Ephialtes (Ephialtes Trilogy Book 1) (40 page)

“Okay, what
happened when the war was over?”

“Well, after
Lahore I was shipped back to the States.  I did some more
instructing - mainly instructing the newer instructors - and
then I was more or less pensioned off.  It’s no secret that I was the
poster boy for the army.  I did some calls promoting the army and my book,
and then I came home.”

“Why did you
come back to Mars?”

“I came back
because it’s my home.”

“Any other
reasons?”

“I served the
mother country when it called.  I’d paid my dues, and it was time to come
home.”

“Your father,
Jack Karjalainen, is very ill, is that right?”

“Yes he is.”

“So you came
back to be with him?”

“I’m able to
spend some time with my father now I’m home, yes.”

“You touched
on your family life a little in your book and
it’s
documented elsewhere that your relationship with your father hasn’t always been
great.  Has that improved since your return?”

“My father is
very ill and as a sick old man he has a bit less fight in him than he used
to.  I guess I’m a bit older now too, so we’re getting along a bit better
than we used to.”

“Is it true
that your father more or less disowned you when you decided to leave for Earth
and the USAN Army?”

Bobby
shrugged.  “‘Disowned’ may be a bit strong, but he certainly wasn’t
happy.”

“He didn’t
speak to you for a number of years, did he?”

“No, he
didn’t.”

“Your
father’s political views are well known.  When you left for Earth were you
rebelling against him?”

“Not
really.  My father and
me
are different
people.  I guess we’re both quite headstrong, and where we have different
views we just rubbed each other the wrong way.  I didn’t go to Earth to
spite my father, but I guess he might not have seen it that way.”

“Where do you
fit into the family now?  Will you continue to be part of the Karjalainen
dynasty?  A place at the family firm, perhaps?”

Bobby
laughed.  “No, I don’t think that’s going to happen any time soon. 
But I’m on good terms with my family, and I’m happy to be back.”

“What will
you do now?”

“I really
don’t know.  I don’t think my skills are likely to be needed here, and I
have a little money from my army pension and the book, so I really don’t
know.  I guess I’ll just kick back and see what happens.”

“There’s one
more thing I’d like to ask you before I let you go.  The USAN ship
Otus
was recently destroyed, believed to be by an
act of sabotage.  What’s your opinion on that?”

“I’m not
really well-placed to comment.  All I know is what everyone else
knows from the news aggregators.  But it goes back to the point I made
earlier - we have enemies who would be happy to destroy us and
they will go to any lengths to do that.  It’s very important we remember
that everything we have, all the freedoms we have, were won for us at great
cost by people who stood up to intimidation and fought back.”

“You don’t
have any ideas as to who might have been behind the attack?”

“I don’t; I
mean I do, but I would just be guessing like anyone else.  I expect it
would either be dissident factions in the Asian Bloc who disapprove of the
terms of the armistice, or maybe one of the other non-aligned
organisations - you know, terrorist groups and the like. 
Just because the war is over we can’t be complacent.  There will always be
people out there who will want to destroy us.  It was terrible what
happened to that ship.  I knew some of the people who died.”

“President
Cortes has intimated that the sabotage may have been green-lit from Mars,
what do you think about that?”

“I think
that’s very unlikely and it’s irresponsible of the president to be putting that
idea out there.  I know that Martians, even now, are amongst the most
patriotic people of the USAN - maybe I should say people
formerly of the USAN, but you know what I mean.  I don’t think the people
of Mars bear any grudge or ill will towards the people of Earth.  I still
feel a very strong kinship with the USAN and I don’t think I know anyone who
doesn’t.  This independence mania will settle down very quickly and we’ll
all get back to doing what we were doing.  We’ll always have a very
special relationship with the USAN.  That will never change, I’m sure of
it.”

As Bobby was
finishing his last sentence Elspeth felt a rising panic.  She’d framed her
previous question as one last thing but she realised she had another ‘last
thing’ to ask.  Her mind raced.  She thought she would be able to
flip the order of the questions when she edited the piece later but she was
worried about how it would sound to Bobby now.  Maybe he wouldn’t notice? 
She nodded as he finished his answer and launched straight into the next
question.

