Part 36 (2/2)

”That riot; that unruly mob headed this way.”

The general sneered. ”I don't see any unruly mob. I see a peaceful procession of citizens coming to their state capitol in peaceable a.s.sembly.”

”You idiot!” Forsythe exclaimed. ”When I tell the President you'll be lucky to stay out of a cell at Leavenworth. You have one chance to avoid that and that is to disperse that mob.”

The sneer never left the soldier's face. ”That's what you want, eh, Mr. Forsythe? You should be careful what you ask for.”

Turning to the sergeant major the general ordered, ”Top, bring me a loudspeaker, would you?”

Even over the singing coming from behind her, Juani's heart skipped a beat when she heard the order coming over the loudspeaker, ”First Squadron, Seventh Cavalry: one magazine, lock.” The general was careful not to use the word ”load.”

Schmidt and Nagy both began to pull her back, even as the crowd behind them recoiled from the threat.

”No,” she said with a calm she did not feel. ”No, we go on,” with determination.

Exchanging glances, Schmidt and Nagy tacitly agreed: If she's got the b.a.l.l.s to go on...then so do we. If she's got the b.a.l.l.s to go on...then so do we.

The sergeant major watched, horrified, as the general gave commands over the loudspeaker. Boss, this isn't b.a.l.l.s. This is bulls.h.i.+t. Boss, this isn't b.a.l.l.s. This is bulls.h.i.+t.

Unperturbed, the general continued, ”Now I want you to aim for the women and the children first, boys. Extra points and a four day pa.s.s for drilling a mother carrying a baby. Don't sweat it, boys. Mr. Forsythe here, from the White House, says it's just 'okay.' He says if we don't shoot down these 'rioters,' we'll all go to Leavenworth for the long course.”

Tilting his head to one side, the sergeant major asked silently, Are you trying to start a mutiny? Are you trying to start a mutiny? The old soldier's eyes widened, The old soldier's eyes widened, By G.o.d, you are. By G.o.d, you are.

Spec Four Franklin Was.h.i.+ngton had seen and heard enough. He'd also had had just about enough, too. Standing there on Eleventh Street, with a rifle in his hands, a bayonet on the end of it, a magazine seated firmly in the well; facing a crowd that looked no different and no more threatening than a crowd at a beach; for a government and a cause he neither understood nor very much liked-Was.h.i.+ngton had indeed had just about enough. just about enough, too. Standing there on Eleventh Street, with a rifle in his hands, a bayonet on the end of it, a magazine seated firmly in the well; facing a crowd that looked no different and no more threatening than a crowd at a beach; for a government and a cause he neither understood nor very much liked-Was.h.i.+ngton had indeed had just about enough.

The crowd had reached the intersection and begun to spread out and around the street-wide line of arm-linked men and women. They were close enough for Was.h.i.+ngton to make out faces easily. There was a familiar one, right there in the center; the Texan Governor.

But that face wasn't the problem. It was all the others-those many, many others-that looked no different from folks back home.

How could he, Franklin Was.h.i.+ngton, ever go home to Alabama and tell his folks that he had shot at people that seemed so much the same? Bayoneted and clubbed them?

The simple answer was: he couldn't.

So while better than half the officers and men on that line were thinking much the same thing, it was left to a young black man of no great station in life to state the popular feeling first.

”f.u.c.k this s.h.i.+t,” said Franklin Was.h.i.+ngton, tossing his rifle on the ground. ”I ain't a-gonna play anymore.”

At the sound of not one, but hundreds of rifles being dropped and thrown to the ground, the general turned a beaming smile on Forsythe. ”Did you hear that, sir? That sound? Why here I have given orders for my men to put down this 'riot'...and guess what? They didn't listen.

”The sound you've just heard, Mr. Forsythe, was the breaking of your government in Was.h.i.+ngton. I suggest you run, sir. To Canada, perhaps, because no place in the United-or even perhaps disunited-States is going to be quite safe for you.

”And-to quote that young man down on the street-'We ain't a-gonna play anymore.' ”

The general turned from a shocked Commissioner Forsythe and said into the microphone for his loudspeaker, ”First Squadron, Seventh Cavalry: on your feet and face this way. Pick up your rifles, boys. Now let's escort the Governor of Texas back to her job.”

Interlude: From: The End of the Dream: Reconstruction in From: The End of the Dream: Reconstruction in Post-Rottemeyer America by Patrick T. Hamilton by Patrick T. Hamilton Copyright 2051, Baen Historical Publis.h.i.+ng

The end, when it came, came suddenly.

