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These were the thoughts running through Guilder’s mind as he sat at the head of the conference table If he’d had the option, he would have skipped these weekly s, which inevitably devolved into convoluted procedural squabbling, a classic example of too many cooks in the kitchen Guilder was a firm believer in a clear chain of command and the dispersed authorities of the pyramidal bureaucracy It tended to create a bloat of busywork at the bottom and an excessive appetite for paperwork and precedent, but it kept everybody in his own corner Still, the pretense of shared governance needed to beto say?"

No one seeanda Minister Hoppel, as seated to Guilder’s immediate left, next to Suresh, the Minister of Public Health, and directly across from Wilkes, cleared his throat and said, "I think what everybody is worried about, well, not sofor everyone here-"

"For God’s sake, spit it out And take off your glasses"

"Oh Right" Hoppel slid the smoke-colored lenses from his face and placed them with nervous delicacy on the conference table "As I said," he continued, and cleared his throat again "Is it possible that,a little out of hand?"

"You’re da anybody has said to ies we’ve e us where ant to be"

Guilder sighed with irritation "What are you suggesting?"

Hoppel’s eyes darted involuntarily at his colleagues You better backout on this limb by myself

"Perhaps we should de-escalate For a ti ha There’s a lot of talk in the flatland, and it’s not going our way Maybe we should try ratcheting things down a bit See where that leaves us"

"Have you lost your mind? Have all of you lost your s aren’t really working out the e’d like"

"I didn’t say that, you did"

"Be that as it -"

"That’s the worst-kept secret in this rooht So, okay What we cao in the opposite direction More of a hearts-and- breath "So what you’re suggesting, and excuse the paraphrase, is that we should look like pussies"

"Director Guilder, if I ency-"

"They’re killing people They’re killing flatlanders What about this isn’t clear? These people are butchers"

"No one is saying different," Suresh continued with a bland look "And for a while that worked in our favor But the roundups haven’t produced any usable intelligence We still don’t knohere Sergio is or how he moves No one’s come forward And in the meantime, the reprisals have been an effective recruitency"

"Do you kno you sound? I’ll tell you how you sound You sound rehearsed"

Suresh ignored the barb "Let "

From a folder on the table he withdrew a sheet of paper, which he slid toward Guilder One of their own propaganda bulletins, but on the other side was scrawled a different e

Flatlanders, Rise Up!

The Last Days of the Redeyes Are at Hand!

Join Your Brethren in the Insurgency!

Every Act of Disobedience Strikes a Blow Against the Regime!

And so on, in that vein Guilder lifted his head to find everyone staring at hio off

"So? What does this prove?"

"HR personnel have found fifty-six of these so far," Suresh replied "I’ll give you an exa at roll call, an entire lodge refused to sing the anthem"

"And were they beaten?"

"There were over three hundred of them And we can only hold half that number in detention We simply don’t have the room"

"So cut their rations in half"

"The flatlanders are on a subsistence diet already We reduce it any further and they won’t be able to work"

It wasEvery point Guilderdown the barrel of nothing less than an organized insurrection a the senior staff

"Get out, all of you"

"I think," Suresh pressed with infuriating coy"