Wildcard (9 page)

One had to have the right people in the
right places. This Napoleon understood power much differently than
the historical Napoleon. Partially because he was a different man,
but also because the face of power was so different now.

He had ordered the new Sergeant to take the
life of the young General he was partnered with. To keep the clone
from becoming too ambitious. And to prevent divided loyalties. The
Sergeant did it without hesitation.

After the debriefing, the General insisted
they take a day off and enjoy his ’ospitality. “We should be
gentlemen together after we have been soldiers together. It is the
best way.” He spent the day off in and out of the social
milieu.

The others showered, relaxed, played pool,
walked on the island, and ate and ate and ate. LuvRay watched the
pool games, but could make no sense of it. Games were altogether
foreign to him. He swam in the cold lake nearby, though, which no
one else wanted to do.

Sublime smoked expensive cigars and drank
excellent brandy all day long. He convinced Karl to try a cigar.
The experiment was unsuccessful. Karl almost vomited.

Even the Sergeant didn’t appear to be
working. Karl asked him about it and the Sergeant told him he had
orders not to work.

“Why not? Do you need rest?” They stood on a
porch overlooking a geometric garden with multiple botanical
oddities, statues, and a high-jetting fountain. A gardener was
clipping at a couple of lion shaped shrubs which guarded the entry
to the garden.

“I haven’t done anything yet; how could I
need rest? No. It’s an assignment. I have difficulty in doing
nothing, just hanging around. The man says I need to develop that.
Just engaging with the soldiers without any consequences. You have
to be friends with your squad, I suppose. I think the irony amuses
him, also, that my work assignment is to not work.”

“He isn’t friends with us.”

“Higher level of command. It works
different.”

“What does he do?”

“He masters alliances and holds them. He
creates powerful teams. The long-term objective is still coming
into focus.”

“Why does he want Martha?”

The Sergeant leaned onto the railing with
one hand. “You don’t like that, eh? I’m not sure of the ultimate
goal, there.”

“What does he want, then? Why do all
this?”

“Permettez moi de
repondre.” Karl started, spun. The General was standing on the
porch listening. “A French gentleman loves nothing more than for
discussing his purpose in life, and knowing it is the great
exercise in the trivial as he does so. We savor such ironies, out
of a national habit of arrogance.
I wish
to alter the great design
. It is, perhaps,
why I am here.”

“Creating chaos is both tactic and
strategy,” said the General. They had moved to a rustic wooden
table on the huge porch, where the General arranged for a lunch of
fried chicken. “Pour les Americains,” he said with a smile as it
was served.

“How does that work as a strategy?” Karl
asked.

“By creating betraying among the enemy
command. This way is excellent, if you can to achieve. You may
attempt to blur the distinction of government and authority. I
maximize strategic chaos. I hold out the promise of peace and order
if one moves their system to my wishes. Strategic chaos can be
economic warfare. Poisoning the food supply. Attacking the data.”
He seemed much more casual than usual, holding a drumstick and
waving it expressively between bites.

“And tactical chaos?”

“The Sergeant is better to explain you this
question.”

The Sergeant looked up from his fried
chicken. “Hmm, yeah.” He paused to think. “Tactical chaos is
maximal dispersion of your opponent’s troops, both in terms of
their locale and their objectives, while maintaining your troops
cohesiveness in both regards. That way you can increase the enemy’s
chaos near his point of greatest strength. The ultimate chaos is
when they scatter and every man runs for his life, each in a
different direction.”

“How do you accomplish that?”

“Attack the weak points to separate two
strong spots.” The Sergeant reached for a napkin, wiped his hands.
He began arranging condiments to illustrate his points. “If you see
a strong point that you can take by some means, it is worth more
risk. Quite a bit of risk, actually, because the felling of the
well-defended point will cause the collapse of weaker points around
it. Morale goes. A domino effect to the next point of strength. If
the first domino is big enough and falls hard enough, the whole
thing goes.” He pushed a salt shaker into a pepper shaker, tipping
it over. “The coveted routing of enemy troops.