“You probably
have more military experience, certainly battlefield experience, than any other
person on Mars.  In recent weeks we’ve seen the formation of the Martian
Security Service, taking on the role previously occupied by the USAN
Garrison.  Have you been offered, or have you considered, taking up a role
with the MSS?”

Bobby
paused.  “That’s something I haven’t thought about.  I’ve been out of
uniform for a while now and I’m enjoying it.  But this independence
thing?  The way I see it, it’s a good thing for Mars and really, in the
long term, probably a good thing for Earth too.  I guess I would like to
support that in any way I can, and as you say, I do have experience.  I
guess I’ll just wait for the call,” he said, smiling.

Elspeth was
thinking to herself, ‘Great, he didn’t notice the extra question’ as she calmly
said, “Bobby Karjalainen, thank you so much for your time and good luck with
whatever it is you choose to do next.”

“Thank you,”
said Bobby.

They both sat
in silence for a few seconds.  Elspeth tapped her comdev.  “Great,
that’s it, done,” she said.  “Thank you so much for doing this.”

“No problem,”
said Bobby.  “You do know you said you were going to ask me one more
thing, and then asked two things, don’t you?”

“Did I?” said
Elspeth, “I’m sure it’ll be fine, I can edit around it.”

Bobby nodded.

“It wasn’t
too awkward was it, talking about the war?”

“It’s
fine.  I wrote a book about it, people ask all the time.  Do you need
anything else?”

“No,” said
Elspeth.  “I’m sure I got everything.  I’ll edit this all together
and have it up on my stream in a day or two.”

“That’s
great,” said Bobby, standing.  “I’ll look forward to watching it.” 
He offered Elspeth his hand and she took it and shook firmly.  She wasn’t
used to shaking hands and hoped she was doing it right.

“Thanks
again, Mr Karjalainen,” she said.

“Please, just
call me Bobby.  Take care now,” he said as he turned and left.

Foveaux got
the number from Elspeth.  She had seen the stream and thought Bobby would
indeed be a useful addition to the MSS.  Initially, she would run the MSS
much the same as its USAN predecessor but very soon it would be necessary to
split it into two separate entities, a military and a police service. 
While the Martian population was small and politically unified they could get
away with having a joint military-police force.  As the population
grew, and as political opinions diverged, having what amounted to military
police under control of the government would not look good or be good for their
fledgling democracy.

Maya’s plan
was to start the partition right from the beginning.  Although the MSS
would be a single organisation it would be split internally into military and
police divisions.  When the time came for the two parts to be formally
split into their own separate organisations it would, she hoped, be relatively
painless.

Coming from a
background of security Foveaux saw herself as naturally inclined towards the
policing side of the operation.  That was where her expertise was. 
But if Mars was to have an effective military someone with Bobby’s background
and experience would be an ideal candidate to oversee it.

She managed
to get through to him shortly after Elspeth’s stream of the interview had been
published.

“Mr
Karjalainen, you probably don’t know me, my name is Maya Foveaux and I’m the
head of the Martian Security Service.”

“Hello, Ms
Foveaux.  No, I don’t know you.”

“I’m sorry to
call unannounced but I’ve just seen your interview with Elspeth Ross.”

“How was it?”

“It was very
good, Mr Karjalainen, and it got me thinking.  As I’m sure you know, the
USAN is sending a dropship carrier here.  We have some defence systems in
place and we have the beginnings of a military force which, unfortunately, it
appears will be necessary for us to stand toe to toe with our earthly
neighbours when we get to negotiate peace with them.  I was wondering if
you would like to donate some of your military experience to us over
here.  It would be greatly appreciated.”

“What sort of
thing?” said Bobby.

“You’ve been
involved before in setting up a new type of unit.  That’s exactly what
we’re doing now.  We have personnel and we’re getting some new equipment,
but what we’re really lacking is expertise.  The MSS consists, at the
moment, of ex-security guards.  What we could do with is someone to
mould them into an army.  It sounds like that’s the sort of thing you
would be able to do for us.”

