第7节

The founding Father, George Washington Jefferson the 1st, had known

this basic truth when he laid the foundations on which his vision of

the future was to be built. 'Only people fail, not the system', was

one of his two Delphic utterances emblazoned on every available

wallspace throughout the Federation and echoed daily on the nine public

video channels. A phrase of cunning simplicity which had helped to

preserve the status quo by deflecting the blame for any shortcomings in

the system back onto the individual who raised his voice in protest

against the measures taken in its name.

To prevent these isolated cranks spreading their disaffection like a

virus through the body politic over which they presided, the First

Family had installed a number of fail-safe systems. By the spring of

2991, these included an acoustic surveillance system code-named HYDRA

under which their entire underground empire had been wired for

sound.

Any location, at any level, could be monitored by keying its

coordinates into a command console. It was possible for human

operators to listen in to conversations but the sheer logistics made

that impractical. Most of the eavesdropping was controlled by COLUMBUS

using a given hit-list of suspects and hourly random samplings known as

'sound sweeps'. Ordinary conversations were monitored but not

recorded: it was only when a speaker used a word or phrase listed in a

'subversive vocabulary' that the reels started turning. The taped

conversations were then subjected to computer analysis, classified into

various categories according to the nature of the cconversation and

graded in terms of 'arrestability'.

It was only when this sifting process had been completed, that the

daily residue of hard cases - known as the action list - was displayed

on the screens of the operatives at HYDRA Central.

But the system, and its handlers, missed the big one.

Despite HYDRA and the nation-wide network of undercover agents the

Family were caught totally off-guard by the protest strike mounted by

the crews of the Federation's wagon-trains. Organized and led by their

executive officers it had none of the characteristics of a popular

uprising led by dissidents, but it was, nevertheless, a rebellion; the

first serious challenge to the authority and wisdom of the First Family

for over six hundred years.

The protest, which was confined to Trail-Blazers on active duty aboard

the trains, was disciplined and unpublicised and the divisions's

so-called grievances were conveyed to CINC-TRAIN in a coded message

signed by twenty wagon-masters and their executive officers out of the

Federation's fleet of twenty-one. Only the name of Red River Amtrak's

flagship - was missing from the roll.

The protesters had two demands. First, official recognition of the

existence of Mute magic. If, for reasons of state, this could not be

made public then it was to be admitted in secret session to the

wagon-train fraternity by representatives of the First Family. Second,

the disciplinary charges brought against Commander Bill Hartmann and

the executive officers of The Lady- which had arisen from their

inability to combat the power of a Plainfolk summoner- were to be

dropped. All crew members were to be fully exonerated and returned to

active duty in their previous posts without loss of seniority to

privileges.

There was no 'or else' but with 95% of its wagon-train force ranged

solidly behind the protest, the White House decided to roll with the

punch. In a hurriedly-prepared videocast beamed exclusively to the

wagon-trains, Jefferson the 31st agreed to the rebel's requests within

forty-eight hours of their receipt.

It was an unprecedented concession; the first time an organized protest

had not been brutally crushed, but it was also a victory for both

sides. The First Family had been wrestling with the problem of Mute

magic for the last two hundred and fifty years.

The decision to deny its existence had been taken by a long-dead and

buried Supreme Cou