"I suspect there's already been some back-and-forth. Rumor has it a top-brass ring fixer has been negotiating in Louisville."
Valentine had heard of "fixers" before: trusted human interme diaries who handled difficulties between the various Kurian Zones. Without their intervention, the Kurians would eliminate each other in the snake-pit world of high-level Kurian politicking.
Was there a conference going on in, say, Chicago or Cleveland or Atlanta, with Kurian representatives meeting to determine what to do about the chaos in Kentucky? He hoped some stealthy Cat had managed to worm her way in to listen. Or better yet, plant a thermobaric bomb.
Next in size among the groups at the Assembly was the All-Ins. These delegates represented the legworm clans gathered under "King" Karas last summer for Javelin and their supporting towns, the thinned-down remainders of the Kentucky Alliance who'd done much of the fighting in the destruction of the Moondaggers. They'd already beaten the Moondaggers and were expecting the other delegates to join them in a rebellion well-started, to their minds.
The Old Deal Caucus was the smallest contingent but, not surprisingly, the most polished and best turned out. They represented Kentucky's Kurian-occupied cities and those with financial interests in the Kurian system. They had their chairs in a circle in the far east corner, mostly talking among themselves.
Of all the delegates, these men and women from the Old Deal Caucus may have been the most courageous, to Valentine's mind. Their lives, and probably those of their families, would be forfeit if the Kurians learned of their presence here. The more hard-line rebels considered them only a baby step away from being open collaborators, and Valentine's sharp ears picked up one of the All-Ins saying that they should hang the lot of them.
Whichever way the Assembly ultimately voted, Valentine suspected that these delegates would suffer the most.
Maybe it was just ego, the desire to show Valentine that there were victories to be won in the political arena as well as on the battlefield, but Sime had facilitated Valentine's credentialing on the day he was scheduled to address the Assembly on behalf of Southern Command.
Sime, looking like a walking advertising poster for skin toner, stepped to the podium as the Agenda introduced him from her little desk. Sime's aides had cleared away the Styrofoam cups and the scribble-covered scraps of provisional resolutions and vote-counts littering the podium and the stagelike platform. Much of the audience quieted-not just hushed voices and close-together heads, but true attention. Evidently all were interested in what he had to say.
"Thank you, Madam Agenda," Sime said.
"I come before you as a friend of liberty and an open enemy of the Kurian Order.
"This Assembly is now addressing the most vital question in human history. What is the future of our species?
"There are those who counsel for surrender. Certainly, deals may be struck with relative ease. Either the Northwest Ordnance or the Georgia Control would be happy to hand out a few brass rings, sign elaborate guarantees, and offer the usual Kurian promises of better food, housing, and medical care in exchange for the Kurian Order policing of criminals and troublemakers. Are there any voices who consider this their preferred option?"
The Assembly didn't produce so much as a cough. Had it been night, Valentine suspected he could have heard crickets outside.
"The next option is an understanding with the Kurians such as you lived under these past decades: the emasculated autonomy trading produce for peace before your martyred hero, Mr. King Karas, declared himself against our oppressors."
Several members stood up and began to applaud. Valentine recognized them as members of Sime's entourage, sprinkled about the assembly. The others who joined in on the recognition of the dead hero's name looked enthusiastic enough, but Valentine felt a little sickened by the planted enthusiasm.
Sime nodded solemnly, looking toward the circled chairs of the Old Deal Caucus. "The rightness of his decision, I think, is not questioned by anyone in this Assembly, even if the outcome was not all that we in the Free Republics hoped would come of our alliance.
"Are there any who think that all the blood shed across Kentucky between the Alliance clans and Southern Command's forces was wasted?"
"Madam Agenda," a delegate said, upon being recognized and permitted to speak. "The representative from through the woods and over the river forgets that Kentucky is more than just legworm ranchers. There are farms, mines, towns, and cities. Not all of us suffered reprisals. Even with the troubles up north, the Nashville Kur left us in peace, and the Georgia Control even pulled back from the borderlands."
A white-haired oldster cleared his throat. "Maybe the vamps don't know which way we're jumping, or even whether we're gonna jump, and they don't want to startle us. It's the sitting frog that's easiest to catch."
The Agenda pounded her gavel at her own small desk at the edge of the stagelike platform. "The delegate from Bowling Green will keep order."
Sime asked for permission to continue his address, and she nodded.
"There is a third alternative, one pursued by the Ozark Free Territory throughout its history, though we have recently been joined by Texas and much of Oklahoma and part of Kansas into the Free Republics. It is both the hardest and the easiest course: that of resistance.
"I say hardest because it means fighting, funerals, constant vigilance, loss of precious blood and materiel. Empty bellies in winter and blistered hands in summer. It has long been said that freedom is not free, but in the United Free Republics we've learned that those who desire freedom pay a bill more costly than the alternatives of supplication or cooperation. Freedom is a more exacting taskmaster than any Kurian Lord."
Sime had worked up a good head of steam. Valentine realized why he survived as elected leaders came and went. "Yet it is also the easiest choice, for we can meet the terrible reckoning with a clear conscience that we remain human beings, dignity intact, our births and deaths ordered only by our Lord on his Eternal Throne.
"We will not be chickens in a coop or pigs in a pen. No, we're the wolves in the forest, the bears in their caves, and those who would have pelts made from us must beware.
"While our cause is yours, I must tell you that for the moment, all that Southern Command can promise is that we will tie down as many of the enemy forces as we can on our borders. We've suffered grave losses recently. We need a few years' respite to catch our breath before taking the offensive again. All I can offer the Assembly is moral support and what our forces near Evansville are able to recruit and train."
The Assembly hid their feelings well, but Valentine could see consternation in the All-In faction.
They applauded, politely, and Valentine could only imagine the reception Sime would have received if he'd promised a whole division of Guards, complete with an artillery train and armored-car support.
"I'm glad you didn't overpromise," Valentine said later as he and Sime watched Brother Mark go from group to group to exchange a few words with the faction leadership.