Hoist the Jolly Lucas by David J. Wighton
# # # # # # # #
On Thursday morning, the WZBN broadcast a special announcement that was repeated hourly for two days and was also linked to via their website. It showed a close up of Izzy in her familiar Wilizy colours.
The Wilizy is happy to hear that the IOF has punished the person who murdered two Albertans recently and blamed those deaths on me personally. I thank Zzyk for discovering the truth to this most unfortunate incident and personally confirming that neither the Wilizy nor I had anything to do with their deaths or disfigurements.
As grateful as I am for Zzyk's efforts to discover the truth, I am actually talking to you tonight about an entirely different matter. Earlier this year, I was fortunate enough to have several personal meetings with Zzyk during a holiday that he himself had sponsored and arranged for my enjoyment. At the time, I told him that the Wilizy wanted to work with him in helping to create better lives for the citizens of Alberta. Indeed, Zzyk and I talked several times about how the Wilizy and his government could work together. Nothing came of those discussions until this week.
I am wearing the clothes that I wore during that first meeting on April 21 to reflect the significance of that first meeting, and indeed, of this announcement. I am pleased to tell you that, this week, Zzyk's government has agreed to transfer large parcels of Alberta land to the Wilizy. Though Zzyk's generosity and the Wilizy's entrepreneurial efforts, we hope to use this land to improve the lives of Albertans.
In the coming years, the Wilizy will be developing these empty parcels of land near the cities of Edmonton, Calgary, Red Deer, Medicine Hat and Lethbridge. We are selecting the plots of land that will become Wilizy land this week. During the developmental phase, we will be hiring Albertans to manage various projects and, as well, to work on the site. No Wilizy members will be at these sites, so we'll ask the public not to disturb the workers by asking where the Wilizy are. The workers won't know. After the construction is complete, the public will be free to enter our land and enjoy themselves. Stay tuned to the WZBN for details as we get closer to our grand openings.
Once again, our thanks to Zzyk for his generosity. I can tell you that there are provisions in our contract that might allow the Wilizy to acquire even more Alberta land, but that will be determined by Zzyk. If he chooses to donate more land to us, and we hope that he does, the Wilizy will look forward to initiating even more joint projects between our two organizations.
Back to the Table of Contents
Chapter 16
From Izzy's journals: Friday, October 21.
I had been trying to schedule a debriefing of our battle with the DPS army for a week now, but there was always somebody who couldn't make it; today was the first day we had all been free. I found out why there had been such a delay when Doc, Will and I walked through the compound's front door. We were greeted by a big yell of Surprise!
It was a year ago today that we had defeated Clem the Phlegm. They said that day was the start of the Wilizy. Not sure about that. I believe it was the day that Hank and Yolanda's family came into our lives. But, I wasn't going to argue. Copious amounts of ice cream! In the face of potential melting problems, we agreed to party first, meet second.
We were still flying high when I asked Will and Hank to describe their two operations. Considering that neither man generally put more than two sentences together at a time, their reports didn't take long to complete. Everybody knew what had been happening anyway. There was only one question: How did Will manage to tape Rick's conversation with Izzy?
Will said that he had been exploring drone capabilities and went on to describe what drones were. For my meeting with Rick, he had an invisible drone follow Rick into his cave, lodge itself into a crevice on the cave wall, and begin recording. I knew Doc was burning to ask questions about the compound's defense, but he'd be reluctant to do that with Mac in the room. Will wouldn't have answered anyway. He won't even tell me how his drone works.
We finished the debriefing with Yollie announcing the names of the campaigns. Lights, Cameras, and Action for Will's defense of the compound, and Smoke and Mirrors for Hank's acquisition of Alberta land. Both Will and Hank received standing ovations for their successes but both looked decidedly uncomfortable standing up to receive them.
Doc and Granny told me privately that they liked how I had skewered Zzyk into having to publicly accept the Wilizy's land acquisitions. That statement was the only thing I had contributed to the battles. I didn't feel particularly good about that; just grateful that we had had Hank and Will managing everything.
# # # # # # # #
Preventing the brain-bands from entering Alberta remains our #1 priority. TG gave a riveting description of North Korea's history and what he had found out about its current conditions. Source of extremely low-paid workers; will accept contracts from any country, no matter how disreputable they are or how disgusting the jobs were. TG found names of the countries that worked with them along with the types of contracts that they had with them. He hadn't heard of most of the countries; suspected that all were dictatorships.
North Korea has a small ruling class – all essentially from the military although they have some political figureheads with genetic histories dating back to a previous dynasty. Their people are dirt poor and afraid to raise their head in front of one of the country's many Supreme Beings. They have been that way for so long that they're genetically predisposed to passive behaviour now. Anyone who had dared to look directly at one of the ruling class in the past had seen his family killed first before dying second.
TG said that Zzyk may have been supplying North Korea with their babies. There are some marked similarities in the appearances of the citizens. Doc pointed out that rumours had circulated in the IOF's early days that Zzyk had actually been born in North Korea, although this was nothing but speculation on his origins. Zzyk claimed that he had been born in Alberta to Alberta parents, but nobody believed him.