Bobby thought
carefully.  “So you want me to design training courses, something like
that?”

“That would
be great, but what would be even better would be if you could implement those
courses yourself.”

“Wait a
minute, am I being press-ganged here?”

Foveaux
smiled.  “Of course not.  If you don’t want to be a part of this I understand. 
But we have a new planet here, and a pressing need we have at this time is for
a functioning army.  You’re the best hope we have of getting that as fast
as we need it.  I understand, too, from your interview that you’re at a loose
end at the moment.”

“That’s true
enough,” said Bobby.

“Obviously,
we can offer you a full salary and other benefits.  And you would have
tremendous freedom to organise the new force the best way you see fit.  It
would be good for us and I think it could be a great opportunity for you, too.”

Bobby
thought.  “Let me come over and take a look and I’ll tell you what I
think.  I can’t commit to anything at the moment.  I’ll need to think
about this.”

“Sure, that
sounds great,” said Foveaux.

“Where are
you?” said Bobby.

“We’re based
at the garrison.”

Venkdt was
still using his offices at the Venkdt Mars headquarters building.  It
seemed no one minded the apparent conflict of interest.  Most Martians
either worked for Venkdt or owed the company some other huge debt of
gratitude.  The idea that the interests of Venkdt might conflict with the
general Martian population simply didn’t add up.  By a large majority,
employees of Venkdt
were
the Martian population.

Still, it was
a matter that Charles Venkdt wanted to address.  He knew the Martian
economy was starting to grow and in time there would be many corporations and
small businesses on Mars.  His nascent government would need to be seen to
be independent from all biases in order to support that happening.  The
new Martian economy should be free and open, with the lightest touch of
regulation.

Government
finances initially consisted of generous donations from Venkdt himself and from
Venkdt Mars, the newly independent Martian corporation.  Raising taxes had
to be the first priority, and consolidating government infrastructure close on
behind.

With a
popular mandate behind him Venkdt had to deliver on the promises he had made to
his electorate.  One of these was to buy out Venkdt Mars from the parent
company.  The difficulty facing him was that the parent company did not
accept the buyout at any level.

It was an
issue that had to be approached from two angles: legal and technical. 
Though the purchase would never be strictly legal Venkdt needed it to be as
wrapped up in legal terms as it could possibly be.  For this he employed
the counsel of his daughter, Christina.  He imagined the technical aspect,
though somewhat more complex, would be easier to implement.  Kostovich
would be able to funnel money into accounts even where the recipients were
unwilling to receive it, that much was certain.

The original
pledge had been to buy the Martian division of Venkdt Corporation at market
rates plus ten percent.  The events surrounding independence had knocked a
significant amount of points off of Venkdt shares.  Market plus ten now
would be undervaluing the worth of the Martian enterprise but Venkdt was
determined to play fair by his erstwhile associates.

“Market plus
ten now would be an insult,” he said.

“What
then?  Market plus twenty?” said Christina.

“No, no, this
has to be reasonable and logical.  We can’t just pluck numbers out of the
air.  Can you pull up the share value for the day I made the
announcement?  Early in the day, before the jitters set in.  We’ll
take that price plus ten per cent.  That makes sense, right?”

“It sort of
does, I guess,” said Christina.  “It looks like you’re making it up as you
go along, though.”

“I am making
it up as I go along.  But we have to give them a fair price and it has to
be based on sound reasoning.  We’ll go with the price on that date, okay?”

Christina
nodded.

“And where
does the money go?” said Kostovich.

“It goes to
Venkdt Corp,” said Venkdt.

“Obviously,”
said Kostovich, “but which part? 
Venkdt’s
financial organisation is extremely diverse.  They have operations across
the globe, and beyond.  Even without us they have a facility on Luna,
Earth’s moon.”

“Anywhere, I
guess.  If they have the money, they have the money.  It’s up to them
how they push it around.”