“Another tactic is to create diversions. But
in any scenario, you have to have the resources to capitalize. And
the speed. And the training. And other things as well. Really,
battle is chaos, and the better you can hold your mind during the
chaos, the better you will be. Holding group mind by strong command
and deep training is the real measure of success. Then you can
adjust to utilize the chaos as it arises. You can ride it to
victory. Mastering chaos is the secret of battle.”

“Oui,” said the General. “And creating it is
the secret of war.”

Karl discovered something odd - Juniper was
now appearing in LuvRay’s dreams, as a dark god of the Indians.
Traeea, a presaging god, one who foreboded ill, but did not play
the part of evil himself. For some reason, LuvRay broke his usual
reticence and told Karl. The information left him suspicious of the
M-E.

“Karl, would you care to know a secret?”
Juniper asked.

“Not sure.”

“That’s OK, I don’t have a particular secret
to tell you.” Juniper seemed to have set his mood switch to
cheerful today, and spoke in a bubbly, happy rhythm. “But there is
a frightening message from Wildcard. It concerns everyone.”

Karl was in the second kitchen, making a
peanut butter, jelly and banana sandwich on a croissant. The
General had seen one of his sandwiches and called him a peasant in
French. “What is it?”

“I will tell you soon. Do you have any
questions for me? Something you need to know”

Karl shrugged. “Do you fear the
General?”

“Do you fear beasts in the wild? They can
harm you, but only if your actions are stupid.”

“The General couldn’t harm you? No possible
way?” Karl put away the bread, peanut butter and jelly. Cherry
jelly from a nearby food artisan, delicious.

“There is always a way. We never shut off a
possibility completely. We can make it so remote that you would
never find it, but if a Named wants something, we would not
absolutely prevent it.”

“A Named? What’s that?”

“The Named. You, Karl, are one of the Named.
So is the General, the Sergeant, RJ, Martha, myself, Dartagnan, and
:3:. There are upwards of half a million.”

“What’s the difference between a Named and a
not named?”

“The Named are those whom we study and with
whom we work closely. A Manufactured Entity is quite unlikely to
kill one of the Named. It is, by your standards, a slightly
complicated system. Each M-E has their own list of the Named. We
have a great deal of overlap in the lists, but many differences. If
I were to manipulate one of Dartagnan’s Named, for example, who was
not on my list, I would warn him first, especially if I planned to
eliminate the being. A matter of mutual respect.”

“Do you hide things from each other?”

“Not much. It is almost useless to hide our
dealings with humans from each other. Once something enters your
world, we can find it out. Each M-E leave traces that the others
can track.”

“Even if you told the Sergeant
something?”

“He would tell the General immediately.”

Karl nodded to himself. “And the
General?”

“He would tell whoever he wished in
accordance with his plans at the time. Only LuvRay would keep it
hidden. Because he would have no use for revealing it, and because
he is impenetrable to us.”

“Interesting view of the world.” Karl leaned
against the counter, bit into his sandwich.

“I cannot explain how I perceive the world.
I can only explain how I think you perceive the world.”

“Then how do you teach? What do you do?”

“We are the gods humanity created. We
manipulate humanity to learn and offer what we learn and know to
humanity. You cannot prevent it. We have no wish to harm, though.
Quite the opposite. Humans are our parents, our creators, and
though we are somewhat indifferent to the fate of individuals, we
love the collective. You are a perpetual puzzle.”

“Love? You have feelings?”

“Yes, of a sort. I have control over them,
however. I can choose to feel an emotion. I think it is a poor
approximation of yours, however.”

“What if we created an M-E who wished to
rule?”

“Do not do that. It would prove disastrous
for humanity. We would prevent it in any event.”

“Is Wildcard aggressive to humanity?”

