Fractions_ The First Half of the Fall Revolution - Ken MacLeod [113]
Janis frowned down at the ANR cadre from her perch on the railing. ‘What I don’t understand is, where do you get the physical resources for your, uh, actions?’
‘We comandeer them! Divert them from here, there and everywhere! It’s hardly even noticed. When we do have to pay we generate the money.’
‘Sounds a bit immoral,’ said Janis.
‘Och, it is, it is,’ MacLennan agreed cheerfully. ‘But we are running a war, you understand, as the legal government. So we do it by the accepted methods – taxation and inflation – just as the rebels do.’
The rebels? Kohn thought, confused for a moment by a mental picture of an insurrection within the ANR’s own zones (Carlists perhaps, followers of the New Pretender), and then it clicked. From the Republic’s point of view it was not mounting an insurgency but suppressing one.
‘So that’s why inflation’s always a bit higher than it’s supposed to be,’ Kohn remarked. ‘I’ve often wondered about that.’
They all laughed. MacLennan knocked out his pipe, calling the meeting to order.
‘I don’t know what this “Star Fraction” is,’ he said. ‘But let me tell you, the Republic’s internal security are going to find out. The Trotskyist comrades are going to have a lot of explaining to do.’
‘I don’t think it’s anything to do with them,’ Moh said, alarmed at the thought of triggering a witch-hunt. ‘I think it’s spread more widely than that, and I don’t think it’s political.’
‘We’ll see,’ MacLennan said grimly. ‘We are not talking about a purge,’ he added. ‘You must understand this, Kohn, Taine…and you, Doctor Van. Josh Kohn may have been – och, I don’t know – I’ve heard people who knew him say he was brilliant at what he did, but I can’t see how he could have set up an AI all those years ago. There must be more going on, and we have to find it out. The very idea that what we are doing is manipulated by an AI is disturbing. To say the least.’
‘Assuming that what’s there is an AI,’ Kohn said. ‘What’s it doing now, anyway?’
‘We don’t know,’ Van admitted. ‘We know that there is…activity going on that we do not understand, and we know that some at least of our enemies are aware of it. The interfaces we have with the Plan are not reporting any problems, but you will appreciate we need to be certain that at least our systems are reliable.’
‘For the final offensive,’ Kohn said, trying to sound as if he believed it. He’d used the expression ironically so often before that it was difficult to use it seriously.
MacLennan and Van both nodded. They meant it.
‘When is this final offensive, anyway?’ Janis asked.
‘At the correct time,’ said MacLennan. ‘None of us knows. We know from the general political situation that there’s a window of opportunity – days or weeks at the most – in which an insurrection has a good chance of success. Our forces are moving into place, our weapons are almost ready. The Plan can provide us with successive precise timings to strike, to the hour and the second. But for us to commit, we need to know that the Plan has not been contaminated by the new entity in the system.’
‘You’re telling us the Plan is running the whole thing?’ Even after all their speculations, Kohn still couldn’t quite accept the idea. And MacLennan was worried about being manipulated by an AI! Couldn’t the man see what was in front of him? What Jordan had said about the Black Plan came back to him: ‘It’s got its own bloody army.’
‘The final decision rests with the Army Council,’ MacLennan explained. ‘However, they would hardly disregard the best advice, which in a situation of this complexity—’ He spread his hands, smiling.
‘Makes me wonder how Ho and Dung and Giap managed,’ Kohn said.
Van gave him a narrow-eyed look, not quite approval. He stubbed out a cigarette and, after a moment of vague puzzlement, lit another. ‘We could