Order of Magnitude

XLVI. At the Top

      Gerald Sloane rather liked his new seat. It was soft, and leather, and represented unbelievable power. If he were an unethical man, he would have abused this power. But his focus was on restoring the country's morale using common sense approaches to governing. Even though he was an opponent to many of Antony's measures, he still understood the motivation behind them. Heck, deep down he was rooting for them to work. Stomping on a sentient creature just because they were smaller than you was pretty barbaric, all things being equal. Unfortunately, with the attacks that had been springing up over the country it was clear that barbarism was the right way to go after all.

      Prime Minister Sloane sat in his comfy chair while his advisers gave him his morning briefing. He liked the morning briefings. It gave him a sense of accomplishment, and a thrill of exclusivity. He was hearing news that even the citizens were unaware of. In time, he would probably get tired of them, but for now it was a very likable part of the job.

      "Good morning, Mr. Prime Minister," his chief adviser Jagger said. "There are a lot of things to go over this morning, as always."

      "Naturally," Sloane nodded. "Proceed, Jagger."

      "Yes, sir. We have had 6 parv-related deaths over the night. Including Antony, we are up to 22 now."

      "Unbelievable," the Prime Minister sighed. "Where were they?"

      "All over, sir. The furthest report was in the Burrows."

      "That's almost on the other side of the country. This can't be one radical group committing all of these atrocities. This is an uprising."

      "Yes, sir. We've all come to that same conclusion."

      "There is other news, Mr. Prime Minister," Maris, a mousy woman in horn-rimmed glasses said. "Non parv-related. Queen Evangelina is seeking support against rebels in her country."

      "She's got a strong military; she can take care of it herself."

      "Sir, Evangelina is one of our strongest allies. If we ignore her-"

      "What? She will be mad at us?" Sloane asked in a condescending tone.

      Maris took her glasses off for effect. "We don't want to lose allies, sir. Especially such a strong one."

      "Our problems right now are not foreign, they are domestic. Strong alliances are good, but tell me something, how does that help our citizens who are being murdered? Do you think that Antony was thinking of how strong his foreign power was when he was being lit on fire? No! He probably kicked himself for letting these tiny freaks run roughshod over our country. Foreign policy can wait."

      "Yes, sir," Maris said in little more than a whisper.

      "Jagger, have you run our emergency budget proposal by the assembly yet?"

      "I have, Mr. Prime Minister."

      Sloane waited in silence for a few seconds. "And?"

      "They are a little... concerned about it."

      "It's simple; we need to get some more money into our research and development. The sooner our citizens can feel safe in their own homes, the better off we'll be."

      "I understand that, sir," Jagger said. "But the assembly is curious how we will fund it."

      "That's a great point, and I've outlined several possibilities. First of all, let's stop our foreign aid. Sorry, Queen Evangelina, but my country is a little more important than a handful of rebels in yours."

      "That still won't make up the deficit."

      Sloane looked ready to burst. "I'm surrounded by idiots here. Find a program that doesn't work, divert it into a program that will! This isn't rocket science."

      "Yes, sir."

      "Anything else?"

      Maris and Jagger looked at each other. "No, sir," they both said.

      "Good. Now before you go, there is one more thing I want to discuss with you before I bring it before the assembly. I'm going to implement a new law. Any citizen that brings the body of a parv to a local authority figure will receive a reward. The more they kill the bigger reward they get."

      Maris's jaw dropped. "How are we going to fund that? Local governments are not equipped to divvy out money for... for bounties!"

      Sloane stood and loomed over the mousy woman. "We'll find a way," he simply said. "Make sure that every parv is tallied and updated nationally every hour."

      "Why?" Jagger asked.

      "Our best scientists estimate that there are about one hundred million parvs in our country. The more that are killed, the less we have to worry about. When we reach fifty million we'll call the bounty off. Heck, we might even have a little bonus prize for the fifty millionth kill. Something to get the people excited. But that doesn't change the simple fact that we are at war. And our extermination begins today!"