Stub 10.7: The dam bursts

News of Sedelia's incursion into Cali spread quickly.

Sacramento responded by calling all state police and assigning them to a perimeter around Sacramento that was sixty miles across. Only one-in-ten police responded. The rest were hunkered down with their families.

Sacramento also called up the armed forces and gave them the same assignment. There was little traffic to parse. The truck drivers who were cutting turnstiles were leaving the ones heading toward Sacramento untouched.

Sacramento was an island.

Trucks streamed around the island lured by the $35-a-nose fee to transport asylum seekers to LA. The Sedelia buses were deployed to collect prisoners from the far-flung system and bring them to Paradise. From there, the prisoners walked off one bus, were handed a Wallyworld box lunch and soda pop and walked onto one of the modified semi trailers. As soon as they stepped aboard the semi-trailer they were called asylum seekers.

The semi-trailers had been restricted to 150 passengers when transporting families for three, thirteen hours legs from San Diego-to-Mexico City. Considering that all of the prisoners/asylum seekers were able bodied, they packed three hundred on each trailer. That amounted to $10,000 US for a 24 hour turn-around. The truckers were FIGHTING to get a piece of the action.

Word spread via the guard network that el Patrone was ramrodding the operation. From there word spread to the prisoners. They craned their necks to get a glimpse of him as they passed through Paradise. It was pretty clear who was in charge, even if he was physically underwhelming. Like all eye witnesses the men and women saw what they wanted to see. His description mutated faster than the flu virus.

After several days of inactivity in the Sacramento sector employees started returning to work. That is when the backstabbing and sabotage started. There was not enough "real" work for them to do. The most devastating sabotage was when they started burning tires inside the buildings. The sulfides were drawn through the air system and thence into the electronics where they attacked the molecule-thin printed circuits.

The first asylum seekers to exit the trailers were the Cwiok twins. They were greeted by Radikha and Tory...and Dilip.

Dilip said, "I have a job for you. But that can wait until morning. You still have your rooms in Bora Bora if you want them."

They did.

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