Murdering Americans (22 page)

‘Absolute power and all that….’

‘Precisely. Which takes us to Haringey.’

‘Jim Haringey was a good man,’ said Freeman. ‘I was real sorry when he had his accident.’ He looked at the baroness. ‘Oh, I guess you think it wasn’t an accident.’

‘What do you think?’

‘I suppose it would have been one heck of a coincidence.’

‘You’ll see an analysis of it in that file, Martin. Either Dickinson is a murderer or he’s incredibly lucky. Marjorie said Haringey was thwarting him at every turn by insisting that academic standards were immutable. And he’d met his ideal replacement.’

‘So that’s likely one murder. You think Gonzales was responsible for the car crash.’

‘The brakes were definitely tampered with. Crudely. Gonzales may well have done it himself but I’m sure that at the very least he had it done. We’ve established from one of his spies that he knew I’d been to see Mike, and I bet he had him followed to Ohio.’

‘But who then killed Gonzales and Helen?’

‘I haven’t a clue, though maybe there’ll be a breakthrough in the next day or so. Marjorie thinks Dickinson, though there’s no evidence at all. I’ve heard the D.A. has finally decided to do something to locate the mysterious running man. Mind you, I think it not impossible that one of the people victimised by the Provost and/or Gonzales might have been opportunistic enough to do him in. I’ve got a P.I. checking out which of their victims might have been around New Paddington at the time of the murder but he’s found nothing yet.’

‘So what are we going to do now? Have Dickinson arrested for corruption or murder or both?’

‘We’ve no proof that would stand up in court even on corruption as yet, Martin. I think Dickinson’s lawyers would have a field-day with what’s here. A lot of our evidence has been gathered illegally through hacking or through copying confidential university documents. Much of the students’ evidence is still anonymous. They’re going to have to take a deep breath at the right moment and stand up together knowing they won’t be victimised.’

‘So what’s your plan?’

‘Take over Founder’s Day for a massive protest against the President in the presence of thousands of parents. We’ll need your help.’

‘You’re really a pirate, aren’t you, Jack,’ observed Freeman. ‘Very well. Tell me what I have to do to help you take over the ship.’

***

‘I’ve done my job,’ said the baroness, smacking her lips as she tasted her wine. ‘Hmmmmmmmmm! I really like that Barolo. Stefano has done well, don’t you think, Robert?’

‘There’s much more to be done, Jack. Getting Freeman on side was the easy bit. Now we have to get the troops on the parade ground disciplined and drilled.’

‘That’s a job for a sergeant-major. Not for a general. Generals sit in their armchairs sipping good wine and planning how many troops to send over the top at dawn.’

‘That was World War I generals, Jack. This is the twenty-first century. Even generals have to be more egalitarian these days.’

‘Heaven forfend! This campaign is supposed to be about turning the clock back, dammit.’

‘Jack!’

‘You’re such a spoil-sport.’ She reached out for the bottle with a sigh of resignation. ‘Oh, very well, then. What do you want me to do?’

***

Chapter Fifteen

Betsy came out first at the head of a couple of dozen cartwheeling cheerleaders, who tumbled all round the stadium to thunderous applause from the assembled parents, staff, students, and dignitaries, who thought this the beginning of the official proceedings. Despite her worst forebodings, Betsy had managed to rehearse the cheerleading dissidents long enough to manage a few basic stunts, culminating in a three-rung pyramid, which—though slightly unsteady—held. When the pyramid dissolved, the girls ran to the sidelines, took up their positions on both sides of an enormous furled banner and a pile of crimson and blue pom poms and began their chant through the microphones on their lapels:

As they chanted, the back rows began their pom pom routine and the front row unfurled the banner to reveal—in enormous red letters on a blue and white background—

SAVE FREEMAN U

Right on cue, a light plane appeared over the stadium with the same message trailed underneath on a huge banner, and red, white, and blue streamers, balloons, and leaflets began to drop onto the field and the stands. A large multi-racial group of students with SFU T-shirts ran out, picked up leaflets from the field, and ran around the stands distributing them to those parts of the audience that had missed out. When they finished they left the audience reading and ran back down the tunnel.

There had been much anguish about the content of the leaflet, but Amiss and the baroness had won the battle to keep it simple. In heavy black type against a background representation of the American flag, it read:

TO ALL PARENTS AND BENEFACTORS THIS INDEPENDENCE DAY

• You chose Freeman U for your children and your generous donations because you believed it offered a fine education in how best to contribute to making America an even better place.
  
• We, the students who have formed SAVE FREEMAN U, came to college full of hope and determination to succeed.
  
• Instead, we found corruption and intimidation and a system that allowed none of the freedoms our country holds so dear.
  
• Students were forbidden to debate or think or just express ourselves.
  
• The fine and idealistic concept of embracing diversity of beliefs and culture was perverted into the encouragement of bitter division on racial, religious, sexual orientation, and many other grounds.
  
• The only competition allowed was competition in victimhood.
  
• Political correctness became a crushing ideology.
  
