Come the Revolution by Frank Chadwick

“This has your appointment code and should be presented at our headquarters complex which is in this arcology. The card will also provide free automated public transportation to the complex by passing it over the fare scanner. I am to ask if this is clear and if you have any questions.”
    I looked at the card for a couple seconds. All it said was Captain e-Tomai and the time and date of the appointment. Everything else must have been chip-coded. I’d met e-Tomai before, worked with him on some joint security issues. He was okay, for a provost.
    “No questions, Corporal,” I said.
    “Do you require any further assistance?” he asked.
    I shook my head and he turned and marched back across the hangar floor.
    “We’ll wait for you here,” Marr said.
    “Like hell you will. What you will do is stop at Praha-Riz and pick up Iris Tenryu and as many of our goons as can still walk to provide security in Kootrin. The executive layer’s still open, so you can manage. No comm in advance though, okay? Just face-to-face instructions.”
    “Why are you like this?” she said, her voice rising in anger. “You almost died! Your arm is in a sling, you’re bruised all over, and you need a Human doctor to look at you. I won’t leave you here.”
    I smiled. “Sure you will. Maybe if it was just you, it would be different. But there’s The’On , Tweezaa, and our unborn son, all of whom are absolutely dependent upon you one way or another. I’ll follow as soon as I can, but you’ve got to go now. Two hours from now it may be too late.”
    “If it’s too late for us, then what about you?” The determination in her face flickered and then dissolved into tears. I held her with my good arm.
    “Hey, it’ll be okay,” I said. “Remember, you guys are the real targets. I’m just muscle. Maybe they don’t like me, but I’m nothing to them. Once you’re away, they’re not going to care enough to cross the street to spit on me.”
    “You lie so convincingly to everyone else,” she said. “Why can’t you manage it to me?”
    * * *
    Two hours later I showed the flexi-card at the security station in front of the CSJ complex, submitted to the whole-body scan, gave a finger scraping to verify my DNA, and was escorted into the Sakkatto City regional office of Cottohazz-Gozhakampta Sugkat Jitobonaan —CSJ for short, or in English the Stellar Commonwealth Armed Forces Provost Corps. Technically they were the military police force of the Cottohazz . In reality, they were as close to a secret police as the Commonwealth had, and how close they really were was, of course, a secret.
    Five minutes earlier I’d gotten the comm from Marr telling me they had just crossed into uKootrin air space and had picked up a drone escort, courtesy of uKootrin Ground Forces. They expected to be gear-down at the uKootrin capital in another forty minutes. Since CSJ knew pretty much everything going on, I imagined this was going to be part of the subject of my interview.
    Back at the trauma/med center I’d finally managed to put Marr a little more at ease by reminding her that she’d never thought of the Co-Gozhak Provosts as essentially evil. For that matter I didn’t either. CSJ was just a powerful bureaucracy, a big black-and-red machine that would probably grind you up if you got enmeshed in its gears, but not out of sadistic delight. It just turned the gears and then whatever happened, happened. Hell, one of my best friends in my previous life had turned out to be an undercover CSJ major. A pretty decent guy, too, all things considered.
    A Varoki lance corporal escorted me into the large foyer and stood with me as we waited for another guide to walk me to my appointment. The foyer was about three stories tall, mostly glass and polished metal. A very large replica of the CSJ service badge dominated it, hanging from the ceiling and slowly turning, the silver facetted surfaces catching the sunlight and sparkling. I’d seen it a lot of times in my