“Do you note, by the way, that only the chairman is allowed a limousine, even though the vehicle factory that makes all the vehicles on Arcadia could make more if people wanted to pay for the factory time to build them? And the chairman’s limousines were built using your tax money. If history is any guide, this would be only the first of many luxuries purchased with your tax money and indulged in by the ruling class, while denied to the working citizens of Arcadia.
“We collected the council members in the chairman’s limousines and drove them downtown to the council building. Which is the newest and fanciest of the buildings downtown, by the way, also built with your tax money, while the university and the hospital – services the rest of us might use – languish for lack of funding.
“As I say, we drove the council down to the council building, parked the cars in the street in the rear of the building, and bombed them, killing every member of the council. That was at my orders, and I take full responsibility. Finding myself, innocent of any crime, under attack by a lawless government, I struck at that government.
“My people also infiltrated the council building and set a trap. I then sent a message to the police special forces, using the chairman’s mail account, calling them all to defend the council building. When those police special forces occupied the council building, I ordered the trap sprung. We flooded the council building with a nerve agent and killed them all.
“When taking inventory of the bodies, we noted ten of these people who escaped the trap. They have since been hunted down and killed.
“All of this was at my orders, and I take full responsibility. Now let me show you the exculpatory evidence, my fellow Arcadians. These are the weapons we removed from the bodies of those police forces.”
The video switched to a camera sweeping over a display of weapons and equipment. The Chen’s voice continued over this footage.
“Body armor and helmets. Fully automatic weapons. Thousands of grenades.”
The video switched back to the Chen.
“These are not the weapons of a legitimate police force, my fellow Arcadians. The chairman was building an army. An occupying army. To subject all of us to whatever laws he might dream up. To order us to live according to his desires rather than our own.
“It is this that I opposed, and that is why he tried to arrest me. And now, at my orders, he and the structure he tried to put in place are gone. The chairman, the council, and the special police forces are all gone.
“What do we do now, my fellow Arcadians?
“Some of you may say, ‘Why, let the Chen be chairman.’”
The Chen held up his hands in a warding gesture and shook his head.
“No, my friends. I will not accept being chairman, for two very good reasons. First, I think it a very bad precedent for one person to overthrow a government – however out of control or illegitimate it was – only to put himself in place as leader. And second, I am an old man. The time is quickly approaching when I will put aside the cares of business and retire to tend our gardens with my granddaughters.
“Instead, I will ask a number of you to plan a new government. One the people select in periodic elections. One that is bound by rules against the usurpations to which we were very nearly subjected.
“I will call this group together and then bow out of the deliberations.
“And then, hopefully, in this our fiftieth year as a colony, they can put together a government better suited to our needs and our desires. One that allows us to live our lives as we wish, without the interference of busybodies and grifters.
“Thank you for your attention, my friends. I thought you should hear the details of these events directly from me, rather than a garbled or twisted account.
“Good day, and good luck to you all.”
When the video cut off, MingWei knocked on the door frame.
“Yes, come in,” Matt said.
MingWei slid the panel aside and came in. Matt waved him to the pillow opposite.
“How do you think that went, MingWei?”
“I think it went very well, Chen Zufu. But I have a question.”
“Go ahead.”
“Why did Kendall take on nudity? I understand keeping citizens from owning firearms. It increases the relative strength of his security forces to have unarmed opponents. And I understand doing away with black market transactions, as it increases the number of transactions that cannot escape his taxes. But why mess with the nudity question? He did not have religious objections or anything of that sort. It doesn’t make sense. It aggravates people and generates opposition but gives him no benefit.”
“Oh, but it does, MingWei. I wondered about this myself, and looked back into history. Nonsense laws are of great benefit to a tyrant. They allow him to separate the compliant from the non-compliant. If some people were to flout his nudity laws, those are the people to watch. They are the troublemakers. It is a way of separating the sheep from the wolves.”
“Ah,” MingWei said, nodding. “That makes sense, though it would never have occurred to me.”
“No, because you do not have what it takes to be a tyrant. But it did occur to Kendall, as ignorant of history as he was. He was very dangerous. He had a natural talent for tyranny.”
“A moment, please, Chen Zufu.”
MingWei’s eyes concentrated on something else, in the space between them. It was the characteristic look of someone consulting their
