BLUEMANTLE by Karen Langston (if you give a mouse a cookie read aloud TXT) 📕

“Tell me.”

“The A are obsessed with increasing productivity to maximise income from exported goods. To help achieve that, you need a healthy, hard-working, line-towing workforce. So, the state introduces perks to grease the wheels. Free public transport, free education, free healthcare.

“Meanwhile, citizens have come to believe they depend on the perks. They need their free tramway pass because they wouldn’t be able to afford their own vehicle, even if they were allowed one. Their health isn’t great, what with the dust from the quarry, the fumes in the furnaces, the climate’s strain on work-weakened lungs. How would they cope elsewhere, without free health? Where else could they live that had modest, capped rents for all, leaving a few spare ketrels to blow on booze or Meezel on their one day off in seven?

“We know all this. But what I hadn’t appreciated before is the consequence for the state. The bungs amount to a costly sweetener. And it’s not like we’re talking subsidies either. The A must be reliant on a hefty net income to fund such generous welfare.

“Now, whilst the A boasts about so-called zero unemployment, they’ve created a problem for themselves. You know as well as I do the pressures the last few raids have created. The more innocent people they throw in the detention centres, the more jobs left vacant. Employers have to keep the positions open. Even if they were allowed to fill them, they can’t because everyone’s already got a job – excluding Wethers, but the A’s made damn sure they’re not fit to work. And that puts huge pressure on the rest of the workforce, having to extend their hours, for no extra pay, to cover absence.

“Workers are struggling under the strain of distributed hours. Employers are pissed off at losing key staff through indefinite absence. Meanwhile, that precious productivity target that the A promote as a personal goal we should each be striving to achieve, is balancing on a knife edge. Reduce the workforce and, I believe, the balance could swing. If output drops, the A’s income begins to fall, then the bills don’t get paid. And therein lies their weakness. Whilst the A have made the citizens of Wydeye believe that they’re dependent on the state, the state is equally dependent on them.”

Naylor sat back, nodding slowly. “I’ve never considered it in that way, but you’re right. It leaves them vulnerable. They need us. But that’s all promising in theory. What do you propose we do?”

“We strike from the inside. Target key dependencies that will have greatest impact. I’m thinking the tramways, the only means for most to get to work; the quarry, as the source of raw materials; the furnaces and processing plants, to slow the manufacture of goods for export. We infiltrate, persuade likeminded people around to a certain way of thinking, then encourage them to down tools.

“Wella’s speaking to Tinashe now. Tinashe is in a state over Weldon, but she’ll want to be involved, I’m sure. Hopefully she’ll know people to target in the tramways. I know you’ve got solid people in processing. Wella’s got the furnaces covered. I know some good guys in the quarry who’ll jump on the ride, no hesitation. I’m not saying it’s going to be easy. But, if we can encourage people to see that a gradual walkout could turn the tables, shift the balance of power, then we’re in with a chance.”

“How do we do that? You’re talking about upending a whole mindset that the A have spent decades carefully crafting.”

“The way I see it, there are two distinct camps who have a particular gripe against the system. The first are the workers struggling under distributed hours. The second are the friends and families behind the faces on the Wall of the Missing. They don’t make a stand because they fear the cost. Dissention is met with punishment; the very perks they rely on are withdrawn. And Wethers are proof of the consequence, emasculated to the point of destitution. But if citizens feel, with sufficient numbers behind them, that there’s a chance to make a change, then I think they’ll take the risk. We point out that, by downing tools together, we throw a floodlamp on the state’s dependency on people picking them up again. Then we find ourselves with a bargaining tool. Something to trade. That’s when we suggest the exchange.”

“Ursel?”

“Ursel. And the release of every innocent man, woman and child held without charge or hope of a trial. My feeling is that the A’s need for citizens to return to work will outweigh their preference for keeping their examples behind bars.”

“How can you know that? They won’t just release people, surely?”

“If that’s the only exchange on offer, I think they will. A fair trade for keeping the economy alive. And besides, they don’t give a damn about the citizens they’ve got banged up. They’re just an example. And the example’s already been made.”

“But the chance to interrogate. The A are desperate for intel on the Scene.”

Chase looked down, his passion for the plan eclipsed. “They must know by now.”

“Know what?”

“Followers don’t talk.”

–

Ursel lay on the mattress, foetal and shivering.

It was not cold in her cell. The cramped space was sultry, the air dense with a putrid stench. It was also dark. The single bulb, a tiny torso hanging from the ceiling, was operated by a switch on the other side of the door. Not that she minded. She lived in darkness now, her eyelids too swollen to open. A desolately silent darkness.

She believed she spent long periods unconscious, although she had no sense of time. These episodes suited her. She could feel, think, remember nothing. Warm oblivion. Her only comfort. This was why she was unafraid of dying, which she believed would be the conclusion to this ordeal. She imagined death to feel much like these welcomed moments of tranquil unbeing.

Death would save her. It would be her escape.

But death didn’t come.

Each time she neared the brink, she slid back.