New Order, New Opportunity Pt. 02

Chapter 4 : The Interview

James sat on the simple wooden chair beside the desk, his wrists still cuffed behind him. A uniformed officer stood beside the door, ignoring him. Her tailored and laundered uniform contrasted with the shabby surroundings. Her jet black pencil skirt showed no speck of dust, her short sleeved shirt bright white, pressed and cut to fit exactly, her black tie as thin as the look in her eyes, her belt as shiny as the gloss on her lips. An identity tag, "Constable 70748, Margery Dennis," hung from her belt.

James caught himself staring at her. He knew there would be trouble if she noticed. He looked down quickly, staring at the table.

The woman that had arrested him and another plain clothes officer came into the cell and sat down opposite him.

The second woman slipped a mini-disk into a box at one side of the table and flicked down a switch on. "Interview with suspect James Leonard. DI Collins and DS Haste interviewing. PC Dennis in attendance. Interview started at 21:05."

"Hello James," the second woman said. "I'm Inspector Collins. This is Detective Sergeant Haste. Do you know why you were arrested?"

"Yes, Inspector," James thought that the best approach would be to be as non-confrontational as possible. He knew from what others had said that there wasn't any point in suggesting they might like to let him get a lawyer; even if he knew one. "There were some magazines and papers found in my flat but I didn't..."

"One step at a time, please," Inspector Collins said.

"You know of course that possession of violent, anti-female, pornography is illegal?"

James nodded.

"Answer the question out loud," Haste ordered.

"Sorry. Yes," said James.

"And that promoting or espousing the views of proscribed organisations is illegal too."

"Yes, of course, but I didn't. I hadn't seen those things before."

Sergeant Haste pulled two clear plastic envelopes from her briefcase. She pushed the first across the desk towards James. "All right Leonard, Do you recognise this?"

"Yes, it's a copy of 'Babes in Bondage'. It was under my bed. I mean you found it under my bed."

"How long have you had it?

"I haven't seen it before?"

"Your sort of thing is it? Ropes and gags? Like to use my handcuffs on the officer over there, would you?" Haste nodded towards the uniformed policewoman by the cell door.

"No," said James. The officer looked back at him with an expression that said, "I bet."

"If you haven't seen this before, how come it was under your bed?"

"I don't know."

"But you knew it was under your bed, didn't you? You said it was there," the Sergeant went on.

"I only knew about it after your officer brought it out. As far as I know she could have put it there herself."

Inspector Collins cut in. "I'd really advise against making accusations like that," she said. "That's only going to make things more difficult for you."

"Oh, I wasn't... I mean I didn't really mean that..."

The sergeant started in again. "Look, why don't you admit you're involved with these people. Tell us where we can find the rest of the group. Why should you let yourself go to the camps for them?"

The mention of the camps sent a chill down James's spine. What you heard about going on in sponsored houses was bad enough but the rumours about the camps were worse.

The inspector saw his reaction. "Look," she said, "no one's trying to say you've done anything wrong. We just want to get at the people that are behind all this. I'd have a thought a bright chap like you would see that. Wouldn't you sergeant?" James looked across at Sergeant Haste. She didn't look as though she was going to give him any credit. At that moment the Inspector's pager went. She took out the device, peered at it and said to Haste. "I'm needed upstairs. I'll let you keep an eye on our friend for a minute or two." She leant across the recorder. "Interview stopped at 21:35," she said as she pressed a button on the box.

James watched her go. No sooner had the door shut behind her than Sergeant Haste grabbed James by the shirt collar. "While the Inspector's out perhaps I can convince you of the value of cooperating," she snarled, twisting his collar until he was almost choking. The officer by the door carried on standing there, looking into space as if nothing was happening. Haste lifted one foot pushing it between his thighs until the toe of her boot was pushing up against his crotch. "Tell me about the other members of the group," she said. "We can get it on the recorder later once you've had the chance to think more clearly." She slid her toe forward.

