Copyright (c) 2013 Phyllis Zimbler Miller
All rights reserved.
The meeting started exactly on the hour. William looked around the room, mentally counting heads and noting that Melissa was no longer among them. How Gregor had achieved this William did not need to know.
William said, “We need to review our contingency plans for any resistance encountered in the removal of the children to group homes.”
Everyone nodded but no one spoke. They were all awaiting his direction.
William turned to Gregor, who always served as William’s mouthpiece.
“We will make an example of any mother not surrendering her children,” Gregor said. “The children will be forcibly removed and put in a delinquent children’s home. The mothers will be disappeared.”
Silence. William knew no one would dare object.
Samantha said, “We do have exemptions in rare cases.”
William nodded – she had been primed to offer this comment. He was pleased that no one asked what those cases were. They actually did not exist. Everyone, and he meant everyone, would submit to this policy.
Now Gregor added, “The military will be responsible for carrying out these removals. And the media will be alerted. We want to make any holdouts a spectacle to ensure everyone else complies.”
A junior member asked, “What if holdouts come forth willingly after the deadline? Especially after seeing other children forcibly removed.”
“The children will be put in regular homes but the mothers will lose all visiting privileges,” Samantha said.
Gregor then outlined the notification procedures for each child’s group home assignment, the amount of personal items each child could bring, and the hours of each day that mothers could surrender their children.
William’s staff had previously been informed that the group homes had been secretly built and personnel hired – all male – in readiness for the announcement of the policy.
The junior member again felt emboldened to ask a question. “And electronic database tracking will alert us to all children who have not arrived at their assignment by the deadline?”
William nodded. Enough questions. He dismissed his staff.
***
In the outer waiting area of William’s office suite Harold flipped through screens on his personal comm unit. He was risking entry into the lion’s den in the hope of discovering more about William’s goal of having all children under his control.
Harold felt hatred of his brother boiling up inside. If Harold hadn’t already hated William and everything he stood for, last night with Natalie would have ensured Harold’s antagonism.
That one brief kiss on her ear – how he had wanted for years to kiss her. But he could never bring himself to accept William’s position on sexual relationships. And now that Harold’s own children were threatened.
Harold looked up as William said Harold’s name and gestured him to follow.
Instead of taking Harold to William’s office, William led Harold out onto a terrace that overlooked a garden.
YOU ARE READING
THE MOTHER SIEGE: A DYSTOPIAN THRILLER
Science FictionImagine the future of 2049 and the government has just decreed that, in 30 days, all children from the ages of six months to 18 years will be removed to group homes. And as a mother you are already a subversive -- having falsified the death of one...