“I wouldn’t
be so sure,” said Kostovich.  “An organisation of that size, with such
dispersed management, may be very good at losing money off the books when it
needs to.  There could be any number of fake subsidiaries, offshore
accounts and who knows what else.  We have to put this money somewhere
where it can’t get kicked under the rug.  The point of this exercise is
for us to be seen to be doing the right thing.  If nobody sees, or worse
nobody sees and the money disappears, then there’s no point.”

Venkdt
thought.  “Is there any way you can make their accounts public?”

“Not
legally.  It would be criminally negligent to do so, anyway.  They’d
kill us in the press, rightly so.”

Venkdt
paced.  “Okay, how about this.  We bypass the company entirely.”

“We can’t pay
the company without paying the company,” said Christina.

“No,” said
Venkdt, “we pay the shareholders.  Each individual shareholder gets a
proportionate pay-off.”

Kostovich
shook his head.  “You’re talking about cracking hundreds of thousands of
accounts now, rather than just one.  That’s a different proposition all
together.”

Venkdt looked
at him.  “Too hard?”

“No, not too
hard.  But a lot harder.”

Venkdt
smiled.  “You relish a challenge, Dan.  Can you do it?”

Kostovich
took a deep breath.  “Yes, I can do it.”

“How long do
you need?”

Kostovich
thought.  “I don’t know.  A week.  Two?”

“That’s
great, two weeks,” said Venkdt.  He turned to Christina.  “Can you
get all this paperwork tied up in two weeks?  Take as many people as you
need.  And when you have all the paperwork done it needs to be published
on an open forum.  It’s important that anyone can access our documents and
see what it is we’re doing, and why we’re doing it.”

“I think we
could do that,” said Christina.

“Good,” said
Venkdt.  “That means that in two weeks we can publish the documentation,
transfer the money and we will be a truly independent planet.”  He stopped
to think.  “Planet or nation?  I can’t decide.  We’re sort of a
planet made up of one nation.”

“
Plation
?” offered Kostovich.

Venkdt looked
at him with a mixture of confusion and pity.  “I think we’ll stay with
planet.”

Elspeth’s
plan to gain publicity from the interview with Bobby Karjalainen worked. 
The stream was extremely popular.  For a brief period it was the second
most popular stream on the news aggregators.  Charles Venkdt wanted to
announce his proposals for the buyout on a live stream, and having seen
Elspeth’s interview with Bobby he selected her to be his interviewer.

Elspeth felt
a little disoriented.  She had gone from being a cub reporter to
interviewing the president of Mars in a matter of days.  Admittedly, the
president of Mars was someone she might easily bump into out and about in
Marineris, but it still felt like something of a coup.  The audience for
the interview on Earth would be enormous.

Venkdt had a
number of specific questions he wanted to be asked but he had given Elspeth
some leeway to ask questions of her own.  The equipment he supplied was
top of the range.

Elspeth set
up the equipment and chairs in a similar configuration to the one she had used
with Bobby.  There was to be a technician who would cut between the three
cameras (this time around there was a long two-shot) in real time. 
The stream was to go out live, but once that had happened it would live
forever, being restreamed or otherwise available to anyone with even a passing
interest.

Venkdt had
appeared friendly enough when they spoke on the phone.  In person too he
seemed like an amiable old man.  He reassured Elspeth again that as long
as she asked the questions he needed she could ask others too.  It would
be a real interview, albeit one that existed in order to disseminate a specific
message to its target audience.

The live
stream was timed such that it would be available at peak time in the most
populated areas of the USAN.  Elspeth began by asking Venkdt some fairly
softball questions about his family history and their connections with
Mars.  She stepped it up a bit when asking about how he had come to the
decision to run a plebiscite.  Had he thought about possible unintended
outcomes?  Had he thought about running for president right from the
start, or had that come later?  Venkdt gave political answers;
conservative, reassuring and easy to swallow.  They were very plausible,
too, to the degree that Elspeth thought they may have even been honest.

She asked
Venkdt one of his own questions.  “You said you will compensate Venkdt
Corporation for their Martian division.  Can you elaborate on that?”

