Chapter 55

They reviewed all the facts they had about the Cavendish blackmail. The subject matter of the photos was carefully chosen. Homosexuality was a crime on this world. If the pictures had been made public, Howard would have been prosecuted and disgraced. The leadership class were very hung up on their social status.

The threat of the pictures being released had been enough to force Howard's hand. He could not risk going to prison and his family being banished to the labour zone. The inner cabinet had used their tried and tested method to remove another person who they wanted out of the way.

"It would be great if we could turn the tables on them. Catch them in some kind of compromising situation. Or fake it." Dan was thinking out loud.

"That wouldn't help us." Derek said.

He explained that if they had pictures what would they do with them. The police would hush it up if they wound up in their hands. They had no way to circulate them to the wider public. Only complete humiliation would have the desired effect and for that they needed a wide audience.

Serena suggested Leaflets, but even trying to get them printed with such explosive content would be difficult. Then there were the problems of distribution. The OWG controlled all channels of the media for a very good reason. They could censor what the public were able to see.

A smile slowly spread across Ryan's face. He had thought of a way to overcome their problem.

"A while ago I talked to someone about doing an armed forces newsletter. We could expand that to a small newspaper. Get it up and running, produce a few copies and then when we get pictures or proof we will have the mechanism to release it."

"Would the OWG allow that?" Derek asked.

Everyone looked at Eric for an answer.

"If it was handled correctly then I think we could do it. The content would have to meet their approval. It would have to be a bit different from the OWG Times or there would be no point doing it."

The timing was good too. The impending war in South America could be covered in their paper in the way that Salter had imagined. Positive pictures and articles. They could send the paper to anywhere that troops were based. That meant just about everywhere.

The first issues would be rabidly pro OWG, so that it would set their minds at rest. They would mock up a copy to present to the army brass and OWG to show what a good idea it would be. Eric said that he would endorse it. As he was now a trusted member of the cabinet that would help them set the project up.

Sebastien remembered that there was an old printing press at a barracks where he had served when he joined the army. No one used it so they could requisition it with few problems. They would have to investigate acquiring the apparatus to make plates for photographs. Dan had no idea how a picture could be put into a newspaper and had to have the process explained to him.

"So, you don't know everything." Ryan laughed.

Phyllis came up with an idea as well. She suggested that families might want to send messages to their loved ones who were serving abroad. Especially now that there was the impending war in South America. The troops would appreciate the contact and it would boost morale. They were all in favour.

Dan had a suggestion which left some of them a bit baffled. He wanted to include a cartoon strip. He was definitely stealing from his old Earth. What they needed was a superhero. They could have a character called Super Sergeant. He would be stronger and faster than the average soldier and would enact daring raids and rescues. Perhaps Serena's friend George could draw it.

This concept was much discussed. Dan described how a few pictures with speech bubbles would convey a story. He did a rough, and fairly bad, sketch to show them. Each issue would bring the next episode of the tale. People would want to know what was happening to Super Sergeant, especially if he was in jeopardy at the end of the previous edition.

Serena telephoned George and put the idea to him. Dan arranged to send him his mock up so that he could get the gist of what he wanted. George was excited about the chance to draw something which could be seen by thousands of people. He picked up paper and pencil straight away and began to experiment with what the hero would look like.

