Free The Little Green Book of Chairman Rahma by Brian Herbert Page B

with him—each man saluting with spread, bent fingers that represented tree roots. (It was an exchange that the Berkeley Eight had developed during the Green Revolution.) Then Rahma asked, “Well, what is it this time?”
    â€œYou heard about the most recent guerrilla attack, just outside the Bostoner Preserve? The Corporates are at it again.”
    â€œYes, yes, most of the attackers were killed, and of the two that were captured, one died in interrogation and the other slipped into a coma from his injuries, both without revealing anything. AOE special agents are doing what they can to find out what happened.”
    â€œBut how do you plan to prevent future attacks?”
    â€œI don’t have the intelligence reports back yet, but you SciOs provide science to the government, including some military technology. Why don’t you put your researchers on the task?”
    â€œWe are a scientific organization, not a military one. This is a national defense matter.”
    â€œThen why are you here?”
    Ondex bristled. “You are supposed to be the inspirational and strategic leader of the GSA. In contrast, I lead a group of scientists, nerdy technicians who provide environmental and law-enforcement technology. It is your responsibility to use the J-Macs to improve the environment, and to protect our nation with conventional and nuclear military forces. And need I remind you, the GSA Charter lays out our lines of authority quite clearly.”
    â€œBut I have one hand tied behind my back because of your paranoid secrecy and the self-destruct, non-tamper mechanisms on SciO equipment. You have secret information that you won’t share with me. Maybe your laboratories could find evidence of who’s behind the guerrilla attacks and prevent them from doing it again.”
    Ondex shook his head. “National security is your responsibility. Don’t try to twist things and make it mine.”
    â€œYou SciOs are so very clever. Surely, some device in your bag of tricks can ferret out these bad guys, these terrorists.”
    â€œOur bag of tricks, as you call it, saved you and your hippie army from annihilation, when we used Splitter Cannons to tear through enemy forces.”
    â€œThat was only part of the reason we won. Your Splitter Cannons were only short-range, and we didn’t have nuclear weapons then, while the Corporates and their captive governments did. But we had numbers on our side, tens of millions of common people hitting the streets in mob armies on two continents, bolstered by many more who left the Corporate militias and government forces and joined us. It was a grassroots movement, a groundswell that would not have been possible without my leadership.”
    â€œAnd the rest of us on the revolutionary council, we did nothing?”
    â€œI didn’t say that. It was a team effort, I’ll admit that. But don’t try to overstate your contribution.”
    â€œThat goes both ways, Comrade Chairman. Now we have nuclear weapons to defend our nation, but they are of no use against the Corporate guerrillas. You understand, don’t you, that the guerrilla attacks are probes designed to test our defenses and responses?”
    â€œThat is but one option. There are others. Intelligence reports indicate that there are different Corporate groups operating in the GSA without strong overseas sponsors. They are not one cohesive unit, and have no unified plan.”
    â€œBut environmental sabotages seem to go hand in hand with military attacks, the way our enemies also spread eco-cancers through the areas we have greenformed—nasty blights and viruses that cause plants and animals to die, not to mention the forest fires they keep setting.”
    â€œOnly minor inconveniences. We can greenform faster than they can sabotage. There are countermeasures to eco-cancers, and ways to put out the forest fires quickly. Besides,” the Chairman added with a smile,