Read Global Warming Fun 5: It’s a Dry Heat Page 10
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Twenty miles south, Scar conversed silently with the thousands of tiny allies that he carried with him as packages on his roadster Harley. "I could have simply killed them all, including citizen witnesses," he complained, muttering so softly that his fellow riders wouldn't hear. The thoughts were captured by the med-tick attached to his spine however, and amplified such that the colony of jants that he carried with him could easily 'hear' him.
"OUR SPIES IN RIDGECREST SAY THAT THE BROTHER AND HIS GUESTS ARE TO VISIT SILICON VALLEY AT THE BEHEST OF JERRY GREEN," replied the jants. "WE WANT THEM TO DO THAT. GREEN IS UP TO SOMETHING IN SILICON VALLEY THAT WE NEED TO DISCOVER. THE RUMSFELDS WILL UNKNOWINGLY BE OUR SPIES."
"I DON'T GIVE A DAMN ABOUT THAT!" Scar silently complained as forcefully as he could.
The jants in the Harley conversed with larger jant colonies in Fresno and beyond about how to respond. Not for the first time, there was disagreement between the colonies. Some colonies argued for the immediate extermination of all humans world-wide. Humans consumed too many resources, they argued, and all useful human knowledge had long since been absorbed by jants.
Not so, countered colonies that depended on humans for food and shelter. True, a huge amount of jant resources were consumed curing human diseases and controlling selected humans, but in balance it was worth it. Besides, someday, hundreds of jant generations in the future, the human-led space program would take jants to the stars. Also, humans could be controlled or at least strongly influenced, argued the majority. Yes, there were obviously far too many humans for life on Earth to be sustained in the long run, but increasingly humans were fighting among themselves and killing each other. Net human population growth had stalled. Perhaps the humans were at last learning to control their own numbers.
Plus for reasons not fully understood by the jants, the Stone-Coats were clearly closely allied with humans, and had made it clear that they wanted human life to continue. While it wasn't difficult for a human to be overcome and consumed by a jant colony, the jants knew of no way to overcome Stone-Coats. To the contrary, Stone-Coats if they wished to could destroy and consume any number of jant colonies. That point was made clear by Stone-Coats to jants whenever the prospect of obliterating the humans was brought up to them.
The North American Jant Alliance and the larger World Jant Alliance as a whole therefore pursued a cautious and complex course with respect to the jant/human relationship. To most humans including influential humans such as Jerry and Ed, they exhibited only friendship and cooperation. But they also influenced and controlled selected humans more directly using med-ticks and used human tactics such as bribery.
They soon discovered that some strong-willed humans were difficult or even impossible to control. Scar was one of those, but he was currently serving an important purpose. Once he controlled the Stormtrooper Confederacy and jants similarly controlled the State government, the Western Jant Alliance would control all California. Therefore the first impulse of the local jants to have Scar drive himself into a bridge abetment was rejected. "IF YOU WANT TO KEEP US AS YOUR ALLIES YOU HAVE TO DO AS WE SAY IN THIS MATTER," they told Scar. "WOULD YOU RATHER THAT WE ABANDON YOU?"
Scar groaned. The jants had numerous willing spies and zombies everywhere throughout California. They controlled hundreds of key people at federal, state, and local levels. More importantly through a med-tick they controlled the pain and pleasure centers of his brain. They had nearly a year ago cured his cancer but were now exploiting his ambitions and weaknesses. He didn't like it but he knew he had made a deal with the devil and pretty much had to go through with whatever they wanted of him. "NO!" he finally responded. "I'M DOING WHAT YOU WANT, AIN'T I? AND SO IS MY WOMAN."
Yes, for the most part, the jants reflected, but this man was more difficult to control than most humans were. He would have to be watched and perhaps eliminated. He was large and meaty. When he was no longer useful he would make a very nice meal for a hungry jant colony, just as hundreds of troublesome humans before him had.