21 Survey Results
When Pru and Terry settled in the conference room at the Neo-Tantra home office, Solly was with them. They had timed the meeting so that the people on the scene would have had a night’s rest after a hard day’s work.
Zahlman’s face was the first to appear on the com, followed shortly by Isabella’s. Solly began the review.
“We sent a high-level surveillance device over the area of Isabella’s coordinates. We also sent in, under cover of night, a miniature eye that can give us good, real-time imaging of what’s going on in the… well, I guess we’ll call it the village square. And finally, the eye incorporates a set of scanners that gave us a reading on implant status.”
He looked up at Isabella’s face on the com. “This is a village of about 100 to 110 people. As far as we can tell, none of them has ID implants or med implants. Not the adults and particularly not the children.”
“That’s amazing!” Isabella said. “I had no idea.”
Solly continued. “Zahlman was able to help me position the eye so that it probably won’t be found or noticed, and at any rate, we’ll give it a destruct command when we’ve got all we need.
“As for the high-level scan, we’ve seen people in the fields around the village, apparently attending to gardening duties, and others out in the surrounding hills. They seem to be hunting. There’s plenty of game – goats, stray sheep and smaller game all over the area.” Solly looked at Zahlman’s image. “Anything more?”
Zahlman nodded. “I’ve been checking with some of our tribal experts here. The clothes they are wearing are patterned after the Berber tribal dress peculiar to the Ouled Naïl. I’ve noticed some of the young women spracticing belly dancing, which is what the Ouled Naïl women were known for.”
Isabella put in, “There are several pregnant women in the group. One of them looks pretty far along – you might want to get a doctor to check the imaging. None of them looks really healthy; too thin, skin tones don’t look right, but maybe that’s because they’re in the direct sun all the time. Of course, the women are heavily clothed and, most of the time, they wear hijab – headscarves. We got some pictures of them at the well, though, where they were bathing, and I’d say they could use a couple of good meals, at least–especially the pregnant ones. Oh, and at least one of the pregnant ones has two other small children, closely spaced.”
Zahlman added, “They don’t seem to have guards posted. I see no signatures at night, beyond the goats and the dogs that protect them. Sanitation seems to be outhouses at one end of the village or the other. One is used by men; the other used by women. They do seem to be far enough away from the wells, though.
“I also had the surveillance cover a wide area – about 50 klicks from the center of the place. No other settlements are within that area, and there are no signatures other than animals. Also, there doesn’t seem to be a com antenna, although that may be something they set up when they need it. The people at Wadi Felucca had theirs up all the time, but they used the com a lot.”
“Thanks both of you. I think that’s the lot. Now, what do we do?”
Terry spoke up. “It’s illegal to not wear implants – both of them. That’s one thing. The obvious thing to do is send in OSG forces, round them up and give them implants. But that’s only the obvious thing.”
“Right, because what happens next?” Pru asked. “They go back out and get rid of the implants and we’ve accomplished nothing. Worse, we’ve made victims of them. We don’t know why they’re doing this; we don’t know what’s behind it all. They could be Luddites – people who hate technology for its own sake. They could be Reformists, who want to go back to the ‘good old ways’. Or, they could be people like that bunch at the Wadi – fundamentalist reformers, potential rebels.”
“I don’t see fundamentalism in this,” Isabella said. “At the Wadi they were trying to be Wahhabis. If these girls are practicing belly dancing, I’d have to vote for excessive nostalgia.”
“I take your point, Isabella,” Terry said. “But we still don’t know enough to act. All the men are armed with slug-throwers, and they don’t impress me as a peaceful lot. How can we get more information?”
“I’d like to ask Mira if she could help,” Pru said.
Isabella nodded vigorously, while Solly asked, “Is that the one who was Bravo Two at the Wadi?”
“Yes. She’s a Berber, and she’s always kept up her tribal contacts and tribal customs, even though she’s vice president of a bank in Tangiers Sector. You saw her at work at the Wadi.”
“Right,” Solly agreed. “She was good, knew what she was doing.” He looked at Pru. “Sorry I got bent out of shape on that.”
“Not your fault. And, it’s why we’ve got Zahlman working with us now. Local knowledge – there’s no substitute.
“But here’s my idea. If Mira agrees, she could go out there in tribal dress and scout the place. We’re not in a hurry; she could take whatever time she needs.”
“Well, you may not be in a hurry, Pru,” Isabella said, “but I’d hate to see another child born in those conditions.”
“True. Well, Zahlman, Isabella, let’s get going with Mira, and Solly, see if you can get a medical estimate of how much time we’ve got before that girl goes into labor. If she needs help – even if she doesn’t – we need to be there.”