Page 39 - Effable Encounters

Power to the Creatures!

enfranchisement, medical coverage, and employment. That should
throw our opponents into her camp. Once she holds a highly-visible
position on the national board, our plans and policies can be slowly
introduced under various guises.”
“Just like a Trojan horse,” said Alison. “It worked for the religious
right in getting their members on school boards so evolution would
not be taught to the youth of America. How deliciously ironic if we
employed the same tactic to defeat their anthropocentric notions of
spirituality!”
“There you go again,” complained Bert. “Sometimes I wonder
where you got your education, Alison. Please find some other way to
denote deviousness and subversion than an expression based on
animal exploitation and denigration.”
“Denigration? That’s way out of line!” Alison turned on Bert, eyes
blazing. “Go back to your history books, my friend. The defenders of
Troy thought the horse was a beautiful trophy. If they considered it
ugly or worthless, why then did they pull it inside their gates? Answer
me that, O great theoretician.”
“It’s obvious,” replied Bert disdainfully. “The Greeks had to have
credibly left it behind because it wasn’t worth dragging back to
Greece. I expect the Trojans were really planning to use it the next
day for firewood.”
“Enough.” Karl knew he had to let his lieutenants relieve their
tensions in harmless squabbles over irrelevancies, so he chose his
moment of intervention with care. “The old board will be putting up
its own slate to the membership in about ten minutes, so we’d better
get back down there. Bert and I will take the stairs. Ingrid, you and
Alison can use the elevator; there’s no reason you two can’t be seen
together. So, let’s go: power to the creatures!”
“Power to the creatures!”
And off they went, on all four legs, to their appointed tasks.

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