continued from Part I

"The President for Life, um, misspoke, sir," Chief of Staff Rick Santorum looked uncomfortable. "The Selection applies to offspring of GuestJobbers, sir.. Not Goodjobbers. The media has already been alerted, and the correction is out now. If I may, sir," and without waiting for an answer touched a switch on Boykin's desk.

The screenbank came to life. Every screen had the correction in its crawl line.

Boykin sat back, relieved. "Ah, Mexican kids."

"And only in support positions sir. Kitchen and whatnot."

"Well that makes sense," Boykin grinned. "In their blood, isn't it?"

"Not that I object on the basis, but the logistics, you know, there are advantages to small troops in operations, but you can go too far in that direction, and what have you got? A C-130's worth of Honorable Unusables every couple of hours, and DOV will raise a stink unless you bring back actual remains for a Christian burial."

Although Boykin was a Man of Faith, his relationship with Secretary of Values The Reverend Jerry Falwell was not without friction. Both men attributed it to wartime tension.

Santorum, sensing his audience was over, collected his papers. Neither noticed the man with the cleaning cart outside the open door.

Roger pushed his cart down the hall and into the next office. Unlike Boykin's, it was empty. In this administration, it was only the bigwigs - and Roger - who were still around at 4 AM.

Roger had avoided GoodJob status by virtue of his long-time Federal employment. He was grandfathered in as a Federal Protected, and even assigned a Preferred card, which carried with it the privilege of living off-compound. It did not, however, carry with it the privilege of an Approval Exemption for MariLuz, and he had had to throw himself on the mercy of his boss and a long chain of higher-ups to get an exemption for Chuchito. "Jesus Rogelio," MariLuz had whispered to him, when their son was only a few minutes old. It seemed like another lifetime, but it was barely seven years ago. And barely three when they came for MariLuz.

"Approved," they called it. Approved for the GuestJob program. GuestJobbers did not enjoy the same luxuries as the GoodJobbers. Instead of bunks, they had thin foam mats, 100 to a cell, one communal shower a week, and one Nutri-Loaf for every twelve hours worked. Hours were steady, 24 on, 8 off. There were no Vacation Hours. Phone calls, letters, visits, were forbidden, and no Family Hours. The silver lining was, unlike GoodJobbers, GuestJobbers actually received a small amount of cash for their work, which they could either deposit into a bank account to take care of their final expenses, or opt for General Disposal when that time came, and have the money sent directly to family back home.