There followed some minutes of silence. A couple of troopers with shovels came out and started to refill part of the trench. Farkas uttered a long sigh.
“You know, it’s so peaceful here that I don’t want to go back. Your president is having a skive! The last forty-eight hours have torn my mind apart—the greatest dream of my life has come true like a firework exploding in my head.”
“I’m enjoying the ride so far,” Yelcho said. “What do we do about North Kensington basin?”
Farkas turned around and looked at Donald.
“What do we do about North Kensington basin, minister for trade?”
Donald had known the matter had to come up sooner or later. The Republic could not tolerate a zone of defiance within its frontiers. It simply encouraged other groups to resist.
“I know the barging business,” Donald said. “It runs on personal relationships passed down through the generations. Outsiders just don’t get a look-in. If you start neck-shooting bargees, you’ll cut off the arms of welcome we need to reach up into middle England through the barging network.”
While he was talking, Donald came to a decision. He reached the decision easily, despite the likely fatal consequences if his plan failed. After a man has seen fifty executions right before his eyes, he no longer holds much faith in the specialness of his own life.
“Suppose we decimate them; just shoot one in ten like Romans?” Yelcho suggested.
“The Republic must win the passions of all citizens if it is to succeed,” Donald said. “Exterminating trash like that—” He nodded towards the trench. “—is all well and good, our citizens admire effective action against vermin. Its wholly another matter when it comes to dealing with honest business.”
“We can’t allow North Kensington to disobey our laws,” Farkas said.
“This is Day 1 of the Republic of the New Nation. Let us be patient and take the long view. My experience of mediation—which is long and varied—is that time is the ultimate solvent. Time will soften their attitudes provided they are treated decently.”
“OK. I’ll leave that in your hands. Just make it happen fast.” Farkas yawned and turned to his driver. “Take us back to HQ, please, Friedrich.”
As Friedrich got them moving, Yelcho leaned towards Donald with a sly smirk and said:
“You’ve got a strong stomach for a town rabbit—most of your crowd would have collapsed.”
Donald just shrugged.
“It’s not the first time I’ve seen effective action.”
“When the Pres said you’d be working with me on the next great campaign of the Republic, I must say I was pretty doubtful. But now I’ve seen what you’re made of, I think we’re going to make a great team.”
He smiled with what was apparently genuine camaraderie.
Now Donald was one of the boys.
Chapter 22
The future of the minister for trade of the Republic was plain enough. He would lead the confiscation of gold and silver from town society and Yelcho would do the necessary shooting to enforce the theft. Well, that was one mystery cleared up. Donald had been made a minister because of his pedigree; he knew how to go about the task.
Once he stood with Yelcho’s murder squads, Donald welded his future to the Republic. There was no way back after that.
This thinking plagued him as he returned to the cabinet office shared by the Provisional Cabinet and its secretaries on the first floor of the headquarters building. Mail had already accumulated while he was away witnessing mass execution. One letter had not been opened as it was marked “Confidential—Strictly for the minister for trade’s eyes”. Donald cut it open, to find another envelope within together with a typewritten page signed by the Basin Council of North Kensington basin. There was nothing much in the typewritten page, just fluff in acknowledgement of what Donald had sent them. On the other hand, the small envelope contained a message in decent roundhand. It was from Bartram Newman. He must have sneaked his message into the larger envelope while his fellow councillors were looking the other way. He had taken a hell of chance to assume his instruction on the outside would keep out nosey parkers.
Dear Skay (& Donald, but mostly Skay),
FIRST ITEM: We’re so missing you, Skay. I’m not going to spin it out, because I’ve got so much else to say. Just know this: there are no other people who love you as we do. That damned party of radicals will just use you and then dump you when they’re finished. I implore you to come back here until this mess is over. If not, get away from those radicals somewhere safe, anywhere safe, until they’ve been wiped out.
SECOND ITEM: I’m so glad you’ve been in touch about Lawrence. It’s been a nightmare keeping him secret. He’s hiding out on our island at the moment. Once Prentice has gone, I’ll get him back and send him up to see you. Lawrence has told me some things that have completely done my head in. I’ve been thinking about what he said, though, and I’m certain he’s telling the truth. So get ready for some shocks.
Prentice is an ultramarine, and not just a grunt but a full owner. The Value System is his estate. How do I know these things? Because Lawrence escaped from the Value System, that’s why! He won’t say much about it, but from his tone I can sense Prentice is running something pretty gruesome, exploiting slave labour far worse than the Night and Fog gangs. From what I can tell, the poor bastards are stuck in it for their whole lives. That’s the kind of person Prentice really is! All these years, and we never even suspected.
Lawrence arrived here in boots, overalls and so on that were made in the Value System. They were well worn and obviously not something he just picked up somewhere in the last few days. And his reaction when he realised we did business with the evil person
