The Disciplined Women of Earth Zero by Susan Thomas

Author:Susan Thomas [Thomas, Susan]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: LSF Publications
Published: 2016-09-07T04:00:00+00:00

---oOo---

The Home Secretary sat at the head of the table. On his right hand side sat the Minister for Religious Affairs and next to him the Commissioner for Morality or, as he was more commonly known, the head of the religious police. On the left hand side of the Home Secretary sat the head of the Secret Intelligence Services and next to him the Commissioner of Police. The five men looked very grave and the meeting was extremely secret.

The Home Secretary sounded tetchy. "Well," he said, addressing the head of the SIS, "are we any nearer to knowing who Mr Brown is?"

"Yes and no sir."

"Oh, for pity's sake, which is it... yes or no?"

"Yes, we are nearer. No, we don't know who he is." The glare he received from the Home Secretary would have withered a lesser man. "We know a great deal. We know he is currently touring cells, raising morale and claiming they will soon overthrow the government. We know they call themselves The Yellow Sash and we know he's a first class liar. He claims that key members of the administration, who are not sympathetic to their cause, will be sedated. They won't. What he is giving out, is in fact poison, which will kill whoever gets it. We are in the process of secretly changing the poison to a mild sedative. He believes he has turned other members of the administration to his cause but he hasn't; many of them work for us. We have spies in the organisation but so far they are not trusted and not allowed to know much. We also know he is getting funding from somewhere and we suspect it is actually being stolen from the government. We propose putting a spy into the exchequer.

"What is feeding this is resentment at some of the religious rules. People don't like being picked up by the religious police for some trivial breach of the rules and getting flogged. They cannot see why they can't have shorter skirts or grow a beard. That resentment means that even if we catch Mr Brown there will be someone else doing the same thing."

The Home Secretary turned to the Minister for Religious Affairs. "Comment, Minister?"

"We know, and understand, the resentment. The rules were laid down to enable the populace to focus on outward and visible signs that they were part of a new and stabilised society. Their day is done." There were gasps from the secular members of the meeting. "We propose relaxing them: skirts may be up to three inches higher; the bodice line may be lower; make up permitted and more jewellery allowed; men will be permitted to grow hair long and have a beard or moustache if they wish. Those measures alone would remove most public punishments for women and the floggings for men. Church attendance will be changed to one compulsory attendance per month plus Christmas and Easter of course.

"We believe these will be welcomed by the people, but timing is everything. We need to announce these measures just before the planned uprising.

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