Warday

We deal with half a dozen separate governments down here. Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio are one country we deal with a lot. It has four governors and on the whole is fairly disunited, but we deal with it. We also deal with the South, which has its de facto capital in Atlanta. There are other states, of course, but if you get Georgia on your side, they go along. We have a great amount of business with New England, of course. The Bostonians and the Vermonters are the two most vociferous lots. Then the states of Washington and Oregon are an independent entity. They have a joint legislature but two governors, so that can be complicated.

California is the easiest. Governor Campbell is the beginning and end of power there.”

“What sort of dealing do you do?”

“Canada in general, or just us bankers?”

“You personally.”

“I do financings, mostly. We offer Commonwealth pounds, Canadian dollars, British pounds, and gold, generally in return for substantial equity ownership, which we then sell on the American Trades Exchange in London.”

“The American Trades Exchange?”

“It makes a market for persons wishing to buy and sell instruments of ownership in American plants and equipment, trademarks, patents, and proprietary secrets. For example, one can buy a complete set of plans for the Boeing 747, including all supporting documentation, wiring diagrams, and subordinate electronic equipment schematics, and the right to use them, on that exchange. The 747 plans are going for eight million dollars gold or equivalent. I know this because a Canadian company has been attempting to buy them. We are financial guarantors in part of the deal. My involvement is in establishing acceptable currency equivalencies for the gold. Excuse me.” He called the waiter. “Will you take this back and give me the soup, please? Amtrak really ought to get hold of some meat, if you want to have hamburgers on your menu.”

The waiter took back the partially eaten hamburger and returned with the soup.

“It’s not hot. I want it scalding. Boiled, do you understand?” He turned to us. “Sorry. Where were we?”

I had a question that was a little off the subject of banking, but after our experience in California, I was eager to know the answer.

“Is the Canadian border patrolled?”

He smiled. “Very, very carefully. And it isn’t because we don’t like you, mind, or don’t want you coming over, but rather for your own protection. There are Canadians, I’ll tell you frankly, who are perfectly capable of violence against you Americans. So we think the passport/visa system is really best. They’ve pretty well cleared out the refugees that came into Saskatchewan and Manitoba from the Dakotas, so that particular disturbance is over. You’ve got to understand, it was your war and our country was just incidentally thrown into chaos in the process.” He waved his soup spoon. “Let me ask you a question, and since I’ve been so frank with you, be frank with me. Before you encountered me, did you ever for even one moment think of what had happened to Canada? Of what we were going through because of you? Even that we were there? Did you?”

We had to admit the truth: we had not.

Jack Harper smiled his tight smile and went back to his soup.

Interview Terry Burford, Midwife and Witch

I’m working toward delivering a baby a day. Right now I do about three or four a week. At the moment I’ve got fifty-eight patients in the midwifery and about two hundred in my general practice. I’ve got thirty psychiatric patients divided into four groups. Also, I have my own coven, Rosewood, and I’m elder of four covens that have hived off from Rosewood. I keep office hours from seven to seven, and I always visit my patients in the home. I can’t really work on anybody unless I know them and what kind of energies there are in their home environment, and preferably at work also.

I’ll take a fee of a dime for an office examination or fifteen cents for a home visit, plus ten cents to a dollar for the various preparations I might prescribe. Rosewood does healing rituals for free. I offer a complete midwifery service, with counseling and support throughout the pregnancy, for three dollars, which includes the delivery. If the child is defective or born dead, the fee is refundable. I lose about a third of the babies and one mother out of ten. My losses are almost always due to complications resulting from radiation exposure. I do euthanasias on profoundly crippled or retarded newborns for free. Also, I do abortion counseling and perform abortions.