“So why did you come here today?”
“Because the government, like, will cover it all up if we let them,” the young girl said. Jayne had her doubts that she was old enough to escape being branded jailbait. She was blonde, with a tight top showing off everything she had, carrying a sign that read NO NUKES NOW! “They cannot be trusted; we must, like, like them know what we feel.”
Jayne sighed inwardly. The BAN had sent several reporters to the protests and she’d volunteered to be one of them, although her true interests were different. A few hours of data mining had revealed that the protest networks were being funded by a wide range of different interests, all working together to ensure that the protests were as loud and noticeable as possible. The latest update from the Washington PD suggested that there were nearly a million protesters in Washington. It certainly looked that way.
“But who told you to come?” She asked, as the girl blew a bubble of gum. “Why did you come here?”
“Because this is, like, Washington,” the girl said. “The filthy thieves in Congress wouldn’t notice a protest in Podunk, USA. They don’t, like, pay any attention to anyone outside Washington who doesn’t have a big bursting wallet. We got together and made up our minds to take a trip here and we’re going to camp out until they give us what we want.”
Jayne watched the girl move back into the protest and vanish into the crowd, shaking her head. It had always struck her that most protesters might have a valid case, but they didn’t have the slightest idea of how to actually go about getting what they wanted. The American Government was far from perfect, yet it actually listened to the results of election campaigns. A protest movement that concentrated on selecting the right politicians would go further than one that merely consisted of shouting and screaming.
Another protester was in front of her before she could move away, almost demanding to be interviewed. “I must say that we find the government’s decision to sit on the alien terms abhorrent,” he said. Jayne tried to keep the disgust from her face. He smelled as if he hadn’t washed for a week. His outfit, a torn tunic that looked as if it had once belonged to a janitor, was marked and stained by dark liquids. She didn’t want to think about what they might be. “Don’t we have a right to know?”
He grinned, revealing gaps in his teeth. “But we’re going to make them pay for deceiving us,” he added. “We won’t let up until those bastards are removed from Washington and we have a federal government that actually cares about the little people. Do you hear me up there?”
Jayne managed to walk away while he was making rude signs to the helicopters high overhead. The entire tone of the demonstration was growing darker by the second, threatening to turn into a riot. She caught signs of hundreds of black-clad policemen in riot gear moving forward, only to be greeted with a hail of abuse and stones from protesters who had clearly come prepared for a riot. The policemen raised their shields to protect themselves, while bringing up reinforcements. Jayne, who had been arrested before during a protest that had turned violent, turned and headed back to safety as fast as possible. It hadn’t been a very enjoyable afternoon.
Behind her, the noise of the riot grew louder. More and more police vans were racing towards the scene. She spared a thought for the innocents in the crowd and then kept walking. She’d see it all on CNN or FOX once she was back in the motel.
Later, after a shower and a quick meal, she logged on and checked the records. According to the mainstream media, the riots had begun when a group of anti-alien protesters had deliberately provoked their opponents into a battle. The police had been caught in the middle while trying to separate the two groups, making thousands of arrests before they’d been forced to pull back and let the rioters burn themselves out first. At least a hundred people were confirmed dead and thousands were injured.
She shook her head, bitterly. Someone was definitely manufacturing the news. She hadn’t seen any anti-alien protesters deliberately sparking off a riot. Some of the bloggers were pointing that out, although she doubted that anyone would take them too seriously. One problem with witness statements was that the witness could believe they were telling the truth, but it would be only as they saw it. A hundred accounts of the same event could yield a hundred different versions from witnesses who only saw what had happened to or near then.
It hardly mattered, not now. The entire country would see anti-alien protesters as rioters — and anything they said would be ignored. The noose was tightening around the entire country…
Was there no one who could see it?
Chapter Fourteen
Washington DC
USA, Day 25
Toby followed the President into the conference room, watching as the Cabinet rose to greet their President. It was their second full meeting since First Contact and they’d been joined by the Majority Leader, Minority Leader and a handful of influential Senators and Congressmen. Personally, Toby would have been surprised if such a diverse group ever came to any conclusions, but most of them knew that their careers were at stake. The pro-alien lobby was growing rapidly — one of his allies had mentioned that someone behind the scenes was funding the protesters — and the political leaders were under immense pressure to deliver the goods. Normally, they could expect the fickle public to have forgotten about the issue by the time elections rolled around, but not this time. One way or another, the public would never forget.
“Please be seated,” the President said. He stood at the end of the table, his eyes travelling down the line of seated politicians. The Vice President, who was making a long-overdue visit to Japan, was linked in via videoconferencing technology, but everyone else was present in person. Toby knew that at least five of the politicians in the room had been tagged by alien surveillance bugs and that meant that the aliens would know everything that was said in the discussion. They’d know how best to target their resources to get what they wanted — whatever they wanted. “It is no exaggeration to state that whatever choices we make today will change the course of American history — of Earth’s history — for a thousand years.”
He pressed one hand against the table, a sign of nervousness. Politicians trained themselves to reveal as little as possible of their inner feelings — one never knew when a camera was trained on one, recording one’s reactions for posterity — but the President was at the end of his career. There were no higher positions to reach than President of the United States. After his departure, he would write his memoirs and go on the lecture circuit. He would never return to government life.
“You’ve all seen what the aliens are asking,” the President said. “They want us to sign up to a global government with transnational authority. They want us to discard — to disband — most of our military, including the nuclear warheads that have guaranteed peace and security for the past fifty years. And they want us to make the shift to a fusion-based economy as soon as possible. If we refuse to accept these terms, we will be frozen out of Earth’s upgrading process and find ourselves at a major disadvantage when it comes to competing with the rest of the world, let alone the Federation. The promised loans and technological upgrades will never materialise.
“The best-case scenario is that we will be able to join the transnational government later on,” he continued. “We already know that certain governments — North Korea, for example — will not be joining the world government, even though they will be guaranteed full internal autonomy. But the Federation is apparently convinced that they will eventually fall and when that happens, they will be allowed to join the world government. If that happens to us, however, we will lose all input into the negotiations surrounding the formation of the world government. We will have to accept whatever terms are dictated by the transnational authority.