James squealed. "I don't know any group," he begged, "really I don't. I've not been involved in any subversion. I just do my job." The sergeant began to twist at his collar again. James coughed and spluttered.

Suddenly, the Inspector reappeared in the cell and, with one swift motion, Haste let go James's collar and stood up from the chair. She smoothed down her skirt and straightened her blouse. "The suspect had a nasty coughing attack, Ma'am," Haste said. "But he's all right now."

Inspector Collins gave Haste a look that said, "don't take me for an idiot." She turned to James and switched on the recorder again. "Interview resumed at 21:40," she said. "All right Leonard. You're free to go. Stay in your assigned locality in case we need to contact you again. Interview concluded. Take his handcuffs off, Haste."

"Yes, Ma'am," said the sergeant. It was pretty obvious that she didn't approve and that she didn't understand why he was being let go, any more than James did.

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Detective Sergeant Valerie Haste and Constable Margery Dennis shared an apartment not far from the police station. Haste had been married at the time New Order was elected. Her husband, Barry, was still finding it difficult to come to terms with his new role, especially since his wife had installed Margery in the marital bed.

Margery was back from work first today. Haste's husband was finishing his household chores. "I'm glad you done all that," Margery said. "I've got one of my special little tasks for you."

Barry looked glum.

"Floor!" she said. "Face up!"

Barry got himself down on the floor in the middle of the lounge. He had a good idea of what was coming next.

Margery straddled him and sat on his chest. She hitched her skirt up, sliding it back to reveal stocking clad thighs. Barry could remember when such a thing would have been a dream but it wasn't that way any more. Margery shuffled forward until his face was clamped between her thighs and her pants were clamped over his mouth. She leant forward taking advantage of his nose and face to get something to rub against. "You don't have to do too much," she said. "Just so I'm good and juicy for when Valerie gets home. You know how much she likes it when I'm nicely sexed up for her."

Barry gasped for breath as Margery used him to work herself up, rubbing her cunt backwards and forwards across his face. He knew that once his wife came back they'd push him off into one of the closets while the two of them got on with their own fun.

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Looking around her flat, Kath Barrant was beginning to think that having Geoff around was a real benefit. The place had never been so tidy. She wasn't much of a one for housework and Geoff's contribution on that area had been a real plus, even if he had needed a bit of encouragement before he'd agreed to do as she told him. She'd never had a houseboy apart from hiring one in from an agency occasionally so she was having to get used to keeping his mind on what she wanted. Kath had watched the way that the other girls around the office bullied the men and had picked up a few tips. It was true what they said, she thought, unless you kept an eye on them they soon got distracted. But what was the point of having someone to do the housework if you had to stand over them all the time?

Kath looked at the chain padlocked to the leg of her bed. It was what she used to put around his ankle on the nights he stayed over. It was risky having an un-sponsored male in the house without proper security in place, she supposed, but he was pretty well behaved and he knew that he needed to go on being well behaved if he was going to keep his job. Of course, if he was going to be a continuing feature around the house, she'd have to make some better arrangements but in the flat it wasn't easy. She was thumbing through a catalogue of security furniture but it all looked like it would take up half the bedroom and it was incredibly expensive as well. There was a sort of cage arrangement that would fit under a bed and that could be a possibility, she supposed but unless she was going to get some sort of grant she couldn't see herself being able to afford it.

Chapter 5 : City Streets

James found himself outside the police, station faster than he would have thought possible. They hadn't quite thrown him down the front steps but they hadn't been too polite about showing him out either.

He had no more idea of why they had freed him than of why they had picked on him in the first place. That was one of the problems with being a solitary -- you were easy pickings as far as the police, the benefit squads, the tax enforcers were concerned.

Maybe they were planning to follow him, imagining that he'd lead them to some dissident group or other. Well, they'd be disappointed, he thought.

