. I don’t expect that Las Vegas is going to just crawl into the fold for its part. Nor southern California in any case.

“Southern Idaho, Utah, and northern Arizona will soon fall under direct control by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Aka the Mormons. We will need allies on this continent against the day when war against the nascent Mormon state becomes imminent. The Democratic Republic of Sonora and Aztlan is a prime example of this option. So are the First Nations states that have emerged. As for Montana, Wyoming, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan, we’ll just have to find out, of course,” I assured him while openly fondling Ana and Teresa.

“Indeed, and Avondale has just fallen to the Mormons in their final assault in Maricopa County. Sun City, Surprise, Peoria, and some other communities are still holding out, but their fall is just a matter of days. Refugees are pouring out into the desert, departing for other parts of Arizona, northern and southern alike. By all accounts, the Mormons are at least bothering with trials, plea bargains, and offers of ‘reconciliation’ to most recalcitrants. That’s a euphemism for a baptism into the LDS church. It’s an offer made to most locals, but not to former leaders of the Phoenician Republic. The best that they can expect is a prison term, hopefully shorter rather than longer.

“The Mormons are also not interfering with the refugees leaving their newly captured territory. I think that they figure that it means fewer dissidents and malcontents for the future, a more unified population. In fact, they have even flown some refugees out of their own land from Sky Harbor International Airport. The most popular destination so far is Flagstaff, but there are also Tucson, Prescott, Kingman, Tombstone, Winslow, Wickenburg, Show Low, El Mirage, Globe, Sedona, Payson, Douglas, Yuma, Bisbee, and Lake Havasu City.

“Also, the vast majority of prisoners taken in Syracuse have been released on parole, but a significant number have been charged with a variety of offenses. It is unlikely that the New Netherlands regime ruled by Pieter Andries van der Groot, aka ‘Powerball’ will exercise the same degree of clemency as the LDS in Arizona. They don’t strive for maximized redemption like Mormons. They might deviate from historical Calvinism in some respects, but they are ultimately Calvinists of the old Dutch Reformed tradition. To them, their enemies are literally damned sinners, predestined for Hell. They are not the Elect of God, so cannot achieve salvation.

“Howie Hawkins himself committed suicide rather than surrender and face almost certain execution. Many others did as well, apparently including former Sex and the City actress Cynthia Nixon. Hawkins used a pistol, a Beretta, while Nixon hanged herself with her own lingerie, which was supposed to be some kind of feminist statement or whatever. Several other politicians and community organizers weren’t as brave and now face a very punitive system of justice. The penal code in the New Netherlands makes you seem a lot less draconian by comparison.

“Also, the Salvation Army has entirely crushed the last effective resistance in Connecticut. This has alarmed the various local factions, gangs, warlords, etc. in Massachusetts that they have sought to declare a truce and a united front to halt any further expansion by the Salvation Army. They don’t want to be next, after all, and the militant zeal of the SA makes it clear that the only way that they will stop expanding is if someone actively thwarts their aggression. They now control two New England states and that has only whetted their appetite for conquest. Who can stand up to them is anyone’s guess.

“The formal peace treaty between the United Alliance and the Democratic Republic of Sonora and Aztlan has been signed and ratified by both sides now, ending the war between those two successor states and guaranteeing their borders for a minimum of fifty years. Time will tell if that endures, of course. Some overtures have been made by the United Alliance toward a number of communities in Colorado, as well as Arizona, but it remains unclear what will result from them. The latter is separated by the First Nations territory along the old Arizona-New Mexico border, but there are somewhat more practical prospects in the former.