It felt good to be getting a plan underway. Of course, they had no clue about how they would get photographs of Salter and his group in dodgy situations, but they would think of something. Eric was getting closer to them. If he kept up his charade he might learn more about their peccadillos. These men would have skeletons in their cupboards he was sure.

~~~

The massacre he had witnessed and the, often, ridiculous orders he received had made Ryan question the rule of the OWG. His early years in the army had seen him posted overseas and he had visited many parts of the world. The different climates, food, architecture and landscapes were interesting. The same rules, however, applied wherever he went.

The investigative service had always interested him. He was not a fan of the divide between the leadership and labour classes. Ryan, on this occasion, exploited his elite position despite finding it unpalatable. He wanted to command the unit and he made his preference known. Surely it was alright to manoeuvre himself into this position if it helped the population as a result.

His peripatetic lifestyle had meant that he was still a single man in his late thirties. He hoped that now that he would be settled in one place that would change. His rank as a colonel made him desirable and various daughters, granddaughters, nieces and friends were paraded in front of him by, well meaning, friends and colleagues. Some of them had seemed very nice, but he had not felt enthusiastic enough to take anything further.

The army was run by ageing buffoons who were appointed by a government who didn't care that they were incompetent. The army had no real challenge to its authority. Guns and weapons were tightly controlled by the government. Ryan had reluctantly accepted the status quo because he could not change the way the OWG was run. Each day in his job brought another case which made him more uneasy.

A, so called, dissenter, arrested because he had met with three other people to discuss their terrible housing. A man protesting that his son had disappeared after some, ill advised, comments was taken into custody. A woman locked up because she had complained that her husband had not been arrested for beating her. These were not criminals.

Bertie Crawford was a criminal. He was the type of person that Ryan wanted to hunt down and put away. The search for the rebel had brought him into contact with Daniel Ellis. He had learned a bit more about the groups who were calling for changes to the OWG as a result. Then he had listened to what Dan had to say and had found his own voice.

Each time that he spoke to Dan, more of his inner beliefs were revealed.

"I can't keep arresting people for having ideas that are different to what the OWG do. I can't sleep at night."

"I thought you only dealt with dangerous or potentially armed criminals?" Dan was confused.

"That is what is supposed to happen. The OWG, actually Nicholas Salter, likes to have an armed force march into a town and make an arrest. It makes an impression on the people. We get dragged into all sorts of things. I had to arrest a woman the other day. I felt ashamed as we took her away."

"Would you join in with action against the government?"

"I am beginning to think that I would. I'm a soldier Dan, and an officer, yet I sometimes feel like a coward. I hate what I'm asked to do, but I comply. At some point I have to man up and take a stand. There is no reason to rush into some wild scheme however. What good would it do to get myself arrested if that didn't help to achieve change. That is not being chicken that is being smart."

"I know. I wanted to see modernisation and I got caught up with Bertie. Look how that ended up. A time will come and when it does I'll pitch in. We have to keep an ear to the ground and gather information ready for that day."

"Talking of which, I have made a list of the army generals. Most are stalwart backers of the OWG but one or two might be sympathetic to the cause. We can track where they are ready to contact them if something comes up."

"That is exactly the type of thing that will be needed. Who is this General Markov?"

"He is a proper soldier. He doesn't socialise with the other brass and actually does his job. He goes out in the field and regularly meets the troops."

"Sounds like a good man."

Then Ryan had found himself at Dan's house at the same time as a group of, like minded, people. The doctor wanted change and so did Phyllis, Peter and Serena. When Eric McBride, a government minister, had said that things needed to change he knew the time had come. He was ready for the fight.

The conversation that evening had also given Sebastien a chance to tell his story. His senior officer and a government minister being present had seen his first sentences delivered in a whisper. The tale of the OWG's experiments with poison gas had been listened to in hushed silence. His voice grew stronger as he remembered the horror of the incident.

"Twenty-four people were killed when the gas was released. They were murdered to test the poison. They were murdered by the military and the OWG."

Sebastien had tears in his eyes as he thought about his friend Robert. He wiped his face and then he found himself grinning. Robert wallowing in mud unable to stand up replayed in his head. Robert trying to crawl silently through the dark but giggling all the time. He told the others a couple of stories about his clumsy pal to lighten the mood.

The newspaper would be the vehicle by which they delivered their evidence. All they had to do now was get some. Ryan didn't doubt for a moment that all of the inner cabinet would have done things which they shouldn't have. He doubted that they lost any sleep over, or were ashamed of, any of their actions.

It would be galling to print the usual propaganda which the OWG would expect when the paper started. He must remember what they were doing all of this for. There would come a day when he would not have to arrest another bewildered member of the public on a spurious charge. A day when he would not be ordered to shoot first rather than question a suspect. A day when he wouldn't see someone jailed following a trial in a kangaroo court.

He could not start a relationship at this time. Ryan was about to risk his life to bring down the inner cabinet. There would be little time for dating what with running his unit and editing the newspaper. If this all went well he would be some sort of hero and then he would be fighting them off. That thought improved his mood dramatically.