TG hadn't found any reference to human exports from Alberta coming into North Korea, but his Korean language skills were very rudimentary and he had only been diving around inside one of the country's computers so far. I looked at Will at that point, and he shook his head negatively. Meaning that he hadn't found any revenue from exported babies in the Alberta files that he had studied a year ago. That doesn't mean that this isn't happening. It would explain how Alberta is so wealthy. Make that how Zzyk is so wealthy and why Rick would want to have what Zzyk has. Keeping another country supplied with human robots that are designed to meet specific personality criteria, including being docile, could be a lucrative business.
TG reiterated that this North Korea computer had primitive defenses, but he couldn't say that this would be the case with all of their computers. Given the other linkages between Alberta, Alaska, and North Korea, it would make sense that some technical expertise could have been lent to North Korea at some point. Some of their computers could be protected with booby traps.
Granny added her own observations from the kids' field trip. She saw a giant wall separating the southern and northern ends of country with lots of military forces guarding each side. She also saw plenty of navy ships around both countries' ports and circulating in the waters off-shore. Lots of private ships in the water also. All of them sail-driven. There was ample evidence of plenty of trade volume between all of the ports in that area. Navies of all countries were clearly identified as such by flags. All had old fashioned cannons in old fashioned men-of-war ships. Other ships in the area were single- or double-masted and had no apparent weaponry.
The group decided that preventing the brain-band shipment from leaving North Korea was our best chance of preventing Zzyk from installing them province-wide. I asked for volunteers. Hank and Wizard were too busy with the Alberta parcels of land, Granny and Doc were tied up with their broadcasts, Yolanda and Yollie both had family responsibilities, and Will still had more work to do on the compound's defenses. He had been personally controlling all of our weaponry in his
I described my interactions with FF and how he had been so helpful in our operations to burrow into Alberta's society from inside. Wondered out loud whether there was any potential for a closer relationship with him. Yolanda quietly said "That's not going to happen," and I dropped the topic quickly.
Back to the Table of Contents
Chapter 17
From Izzy's journals: Monday, October 23.
I gave FF very sparse details on how we had defended the compound. I left the specifics out since Yolanda had quashed any possibility of his invitation into the Wilizy and we didn't want outsiders to have such information. I didn't mention that. Of course, he already knew why Zzyk had to give us land, but he was curious what we were going to do with it. I couldn't tell him much because Hank and Wizard were still working on the plan. I felt the tiniest sensation that I was being grilled, but put that down to my nervousness in telling FF anything. Yolanda wouldn't have quashed his entry into the Wilizy without good reason.
My real reason in coming down to Surrey for a meeting was to see if FF would show me another classified document. I wasn't disappointed. He waited while I read it. I'm summarizing a lot now – the report was long and dry. What I was able to piece together went something like this.
# # # # # # # #
The Monday after the incident at the West Kelowna bar, Hank and Yollie had a meeting with FF in his office. Hank gave FF the details of the fight and explained why he had drawn so much public attention to the scene. Hank realized that the bikers had been making a concerted and coordinated effort to remove law officers from the province. Hank proposed that instead of being picked off one by one in their remote stations, all of the remaining members should be pulled into a single, operating unit that would take the fight back to the bikers. Laws should be declared which gave the RCMP the right not only to arrest criminals, but to provide a trial and justice as well. Judges and potential juries had already been intimidated into silence. This was the only way to restore order. He had drafts of the necessary documents ready for adoption.
The second step would be to issue warrants for the arrest of all the known bikers and a requirement for them to turn themselves in. Failure to do so would result in a trial where they could be declared guilty of their crimes even though they weren't present. Attending their trial would give them an opportunity to defend themselves. After time for the news of the warrants to be circulated, and for the bikers to turn themselves in, trials would be held. Decisions of the trials would be announced and enforced. Hank would take care of the enforcing part.
The remaining RCMP officers would be placed undercover in the local communities in the area where Hank would operate. Those officers would have some degree of safety, whereas right now, they would inevitably be murdered. When they learned of the locations or destinations of various bikers, they would communicate that to Hank. They would also help Hank with food, weapons, ammunition, and transportation needs (e.g., horses, copters, solar-bikes). Hank would live in the rough and let the bikers come to him. The area he had chosen for the battles was ideal for a guerilla war. He could see the bikers coming from a distance (they rarely dismounted from their bikes), and he had ample cover. When possible, Hank would leave his signature on his kills – the arrow deep through the throat – to keep the bikers inflamed.
FF had asked whether administering this form of justice – essentially killing from cover – would be distressing to Hank. Hank had looked at him incredulously. "These people are vermin. They attack individuals from the safety of a large group and kill them. They will have had a proper trial and will have been found guilty. They can die like the vermin they are. Nailed to the dirt where they came from."
"You can't do this on your own," FF had said. "Sniping requires a spotter. I don't have the skills to work in the wild."
