“From the ‘Tropic of Kansas.’ States where the old corn wouldn’t grow anymore.”

“Not like it used to. Some were resettled because of blight, or drought. Others because of the fighting up there.”

“Did they come voluntarily?”

“I don’t know,” said Bagley. “My understanding was they got compensation. Food and shelter, some money. And the chance to help develop the crops that could restore the places they came from and fix our food crisis.”

“By working the fields of a genetically engineered grain that can grow in spent fields, suck a third more carbon from the air, and get twice as big as regular corn—just as long as you have a small army of workers to pollinate it by hand.”

“Look, I just handled the transportation to and from,” said Bagley.

“Fair enough, Mr. Bagley,” said Donny. “May I ask how many buses you dispatched, during your three and a half years supporting the AMR account at Fort Hood?”

“How many buses?”

“Yes. How many buses.”

“I don’t know. Usually about one a day.”

“Every day?”

“Most days. When things got really busy, there might be two or three. And they weren’t always buses.”

“What do you mean, they weren’t always buses?”

“We ran out sometimes. So to fulfill our contract we had to find alternate transportation. Trucks.”

“What kind of trucks?”

“Tractor trailers, mainly.”

“Air-conditioned?”

“Just ventilated, usually. Livestock trailers. We were using all the grain trailers to move product.”

“You used livestock trailers to ship people off to resettlement farms.”

“Only when we had to. And when we did, we cleaned them up real good. Put a port-a-potty in there, plenty of water. Still better than the conditions where most of these people were coming from.”

“Cattle cars, but business class,” said Donny. “So these trucks, and buses, they were used to transport internal refugees to work at the farms.”

“Yep.”

“And also people who were actual detainees?”

“They kept the insurgents in a separate section of the camp. More secure. Same with the transportation.”

“And who was in charge of moving these people around?”

“Federal emergency relief authorities. FEMA, Coast Guard, other branches of the Motherland Guard.”

“The same agencies in charge of the camp.”

“Correct, but not the farms where they worked.”

“Tripto Labs ran the farms. And oversaw the security AMR provided there.”

“Pretty much.”

“And you moved the people and material in and out of there.”

“That’s right.”

“Did you ever go into the camp?”

“Behind the wire? No. I didn’t have clearance. Closest I got was the transit depot across the highway, where we loaded and unloaded passengers.”

“What were they like?”

“Just like anybody, I guess. Skewed pretty young. Young guys, especially.”

“Those were the actual prisoners. Or detainees. Suspected insurgents.”

“Correct. Otherwise it was just like a cross section of folks from that part of the country. A lot of farm people.”

“Even old folks and young kids?”