the SYNDIC

BY C. M. KORNBLUTH

ILLUSTRATED BY SUSSMAN

[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Science FictionAdventures Magazine December 1953 and March 1954. Extensive research didnot uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication wasrenewed.]

There have been a thousand tales of future Utopias andpossible civilizations. They have been ruled by benevolent dictatorshipsand pure democracies, every form of government from extreme right toabsolute left. Unique among these is the easy-going semi-anarchisticsociety ruled by THE SYNDIC.

"It was not until February 14th that the Government declared astate of unlimited emergency. The precipitating incident was theaerial bombardment and destruction of B Company, 27th ArmoredRegiment, on Fort George Hill in New York City. Local Syndicleaders had occupied and fortified George Washington High School,with the enthusiastic co-operation of students, faculty andneighborhood. Chief among them was Thomas 'Numbers' Cleveland,displaying the same coolness and organizational genius which hadbrought him to pre-eminence in the metropolitan policy-wheelorganization by his thirty-fifth year.
"At 5:15 A.M. the first battalion of the 27th Armored took uppositions in the area as follows: A Company at 190th Street and St.Nicholas Avenue, with the mission of preventing reinforcement ofthe school from the I.R.T. subway station there; Companies B, C,and D hill down from the school on the slope of Fort George Hillpoised for an attack. At 5:25 the sixteen Patton tanks of B Companyrevved up and moved on the school, C and D Companies remaining inreserve. The plan was for the tanks of B Company to surround theschool on three sides—the fourth is a precipice—and open fire ifa telephone parley with Cleveland did not result in anunconditional surrender. There was no surrender and the tanksattacked.
"Cleveland's observation post was in the tower room of the school.Seeing the radio mast of the lead tank top the rise of the hill, hesnapped out a telephone order to contact pilots waiting for theword at a Syndic field floating outside the seven mile limit. Thepilots, trained to split-second precision in their years of publicservice, were airborn by 5:26, but this time their cargo was notliquor, cigarettes or luggage. In three minutes, they were whippingrocket bombs into the tanks of Company B; Cleveland's runnerscharged the company command post; the trial by fire had begun.
"Before it ended North America was to see deeds as gallant andstrategy as inspired as any in the history of war: Cleveland'shistoric announcement—'It's a great day for the race!'—his deathat the head of his runners in a charge on the Fort Totten garrison,the firm hand of Amadeo Falcaro taking up the scattered reins ofleadership, parley, peace, betrayal and execution of hostages, theTreaty of Las Vegas and a united Mob-Syndic front againstGovernment, O'Toole's betrayal of the Continental Press wire roomand the bloody battle to recapture that crucial nerve center, thedecisive march on Baltimore...."
B. Arrowsmith Hynde,
The Syndic—a Short History.

"No accurate history of the future has ever been written—a factwhich I think disposes of history's claim to rank as a science.Astronomers quail at the three-body problem and throw up theirhands in surrender before the four-body problem. Any given moment
...

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