“An expected guest?” Maynard asked.
It seems so.
The dust had started to settle around the car and the engine was turned off. Karl was amazed at how audible the difference was once it happened. He realized at that moment how quiet a ghost town truly is.
He readjusted the binoculars when he saw the car’s door open. They locked onto the driver’s face as soon as the man stepped out.
Karl couldn’t help but gasp a little.
“It’s him.”
Stewart.
Negotiations
Some of the Fort Leddians came out to meet with Stewart. He had parked a good distance away from any of the populated areas, so it took them a short while to reach each other. In that span of time, Karl decided to descend the hill into town.
Maynard insisted that it was a bad idea and they should go back to the car immediately, but Karl refused. A small spark of fury in a gas chamber of curiosity fueled him on as he crept down the hillside. Though his heart burned with a somewhat reckless furor, he still took care not to draw any attention as he made his way into Fort Leddy.
It only took him about five minutes to get down behind a short metal dumpster within earshot of the meeting. The town was remarkably small, but it helped that square was in the part of Fort Leddy that the hillside skirted, rather than in the geometric center.
He moved with such intensity that the environment blurred around him. He didn’t know if anyone had seen him, but his instincts told him he remained hidden.
“It’s a heavy request, Stewart,” one of the townspeople, or Leddites as Maynard was now referring to them—an unclever combination of Fort Leddy and Luddites—said.
“And you will be heavily compensated, I assure you,” Stewart said.
“You’ve said that before,” the same Leddite replied. She appeared to be the leader of their small meeting. “The food shipment we expected to arrive last week still hasn’t turned up. We have hungry children, Stewart. We have sick people. How long do you think they can last on crumbs?”
“I know, I know,” Stewart said, throwing his hands up as if to defend himself against the accusations. “I don’t know what happened, but I can tell you that two shipments will be arriving this week. And next week, you’ll have two more. Consider it a sincere apology, Alesha. A taste of the wealth you can gain by working with me.”
“My people still aren’t entirely on board with your plan,” Alesha said. “They say it isn’t worth their lives to get involved in the world’s affairs. We all live here for a reason, you see. We don’t want to be a part of the world. We don’t want its problems, and we don’t want its help.”
“Surely that argument won’t stand when people start starving. Where do you expect to get the seeds to sow your fields? What roaming herds are you going to get your cattle from? Everything is owned by somebody else, Alesha, and the only way to get it is to give them something they want. In this case, I’m just asking for a bit of service.”
“You’re asking for lives.”
“Not if everything goes as planned. Not as long as every step is followed to the T.”
“It’s dangerous.”
“Which is why I turned to you. You and your people can handle this. I know you, and we want the same things.”
“Do we?” Alesha asked. “What is your vision of the world? Mine is one where everyone forsakes their lust for man-made technology and begins to explore their spiritual selves. There is no heaven that can be programmed. It can only be achieved within. It breaks my heart to look at the world and see it so wholly taken by the distractions that keep us off the path of enlightenment. To me, Fort Leddy is like an oasis of spirituality in a vast wasteland. Do you understand how lonely that is? That’s what I want.”
“And I want the same,” Stewart said. “Why do you think I’m fighting so hard against this I.I. fetishism that’s taken over society? I want a world where a man’s mind is his own. And we’re only one job away from that. I believe our dreams complement each other, don’t you? It only makes sense to work together.”
“But you’re asking us to put our lives on the line, Stewart, and I cannot see why your mission is so important to our combined goal,” Alesha said.
“Because it knocks down all the barriers,” Stewart started. “Once you and your people take out the people opposing my new legislation, we’ll be able to transform the world. We can drive them away from a dependence on technology to one of true progress. And all it’ll take is this one job.”
“Very well, but you’re still asking us to murder,” Alesha said. “We are not without conscience. We find no joy in bloodshed or senseless violence. If these ‘barriers,’ as you keep calling them, are so crucial, then we will of course knock them down. But only if we can be assured that it will work.
“Some of the other leaders think that we would incur the wrath of the outside world if we killed your political opponents. They would see Fort Leddy and others like us as the enemy and might start a war against us. We don’t just risk our lives, or our morality, but our existence as a people. Most of the others think it’s too great a risk.”
“They seem be exaggerating the danger,” Stewart replied. “They wouldn’t know anything about you. All blame would fall on Terrace.”
“The crazed psychologist? The one with the ghost in his brain?”
“That’s right.”
“How can you be sure?”
“He would be the assumed culprit, first of all,” Stewart said. “He’s been deemed the mastermind of those other attacks, so we just need to follow his M.O. Don’t worry, I’ve planned this job out with careful focus. The I.I. summit next
