Ensemble [Book 1: SEKTOR V Trilogy]

Chapter 32: If It Walks Like a Duck...

Chapter 32: If It Walks Like a Duck...

Rick Joliet was on his way to meet his boss and he wasn't looking forward to it. He knew Lebanchek didn't want to hear any more bad news. No, there wasn't chaos in the streets but that wwas not a realistic metric to use. Ever since the Sweeper program was instituted operationally nearly 35 years ago, socio-economic volatility on almost any scale had barely registered. Not in the markets, and certainly not in the streets. Life wasn't utopian even by Ministry-defined standards but conditions had been, by almost any measure, incredibly stable. And all of this was due to the countless and never-ending pre-emptive measures the Ministry strategically enacted for decades.

Now, all of a sudden, things were rapidly changing not only here, but worldwide. The usually predictable market showed signs of cracking, which made investors and corporate leadership extremely nervous. And when companies got nervous, they got defensive, especially when it involved future spending and hiring.

All of this made politicians and government leaders very antsy. They wanted answers and explanations from guys like Gus Lebanchek who, at least potentially, could make a difference. Unfortunately, Rick knew his boss had nothing for them, at least not yet.

When Gus's superiors were unhappy, people working for him were bound to be even less happy. That unpleasant reality had been hitting Rick squarely in the face for the past ten days.

Taking a deep breath, Rick knocked on the office door.

"Come in," his boss said from within.

Before Rick fully opened the door, Lebanchek added, "Rick, before you speak, I just want to let you know that I'm starting to take these failures personally. For nearly two weeks straight, Leadership has been reaming me something fierce. And I don't blame them. However, I do blame you. The crown jewel of our operation is the Sweeper program. I know I don't have to tell you any of this. Yet, I do have to tell you that I'm supremely disappointed in your ability to reign in the unending whack-a-mole disasters. Every single day, we have a new 'surprise', and none of them are ever good. You haven't said a word but I already know that your daily brief will give me grief. Go ahead, tell me I'm wrong."

Rick entered, used to Gus's daily venting routine. The Ministry's mushrooming failures had nothing to do with poor management or a lapse in judgment by anyone within the Organization. No, it was evident that much larger systematic forces were in play. While the how and the what were still unclear to him, the who was not a mystery. Without a doubt, the Underground was responsible for the escalating global chaos unfolding before their very eyes.

"I am sorry, sir, no," Rick replied, standing in front of his boss's desk, "I don't have any good news to report to you today."

"Well then, get on with it. What is today's calamity du jour?"

"Sir, if we're intent on containing this, then we need more resources, more Sweepers and more post-Jump executioners."

"Seriously, Rick? You know that's just not possible. We've increased overall in-field resources beyond max capacity already. We cannot expand further, either from a trained personal standpoint or as it relates to the machines. Even our modeling people are stretched to the limit. We've been pushing and continually expanding beyond 'normal' operations for almost two weeks now. We're using more than five times our normal capacity. What we currently have in play must be able to contain this. It's as simple as that."

Like it or not, it wasn't as simple as that, Rick thought. He, more than anyone else in the Ministry, had intimate knowledge of all mission-critical aspects of their Operation. His ops team hadn't rested in days. Over the past week, he might have slept ten hours, tops. Things were out of control. He'd been in this post for seven years and what he was seeing now, each and every day, far exceeded anything he'd witnessed in the past. And second worst wasn't even close.

What was so alarming was the near-global acceleration of the destabilization. He'd first noticed oddities 12 days ago when a few post-Jump executioners reported not being able to complete their relatively straightforward tasks. At the time, he'd chalked this up to bad luck or, to use the preferred technical description, "to the confluence of a series of random, unfortunate events."

Two days after that, things got much worse. By then, nearly one in every three post-Jumpers were unable to complete their assignments on time. Unfortunately, that was just the beginning. Random events that were not being reported by Sweepers were cropping up all over the place, ranging from mini-market meltdowns to small-scale, but very visible inner-city acts of violence and civil unrest.

The fact that these events were not noticed by the Sweepers and not predicted by the simulators was what troubled Rick the most. It meant that the long-standing socio-economic stability that they'd taken for granted was now highly unstable even on extremely short, day-to-day timescales. Even with their normal allotment of 1000 Sweepers now bumped up to 5000, they still could not adequately sample what needed to be observed to keep the current timeline from veering off-course. Without fully knowing how things were evolving, how could they expect the post-Jump executioners to do their job and "adjust" the present timeline?

It was painfully obvious that their ability to maintain absolute control was rapidly falling apart. A different path would be necessary if they wanted an ending other than the one that they were helplessly careening towards, which was socio-economic disruption on a scale the world hadn't seen in decades. What Rick had in the field now, even with more resources, was a band-aid at best. In his mind, they were very close to an inflection point, and one that, if passed, would likely be irreversible, ultimately ending the Ministry's grip on societal manipulation and control.

"Sir, the only realistic course of action I can recommend would be an offensive one."

"Offensive as in distasteful or offensive as in not defensive?" Lebanchek asked.

Rick thought he was joking and smiled.

Lebanchek stared at him. "Is this funny to you?"

"Of course not, sir," Rick's smile vanished, "the situation is dire and it would be my recommendation to you that we seriously consider proactive measures to help remedy the situation, instead of reacting to the increasing number of anomalies we're now experiencing."

Lebanchek said nothing for several seconds. "For once, Rick, I completely agree." He seemed to have calmed down a bit. "There's little doubt that Wilheim and her people are behind this. I've no idea what they're doing or how they're doing it but this looks, smells and walks like the Underground. No question about it. I need to talk to Cranston. Set up a meeting with him as soon as you can."