• Educational standards were sacrificed to greed.
  
• Sexual depravity was condoned for the privileged.
  
• Christianity was virtually outlawed.
  

In a climate of fear, we are standing up to be counted.

• We want Freeman U to return to the principles on which it was founded.
  
• We want our corrupt President and our useless Provost fired.
  
• We want leaders who have at heart the interests of Freeman U and its students.
  
• We want knowledge.
  
• We want education.
  
• We want diversity of thought.
  
• We want high standards.
  
• We want free speech.
  
• We want to be Americans first and foremost.
  
• We want integration, not segregation.
  

GOD BLESS AMERICA

www.savefreemanu.com

The baroness, who had positioned herself at the far end of the dignitaries’ section so as to have the best possible view of the faces of President Dickinson and his Acting Provost in the adjoining faculty area, was delighted by their stunned expressions. The Acting Provost then began to cry, as did Traci Dickinson, who hugged her. Martin Freeman, who had insisted on sitting beside Jack, chuckled in her ear. ‘Hey, it was sneaky, but it worked so far.’

Up through the tunnel came the marching ranks of thousands of students in Freeman University T-shirts waving American flags and chanting along with the cheerleaders—each group parading off more or less efficiently to the pre-ordained space laboriously mapped out for it by Ryan and Joshua. As they reached their halting-place, each group unfurled an enormous banner. Within minutes the audience were trying to take in dozens of negative messages ranging from
BLACKS AGAINST BRAINWASHING
, through
CHRISTIANS AGAINST CONFORMITY
and
ITALIANS AGAINST INTIMIDATION
to
SIKHS AGAINST STALINISM
.

When they had all taken up position, they ceased chanting. There was the blast of a bugle and each banner was turned to reveal such positive messages as
ASIANS FOR ASPIRATION
through
MUSLIMS FOR MERIT
and
QUEERS FOR QUALITY
to
TURKS FOR TRUTH
.

‘I thought they didn’t want to be divided into separate groups,’ whispered Freeman. ‘Isn’t that what most of this was all about?’

‘Be patient.’

The bugler sounded the reveille, and the groups put down their banners and began to mill about until the pitch was a mass of black, oriental, and white young people talking to each other randomly and animatedly. Higgle-piggledy, they sauntered over towards the tunnel and stood at ease, leaving a pathway for the cheerleaders.

Betsy clapped her hands, and the first banner was furled and put down and the second picked up. The cheerleaders marched in formation to the centre of the pitch until she clapped her hands again and they halted. The new banner was unfurled to reveal:

UNITED WE STAND

DIVIDED WE FALL

The bugle sounded again, and out of the tunnel emerged part of the Freeman University marching band, led by the drum major and playing a medley of patriotic tunes. ‘Recruiting him was a coup,’ whispered the baroness to Freeman. Among the defectors were the entire percussion section, several trombonists, and a saxophonist, so they were able to strike up “The Star-Spangled Banner” with a satisfactory amount of noise. As the students began to sing ‘O say, can you see, by the dawn’s early light/What so proudly we hail’d at the twilight’s last gleaming?’ the spectators stood up and joined in. After a moment’s hesitation, the President and the entire faculty followed suit. Unlike the students, who were armed with the words, most of the onlookers began to falter, but they hummed along and joined loudly in the conclusion: ‘And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave/O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!’

Slowly, the students turned towards the tunnel and began silently to file off the pitch. The vast majority of the crowd applauded rapturously.

‘What happens next?’ whispered Freeman.

‘Your guess is as good as mine,’ said the baroness. ‘The ranks of official participants are sorely depleted and therefore will have great difficulty in carrying out their manoeuvres if ordered to do so. We seem to have got more than half the student body on board.

‘Let’s see how Dickinson copes. Look at him. You’d think he’d been beaten over the head by a brace of dead grouse.’

Dickinson got slowly to his feet. ‘Ladies and gentlemen,’ he said, his voice shaking. ‘What has just happened is…is…is….’ He stopped, looked down at his bewildered wife, grabbed her by the hand, and started pulling her towards the exit.

To general alarm, Ryan, who had been lurking below the faculty stand, ran up the steps and shouted, ‘Come back, you bastard,’ through the microphone to Dickinson. Dickinson stopped, shook his head, and began to run. ‘You’re not getting away,’ shouted Ryan. ‘I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it any more.’ He reached down to the end of his baggy trousers, drew out a gun from the ankle-holster and aimed and fired at Dickinson. As Dickinson fell, Ryan fired at him twice more. He turned, and as he took aim at Acting Provost Pappas-Lott, the baroness took a small gun from her handbag and shot him in the right shoulder.

Wincing, he reached with his left hand for the gun he had dropped. She shouted, ‘Don’t, Ryan, or I’ll kill you. It’s the only rational thing to do.’ He hesitated just long enough for a professor of Black Studies, who was known to be keen on the martial arts and behind whom the Acting Provost was now hiding, to shout, ‘Come on, guys, let’s roll’ to the rest of platform. Just two of them, both junior historians desperately hoping for tenure, helped him jump on Ryan and save his life.

