“We appear to have grossly underestimated the size of the expansion In addition the Western expedition was uncommonly successful Almost 69 000 just from that one area But now we have 150 000 people who need places to settle down and grow Does anyone have any suggestions “
The hall went silent Everyone thought about the volatile elements that refugees could bring into a district No one wanted to subject themselves to that
Unsurprisingly the first suggestions were to send some of them to the already established refugee camps These locations were built to handle them so a few more wouldn’t hurt Alan almost wanted to smile at this unintended joke There were 10 of those refugee camps already operated by the state Each was designed to house about 8000 people They all had over 10 000 there currently
How would 150 000 people fit in these already overstocked camps
The obvious second option was to make new camps but again that would mean someone would receive more refugees and none wanted to volunteer On the one hand it could be said that a desperate man might consider accepting refugees They would possibly be indoctrinated into the district and become a staunch voting block of support for some of the Senators But on the other hand
All eyes turned to Senator Lazar He had come out of one of the first expansions of refugees along with 5000 or so others But all of those were moved to a district together When that happened they hadn’t realized that the former senator from that area was Senator Lazar himself So when the next election came around and the previous Senator was ousted by the refugees working together Everyone took note Any group of people could have someone charismatic and famous Bringing them into your district was a dangerous gamble
“I do have one suggestion ” Alan finally spoke breaking the small arguments that had sprung up over making more requests to Father Foster That was exactly what he didn’t want
“Ghost has established a special work area in quite a few of our current districts Unfortunately the drone initiative hasn’t taken off as he had hoped but no one can deny that they are a positive economic force in the area ” Alan said Several faces flushed and turned ugly as if they knew what was coming Other faces split apart into grins “Perhaps part of that problem is available labor If we move 1000 to each of these work areas “
“This is preposterous They aren’t economically beneficial You just admitted they have largely been failures ” Senator Kane said She pounded her hand on the table “Throwing more Tier Zeros into the mix will do nothing but hurt those districts already burdened “
“How funny ” the House Speaker said dryly “The 20 of you that received the work areas fought so hard for them And now you claim they are detrimental Then why haven’t we heard a peep about this before now No I agree with President Howard “
There was a chorus of agreements There were currently 61 districts in Zone 1 and only 20 of those had work areas It had been a bitter fight to obtain them and the losers were more than happy to foist the refugees on the winners now
“You are being ridiculous ” Senator Kane bellowed “That’s only a fifth of the total number of refugees We need real solutions to the problem This isn’t the time to latch onto petty disputes or get even for perceived slights “
“I actually agree ” Senator Firefly said surprising everyone in the room Alan was especially suspicious of the calm serenity on the man’s face Alan had hoped that the vicious arguments about refugees would knock off some of the enthusiasm for speaking with Randidly Ghosthound and believed it had And yet Gary Firefly was completely unphased
“In fact I was going to propose two things Combined with the methods we discussed earlier I believe the crisis will be adequately handled “
“Your methods are ” Alan asked
Senator Firefly smiled “First that we keep them where they are Some might see it as inhumane to subject them to those conditions but for most of them it will be a transitory stage There they can build dwellings and farm to raise their Skill Level while we determine their relative aptitude Perhaps we can move the camps farther away from the border but with a sufficient military presence it shouldn’t be too much of a stretch “
“These should be new districts ” Senator Kane interjected her eyes alight with the discovery of a scapegoat “If this chunk of populations is going to become something lasting they should become separate districts “
Most were in support of this but there was some discomfort with it After all more districts mean more people sharing the power in Congress But it looked like they would have enough of a consensus to push it through
“And your other method ” Alan asked
Chuckling Senator Firefly said “Well I recently realized that the population and economy of my district aren’t keeping up with some of you closer to the two Providences So I plan on allowing a refugee city to be built in my district Say about 20 000 people I hope my small contribution helps “
Chapter 530
For the first time in a long time Randidly felt exhausted The day had been long and full of trials Although there was a strange intermittent humming from his Illusion it seemed to have survived Unfortunately the mental troubles didn’t seem to be very close to being over
“This is where you live I suppose I should have assumed from your bare feet but tsk tsk you should really develop a marketable Skill ” The old woman who had finally introduced herself as Maude said
“I have a Skill ” Randidly replied “I smelt steel ‘
“Oh ” Maude seemed genuinely surprised by this “That’s good “
The refugees they rescued had been told to remain in the area of the disaster center for the time being until lodging could be erected for them According to what Randidly could glean they planned to set them all up shop right there not 2 miles from an area crawling with Level 50 monsters
For reasons wholly unrelated to the very real danger that she was in Maude refused to remain at the compound and followed Randidly back to his place In addition she had brought “that nice foreign family from down the road ” who turned out to be seven Haitians who had come to America weeks before the System arrived and spoke enough English to know that they didn’t understand anything Randidly said They followed Maude’s points well enough however
It was a hassle but Randidly felt an odd affection for the exasperating woman and her antics At the very least when she was around everyone eyes were fixed on her and not on Randidly With his illusion behaving somewhat erratically having a distraction served him well
Plus Randidly cared about these people He had helped them and he didn’t want to abandon them now
Tatiana thought the woman was hilarious and had been reduced to a giggling blob by the woman’s snark Not that she had any room to talk She had picked up a dozen or so strays herself Although Tatiana’s tended to be young attractive women
In his heart Randidly felt a thread of trepidation about the fates of these women considering Tatiana’s company but he trusted her She wasn’t the type to force women to do anything they didn’t want to do
They parted at the edge of town Randidly returning with his 8 strays Tatiana walking away with her 12
“She’s out of your league ” Maude said seriously after Tatiana had gone Randidly did his best not to roll his eyes and helped the Haitian family erect a small hut next to his own The work went rather quickly because Randidly handled all of the heavy lifting At the end of it Randidly was slightly put out because this hut was a much better product than his own
It was somewhat aggravating to be outdone by the refugees but honestly Randidly supposed it didnÆt matter It also seemed to have an effect on the people around him who appreciated that he didnÆt put on airs As it was he could only retire to his hut after getting the new arrivals settled He had promised to take the father of the family Jude to the steelworker’s area to get him started on a job the following morning