“How’s my little man doing?” Jill asked.
“Hey, guys,” Cameron said, giving his mother a hug and high-fiving his dad on the part of his club arm where the hand should be, earning him another “ow.”
“Pull up a seat, son.” Roen tried unsuccessfully to gesture at a chair. Cameron pulled one up close to the bed and sat down next to his mother. She reached out and held his hand. Right then and there, he knew he had fallen into a trap.
“Listen, Cam, your mother and I have been talking. What do you think about studying overseas in the UK? The Keeper can pull some strings, and we can enroll you in school there, and possibly have you attend Oxford when you’re old enough.”
Cameron saw the expectant looks in his parents’ eyes and realized that they’d already conspired with his Quasing. “Tao, you totally went behind my back, didn’t you?”
Maybe.
“I thought you were on my side.”
I am on everyone’s side.
Cameron stood up and crossed his arms. “No. I’m not leaving you guys. Forget it.”
His father and mother exchanged glances. “Actually,” Roen said. “I thought I’d come with you. I think I’m pretty much done. I’m officially retired the day these damn casts come off.”
Cameron looked at Jill. “You, too?”
His mother shook her head. “Got offered a new job. Thinking about taking it.”
“Is it in the UK as well?”
“No, but it’s close.”
“What’s the job?”
“The Keeper’s.”
WHAT! Baji is the new fucking leader of the Prophus?
Cameron wasn’t sure who was more shocked, him or Tao. Probably Tao. Still, the news left him speechless. That would mean…
“You’re moving to Greenland?” he asked.
She nodded. “Kind of a requirement for the job. Meredith can’t do it anymore, and her heir, the Keeper’s new host-in-waiting, is too young to take the reins – thanks to your Dad, by the way – so she asked me to take interim command. Probably a five- to ten-year stint.”
“Will Dad go with you?”
Roen grinned. “I’ll be traveling between you both and living out my golden years in retirement while you attend school and your mom slaves away for the Prophus in the Arctic tundra.”
Cameron’s mind raced as he considered the relocation. In truth, he was used to it by now. He had been traveling most of his life, going from place to place. Sure, he’d be far from his grandparents, but it was probably for the best now that he was a Prophus agent. Wait, was he? Cameron had assumed that starting from the mission on the haven, he’d be a full-blown operative, but if he went to school, were they going to pull him from the front line?
“Am I still going to be an agent?” he asked.
His parents exchanged looks. “No,” they said together.
“Then screw this.” Cameron shook his head stubbornly. “You’re not going to tuck me away while you guys risk your lives and the Genjix destroy the planet. I think I’ve proven myself enough.”
“Look, Cam,” Roen said. “You are a Prophus agent already. However, this damn war isn’t the only important thing in the world. You need an education. You need friends. You need a life outside of the Quasing. That way, you know what you’re fighting for.”
They are right. It will just be for a few years. Get a degree. Figure out what is so beautiful about your species and your world.
“I… guess.”
It took another thirty minutes of convincing, but in the end, Cameron accepted his parents’ decision. Wasn’t like he had much of a say in all this, especially with all three of his parents hammering him, but he realized in the end it was for the best, and it was the only way they could stay close together. At least for a little while longer. The family had come to a consensus and were about to hug it all out when Liesel, Jill’s new assistant sent from Greenland, walked in.
“Ma’am,” she said, saluting. “We have a situation. There’s been an unusual chatter along several underground channels. We believe it’s a message.”
Jill switched gears and was all business. “For me? From the Genjix?”
“No, we believe for him.” She pointed at Roen.
She frowned. “What does it say?”
Liesel looked down at her tablet. “Rayban Ghost. Let’s talk.”
Roen knew how ridiculous he looked when he got off the elevator onto the fourth floor of the IXTF regional headquarters in Seattle. The security guard at the entrance stared, mouth agape, as he hobbled into the hallway. The casts on his arms forced them up like Frankenstein’s, and with most of his body in wraps, he must have looked like a walking punchline.
It also was pretty damn painful to make the trip here by himself from Edmonton. However, Kallis insisted this be done in person. Cognizant that this could just be a trap to haul him in, Roen insisted on going alone. The risk was high, but the possible payout was even greater. Besides, his wife, as the new leader of the Prophus, would bust him out, right? Well, at least he hoped so. Roen limped into the office like Quasimodo and waved at two of her guys he recognized from Ontario. Fortunately, they were far too shocked by his appearance to assault or arrest him.
“Wow, you look like absolute shit,” a familiar voice said.
Roen did a complete body turn and saw Kallis, hands on her hip and facial expression somewhere between bemusement and surprise.
“A little help here?” he asked, eyes looking down at the messenger bag about to fall off his shoulder.
No one moved a muscle to help him. Roen should have figured. After all, not only did he work for the aliens, as a full human, he was actually betraying his own species. He was also the Rayban Ghost. They knew for a fact that he had not only injured, but probably gotten some of their brothers- and sisters-in-arms killed, though in Roen’s defense, he had tried his damnedest to avoid that.
Most of all, though, they probably felt like he had completely betrayed their trust. He had sat at their table and broken bread with them. Well, had had drinks, which in this day and age was the same thing. For those in his line of work, it meant something. He had played them for fools and manipulated them. That was something that was difficult to forgive.
“Back to work. All of you,” Kallis snapped. She gestured to Roen. “Come with me.”
He hobbled after her into an interrogation room. The bright side was that none of the agents pounced and tried to cuff him. That was a good sign; it probably meant that he wasn’t going to get arrested and thrown into prison. Well, the day wasn’t over yet.
They went into a bland gray room with a table in the center, two chairs on each side, and a window at one end. On the desk were a pen and paper, and a video recorder, pretty stereotypical, like a bad cop procedural movie. Kallis took a seat at one end with the camera behind her, and Roen sat down on the other side. The camera was already on.
“Thanks for coming,” Kallis began. “What happened to you, anyway?”
“Roller-blading accident.” Roen shrugged. When she gave him a look, he decided to stop trying to be witty. He was never really good at it, not since Tao left him, anyway. “That underwater base your people captured and are trumpeting as a major coup against the aliens?”
She nodded.
“You’re welcome.”
Kallis looked back at the video recorder with the lights on and turned back to him. “Right. Well, over the past two weeks, we captured two alien bases and we saw some crazy shit in there. Our best guys have no idea what they’re for. I bet you do.”
He nodded. “Maybe.”
“So instead of us trying to reinvent the wheel, I’d thought I’d just ask someone who already knew,” said Kallis.
“What are you offering?”
“Immunity.”
Roen shrugged. “And?”
Kallis leaned back and studied him for a few seconds. The silence was long and exhausting, but Roen knew this trick. He waited for her to shut the camera off, which she did a few seconds later. Of course there was another hidden camera behind that two-way mirror. Now the real negotiation began.