It was too late for Dickinson.

***

‘What the hell was all that about?’ asked Martin Freeman.

It was five hours later, and he was sitting in the baroness’s sitting room. From the moment that Ryan had been disarmed, there had been an interminable sequence of frustrating events. Freeman’s appeal to the crowd to be calm and stay put had dampened down the threatened hysteria, but while the police sent almost everyone home within half an hour, they required a dozen or so witnesses to stay on. So Freeman, the baroness, and several others had to wait about until Ryan had received medical attention and been taken away to be charged, Dickinson’s corpse had been removed, and they had given statements to a couple of slow policemen. It was only through Freeman getting rough with the D.A. that the baroness had not been charged as well.

‘Ayn bloody Rand,’ said the baroness, who was in low spirits.

‘What’s that?’ asked Freeman.

The baroness sighed. ‘Tell him, Robert.’

‘I’m not clear how she’s responsible, but she’s a philosopher of the last century who had an intellectual grip on Ryan. She believed in rational self-interest, individualism, and unfettered capitalism.’

‘Why should that make him shoot Henry Dickinson?’ asked a bewildered Freeman. ‘If anyone ever went in for rational self-interest, individualism, and unfettered capitalism, it was Henry.’

They both looked expectantly at the baroness. ‘When I bent over Ryan after the academics got off him, he said something like, “I had to do it, Buddica. Like Howard Roark did.”’

‘Who the hell is Howard Roark?’ asked Amiss.

‘A hero Rand created in a novel called
The Fountainhead
who was apparently her ideal man.’ The baroness got up, went over to her desk and scrabbled around until she found a pile of paper which she took back to her armchair and riffled through. ‘This is all the crap Ryan gave me ages ago,’ she said. ‘Listen to this: “Howard Roark takes pleasure in the act of creation, but is constantly opposed by ‘the hostility of second-hand souls.’” One of the ways Roark shows his heroic mettle is by blowing up a building of which he disapproves for reasons I won’t bore you with. Though he certainly doesn’t go round shooting people.’

‘How do you know this?’ said Amiss. ‘I thought you completely dismissed it.’

‘I did, but I had another look at it recently, because I was concerned about Ryan.’

‘In what way?’

‘I’d come to the conclusion that he had murdered Helen and the Goon.’

‘What!’ said Amiss. ‘You never said anything about that.’

‘I wasn’t certain. I had no evidence. And it wasn’t the time to deal with it. I was waiting until we’d got through Founder’s Day.’

‘Explain.’

‘Intuition. His desire to be a hero as evinced in all that Goodkind rubbish. He was in search of an ideology, and people like that always worry me because of the ease with which ideologies can be perverted.’ She shook her head. ‘And I couldn’t believe in the crazed Islamist. There were a few who threatened me who might be capable of doing something unpleasant if given proper training in terrorist camp, but they looked like very small-town agitators from what I saw of them. I couldn’t imagine any of them being up to planning and executing what happened in the Provost’s office. Whereas Ryan thought the Axis really was evil.’ She sighed. ‘And I had told him and the others that Gonzales might have had Mike and Vera murdered. I intended to warn, not provoke.’

‘But the bearded brown running man?’ asked Amiss.

‘Theatrical make-up. False beard. Not difficult.’

There was a silence, then Amiss said, ‘But you were always complaining that the cops hadn’t properly gone after the Islamists.’

‘That’s because they weren’t doing it for all the wrong reasons. And anyway, considering how they’d got away with threatening to kill me, I thought a bit of inconvenience was in order. We know what happens when people think they’re invulnerable.’

‘I still don’t get it,’ said Amiss. ‘Are you saying he was murdering bad people on principle? Wasn’t Rand against altruism?’

‘Yes, but….’ She rummaged around the pages. ‘This comes from the appendix to her
Atlas
Shrugged,
which is apparently a fantastically successful cult novel: “My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute.”’

‘So killing them was a rational act and a noble productive achievement?’ said Amiss. ‘Which made him happy?’

The baroness shrugged. ‘There’s no accounting for taste.’

‘You know that Goodkind novel I read, Jack,’ said Amiss. ‘It had something called a Wizard’s Rule, which was along the lines that the greatest harm can result from the best intentions.’

‘Pity he didn’t take that to heart,’ she grunted.

‘I told you I didn’t understand the humanities,’ said Freeman. ‘I doubt if this philosophy he’s so keen on will seem so sensible when he ends up being sentenced to death.’

‘Oh, God, you’ve got capital punishment in Indiana, do you?’ asked Amiss.

‘Yep. Though if his parents have enough money and all the dirt comes out about those three scoundrels, maybe the mitigating circumstances will outweigh the aggravating and he’ll get away with life. Might even get out within thirty years.’

‘He was going to kill that fool Diana Pappas-Lott as well. That won’t help.’

‘I have a very nasty feeling he was going to kill a lot more people than that,’ said the baroness.

‘You mean he was planning a Freeman University massacre?’