It was dark; nearly 10 o'clock. At least he'd be home before the bars started closing. After his encounter with the police the last thing he wanted was to fall foul of a bunch of women on the rampage after an evening fuelling up on vodka. Even so he went the long way around. There was always the risk he'd attract the attention of one of the bouncers outside the Paradiso. He'd seen them picking on a guy once. Two of them, 210 pounds each of pure muscle packed into sharp suits. Somehow the man had ended up in a heap beside the Paradiso's garbage skip while the two women had strolled back to the door of the club, still immaculate in their black tux's, barely a hair out of place.

He clutched the curfew permit that they'd given him at the police station tightly. He still had half an hour before, like all males, he had to be off the streets without special permission but it wouldn't be the first time that an over-zealous police officer had taken the chance to catch up on her quota by pulling in someone just a bit before the actual curfew time.

He managed to get as far as his street without difficulty. The town was quiet. Then he remembered; there was a big match on tonight. He could imagine the scenes in the Paradiso. Women would be standing in groups around the big TV screen, cheering every time one of the players had his shirt pulled. The stadium would be filled with women baying for one team or the other. And in the Paradiso, there would be more vodka being drunk than usual.

He got back to his flat. The doorway was criss-crossed with black and yellow police tape. "Crime Scene : Do Not Enter" it said. A forensics officer in a white boiler suit was packing up her bag. She looked up as James came into the corridor. "Huh," she said. "Seems like you've got away with it this time."

"What?" said James. "I've not done anything. They let me go."

"Yes," she said picking up the bag. "And they told me to stop looking. Doesn't mean there wasn't anything to find though, does it?" As she went to leave, James started to pull the tape from his door and the voice of his landlady could be heard calling along the corridor.

"We don't want no police around here, Leonard," she called. "You're going to have to get yourself a sponsor. If there's going to be trouble, I want you out."

"There's not going to be any more trouble, Mrs Bryant," James responded. "It was all some sort of mistake."

"Police don't make mistakes with the likes of you," she said. "Any more and you're out."

James shrugged his shoulders, unable to think of anything to say. He just had to hope that this was some isolated bit of harassment and not the start of the sort of campaign he'd heard of that some solitaries had to face. Maybe he'd find some way to get a sponsor after all. He pulled the last of the tape from his door and made his way inside. The forensic team had been as careful as a herd of buffalo. The place was even more of a tip than it usually was.

Disheartened, James pushed his way through the piles of his clothes, books and papers strewn across the floor of the flat towards his bedroom. The mattress had been pushed off his bed; sheets and blankets dumped in one corner. He couldn't face sorting it out. He just threw his jacket onto the pile of things that had been pulled from his wardrobe, stepped out of his trousers, pulled a blanket around himself and lay down on the mattress.

Sleep came slowly.

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Florence Daniels pushed her spectacles up from the bridge of her nose, squeezing it between her thumb and forefinger as she tried to give the briefing the attention it demanded. There was Cabinet tomorrow first thing, then Ministerial questions in the House tomorrow afternoon. And that was without the Parliamentary Committee the day after. She needed to be in command of the facts.

The Commissioner for Detention and Reorientation Facilities was trying to make things as clear as she could but it was hard to pretend that her report was much more than a string of numbers. 38,000 suspected dissidents detained during the first six months of the year of which 35,500 cases were sufficiently evidenced to enable summary sentencing and a further 2,000 went to trial with a conviction rate of 96%. The figures were up. Florence supposed that was good but how much more was better enough? You never knew in politics. It only needed some bright young spark to turn up claiming that it shouldn't be 38,000 but 76,000; that summary sentencing rates should be higher; that conviction rates below 99% showed incompetent policing or prosecution or both.

Re-offending rates were very low. But that was because release rates were very low too. She didn't know whether to be pleased that the Commissioner was managing the camps in such a way that detainees weren't released before they were ready or disappointed that she wasn't doing a better job of reorienting them so that they could become useful, sponsored, household members again.