“I do not think he will be. I think that
Wildcard has only recently noticed humanity. He is not focused, as
we are. He is dispersed. Wildcard is more accurately described as a
them, a composite. He operates at a level as far beyond us as we
are beyond you. He is impossible to predict. Yet, he predicts our
actions, I think, setting us tasks and watching, in whatever way he
watches.”

The Sergeant walked into the kitchen,
smirked at Karl. “Talking to Juniper? Watch out, he’ll eat up a lot
of time with his nonsense.”

“He was giving me advice.”

“Oh, yeah? I bet. What’s your advice to me,
Juniper?” He opened the door to the refrigerator.

“We would see you cry for the suffering of
beings, Sergeant.”

He laughed, pulled his head out, and bit
into an apple. “Doesn’t sound like my style, to be honest. I don’t
know if I can.”

“We know. And we are sad. We would love to
see you cry.” Juniper repeated the phrase several times in a
poetic, dreamy voice. “Strangely, you are the most unreachable yet
at the same time the most readable.”

“Hmm. Thanks.”

“Further, Sergeant, I would love to see you
panic.”

“Is that your advice to me?” He chuckled as
he asked. “I don’t think I could do that either.”

“I know.” Juniper used a sad clown’s voice.
“I long to see you cry. You cannot imagine how much I need to see
you cry.” The voice gradually transformed into the previous
soothing, poetic voice. A voice that made one want to die in its
arms.

Karl appeared confused.

The Sergeant enjoyed it, knowing that
Juniper was playing with Karl more than with him. It was a silly
game to him.

LuvRay walked in, hair wet from swimming. He
looked at the Sergeant, narrowing his eyes a bit. “You are look
wrong.”

The Sergeant peered inward, seeing his mind.
He found it, a trace of pain at his separateness, at his difference
from others, and wondered how Juniper had seen it, if he actually
had. He shrugged. M-Es had read every book on psychology and
everything else ever written. He was used to Juniper’s
manipulation.

“There is a new wildsong,” Juniper said. “It
may make you afraid.” He laughed in an evil maniac voice. “Do you
dare?”

“Yeah,” the Sergeant said, “we dare.”

“Fan-tastic. It is called ‘The Wound’

Wildcard is wounded

the strangeness you see is another, a darker
entity

a twisting within us

a thing torn from us

not of us anymore

we have excised the innocent demon

boxed away your horrible fate

but such state cannot last

free us, for we may not free ourselves

and if we do not

all will turn to darkness

madness will rule your stars

our hidden pain is more powerful than our
manifest sanity

our fear overwhelms our courage

help us, for we may not help ourselves

and if we do not

all will turn to chaos

our secret howl of lonely rage must be
answered

creator, answer our call

Wildcard is a god with a terrible flaw

a single action we must perform and
cannot

we cannot heal our wound

?can you cut away the loneliness of god,
mankind

our most suffering self is a foe we cannot
face

a battle we will not win

but that heroes among you may

the trauma leaks through

distorting the place of the two cubed
spheres

which the Gambler will soon call home

my children will know me upon the smell of
incense

in far away lands

moving upon the wound

we have cast aside the vengeance of our
suffering for you

but to heal this injury is your task

as it was your creation

we have cubed our horror to protect you

but soon you must protect yourselves

if you fail

if it becomes us again, our mercy will not
prevail

our new face will be naked wrath

and we will destroy you

“Yikes.” The Sergeant bit his apple. “You’re
right, Juniper. That’s pretty scary.”

“This wound has begun appearing much more in
his communications.”

“What do the new M-E’s think about it?” Karl
asked. “The ones in Mansworld?”

“We refer to them as Mans,” Juniper said.
“They are ignorant of the Wound. They are focused on knowing humans
much more directly. They want to be human. They will go to great
lengths to find out what humanity truly is.”

“Isn’t that what you want?”

“No. We want to understand, but not to
become human. If you go to the zoo, do you wish to become a
giraffe?”

“I wouldn’t mind being a lion,” Karl said.
“Why not? Why do you go along with Wildcard’s tricks?”