Expert Assistance

Chapter 8 - Revolutions for Dummies

"Are you certain she's busy?" Jake asked Odin.

"I am assisting her, Jake. Contact the Rosens."

"Right."

Jake didn't usually open connections on his own; he let Odin take care of that. But this time the computer was busy helping Evvie learn a fact or two about waging revolutions. Fortunately Jake wasn't a complete novice, and Odin had left a clear path to follow. In moments the Rosens appeared on the small screen in front of him.

"I've got some good news, and some not so good news," he began. "The good news is my other job is done. At this moment my ship is in orbit over Antioch Two. It's now time to get the ball rolling."

"Thank goodness," Clarissa said with obvious relief.

"The not so good news is I have a partner. Evvie Martini, to be precise."

"Evvie's going to help us?"

"In a limited capacity. I had to agree to let her help to keep her people from talking about this."

"Oh, well, that's fine. I think we'd be excited to have a big star like hers on our side."

"If you say so. Oh, I had to let her take the media rights to the story."

"What story?"

"This story. The story of the revolution."

"Oh. Well, I don't think that will be a problem."

"So long as we're free," Daniel added.

"If you say so," Jake said. "Okay, the reason for this call is simple. We need to figure out how we're going to carry out this revolution."

"What's to figure out?" Clarissa asked. "We fight Maxis until we win."

"How do we fight him?"

"What about weapons?" Daniel asked.

"What about them?" Jake responded.

"Well, aren't you going to get us any? Do we have to buy them?"

Jake's first thought was to tell Daniel that he didn't trust the younger man with anything more lethal than paper. That would be far too rude. Tempting as it was to verbally smack the couple around, Jake didn't want to hurt his big chance at permanent semiretirement.

"You said to fight," he said to the couple. "Fight who, specifically?"

"Well, Maxis and cronies."

"The guardbots," Clarissa added.

"Okay. Now, you can't shoot at a guardbot from the front. It will see you carrying and fire first. Right?"

"Oh, right." Daniel's face lit up. "We shoot them from behind!"

"Okay, so you shoot one from behind and take it out. Don't you think Maxis and his pals are going to notice that someone's blasted one of his guardbots? Don't you think that's going to make him a wee bit suspicious?"

"Oh, yeah, I guess so."

"Now, suppose you decide you're going to go after all the guardbots at once. When are you going to do that? Are you going to have a few dozen people not show up at their jobs one day? Wouldn't that be suspicious?"

"Well, what about at night?" Clarissa asked.

"The guardbots don't sleep," Jake replied. "The first one shot will set off alarms. Or do you plan to sneak all these people into position, at night, to take out every bot? How exactly are you going to accomplish this without anyone in main control noticing all this movement?"