Matt



"The Second Expeditionary Force," said Sir Walter. "Officially. Unofficially referred to as the Irish."

"What's the First Expeditionary?" asked Matt.

"One of our native units. Actually the Irish are the only non-Atlantean military unit. We employ some mercenary forces here and there, or military corportions as they're called these days. But they're strictly on a contractual basis and handled through intermediaries."

"I presume they know whom they're working for," Matt said.

"Generally. I would suppose so. But they work for money, although the ones we deal with do have certain principles. They will only work for employers of whose policies they approve."

"So you have a hundred thousand men. If a good part of their support is from Atlantis - supply, transportion - they could be a considerable combat force. What... three quarters at least."

"Better than that," Sir Walter replied. "Ninety percent. A very small administrative corp to interface with command."

"Impressive. I suppose you have no problem with recruitment."

"Hardly. The wealth of Atlantis is.. considerable. We can outbid anyone when it comes to recruiting. The Irish are paid at the same rate as Atlantean special forces. After twenty years service they are permitted to retire with a pension comparable to Atlanteans, and are awarded an additional sum of money determined by their service records. They also have the privilege of becoming permanent Atlantean permanent residents, should they wish to retire in Atlantis."

"What's the difference between a resident and a citizen?"

"A citizen must be born in Atlantis, with at least one Atlantean parent who is either a citizen or a permanent resident. There is relatively little difference between permanent residents and citizens - mainly the ability to vote in elections and hold political office. A child born to two permanent residents can apply for citizenship at the age of majority, and unless there is a compelling reason not to it is always granted."

"Seems like a pretty good deal. Do many choose that option?"

"Quite a few. Maybe half, maybe less. Retiring in Ireland is a pretty good deal for those who want to return home, given the generous pensions. And most accumulate considerable savings during their service. But Atlantis is attractive, and being here for twenty years gives them a chance to appreciate the opportunity."

"I can see how some would like it. I suspect I'm not unique. As in the only guy you ever recruited this way."

"You're not. Except in one way."

Matt waited.

"You served in the Air Force, as I did."

"Yeah. Is aviation your interest in me? I worked in intel. The only flying I did was in ELINT/SIGINT surveillace aircaft."

"But you were interested in aviation?"

"Yeah, I liked airplanes. Still do."

"That wasn't our primary interest," Sir Walter said, "but it's how you came to our attention. As quality of recruits goes, the Air Force is... was above all the others. Even the Navy, with similar requirements for technology expertise, was a notch below. That is, a recruit might not qualify for the Air Force but still be good enough for the Navy.

"In some areas, like aviation, there was no difference. And in intelligence. The Air Force flagged you as something they wanted for special duty, from the time you took the ASVAB. You had a yellow jacket. When you arrived in basic training, that file went to the commander of the training school, you were placed in a special flight, your instructors knew you were to be handled differently.

"Among other things, if you failed certain criteria - some physical limitation or other problem, you were to pass unless it was just too severe for you to be viable. You took a lot of tests that most of the other trainees didn't."

"I remember they pulled me out a few times, for tests and interviews. Some of them were civilians. I didn't know what meant then, I was young. Later I learned they were spooks."

"Correct. Along with your other tests your linguistics ability impressed them. Which is why they tagged you for recruitment into the intel operations. You'd spend the next few years flying around listening to radio traffic in Russian. Did you ever go through your complete records? Or as much as they would let you have?"

Matt grinned.

"Yeah. The problem with training people to find out things others don't want you to know is you can find out what then don't want you to know. I got the restricted part, as probably a lot of us did."

"Do you remember your mental assessments?" asked Sir Walter.

"I remember they gave me the IQ test twice. Or actually two different tests."

"On the first one you scored 284, and 289 on the second. They do that to confirm the first one wasn't fluke, or a clerical error in recording. And you have Asperger's, which I suppose you know."

"Yeah. I didn't think much about it at the time, but it explained a lot of things."

"Every one of the Lords has it," Sir Walter said. "It's actually common among remarkable people. But our analysis of your records led us to look into your ancestry."

Matt waited.

"Did you ever look into it?" asked Sir Walter.

"No. I believe one, maybe both of my sisters did some investigation, back a few generations. To the time when their ancestors arrived in the country, early 1800s on my mother's side, my father's family came over from Ireland, during the famine."

"Correct. On your mother's side you had more variety. Mostly English we traced back to the sixteenth century, among them a little-known minor aristocrat named Edward Blake, who was said to have been custodian of hidden treasure secreted in England by the Knights Templar who fled to England when the order was dismantled.

"What became of the loot is unknown, or if there even was any. But some ancient manuscripts from the time came down through his descendants to finally end up with Ishmael. They were important in confirming the information he had about Atlantis. So one of your distant ancestors was involved. I decided to track down any of his descendants and found you."

"Am I the only one?"

"Besides your sisters, yes." Sir Walter replied. "And of course your brother. He had already died before I located you."

Matt's older brother had died young, in an automobile accident.

"He had a troubled life," Matt said.

"I learned as much. One never knows about these things, why they happen. You are a bit of a rarity, though you may not realize it."

"I didn't think much about it," Matt said, "until recently. The war brought out a lot of things."