The Feminist Queendom Charlie’s War 80

©Beverly Taff

List of Characters.

Charlie Sage Maths and electronics genius.
Shirley Sage Charlies elderly mother
Chloe Charlie’s one time early school friend.
Josephine Flint Surgeon and associate of Chloe’s.
Mrs Jane Anston Director of Anston Aerospace.
Ronnie Garage mechanic at top of lane
Pauline Garage owner, Ronnie’s sister.
Briony Pauline’s teenaged daughter.
Billy Pauline’s middle son.
Abigail (Abby) Pauline’s youngest daughter.
‘Poppy’ Charlie’s little micro-runabout.
‘Doris’ The armoured mobile home.
‘Lady’ Chloe’s Sports Car.
Dawn Charlie’s armoured spaceship.
Colonel Wilson Vindictive misanthropist doctor.
Margaret Thomas ‘Failed’ police security guard.
Sally. 1st Oz Special forces trooper
Jacky 2nd Oz Special forces trooper.
Juliet Charlie’s Mal engineering assistant.
Laura The second mate of the Second Dawn
Kate (Katherine Bergson) The Australian defence minister.
Lieutenant Engadine Asi Charlie’s second prisoner.
Charlotte Charlie and Chloe’s older daughter
Michael, Jessica & Lucy Charlie and Chloe’s younger triplets

Chapter 80.

Once safely up in sub-space and clear of all traces of an aerodynamically effective atmospheric density, Charlie slowed down and checked his high-powered cameras. Having assured himself that they were fully operational, he ascended to the geostatic orbital zone and started disabling the UQ’s spy cameras plus any other cameras whose view field might stray into the UQ spy zone.

Then he sat back and listened to the resultant radio traffic. Finally he was satisfied to hear a string of angry curses as various UQ organisations declared themselves to be effectively blind. There was also some angry backchat between the UQ and other countries who’s spy satellites had been collaterally disabled so there was effectively no security cover for the whole of the UQ security zone.

He now had a couple of hours before the UQ dawn arrived over the Eastern hemisphere so he set his alarm and took a nap. His night vision cameras whilst good, did not give sufficient precise detail to ascertain and identify any human target’s at night. All that appeared was an intensely white infra-red image that located a target and indicated what he or she was doing. Charlie needed identities and certainty.

As Dawn approached, Charlie aligned his cameras over Jane Anston’s home and waited. Sure enough, he recognised her top model gravi-car appear from her garage and proceed to the Anston Aerospace works in Bristol. There it stopped at her personal parking bay and she stepped out. Charlie noted that a police gravi-car had paused in line of sight a city block away and nobody emerged.

‘Surveillance,’ Charlie rightly concluded. An act that told him that the authorities either had no clear proof of Jane Anston’s association with the protests, or they were hoping to catch any possible associates who might be communicating with her.

There was little he could do to help her while she was working at the factory. She had a high profile and many people would meet with her throughout the day. He set his camera to a four-way split viewing the car, the main gate, the main factory entrance and the trade delivery warehouse. Each time the camera detected movement, it bleeped an alarm though Charlie was mildly concerned at the paucity of activity. He had expected it to be buzzing.

It appeared the Anston Aerospace was not the hive of activity it once was but that did not concern him. It was more than Probable that the UQ government had essentially disassociated itself from Anston Aerospace once it stopped producing innovative electronics and components. (Artifacts that had been essentially Charlie’s handiwork.)

The UQ was known to be falling behind China technologically speaking and Charlie fully knew the reason why; - the XY-IQ factor as it come to be known, and the United Queendom was having a hard time remedying it. They knew the reasons for the dumbing down of their nation but the solution was sociologically disruptive. Short of forcible tests and compulsory breeding there was nothing for it but extreme eugenics akin to a fascist state and these conditions were just one more straw to break the Camel’s back. Intelligent men and even more particularly, intelligent women, resented being told how to breed and when.

Those who had eagerly voted for the feminist crackdown on male ‘criminality’ were quickly beginning to realise where the road led.

ooo000ooo

As the afternoon shadows lengthened, Charlie noted two more ‘unmarked cars’ arrive unobtrusively within the city blocks close to Anston Aerospace’s factory gates. He only realised they were some sort of surveillance cars when he noticed that neither drivers nor passengers emerged after the cars had parked up.

He carefully focused the powerful single camera on the third arrival, and his stomach flipped as he recognised the passenger when the car had turned into a narrow cul-de-sac. As it manoeuvred a ‘three-point-turn’ to face outwards for a quick reaction, Charlie had got an excellent sight of (and photographs of) General Wilson who sat waiting for any unusual or inexplicable events to unfold.

From the edge of space at about one hundred miles altitude, Charlie marvelled at the quality of the images he was receiving from his super-powerful telescope. He even recognised the brand of chocolate bar that his worst enemy was munching.
Five o’clock came and went but still Jane Anston remained in her factory and Charlie noted the lights burning still in her office.

‘She always was a grafter,’ he reflected and indeed, it was just gone eight pm when she finally emerged and passed the cul-de-sac. When the General’s car emerged to follow, Charlie decided to descend to surface level. The night was by now fully dark but there was no cloud so Charlie had to pick that critical altitude where ground and streetlights would not expose him, or car headlights would not flash him up. The clear bright moon was no comfort either.

This situation left him visible to air-traffic radar but he had to take that chance. Risking being discovered and shot at, was the whole reason for using the armoured Dawn 1.

Having picked his height, Charlie then tailed General Wilson’s car about three hundred feet above her. Lady Jane Anston led them all directly to her palatial country home and Charlie was secretly glad that Wilson and her cronies had not ambushed her on the way home. They did, however, follow her all the way to her house and accosted her as she emerged from her hover-car.