“I can
elaborate on that, Elspeth.  I said in my election speeches that I would
buyout Venkdt Mars from the parent company at the market rate plus ten
percent.  Since then, and we have to assume in response to our new
arrangement here, the share price of Venkdt Corporation has dropped
somewhat.  I want everyone to know that my intentions are completely above
board, so what I will be doing is buying the Martian arm of Venkdt Corporation
for the market rate plus ten percent as it was on the day I made the announcement
about the plebiscite.”

Elspeth
thought this was a good opportunity to chip in with a question of her
own.  “And what can you tell us about the legality of that arrangement?”

“Oh,” said
Venkdt, “I understand that in very strict legal terms what we are doing is not
correct.  There can be no doubt about that.  But what is happening
here is the formation of a new planet, the birth of a new society.  I
don’t think that can be done within the strict legal framework of the old
planet.  I know that, strictly speaking, we are breaking the law here, and
that Venkdt Corporation are opposed to us doing this.  I can’t argue with
any of that.  But what I want to make very clear is that we are not
robbing anyone here.  We are taking what we believe to be ours and compensating
the original owners.  I think that most people would agree that is
fair.  Not legal, according to the laws of the USAN, but not an injustice
either.  We don’t seek to aggravate the USAN or steal anything from
them.  We hope to remain on good terms and I feel, as I’m sure most
Martians do, that the people of Earth and the USAN are our cousins.  We
will be a good solid ally to the USAN and will continue to supply them with
essential materials, to their benefit as well as ours.”

“So you’re
quite deliberately flouting the law?”

“The old law,
yes.  A law that the people of Mars have overwhelmingly voted to say they
do not believe applies to them.  Don’t get me wrong here, Elspeth, the
rule of law is essential.  It’s what has made the USAN so successful, and
it’s what will make Mars successful.  But in this very unusual case, and
at this particular moment in time, it has been necessary for us to change from
one legal code to another.  That can’t be done neatly.  There will
always be a point at which things hang in the air, unresolved.  What we
want to do is move past that point as quickly as possible.  Our own
Martian constitution and our own Martian laws are now in effect and will be
rigorously upheld, just as we upheld the laws of the USAN right to the point of
departure.  On this one issue - ownership of Venkdt
Mars - we’ve unfortunately had to go through this grey area,
but as I’ve said, and as I hope everyone can see, while we are not complying
fully with the legal requirements of the USAN we are absolutely committed to
acting in a fair and just manner.  That’s why our terms are
so
generous, in part as compensation for the difficulties
people may have with our actions.”

Elspeth
returned to
Venkdt’s
own questions.  “How will
the buyout work, in practical terms?”

“I’m glad you
asked me that.  We have our very best people working on this right at this
moment and we hope to have a solution within the next few weeks.  We are
hoping to be able to pay every Venkdt Corporation shareholder a dividend
commensurate with the amount of shares they hold.  In short, we’re going
directly to
Venkdt’s
owners and paying them for what
we are taking from them.”

“This will be
happening in the next few weeks?”

“Yes, within
two weeks, we hope.  Also, we’ll be providing documentation explaining the
rationale and other technical aspects of the buyout.  All shareowners will
receive documentation confirming the amount they will be paid, with full
receipts for the monies we will have paid them following in due course.  If
they run into any financial, legal or other difficulties because of our actions
we will support them in sorting any of that out.  All this, by the way, is
covered in detail in our documentation, which is freely available through the
Venkdt site.  I can assure any Venkdt Corporation shareholders that they
will be fully compensated and supported in every way throughout this
process.  It is absolutely not our intention to cause any harm, financial
or otherwise, to Venkdt Corporation or its shareholders.

“We have
written to all the shareholders asking them to accept our offer.  We have
done this as a matter of courtesy, but the plain truth is that we will be
buying ourselves out whatever happens.  I would strongly encourage Venkdt
Corporation shareholders to accept our offer.  It would greatly strengthen
our relationship with our former company as we move forward, and it would send
us a message of solidarity and goodwill that would be greatly appreciated.”