Ethel the Vigilante Granny

Ethel the Vigilante Granny Part 7

Julian lifted his hand to stop Peter. "I have placed assault teams on 24 hour standby for just this situation. If anybody does so much as try to synthesize a laser weapon we can be there in minutes, we can reach the people involved before they can take receipt of their weapon. We can also have the replicator mark the prohibited item with a tracer so we can track them right across the planet. We received no such call. Donald, your assessment please."

"My colleague is quite right, this is not a weapon." He removed the image and replaced it with brightly coloured patterns of blue and pink spheres that hovered in space.

"Pretty," Jessica said.

"Yes indeed," Donald said. "These are nature's finest bio-weapons. Modified to have limited replicability. We have airborne AIDS that only reproduces three times, enough to remove a population within a week and then leave the area safe for an attacking force."

"What does this have to do with the attack on my city?"

"Absolutely nothing, but are they not marvellous? All mistakes can be eradicated. Everything can be made right again. But you see, they didn't do this. These items could have been attached to the missile. They did not want to kill their victims, they wanted to mock them. It was done for the sheer joy of seeing the city burn. If our enemies had possessed purpose and direction they would have placed viruses, explosives or flesh-eating nano insects on the surface of the missile. I blame the uncharted people, the uneducated tearaways. They did this, I tell you."

"How was it launched?" Jessica asked.

"Laser catapult," Peter said. "Perfectly aimed in an arc calculated to do maximum damage. Very clever. Very precise maths."

"There goes the uneducated as a culprit. I say we go after the middle classes," Edward said.

"Your answer to everything," Jessica said. "Kill everybody who is different."

"No, kill everybody who is useless."

"I am in charge of security," Julian said. "And today there will be no change in policy. This is what we are all sworn to defend. That nothing must change. What is clear is that we don't know who did this. We're clueless and we all have too much pride to admit it. Edward. Your security teams can question the middle classes. Jessica, you can chase down Donald's theory. But I am in overall command at all times. On a practical note, where are the survivors from the city being sent to?"

"To the ground. We have plenty of spare living accommodation and medical facilities in the tower network overlooking the farmland. Middle-class medical staff have been fully mobilised," Peter said.

"So there's plenty of opportunity for the middle classes to mix with our wounded?" Edward said.

"I don't see many staff from Jewel and Warden cities going to the aid of their fellow-citizens," Jessica said. "Besides, if our system has failed and maybe it's time for it to change and adapt."

"Never," Edward said. "This was settled hundreds of years ago. Those with money and power earned it because they were motivated, they had a vision to improve their world. Their reward was to rule and have all laws and rules removed for them for ever. Failures of life had to be prevented from influencing politics so we gave them what they wanted materially. If you start giving them aspirations as well then you bring chaos and strife."

"We don't know our enemy," Julian said. "I will start by examining the launch site for the weapon. But we need to begin profiling the masses of humanity. There are so many of them and they are a mystery to us."

"That was your job," Edward said. "And you failed."

"I never had the resources to categorise every human. There are too many of them. We need sociologists for that."

"I'll do it," Jessica said. Everybody looked at her. "I will investigate the citizens who have tried to evade our compulsory education programmes."Jessica Ambrose was the head of the Rainbow Group and could do whatever she wanted. But the expressions that were now aimed in her direction were a mixture of pity and awe. After all, earth culture had been re created in the image of the best years of all time, 1980 to 2010. But there were whispers of the existence of places that represented the worst of those times.

Crime-ridden ghettos, children having children, adults who were chronically mentally ill and self medicating on electronic bliss machines. These were banned so how the hell did the uneducated get hold of them? Maybe Donald was right, maybe the attack came from the very people who were intellectually disadvantaged.

Jessica took in the expressions that people gave her and took a guess at what everyone was thinking. "Do not patronise me. Our whole society was based on understanding the common man. It seems to me like we haven't done a very good job. I'm simply going back to our roots. And I take my responsibility as head of the Rainbow Group very seriously."

She stood up and faced Edward. "Has the damaged octahedron been completely evacuated?"

"Yes. We have left a minimal guard of 100 men in black. All the injured are ground side."

"I would like see the damage for myself."

"Of course." Edward didn't look in Jessica's direction when he spoke. She turned and left without waiting for him to do so. If he wanted to play it like that he was welcome but she wasn't going to give him the satisfaction.