Charlie only heard snippets of conversation through his amplifier earphones but it was clear that they were going to interview Jane Anston at home and also search her house. Fortunately, Charlie had been to her house a couple of times when being asked to give field trials of one of his inventions so he knew where her bedroom, dining room and living rooms were.

It was a very simple matter to loiter above the house and position Dawn 1 to get a clear view of each room; provided the lady did not draw her curtains. He debated somehow getting a note to her advising her not to draw her curtains but decided it was too risky. For the moment, secrecy was all, and he was already pushing his luck. Air traffic radar could pick him up at any moment for his antireflection coating was beginning to date.

By eleven pm, Wilson and his cronies had finished with Lady Jane and Charlie followed their cars to make sure nobody had been left behind to spy on the house.

Once he saw all four intelligence officers settle into their hotel, he returned to Lady Jane’s palatial house. His heart lightened when he noted that her bedroom lights and bathroom lights were still on. She was obviously getting ready for bed.

“With the grounds now in total darkness, Charlie descended to the ground and collected a container of gravel before approaching to within a foot of Lady Jane’s bedroom window. Fortunately, antigravity enabled Dawn 1 to manoeuvre with such finesse.

With Dawn 1’s after clamshell cargo doors open and hovering rigidly within a foot of Jane Anston’s bedroom window, Charlie took a handful of fine gravel and flung it gently at the glass.

ooo000ooo

Jane Anston was angry, it was bad enough her having been followed all the way home from her factory to her country home. Then to have those so-called ‘security police’ demand to enter and interrogate was just about the last straw.

“What d’ you mean –‘possible terrorist affiliations’? How dare you accuse me of such activity!”

“We believe you might have developed links to the ‘Male Lives Matter’ organisation. You were seen attending one of their events in Bristol City Centre last week.”

“Listen Colonel Wilson, ‘”

“General!”

“What?”

“It’s General Wilson Mis Anston. Things have moved on since you allowed that mad scientist of yours to escape.”

“Oh! So it’s General Wilson now. Well no matter, you’re still the ignorant bully you always were when you tried to arrest my so-called mad scientist before. For your information, I did NOT allow Sage to escape as you put it. He was NEVER under arrest.”

“He was under your care.”

“No, he was under my supervision purely from a technical and commercial basis. I simply guided him in his work and planned his workload. I was never responsible for any security issues to do with his personal life. That was the responsibility of his mother until she died; then his wife became responsible as per your Feminista regulations and laws.”

“So why did he leave when he was registered at Anston Aerospace as a legal asset?”

“He left when his wife Emigrated to Australia. Wherever she went, he was obliged to follow as per the Feminista laws of the time.”

“But he was a registered asset belonging to your company.”

“That didn’t make him Anston’s property. We only had proprietal rights to his services and his creations. I don’t believe slavery was legal at that time. He was free to come and go as a free person between his mother dying and his getting married. The only things Anston owned where his skills and his patent rights. Even they were transferred to his wife when they married!”

“Did you know they were getting married?” The General persisted.

“Of course I didn’t. Nobody did. That cunning woman discovered that the laws concerning marriage had only been reversed to give the wife property rights over her husband. When she married, she gained all rights to all of Sage’s patents and property.
It took us completely by surprise, then as a veritable chattel, she was entitled to take him with her to Australia. I didn’t see your government trying to stop her.”

“Yes, well that legal loophole has been blocked, along with several others. Everybody needs exit visas to leave the country now.”

“How liberating!” Jane Anston retorted sarcastically. “And would this have anything with the protests and massacres in London?”

“There were no massacres.”

“Really General, when did you last consult your mobile phone?”

“Those are digitally faked images, false news.”

“Of course General.” She ‘conceded.’ “And I’m a hologram.”

General Wilson lost he patience and she snapped.

“You are required to surrender your passport while we search your house.”

Jane had been expecting this but she was still concerned. Without a passport, escape would be doubly difficult. She put on a brave face but underneath, she felt the first twist of fear tighten her viscera.

“Very well General. Everything in the house is recorded and photographed for insurance purposes. Some things are valuable so if anything goes missing or get’s damaged; your department will of course receive the bill.”

“Your passport please,” the general snorted.

“It’s in my bedroom; in my jewellery safe.”

“I’ll need the code.”

“Sorry,” Jane smirked with secret satisfaction, “it’s a finger-print and iris recognition. I have to stand and look into the eyepiece while extending my five fingers onto the recognition pad. It’s to stop thieves .” She added with malicious pleasure.

Suspicion glittered in General Wilson’s eyes but she had to concede Jane her one small victory. In the bedroom, She tried to peer past Jane’s shoulder to recognise the other contents of the safe but she only saw some old envelopes; reminders of the ‘dead tree’ era.

Having got what she came for, General Wilson left in the same sour mood she came with.

“We’ll be coming to your office tomorrow, to check your activities. The Prime Minister was not assured by your recent meeting with her.”

“Nor I her.” Jane replied. “Good night General, I’m sure you know your way out.”

As they left, Jane fumed somewhat impotently. It was incredible how quickly one’s perceived status could be changed. She made herself some chocolate and took it to bed to consider her situation.

After preparing for bed, she lay on the bed when suddenly she heard a strange noise. She frowned as she tried to recognise it then eventually, after the noise had repeated itself several times; she recognised it and smiled uncertainly.

It was that age-old sound of a secret boyfriend trying to contact his forbidden girlfriend in the tower. It was pebbles being thrown against her bedroom window. More curious than nervous she switched off the bedroom lights than cautiously peeped through the gap in the curtains.

ooo000ooo