That was the trouble with politics, too many relativities. She looked at the other briefing papers. Sponsorship take-up rates seemed to have stalled. The last few months had shown no real increase. But there weren't that many "solitaries" now; their tendency to fall fowl of the anti-dissident legislation tended to mean that most of them were in the Commissioner's camps. Presumably that was good? But what had that back bencher said last week? "The continued inability of the Ministry of Home Affairs to reduce the hard core un-sponsored threatens our ability to deliver on the New Order manifesto."

The Prime Minister had rebuffed the suggestion saying that she was sure that the Minister for Home Affairs should enjoy her continued confidence. Florence hadn't been entirely convinced that it was quite the ringing endorsement she thought she was entitled to. She would have preferred it if the PM hadn't said "should".

She looked at her notes. The tax changes that she had pushed through with the Chancellor should really be having an effect by now. The new sponsorship placement interview programme had been introduced. Social attitudes were firmly against the solitaries -- in fact that was probably making her life more difficult. She wasn't sure what else she could do, short of making not having a sponsor a detainable offence. A consultation programme? That might allow some time for the effects of the tax and the earlier legislation to feed through.

Her Permanent Secretary looked up from her own dossier. "If I might suggest, Minister," she began.

Florence looked hopefully across at Maggie Forbush with the eager anticipation of a spaniel tempted with a piece of raw liver. "Of course, Maggie," she said. "You know the views of the Civil Service are always welcomed."

Maggie Forbush had done well out of the election of the New Order government. She'd been a junior secretary in the department when they'd been voted in. At the time she hadn't been sure if they could deliver on their manifesto but they'd earned her vote like that of most women. Of course it hadn't helped that the traditional parties ignored New Order and then tried to ridicule them. You couldn't really blame the men for having lost interest in party politics. But with women united for New Order and the opposition parties fragmenting their vote if had meant a New Order landslide. When New Order had started they had been careful not to alienate those that hadn't voted for them. In the end, though, they had become completely focused on their vision of a state run by women, ostensibly for the benefit of all but with determined action against any opposition. The few dissident groups had provoked a strong response but most men had thought the whole thing would blow over. given time Maggie, like all women and even many men, approved of the Government's actions -- after all, society needs stability. Maggie was sure that there some injustices and, she supposed some women probably exploited the situation. It was hard to know; the tabloid press carried some lurid stories but Maggie thought most of it was down to women having to hold down responsible jobs these days and needing support -- after all wasn't that the way that men had had it for a long time? Still, by and large, the country was a better place and New Order had been re-elected three years ago with an increased majority, in spite of the fact that opposition seemed to have been better organised.

Maggie turned towards the Minister. In her short time as a senior civil servant she had been quick to learn the ways of the Whitehall Mandarins - "What is the female form of that?" she thought for a moment -- and it was always best to wait until the Minister felt she was in a hole before throwing her a life-line. This seemed to be the right moment to help out.

"Well, Minister, the problem is not so much that there are so many un-sponsored It's more that the sponsorship interview process has not been completed for a significant proportion of those involved and that presents a misleading picture. If we provide a new category in our analysis highlighting the effort of the sponsorship placement teams we can show how much effort is being put in there and show how large, or rather how small, the really obstinate cases of non-sponsored individuals are."

Florence always admired the ability of Maggie to come up with solutions to even the most intractable of problems. "So what proportion falls into the category of awaiting interview'?"

"Around 73.6%"

Florence thought the 'around' was unnecessary. Even she didn't believe that the statistics were that accurate. "So, the 'hard core' that the Member for Henley was referring to is only a quarter as big as she feared. I think the PM will be quite happy with that, don't you?"

"Yes, Minister," Maggie said with a smile.

Florence relaxed. The thought of an evening's amusement with the 'demonstrator' that Tanya Charles had provided suddenly seemed like something she could enjoy without worrying about the impending arrival of parliamentary daggers in her ministerial back.

It was only much later that she suddenly thought that Maggie would be back in a few days with a very well argued case for increasing in the staffing levels of the sponsorship interview service. Still she'd cross that bridge when she came to it. That and how she was going to reduce the 26.4% figure as well.