“Blake, no.”
“Yes,” I said. “Come with, as much as you can. I wouldn’t mind the backup.”
I pulled on my coat, then rummaged in the closet to get a new scarf and hat. There were two that were plain enough to wear. The nurse’s?
I stepped across the threshold, half-convinced I’d get shot or something equivalent. When I didn’t, I carefully locked the door. I stood there, hand still on the handle.
“You promise to smooth over the legal issues?”
“I’ll make this as stress free for you as I can. Nobody will enter the house, if I can help it, which I can. I promise you this.”
“The house is safe?” I asked.
He sighed. “You don’t know very much, do you?”
“I’m a fast learner, but not as much as I’d like to know.”
“I assure you, the house is safe. I don’t know of anyone who could or would damage the house or property. If it was that easy, we would have removed it already.”
I turned, joining him in walking down the long, snow-covered driveway.
“Let me cut to the chase. I’d like to talk about a hypothetical scenario with you,” he said.
“Sure,” I said.
“Global politics, if you don’t mind?”
“I don’t really mind.”
“In this scenario, we’ve got a situation involving a number of countries. If you will, there’s America. I’m rather interested in America for the purpose of this discussion, but that’s just me. Powerful, perhaps overly proud, large, keepers of the peace.”
I glanced at his uniform. “Sure.”
“Then a European country. I would say they are very traditional, seductive, beautiful, very prone to holding grudges. More history, more set in their ways.”
I thought of the blonde women I’d seen at the table with him. “I can picture it.”
“There are others. Imagine a small, very old, and somewhat backwards nation. We’d then have a broad swathe of nature with very few settlements, as well as a very vibrant country that has just come into an inexplicable amount of wealth, which is liable to burn out quickly on its excess. As well as other bit players who shouldn’t be ignored, but who aren’t of import in our discussion, here.”
I tried to put faces to the descriptions, but it wasn’t easy. Perhaps the man in the twisted tower, with the talking dog, for the latter? The girl with the checkered scarf… If I went by process of elimination…
“I’m picturing an aboriginal woman,” I said.
“I can imagine such a woman leading this very old nation, yes.”
“A young woman, in heavy clothing, with a rabbit, in the middle of the uninhabited, natural setting?”
“Mm. Quite right.”
“And… a long haired young man, for the wealthy country.”
“Yes.”
“If I were to add to this scenario, where would you fit a teenaged girl with a checkered scarf?”
He frowned, “I’m at a loss.”
“So am I,” I said. The girl who had been talking to the Other, with the face that stretched.
He thought for a second, nodding and smiling a greeting at someone who apparently recognized him in passing. When we were clear, he said, “Ah. Someone who intruded on important meetings, perhaps. A new arrival to the scene.”
“Is that so?”
“Too new and too small to be a serious threat. Self deluding, even, dealing in things she doesn’t fully understand. A complicated situation. I’d call her a terrorist before I called her a local power.”
“Fair enough. Can we call her Maggie, or is that mucking up the metaphor?”
“We could call her that. Maggie Holt, I believe.”
I nodded.
He took in a deep breath, opened his watch, then closed it, without looking at it. “In this imagined scenario, we have a country in, say, our equivalent of South America. This hypothetical country is unpredictable, has a history of being aggressive, and it just so happens they are the only one in this imagined scenario who have nuclear weapons at their disposal.”
Nuclear weapons. It seemed an apt descriptor for the books I’d seen. Dangerous to handle, dangerous to use. Once they were brought to the table, everyone would lose.
“In this little story, the dictator died, and a successor was assassinated in short order, let’s say. Now another one has taken the helm, and nobody is entirely sure what type of person the young man is… which is very concerning, considering the weapons he has at his fingertips. He could be reckless, he could be mild mannered, he could be a merchant, a politician, or a student, but he’s an unknown quality, and appearances can be deceiving.”
“I can picture that,” I said.
“Should this small southern nation cease to be a concern, everyone else profits, and the nukes being removed from the picture is only a small part of that. The other countries would be elevated to a new age… and the country who is most powerful will take the helm, quite possibly forever.”
If Hillsglade House was the small country… Jacob’s Bell the region…
“Is it so important?” I asked. “The… resources or whatever you’d gain? A few acres?”
“When things develop to a certain point, it takes on a different tone. Population, wealth, whatever else, they attract attention from everyone. With the current status quo, our little world here is small enough to be left alone. Understand, our little metaphor here falls apart when we cease talking about the area that falls within, say, a thousand kilometers around us. I could start talking about other planets with their own drama and politics, if I really wanted to maintain the narrative, but those thing really aren’t our focus.”
“I understand,” I said. I also understood that the ‘metaphor’ was making it very easy for him to outright lie, but that was a given.
“When our little world here grows, everyone with an established power base can ride the cresting wave. Prestige, fortune, status, with others visiting, or attempting to get in while the going is good, and paying a good price to do so.”
“Alright,” I said. “I’m starting to get a sense of this.”
“The trouble is, when the road block,” he half-turned to gesture back at the house, “Is removed, and when things start developing, there will be a very small window of opportunity in which one of the local powers I just described might take the helm. If one doesn’t, it’s liable to be a more distant entity, and it’s likely to be someone we couldn’t hope to stand up to.”
Halfway across the world… in this analogy… someone from outside Jacob’s Bell? Another, greater power.
The families here were small in the grand scheme of it all, and before the city grew and drew attention, they wanted to solidify their positions.
He opened his pocketwatch, then closed it without looking down, like a nervous tic, then continued. “America rather likes the status quo, and if we were to see this small hypothetical country fall right now, it would be bad for America. America wouldn’t take power, nor would the European country. It would be left to the newcomer, with all of his wealth, excess, and arrogance.”
I thought of what I’d read. The warning to stay out of the north end. “This hypothetical wealthy country wouldn’t happen to be to the north?”