The Sins of the Fathers

Chapter Thirty-One

Ellington Manor

Meadvale

Surrey

Sebastian Osborne turned off the television as President Symonds finished his brief address to the nation and watched the screen fold back into the wall, not sure what to say to Harrison Slade or Hugh Blackstone. He remained a committed Reformist, and he was generally proud of the modern renaissance, but he did not like extremism or grandstanding. Nick Symonds was clearly sending out a strong message, both to his enemies abroad and to his detractors at home, of defiance and power.

"He is calling their bluff," Slade said in the end, breaking the stunned silence. "Everyone who is coming after him is being reminded that he still calls the shots?"

"Caroline struggles to beat the movement sensors as it is?" Blackstone commented, clearly worried for his wife. Osborne rather admired that reaction, because Brogan had not been his first thought, or his second. But there were more important things to worry about, he thought as he put Brogan from his mind.

"Expanding the Order...lengthening National Service...and a rejection of reform...this is stupid...he is making things worse?" Osborne sighed, standing up to pour all three of them more coffee. "And this ultimatum to the UN...it's so provocative?"

"As I said...he is calling their bluff...and I don't blame him, because what can they really do? Britain is a nuclear power...the armed forces are well resourced...and Symonds has all the Hycanil...sanctions won't work and invasion would be a disaster?" Slade sighed, putting a dash of milk into his coffee. "Banning demonstrations and public disorder puts an end to any protests...unless people are looking for trouble?"

"Our proposals will receive little support from Buckingham Palace now, I fear?" Osborne said, slumping back into his chair, still stunned, trying to work out what was really going on after Slade's comments. He was no politician and he struggled to think like one. He was too black and white as a character to plot, or wheel and deal, and he could not understand what the President was trying to achieve. He did not see any profit in becoming a pariah state, or in making the people hate him and his renaissance.

"Were they ever getting any support, your grace?"

"Good question...and the answer is reluctant support at best...my actions have caused an awful lot of trouble, of course?" Osborne admitted as three phones vibrated in three jacket pockets at exactly the same time.

"The equipment software is updating?" Slade said, swiping across his screen.

"Already? Every woman in the country is still listening to the national service?" Blackstone groaned, doing the same.

"The new sensitivity setting is higher than the old highest, and it is the only option?" Slade sighed, shaking his head sadly. "Just about every woman in the country is going to get a nasty surprise...and it looks like the auto-punishments will be more severe?"

"Should we warn the keepers? They will not know about the broadcast?" Blackstone asked as he looked at the details himself.

"They will see the updates the same as us...and there is nothing they can do anyway?"

"I am sorry, gentlemen...I know I have defended the renaissance and my role in it, which has frustrated you both at times...but I will never defend this?" Osborne sighed, putting his phone down and rubbing his eyes with the heels of his hands.

"There is five years before Symonds even has to start thinking about an election...and he was losing control of this situation...under pressure from the UN, being forced into letting you interfere with the Order and suddenly under attack from the Social Democrats...not to mention demonstrations in the streets...he obviously decided that he had to push back...and he has certainly done that?" Slade suggested, trying not to think about Diane. But he knew that she would cope. She would even tell him that it was worth it to be with him, as husband and wife. And she would remind him that everyone would be in the same boat, which was certainly true that time. "How are his allies going to react to this, your grace? I mean, their wives and daughters are going to suffer just the same as anyone else?"