Yue

 4th February

20:11 GMT -5

"You should be sure to temper your expectations. President Wilson has hardened his heart to any Made Men who might seek his pardon."

"We're not looking for pardons for everyone. But… Does that include everyone even slightly associated with the Syndicate, or just Made Men? If… An accountant who worked in an Syndicate-owned firm wanted to hand themselves in, or an engineer who worked on a Syndicate project and didn't commit a crime other than working for the Syndicate?"

"There may be room to negotiate, for those only tangentially involved. But President Wilson has committed himself to the destruction of the Syndicate. And he will not adulterate his ambition. I do not know if he would consider you to be a full member yet, but by staying here and speaking on their behalf you are putting yourself at risk."

I shrug. "We already have the technology to block the planeshift device your Lex Luthor used. I doubt that he's had the time to design a second device that works on a different basis."

"You are not concerned for yourself personally?"

"Not significantly." Hm. "What do you think the chance is of President Wilson removing all special legal measures and restoring habeas corpus?"

"He believes that the extraordinary measures are necessary for destroying the Syndicate and restoring peace to America. Once the Syndicate is destroyed, then the pre-bellum legal mechanisms would be restored."

I can't help but smile. "Did you know that the Syndicate didn't exist until Governor Wilson started targeting metahuman criminal gangs? I mean, the Managers knew each other, but cooperating was only ever on a case by case basis."

"No. And while I don't know whether it's true or not it hardly matters now."

"No? Because it seems to me that Wilson started a war that has made the country much worse off. Every time he escalated they escalated right back. If he'd just not done that, the country's supervillains would still be spending more time fighting each other than fighting anyone else."

"They would still be supervillains."

"Your starter for ten: what's the difference between 'kidnapping' and 'arresting without charge'?"

She narrows her eyes. "Pass."

"If you pay the ransom, the kidnapper lets you go. Wilson gave up the right to say 'the law says so' when he started changing the law to justify what he was doing. Ultraman was satisfied with running crime in Metropolis. Heck, crime went down after he took over all of the city's other gangs, even including his punishment beatings. Then he got threatened by something he couldn't beat on an organisational level. So he upped his organisational game and his brute force game, because the force at President Wilson's disposal was greater than what Ultraman had at his disposal."

"Are you trying to claim that letting the Syndicate off scot-free is the best solution?"

"How familiar are you with the Good Friday Agreement?"

Which exists back on Earth 16, but might well not be a thing here. I really need to get out and update my database.

"It was the peace settlement which brought an end to political violence in Northern Ireland."

"Sort of. Fanatical groups remained active for years afterwards, but the main groups accepted that it was a fair deal and stopped bombing and sniping. Marching season still gets a bit tense. But, part of the result was that hundreds of murderers were released from prison having completed a mere fraction of their sentences. And the vast majority of them didn't re-offend. The British government devolved a lot of authority to the Northern Irish Assembly while the Republicans gave up on trying to unify it with the Republic of Ireland by force. Everyone got a situation they could live with, and if anyone breaks the law now then they're fair game."

"The Crime Syndicate is not a political organisation, Citrine."

Cit-? Okay, not sure what her jewel fixation is about, but at least it's orange.

"Criminal gangs in Northern Ireland did a lot of fund raising. It didn't all go on guns. And they did punishment beatings, too. And while I rather missed the part of history where the British Army decided that treating Ireland like occupied territory rather than part of Britain was sensible, and that brigandage and murder were acceptable forms of policing, I know full well that they happened."

"You think that the Made Men of the Syndicate will become legitimate citizens if the President gives them a… Mulligan?"

"There was crime before supervillains. There would still be crime if they vanished. Even now there's crime, but since it's being committed by the state people are pretending that it isn't crime. But the last reliable statistics I was able to find said that supervillain-led criminal groups are actually slightly less violent than the regular kind. They can just escalate further if pushed. We've seen what happens when the surviving parts of the Syndicate are pushed."

She looks thoughtful for a moment. "The offer President Wilson received last year was genuine."

"Yes. Wait, you thought that it wasn't?"

"The President believed it was an attempt at misdirection. I had no opinion."

"Did he?"

"Yes."

"Because… People sometimes say that they want peace, when what they actually mean is 'victory'. Peace on their terms only. For example, take a look at how many Nobel Peace Prizes have been awarded in the Middle East. And compare it to how much peace has actually happened. People actually want peace when they're prepared to give up things they don't want to give up in order to achieve it."

"And what is the Syndicate prepared to give up?"

"All of their remaining strategic weapons. At least, those that aren't built into Made Men. Certain types of crime, so long as they are allowed to move into legitimate areas of commerce to offset the financial loss. Part of the Syndicate's combat strength can be… Sent into exile."

"Exile? Where?"

"Pick a failed state, or one run by criminal gangs already, or one where the government might appreciate metahuman muscle in order to solidify its hold on power. Creating a private military company out of the Syndicate's hard cases well outside President Wilson's area of concern. They won't complain too much about the work, and they won't be an immediate threat to America. Plus, if they die in combat, he doesn't have to worry about them at all."

"Unless they seize a country and begin rebuilding there."

"If they take over a country, that's even better. Firstly, there's less reason for them to come back to a place where there's a firing squad waiting for them. Secondly, running a country is actually really hard and takes a lot of time and intelligence, which is time and intelligence that isn't being spent on attacking American concerns." I shake my head at the obvious sub-par decision making. "Let me tell you: if I'd been running the Syndicate a couple of years ago, they'd have had a very different focus. So many ways they could make a profit-."

Oh goodness me. That's how I get them on-side. Evil Alan can give me their personnel files and I can work out how they can make money legallyish. And it won't go like it did with our Lex because they'll think I'm one of them and they're actively looking for better options.

"So that's my opening offer. Nothing is nonnegotiable, and the Syndicate does appreciate that while everyone would lose in the event of a direct confrontation they'd lose by most. I'm happy to meet with representatives of the President, or of anyone else if he doesn't want to be directly connected to what's going on."

"I can request an audience with the President and relay that."

"Not-. Lex Luthor will probably be President this time next year. You'll need to make sure you tell him as well, because he's going to have to live with it. And if the Quizmaster is as intelligent as his alter ego back on my home parallel, you should tell him so that he can make sure I'm not pulling something."

She nods slowly. "I will agree to that."

"Thank you. If you'll excuse me, I'll go and talk to Power Ring about letting you out."