Baji
“Are you sure Rin will not come to Command? The heart of our research division is here, and the facilities are much more secure. She can continue her work uninterrupted with all our resources at her disposal. That won’t be the case elsewhere.”
Jill, leaning back in her chair with her feet up on the desk, shook her head. “Sorry, Keeper, I don’t think she cares if you’re offering a gold-plated swimming pool filled with six-packed pool boys. Greenland’s a hard sell.”
The Keeper and her host, Meredith Frances, was the leader of the Prophus, and the only Quasing from the original Grand Council to join the splinter faction during the Spanish Inquisition. Meredith’s family came from a long line of Prophus and was one of the large financial backers of the faction. Now, even in her old age, she ruled with a firm hand and at times seemed to keep the faction together with glue, rubber bands, and sheer force of will.
Many worried about what would happen once she passed. Meredith’s heir to the Keeper, Hubert, had died on a mission fifteen years earlier. Coupled with the death of both Field Marshal Stephen and Admiral Abrams, both lost right before the Great Betrayal, there was a huge hole in the Prophus leadership. The Keeper’s new host heir was currently only six years old.
Jill, a rising field commander within the ranks, was considered a longshot for assuming that mantle because of the three crosses she had attached to her name. The first was that she refused to join the rest of Command in Greenland. Jill had refused to transfer there for a promotion, since she didn’t think Cameron could have a good childhood there. Most of the Prophus there were hidden either underground or lived in remote villages.
The second problem was more serious. She was married to Roen, whom most within the organization detested. That suited him fine, since he didn’t think much of them either. Both he and Tao had developed reputations as mavericks during his tenure as a host. His subsequent flouting of authority did not help his case, or hers, any.
Her last and most serious offense against the Prophus was that she was the one responsible for the Great Betrayal. Most Prophus disagreed with her decision to expose the Quasing and would probably never forgive her for it.
All this suited Jill fine, because no one had ever bothered to ask her if she even wanted the job. If someone had only posed the question, she would have gladly told them she’d rather be shot out of a cannon than head the Prophus from Greenland.
There wasn’t a week that passed without one of the Underground Railroaders bringing the topic up. She was not just the commander of the Pacific Northwest Conductor, she was infamous for being the host who made the decision to reveal the Quasing to the world, and she continually found herself defending her position, not only to strangers, but often to herself. Her usual response when asked was that she would make the same choice again. However, as the years went on, with the situation deteriorating day by day, even she found it difficult to believe her own words.
Stop beating yourself up over it. There were no good decisions that day, Jill. For what it is worth, I still feel it was the right choice.
“That makes you and me the only ones, then.”
Remember, the war was over; we had lost. You snatched victory from the enemy.
“If we can’t win, no one should. Nothing like being a spoilsport, eh?”
In this case, yes. I cannot even imagine what the world would be like now if we had allowed them to succeed. For one thing, we would all be living in caves in Greenland, or dead.
“Most of our people already live in caves in Greenland, or are dead. Also, if you had allowed the Genjix to win, maybe your people would already be swimming outside bodies having babies like crazy, while we humans suffocated from toxic air in blistering heat.”
Ah, paradise.
“Moving on,” the Keeper was saying. “If that’s Rin’s choice, then so be it. As long as she’s working against her own abomination, I don’t care where she is. I assume her escort to the next segment of the Underground Railroad has been arranged?”
“I didn’t want to send just anyone, so I thought I’d have my husband run the route.”
As if on cue, Roen walked into the room, going on about how he’d need to make a run into town tomorrow to stock up on salt blocks and gasoline. Jill turned away from the monitor and put a finger to her lips. She pointed at the screen and waved him away. Roen craned his head around her and saw the Keeper staring back at him. He scowled, the Keeper scowled, and then they both looked away pretending the other didn’t exist.
One day, she will forgive him for Hubert’s death.
“One day meaning when Meredith dies?”
I was thinking more like when he dies.
Roen, now out of view of the webcam, was miming. She had no idea what he was trying to say, though; he always did suck at Charades. Jill tried to ignore him, but a small smile crept up when he began to make faces. Then he started to dance. She suppressed her broadening grin.
“Excuse me, Keeper,” she said, putting the channel on mute. She turned to Roen and hissed. “Get out of here.”
He leaned in and kissed her on the lips. “Just wanted to make sure I can still hold your attention.” Roen looked over at the screen and waved. The Keeper, looking like she was etched out of stone, did not wave back. He held onto her hand until the very last second as he left the room.
“Apologies, Keeper. Please continue.”
The Keeper’s face looked a little more sagged than usual. “Jill, my dear, I’m amazed he was ever able to land you, and even more so that you two are still together. Please tell me he has redeeming qualities that he hides from the rest of civilization.”
“Probably not, but I wouldn’t have him any other way.”
The Keeper shook her head. “No matter what, you are not assigning that man to someone as important as Rin. I forbid it.”
“Keeper, he’s the best I have.”
“I don’t care if he’s the last human being under your command with legs. You are not placing the linchpin to stopping Quasiform in his care. Send someone else. Yourself if you have to.”
Jill furrowed her brow. “Sorry, but my operative days are over. I was never really good at being an operative, anyway. Besides, you do remember what happened last time I was put in a position to make a decision that affected all Quasing, don’t you?”
“Of course I do,” the Keeper snapped. “I was there. Dumbest decision I’ve ever made.”
Jill cocked her head to one side and sighed. “Meredith, you can’t take the blame for my – ”
“You bet your ass I can, girl.” The Keeper’s voice took on a softer tone and for a second, she almost looked warm and affectionate. “Listen, Jill, regardless of what happened afterward, that was one of the bravest calls I’ve ever seen. You showed me something that night. That’s why you head the West Coast. It’s one of the toughest regions in the world. Things could have been different if we had played our cards right. We didn’t handle it like we should have, so don’t beat yourself up over it.”
“I appreciate that but -”
“And I won’t handicap your career because of that either. Good or bad, that call lives and dies with me. When I’m gone, girl, we’ll need more people like you keeping things together.”
“Yes, Meredith. And thanks.”
“Don’t thank me, yet. Consider it a possible punishment.” And just like that, Meredith was back to being the ice-cold Keeper. “There’s one more thing you need to pay attention to near the Oregon border. One of our clandestine operations has run red near your territory. For the past few months, we’ve been tracking the flow of money to that region. Supply logistics, bribes, raw materials, building machinery and such, all allocated in massive amounts to a small town in the middle of nowhere on the far eastern edge of Oregon named…” The Keeper looked off-screen. “… Ontario.”