With the Marines and soldiers to the west in rebellion against federal authority, with the main force, the Army's Third Corps having turned, it was a matter of hours before the Eighteenth Airborne Corps and 2nd Marine Division likewise pointed poignant fingers in Was.h.i.+ngton's direction. Even the Navy, shadowing the Texas coast, refused to continue the blockade imposed by President Rottemeyer. Marine Division likewise pointed poignant fingers in Was.h.i.+ngton's direction. Even the Navy, shadowing the Texas coast, refused to continue the blockade imposed by President Rottemeyer.

At that point the federals could count on nothing but their own law enforcement agencies, already badly depleted and demoralized, and the states' National Guards.

The states' National Guards were, of course, under the authority first and foremost of the state governors. These came from states of two different cla.s.ses: northern and western urbanized states where the National Guards suffered a considerable degree of both unpopularity and benign neglect, and southern and rural states where the guard remained rather popular.

Thus, when California mobilized its National Guard in response to a presidential demand, Arizona, Nevada, Wyoming, Utah, and Colorado did the same in response to California. Unlike California, however-which merely sat there, once those other National Guards were reinforced by the 1st Marine Division, they advanced and California's Guard simply melted away. Marine Division, they advanced and California's Guard simply melted away.

In the deep southern states, aggressive action was also contemplated. That no fighting took place was largely the result of more moderate, even centrist, states like Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia whose collective reaction to both sides might well be summed up as, ”Oh, no, you don't. Not again.”

The first peacekeeping call is reported to have come from Utah to Governor Garrison of New Mexico and Governor Seguin of Texas. The substance of that conversation has never been reported. Yet, the very next day Utah's legislature-at her governor's behest-adopted what had come to be called ”the Texas Program.” The governor also called for a const.i.tutional convention, a request heartily endorsed by his legislature.

Within the week that call for a convention had become general. From Alaska to Alabama, Mississippi to Maryland, New Hamps.h.i.+re to New Mexico-forty-one states demanded a new Const.i.tution or at least substantial revisions to the old one. Only four of the six New England states, plus New York, Minnesota, California, Oregon and Hawaii, refused to join it. Elsewhere, the sentiment-or the scent of blood in the water-became overwhelming.

The popular reaction was more severe. Federal agents and bureaucrats were hounded, burned in effigy...sometimes beaten and in a few cases killed. Nor would local authorities protect them. The media, that group-ever so ”ready to feed the ma.s.ses on the carrion of events”-the same group for whom Rottemeyer had once been as near a G.o.ddess as one might hope to find on Earth, turned-if anything-more rabidly anti-federal than the national norm for the day. ”Project Ogilvie” had soured more than a few in the industry on the federal goverment.

It was said, possibly truthfully, that-in any one day of the next three weeks after the defection of 3rd Corps and its beginning to fan out to the north-more Americans sought refuge in Canada than had done so during the entire Vietnam war. Corps and its beginning to fan out to the north-more Americans sought refuge in Canada than had done so during the entire Vietnam war.

It was whispered too, perhaps unkindly if not entirely untruthfully, that some fleeing the fall of the Rottemeyer presidency had also fled the call to Vietnam.

These numbers picked up noticeably when states' troops began a.s.sembling along the political and philosophical boundaries between north and south, urban and rural, conservative and liberal.

When the Marine expeditionary forces in the Gulf of Mexico steamed back through the Panama Ca.n.a.l, this time without any strikes by Ca.n.a.l workers, even Hawaii decided to send a representative to the const.i.tutional convention...even as that state's population began to drop from the many, many chartered flights to Vancouver, British Columbia.

The City of Was.h.i.+ngton would have come under siege, one suspects, except that the 3rd Infantry Regiment seized the Pentagon, all of the notable public places, and all of the roads leading into and from the city. Infantry Regiment seized the Pentagon, all of the notable public places, and all of the roads leading into and from the city.

Rottemeyer herself, along with key staff, left via a Marine helicopter for New York City.

It was perhaps significant that the crew of that helicopter refused to fly until cleared to do so by the Commandant of the Corps. Possibly of greater significance, the commandant, signally, failed to consult with-allegedly refused to consult with-General McCreavy's replacement.

But if anyone believed that a const.i.tutional convention was going to solve all of the problems of the United States, those persons were to be sorely disappointed....

<script>