Behind him, through the teak-beamed doorway, the morning sunlight slanted across through the gardens. As always, the young women worked there, tending the plants. Only for his interview with Kendall had the work stopped, as Matt had expected trouble and wanted innocents out of the way of any gunfire.
“Good morning, citizens of Arcadia.
“Some interesting things occurred last night. I was intimately involved in these activities, so I thought I should tell you about them myself.
“The strange sequence of events started the day before yesterday, Tuesday, when I anonymously received the bank and communications records of the chairman and the council. I knew that these records had not been faked, because I also received access to the chairman’s and the council’s own computer accounts. I do not know how these things came to me, but they did.
“I also received a copy of a questionnaire that the chairman had given to a very few Arcadians to predict your acceptance of potential policies he wished to enact. The answers to the questionnaire were not promising. Most of you told the chairman to mind his own business. Some of the more expressive of you told him to perform an auto-erotic act.”
The Chen chuckled.
“Having read this questionnaire, I agreed with both groups. Chairman Kendall should mind his own business, and he can go fuck himself.
“What are these policies? Many of you do not know, so I am sending the questionnaire out to everyone now. These policies would constitute sweeping changes to the ways in which most of us on Arcadia have lived for the past fifty years.
“One change is to ban the civilian ownership of firearms as being too dangerous in the hands of citizens. Firearms would only be allowed to the government. There are numerous examples in history of how badly that can turn out.
“Another change is to ban private cash and barter transactions. The reason for this is that those transactions escape taxes, which would massively increase under the chairman’s plans. The biggest reason for those increases would be to fund large police forces to enforce these new laws.
“A third change in the questionnaire is to ban nudity in any public setting for anyone over five years old, even on one’s own yard if visible from the street or a neighbor’s property. This would also include mandating breast coverings for woman and girls. It would also apply to the beaches. Yes, the chairman wants to demand that we wear clothing in order to go swimming.
“All of these laws and more would be enforced by armed police, arresting the violators and putting them in jail.”
The Chen turned his head to look out the window behind him, where topless young women in lavalavas worked the garden. He turned back to the camera.
“The chairman would arrest my granddaughters. Your children playing in the streets. You and your friends at the beach. Everyone would have to obey his rules or be arrested by armed men.
“Nor would it stop there. This is merely the first wave of such laws. The private communications of the chairman and the council indicate many more such laws were under consideration. To regulate and dictate the activities of every Arcadian, to force everyone to live and behave as the chairman wished, under the threat of arrest and imprisonment.
“I knew all this when the third strange thing happened on Tuesday. I received a request to meet with the chairman. I have always been available to discuss any public matters with the chairman or the council, but this was the first time I received any such request. I invited the chairman to take tea with me here, in my living room, yesterday afternoon.
“Imagine my surprise when Chairman Kendall arrived at my home with two armed men. I was gracious and allowed them all in. The chairman explained to me his goals, and I said I did not agree with him and would oppose his goals.
“At that point, Chairman Kendall announced that I would be arrested and tried for treason – a capital charge – simply for disagreeing with him. He then tried to use his two large armed men to arrest me.
“At that point, in defense of myself and my family against this travesty, I killed them. The two armed men and the chairman. You may see for yourself.”
The Chen spread his hands and the video changed perspective, being from the side of the room, with Kendall on the left and Matt on the right. It played from the time of MinChao’s announcement of the chairman through to the gunshots that had terminated the chairman’s life. The video switched back to the Chen in real time.
“I knew, however, that it could not stop there. The council had been hand-selected over the years. The council members had bought into Kendall’s plans. Someone else would step up, to continue this descent into tyranny. Why wouldn’t they? They were being richly rewarded with taxpayer money paid out by Kendall.
“Did you never wonder how the council members could live so well, on their official salaries? Now we know. I will release their bank records as well, and I invite the news wires and those accountants among our citizens to post their analyses of their corruption.
“Further, the police forces that would be required to enforce the chairman’s dictates were already being assembled. Hundreds of men, with military weapons. Military weapons intended for use against us, my fellow Arcadians. Who else is there?
“So I knew I could not stop there. This nightmare would proceed with the council, with the police ‘special teams’ the chairman was assembling.
“Instead,