"You're in charge of logistics, FF. Keep the communications coming to me; keep me supplied; warn me when you can; keep my name secret. Yollie and I will do the rest."
"Yollie?" FF had asked skeptically.
"She's not comfortable with the killing; but she knows that, sooner or later, both she and I will be murdered if we don't fight back. She'll give me support. I tried to talk her out of it. She's sitting with me right now so that I won't sneak out the back door without her."
In due course, all the legalities were taken care of. Hank and Yollie thoroughly scouted the area where they would operate and set up caches of food, clothing, and equipment. Everything was put into place for a year long campaign. Information was leaked on where the man who had killed those bikers in West Kelowna was living. The bikers came in a rush. In groups of five.
The first five were the easiest. With little risk to being immediately pursued by another group of five, Hank had the time to send his message of defiance after they were dead. Yollie held each dead biker against a tree, and Hank buried an arrow into each. Then they left them for the bikers to find.
The second set of five was similarly treated. Since Yollie had a close-up look at each face when Hank was nailing them to their own death tree, she was able to tell Hank that they had killed these bikers before. When Hank found this hard to believe, she pointed out that one dead man was the twin of the one Hank had beaten to death, a second dead man was the twin of the man she had killed with her baton, and the third man had been looking right at her when she had pulled the shotgun's first trigger.
"What happened next?" I asked FF.
"Thanks to Yollie, we realized that we were up against a military force of clones from Alberta. Five different bodies per group, but each group had the same five bodies, and all groups were operating in coordinated fashion throughout the entire interior. They all had what was beginning to be known as the Alberta nose. I was withdrawn to Surrey to manage the B.C. response to Zzyk's invading force. Yolanda managed the logistics for Hank, arranging schedules, moving people from place to place, and spotting for him. My office in Surrey would simply deliver the supplies to the places that she designated."
"We let people know that we were facing an invading army of white biker clones from Alberta and that helped to make Hank's life easier. Hank's message on the bar mirror, plus the bodies of bikers nailed to trees, started people talking about an aboriginal man and woman who were singlehandedly fighting an army. This raised some pride within the aboriginal people. Aboriginal volunteers came forward to join the border watch. B.C. provided them with weapons and they'd wait in the woods to ambush the bikers as they drove by."
"With the help of aboriginals living near the border with Alberta, B.C. cut off their supply lines. Zzyk must have had hundreds of clones created in the IOF's genetics machines, and then he stored them somewhere for 20 years waiting for the time for invasion to come. But, over time, the number of bikers sneaking into B.C. started to drop. Then the bikers got smart."
"What happened when the bikers got smart," I asked.
"Confidential," FF said.
# # # # # # # #
A couple of days after my meeting with FF, Yolanda quizzed me subtly on my meetings with him. Where did I meet him? Was anyone else in the room? I wondered if she had had second thoughts about inviting him in, but I guess not. She didn't raise the topic again, nor did I.
Back to the Table of Contents
Chapter 18
November was the start of what became an extended period of peace between Zzyk and the Wilizy. Izzy's formal statement of gratitude forced him into a position of being part of a joint venture with the Wilizy while at the same time she threatened him that any military action he took would end up with the Wilizy gaining an even stronger foothold inside the province. After Izzy's statement
None of their spies knew. Zzyk wasn't talking about it with Ingrid, and Rick was back in charge of the government, thereby putting a halt to the advancement of their sleeper agent. Alaska knew that they weren't going to be invited into the province to help destroy the Wilizy any time soon. Zzyk was not even trying to remove them from the province. Alaska went back to their waiting game, content to believe that the peace could not last.
Zzyk disappeared into his laboratory. Ingrid knew that the first thing he worked on was a plan for pacifying an entire city and installing new brain-bands on all of its citizens. She learned this directly from Zzyk and duly reported it to her superiors. That trickle of information soon dried up. Ingrid would find reasons to pass by Zzyk's lab but the door was always locked. She'd put her head against the door and listen, although for the life of her, she couldn't see how this would give her useful information. One time, she heard a particularly strange sound. It sounded like a snicker. Zzyk was not one to laugh, let alone snicker, but there it was again. She reported to her superiors that Zzyk was working on a very nasty surprise for the Wilizy.
# # # # # # # #
Rick welcomed being restored to his position in the government. He was not aware of what Zzyk was doing in his lab, nor was he curious about what might come out of that lab. Rick was content to accept the additional responsibilities and the latitude to make high level decisions that Zzyk was giving him.
# # # # # # # #
The Wilizy had not expected the period of relative calm that followed their land acquisition to last. Instead they expected Zzyk to launch some sort of pre-planned counterstrike. But no counterstrike came. They remained on high alert for several weeks, before gradually easing back on their alert levels. They took this opportunity to finish a number of projects that had been stalled.
• TG helped computerize Will's defensive shell around the compound.
• The boys stripped all the trees and brush from the land just outside the defensive shell. Then they added warning signs and computer-voice announcements that this was a protected zone of the Aboriginal Nation – one that had lethal defenses. The intruder was warned to leave immediately.