God's Dogs
Chapter 43

God himself has no right to be a tyrant.

William Godwin

Gunny Murphy showed up and convinced the garrison soldiers to surrender. Since they heard River’s broadcast, which confused them sufficiently, they were all too happy to lay down their arms and let the higher ups figure it out.

The marine computer techs took over from River and started a forensic audit of all the computer data. The Marshal’s office would appreciate that effort when it was their turn to develop evidence for the trials ahead.

The bunker command crew was incarcerated at the League compound. Michael Finch declared martial law when it became known the planetary governor was among the prisoners. The fleet arrived, and the admiral directed Finch to take over the enormous task of replacing the ruling elite, while simultaneously attempting to keep the planet functioning.

A week later, a League ship arrived that carried Marshal McIntyre with a crew of deputies, and a delegation experienced in rebuilding a world’s government. They had done so on a few Empire worlds. They took over from Finch’s team, which was granted a sixty day leave once they returned to Central on the ship that brought the transition team.

League ships tracked down those River and Pax identified as co-conspirators. In all, they gathered up over a hundred leaders of the military, industry, and government. It wasn’t a clean sweep of all the corrupt bosses, but it was a crippling blow nonetheless.

River did take time to visit Lockhart in jail before he was transported to Central for trial. He sat alone in a cell, dressed in prison orange.

A guard let River into the cell. Lockhart looked up from his reading tablet.

He half-grinned and asked, “Coyote River. Come to gloat?”

“Not my style, Lockhart. I’m just closing the loop.”

“I don’t know what that means.”

“Closure. You know, completing a relationship so I can move on.”

“You lost me. What relationship?”

“Abuser-victim. That one. Remember?”

“Of course, I do. We couldn’t break you. I’d hardly call you a victim. You won that round.”

“You broke my body and my mind, Lockhart. You didn’t break my spirit. So, yeah, I was victimized. But I healed, and part of the healing is to see you suffer the natural consequences of what you did. It eases my mind and my body. It allows me to believe in a safe and caring universe again. It’s a relief.”

“Sorry, River, but that’s way over my head. Too touchy-feely. All I’ve ever cared about is power. In my world, you’re talking nonsense.”

“I know,” she shrugged, “but I’m not here to make you understand. I’m here for me. Sort of ‘ding dong the witch is dead.’ I need to experience the joy of that relief to fully free myself.”

“Whatever,” Lockhart muttered and laid back on his bed.

River left the cell and didn’t look back. She did hum to herself an ancient song, "Ding dong the witch is dead; the witch is dead…the wicked old witch is dead. Sing it high; sing it low; the wicked witch is dead....” And she smiled as she strode to the exit.

A few weeks later, they returned to Penglai and entered the comfort of the monastery routine.

Before the week was out, Master Lu called them into his office. The team arrived after lunch and settled into the well-lit alcove before the bay window in Lu’s office. Outside, angry-seeming dark clouds battled each other in front of an intermittent sun.

Lu smiled at them. “Welcome back, and a job well done. It’s been a tough year for us all, but we have made considerable headway.”

Moss responded, “Are we done?”

“We are,” Lu said. “The League was never comfortable with Coyotes tending to their internal affairs. Now that the integrity of Lockhart’s operation is broken, they expect the Marshals can finish the job.”

“They probably can,” Quinn allowed. “But what’s to keep the next generation of bad guys from moving into the power vacuum?”

Lu’s smile turned rueful. “We haven’t been idle. To accomplish all that was on Solomon’s list, we instituted pilot programs around League space. The most successful are the educational programs.”

“Master Chin said it would take education,” Pax commented.

“Indeed, he did,” Lu said. “The program has a basic level for everyone — students, workers, military, and so on. The second level is more in depth and targeted to MBA students, political science majors, as well as for middle management trainings, NCO trainings, and the like. The third level is for the higher level leaders — CEOs, general or flag staff, presidents and prime ministers, and so on. That track includes a module on being a visionary.”

“Is it based on the servant-leader idea?” Pax pressed. “I read up on it after you mentioned it.”

“Yes. It’s still too soon to see whether that model will allow a synergy to develop between a mega-organization and those individuals it purports to serve.”

River asked, “How long before you will know?”

“Five years or so.”

Moss spoke up, “Well, I hope you have something for us to do while we wait.”

“Not immediately,” Lu chuckled. “I called you here to direct you back to Dr. McKearney. We need to finish the testing she started.”

“Okay,” Quinn said and stood. The team followed him out.

They met up with Rosalind the following day. She ushered them out of one of the sim rooms to the lookout patio above the valley. It was the quiet place they relaxed in before. The variable Spring weather gave them rain-washed, cool air, a slight breeze, and a distant rainbow.

Rosalind was in sweats and running shoes. That seemed to be her preferred attire when working in the lab. She carried a large coffee with her to the picnic table. The team eased into seats around her.

“It shouldn’t take long,” Rosalind was saying. “I only need so many observations for statistical relevance. Besides, you seem to have fun running through the scenarios.”

“We do,” Moss agreed.

“So I put a schedule on the door. It’s not too strenuous.”

“We saw it,” Quinn said. Then he glanced at River.

She nodded once and butted in, “Why didn’t I have more of a reaction when I confronted Lockhart?”

Rosalind gave her a puzzled look before saying, “Strong reactions point to unfinished emotional business.”

River smiled. “I finished all that business. Is that what you’re saying?”

“Yes. You experienced all of the unexperienced-experience. When you did that, it all became normal memory.”

River nodded her head. “I think I get it. You told me that before, but now it makes sense. Still, all I could muster up was pity. He was a shriveled up, bitter, old man that liked to hurt people.”

Rosalind shrugged. “Yeah. That’s pretty pitiful. What did Becky make of it?”

River listened to her A.I. for a bit before replying, “Mostly confusion. She knows the human ego has drives — sex, money, power, status — but she can’t understand why people let those drives devour them. I think she felt something akin to disgust for Lockhart rather than pity.”

“That’s a fascinating perspective,” Rosalind remarked. “I think it also confirms we don’t want imbed A.I.s waking to sentience in an undisciplined mind, a mind that hasn’t curbed those ego-drives.”

“Makes sense,” Pax added. “And now that society is pioneering ways to curb those drives at the institutional level, the micro is reflecting the macro.”

Quinn said, “Didn’t someone once say, ‘I must become the change I want in the world’?”

Moss answered, “Some old guy, for sure. What I’m seeing is the A.I.s gave us the leverage to make it happen.”

“How so?” Rosalind queried.

“They don’t have those drives.”

“What drives do they have?” Rosalind persisted.

Moss listened to Ari for a moment, smiled, and related, “Partnership.”

Pax put in, “They bring us cold logic, precision, light-speed processing, objectivity, and rock-solid loyalty. We bring vision, spontaneity, synchronicity, empathy, and intuition. It’s a powerful combination.”

“Yeah,” River breathed out. “Just look at what Raina accomplished.”

Quinn asked, “Do you think the new educational initiatives will work? Will we transform our bureaucracies?”

“It looks hopeful,” Rosalind replied. “Based on the theory of precessional effect, if our goal is to ‘do the right thing,’ then the side effect is our needs for sex, money, power, and status will be fulfilled. When enough people see that is the case, we’ll achieve critical mass. At that point, ‘love your neighbor as yourself’ will replace the old myths that have ruled society for too long.”

Moss snorted, “I’ll believe that when I see it.”

Rosalind smiled at him. “Oh, I don’t think you’ll be out of work any time soon.”

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