America's Galactic Foreign Legion - Book 3: Silent Invasion by Walter Knight Page A

indicated the
riverfront area would be a good place to search next. Lieutenant
Lopez and I had just walked out of Legion Headquarters to lead a
column of tanks to the docks when Phil Coen of World News Tonight
and his camera crew stopped me for an interview.
    “Major Czerinski, I am glad to have finally
caught up with you,” said Coen, pleasantly. “Is it true you are
arresting American citizens and turning them over to the spiders to
be tortured or summarily executed? What ever happened to the
Constitution and due process?”
    “I am not a cop,” I said. “The Legion has not
arrested anyone.”
    “Is it true you burned down the homes of
several of New Memphis’s leading citizens?” asked Coen. “Including
the Mayor’s mansion?”
    “That was the Mayor’s Mansion?” I asked
Lieutenant Lopez. “Is the Mayor on our list?”
    “Yes, sir,” answered Lieutenant Lopez.
“Giuseppe Battaglia is near the top of the list.”
    “How do these people get elected?” I asked.
“Oh well. Don’t worry. The Mayor is alive. He escaped out a tunnel
and is hiding with his Mafia buddies down by the docks.”
    “Did you burn down a pizza parlor next door
to the Sheriff’s Office?” asked Coen.
    “That was an accident,” said Lieutenant
Lopez. “Someone left the gas on from one of the ovens.”
    “What proof do you have of any wrongdoing or
Mafia involvement?” asked Coen. “Didn’t General Kalipetsis say just
this week that the Mafia never got past Mars?”
    “As you know, the Emperor of Arthropoda was
assassinated,” I explained. “There is evidence a conspiracy
originated here in New Memphis. The spider Feet Commander demands
that we arrest those responsible.”
    “Is it true the spiders allege the Emperor
was assassinated by a conspiracy of sanitary engineers?” asked
Coen. “How reliable can this information be, and should we trust
their word on the matter?”
    “Shit happens,” said Lieutenant Lopez.
“Garbage happens, too. Truth is sometimes stranger than
fiction.”
    “Critics in Congress have already questioned
whether we have allowed the Legion to become a puppet of the
Arthropodan Empire. Legionnaires arresting our own citizens and
turning them over to certain death at the claws of the spiders
smacks of a loss of sovereignty.”
    “Are we broadcasting live?” I asked. “What is
the range of your broadcast?”
    “We are broadcasting to our satellite,” said
Coen. “Then the feed goes planet-wide. Don’t you expect the
citizens of New Memphis to resist your infringement on their
Constitutional rights and your scrapping of the Bill of Rights in
favor of knuckling under to the every whim of a maniacal spider
Fleet Commander who once publicly stated that his ultimate goal is
to sweep humanity from this part of the galaxy?”
    “Martial law has been declared,” I said.
“It’s all legal. I would think the citizens of New Memphis would be
tired by now of being ruled by Mafioso thugs that obviously rigged
elections in the first place and treat the public treasury like it
is their own private bank account.”
    “Your martial law is illegal,” insisted Coen.
“You are just a Legion major. Where is General Kalipetsis? What
does the Sheriff have to say about this outrage?”
    “Is the Sheriff on our list?” I asked
Lieutenant Lopez, hoping.
    “Not yet,” said Lieutenant Lopez. “Do you
want him added?”
    “Coen wants to know how the Sheriff feels
about the martial law. Arrest Coen and his camera crew, and lock
them up at the county jail,” I ordered. “That way he can interview
the Sheriff in person.”
    “You can’t do this!” exclaimed Coen, as he
was grabbed by Sergeant Green. “I will sue you for violating my
First Amendment rights!”
    “My advice to you is never miss a good chance
to shut up,” I said. “That should be somewhere in the Constitution,
too.”
    As soon as the TV transmission was cut,
General Kalipetsis called me on the radio. He had been watching