“What difference would it make? The effect is the same whether it’s coming from the Joint Chiefs or the Kremlin or the White House. Believe me, they’re all playing the same game; the rules simply change to match the terrain.”
“Okay. Then what you’re saying is that we have a domestic dictatorship on our hands.”
Lorimer considered this for a moment. “Umm—let’s go back to basic theory.”
“I knew I couldn’t avoid the lecture,” said Elliot. She smiled. “Battleground training,” she said. “We’re told we have a government by popular consent. At least in one sense that’s true. Every government always exercises the maximum amount of power its rulers feel the people will stand for without revolting. If this government—or an element within it—is drastically increasing its use of power, then the leaders either feel they have the popular support—or apathy—to get away with it, or they’re taking desperate chances because they’re being pressed to the wall.”
“According to my father,” said Elliot, “the government has been increasingly ‘pressed to the wall’ for the past quarter century by fiscal realities. And if you can judge by last week’s demonstrations, there’s little popular support. “
“Then you’ve just answered your own question.”
174
Alongside Night
“I see. You’re telling me that the government at the moment is like a wounded rhino starting to charge anything in its path. Maybe we’d better get out of it.”
“How much more out of it do you want to get?”
“That, my dear, is the sixty-four-million-dollar question. What’s Montreal like this time of year?”
“Cold,” Lorimer said.
“Then maybe we’d better think about buying long underwear.”
“I thought you had business here?”
“All the advantages of working out of New York have been neutralized. Montreal could work just as well for what I have to do. Besides, I’m beginning to think Durand was right. There’s probably only one outfit that can handle this—when they decide they’re ready—and we can hang out damn near anywhere as far as they’re concerned.”
“But how would we get there? Even if we had all the papers—which we don’t—we can’t assume there’ll be any means out. If they’ve seized communications, they’re almost certainly controlling commercial transport, too.”
“We can make arrangements through our friends,” Elliot said.
“How? No phones.”
“I can think of several ways even if phones aren’t restored—
which they probably will be in a day or two.”
“Yes, but why run away?” Lorimer asked. “What are we, brownies? The minute trouble comes, you head for the hills with your rifle and survival foods?”
“Consider that if the government cut off food to Manhattan it would begin starving in three days. Bread riots on the sixth.”
“One. I don’t believe they could do it; half the food on this island comes in countereconomically as it is. Two, I don’t believe it’s politically tenable. And three, I can’t imagine what the higher circles—the ruling elite—could see themselves gain- Alongside Night 175
ing by such a plan.”
“All right, let’s keep it on a more personal basis, then. Have you thought about what they’ll do to us if we get picked up even for jaywalking?”
She nodded. “But if anything, the odds just got a lot better for us. Unfortunately, though, worse for some others.”
“What?”
“Think it through. Yesterday the two of us were singled out by the government as public enemies. Today there are thousands more people on their enemies list. The statists’ resources are just as limited as ever, but they’re spreading them even further. Statistically there’s less of a chance they’ll hit on us.”
“Tell me that again,” said Elliot, “when the tanks start rolling down Broadway.”
Lorimer shrugged. “A show of force, at best. If anything, an occupying army would only increase countereconomic activity. There’s no way a domestic army can be prevented from fraternizing during off hours without rioting themselves.” At that instant, a couple sat down at the empty table next to theirs. Elliot and Lorimer nodded at each other, then got up to leave. On their way out the door, they ran into a skinny man with a mustache on his way in; Elliot did a double take, then realized it was the clerk from the Rabelais Bookstore who had told him to beat it the previous week. Elliot intended to ignore him, but the man recognized Elliot and said, “You the kid who was in last week?” Elliot nodded. “Well, in case you still wanna see your friend, he got back.”