Hartmann’s dark eyes were burning, and his voice had a marvelous, fatherly firmness. Delaney, beside him, looked pale and frightened and uncertain.
“To those of you who have supported these men in the past, let me say now that they will receive every safeguard of a fair trial, in the American tradition,” Hartmann continued. “As for yourselves, your support of the so-called A.L.F. was well-intentioned, no matter how misguided. No harm will come to you. However, your leaders have tonight betrayed your trust, and your nation. They have forfeited your support. To aid them now would be to join in their treason.
“I say this especially to our black citizens, who have been so cruelly misled by A.L.F. sloganeering. Now is the time to demonstrate your patriotism, to make up for past mistakes. And to those who would persist in their error, I issue this warning; those who aid the traitors in resisting lawful authority will be treated as traitors themselves.”
Hartmann paused briefly, then continued. “Some will question this move. With a legitimate concern for the American system of checks and balances, they will argue that I had no authority for deploying the Special Urban Units as I have done. They are right. But special situations call for special remedies, and in this night of crisis, there was no time to secure Congressional approval. However, I did not act unilaterally.” He looked towards Delaney.
The Vice-President cleared his throat. “President Hartmann consulted me on this matter earlier tonight,” he began, in a halting voice. “I expressed some reluctance, at first, to approve his proposed course of action. But, after the President had presented me with all the facts, I could see that there was no realistic alternative. Speaking for myself, and for those Cabinet members who like me represent the Republican Party, I concur with the President’s actions.”
Hartmann began to speak again, but the voice suddenly faded on the holocast, and a short second later, the image also vanished. Ted Warren returned to the air.
“We will bring you the rest of the President’s statement later,” the anchorman said, “after several special bulletins. We have just been informed that all 32 A.L.F. members of the House of Representatives have been placed under arrest, as well as two of the three A.L.F. Senators. S.U.U. national headquarters reports that Senator Jackson Edwards is still at large, and is currently being sought after.”
Warren shuffled some papers. “We also have reports of scattered street-fighting in several cities between the S.U.U. and the Community Defenders. The fighting appears to be most intense in Chicago, where Special Urban forces have surrounded the national center of the A.L.F.’s paramilitary wing. We take you now to Ward Emery, on the scene.”
The image shifted. Emery was standing on the steps of the new Chicago Police Headquarters on South State Street. Every light in the building behind him burned brightly, and a steady stream of riot-equipped police was hurrying up and down the stairs.
“Not quite on the scene, Ted,” he began. “Our crew was forcibly excluded from the area where the fighting is now in progress. We’re here at Chicago Police Headquarters now, which you will recall was the focus of the battle during the 1985 riots. The local police and the Special Urban Units are doing their planning and coordinating from here.”
Warren cut in with a voice-over. “What precisely has taken place?”
“Well,” said Emery, “it started when a detachment of Special Urban Police arrived at Community Defender Central, as it’s called, to arrest Mitchell Grinstein and several other organization leaders. I’m not sure who opened fire. But someone did, and there were several casualties. The Community Defenders have their headquarters heavily guarded, and they drove back the S.U.U. in the early skirmish that I witnessed. But things have changed since then. Although the local police have cordoned off a large portion of Chicago’s South Side and excluded me and other reporters, I now understand that Grinstein and his Militiamen are holed up inside their building, which is under S.U.U. siege.”
He looked around briefly. “As you can see, there’s a lot of activity around here,” he continued. “The local police are on overtime, and the Special Urban Units have mobilized their entire Chicago battalion. They’re using their regular armored cars, plus some heavier weapons. And I’ve also heard reports that something new has been deployed by the S.U.U.—a light tank with street tires instead of treads, designed for city use.”
“Are all the A.L.F. forces concentrated around Grinstein’s headquarters?” Warren asked.
Emery shook his head. “No, not at all. The ghettos on the South and West sides are alive with activity. The local police have suffered several casualties, and there’s been one case of a squad car being Molotov-cocktailed. Also, there are rumors of an impending A.L.F. counterattack on Police Headquarters. The building is symbolic to both sides, of course, since the renegade local Militiamen seized and razed the earlier building on this site during the 1985 fighting.”
“I see,” said Warren. “The A.L.F. is known to have active chapters on several college campuses in your area. Have you gotten any reports from them?”
“Some,” Emery replied. “The police have been ignoring the campus chapters up to now, but we understand that a strong force of Liberty Troopers moved in on the University of Illinois’ Chicago campus in an attempt to make citizens’ arrests. Some fighting was reported, but resistance was only light. The students were mostly without arms while the Liberty Troopers, of course, are a paramilitary force.”
“Thank you, Ward,” Warren said, as the image suddenly shifted. “We’ll be back to you later for an update. Now, we will continue with the rest of President Hartmann’s most recent statement.
“For those who just flicked on, the President has just ordered the arrest of the A.L.F. leaders. This move was made with the support of the Vice-President, and thus presumably with the support of the Old Republicans, the President’s partners in his coalition government. It’s an important shift on the part of the Old Republicans. Last year, you will recall, Hartmann’s efforts to pass his Subversive Registration Bill were thwarted when Vice-President Delaney and his followers refused to back the measure.
“Since the Liberty Alliance and the Old Republicans, between them, command a majority in both houses of Congress, Delaney’s support of Hartmann guarantees Congressional approval of the President’s actions tonight.
“And now, the rest of the Presidential message…”
THERE WERE HILLS BELOW, and dark forests in a shroud of night. And the only light was the sudden jagged brilliance of the lightning. But there were two thunders.
One was the thunder of the storm that churned above the forest. The other was the thunder of the jet, screaming between the stormclouds and the trees and laying down a trail of sonic booms across the landscape.
That was the Alfie. Reynolds watched it in his infrared scope, watched it play at Mach 1, slip back and forth over the barrier. And while he watched he gained on it.
He had stopped sweating, stopped thinking, stopped fearing. Now he only acted. Now he was part of the Vampyre.
He descended through the stormclouds, blind but for his instruments, lashed by the lightning. Everything that was human in him told him to pull up and let something else take the Alfie. But something else, some drive, some compulsion, told him that he must not hang back again.
So he descended.
The Alfie knew he was there. That was inevitable. It was simply holding its fire. As he was holding his missiles. He would save them until the last second, until the Alfie lasers were locked on him.
The Vampyre moved at half again the bomber’s speed. Ripped through the last bank of clouds. Framed by the lightning. Fired its lasers.