“Imagine if he really can access the grid and dimensional spaces,” Gladys said. “What wouldn’t the EOA give him in return for that? They’d want him more than Eustace and his obvious man crush.”
“Hey, if it gets him on board,” Eustace said, “I’ll take one for the team.”
“Well,” Gladys said. “Maybe not quite as much as Eustace.”
“Surely there’s a middle ground between war and letting him run rampant,” Nigel said.
“Not from his perspective,” Anna said. “What did we ever do other than threaten his sister and try to kidnap him? What reason does he have to answer to us?”
“When I was in school,” Asya said, “I was in debate club with Jason. He was always better at winning over audiences than judges, because his arguments sounded logical but were really about passion. You could feel him believing things so hard that you started to believe them too. We were debating democracy versus authoritarianism, and the way he talked about the difference between obedience and loyalty…”
She stood up.
“As far as I’m concerned,” she said, “this discussion is over. If we act in good faith, I believe that he will too. If you go the other way, don’t tell me, because I will warn him. I’m heading back to Canberra to make my report to the IC in person.”
The others watched as she marched out of the conference room.
“So,” Gladys said, turning to Anna. “You took my advice and went with the honey trap.”
“I did no such thing!”
Paul Abreo was part of the Steering Committee for the Lyon branch of the Network. He had wanted to talk to the Operations Director, Adrien Barbou, in person, but the man was spending all his time working out of the black site. With the International Committee ramping up scrutiny, Paul didn’t want to risk the site’s location being exposed by a visit. Instead, he called Adrien on the secure line.
“Adrien, it’s time to bring this to an end.”
“I’m close,” Adrien said. “She’s ready to break. I can feel it.”
“Close isn’t good enough, Adrien. The IC is coming down on us hard.”
“Once she breaks, we can share what we get out of her and they’ll shut their mouths.”
“The Sydney branch is cutting a deal with their outworlder,” Paul said. “It’s already showing results. They’re not going to back down when they’re getting voluntarily what we can only potentially get through rendition.”
“You have to keep them off my back long enough to finish this,” Adrien said. “You think this outworlder will give us anything after what we’ve done? If he has the support of the International Committee, he’ll probably leverage what he can offer to sanction us. All we can get, we’ll have to get from her, or the other branches will leave us behind.”
“You think I don’t know that, Adrien? The simple fact is, we took a risky shot and we missed. At this stage, cooperating with the IC will get us more than resisting them will. It’s time to hand the girl over.”
“Give me a week,” Adrien said. “If I can’t do it in a week, I’ll hand her over.”
“The Steering Committee has made their decision, Adrien.”
“One week.”
Paul grumbled through the phone.
“Three days,” he said. “That’s as much as I can give you. More than that and the Steering Committee will send people in to remove you from your position.”
“Thank you, Paul. You won’t regret this.”
“See that I don’t. You owe me for this one, Adrien.”
In his office, underground with concrete walls, Adrien hung up the phone. His fury showed only through his stillness as his mind ticked over. He unlocked the bottom drawer of his large oak desk and took out a steel lockbox with magic engravings that would destroy the contents if anyone forced the lock.
He took the box to the elevator. There were no buttons, only a locked panel that he opened with a key. Behind the panel was a card reader, through which he swiped his identification, a hand scanner that he pressed his palm to, and a voice scanner, into which he spoke his name. A light turned green, and the elevator doors closed, the lift ascending to the surface.
The elevator emerged on the grounds of an abandoned water plant that looked to have been left unattended in the countryside for decades. He wandered through a hole in the chain link fence, beyond the range of the hidden cameras. He then opened the lock box, took out a satellite phone and an envelope containing a number, which he dialled.
“Ms Ellis,” he said, when the line was picked up. “This is Adrien Barbou. I’d like to talk about your proposal.”
44
OLD TESTAMENT POWER
Erika stormed upstairs and threw open the door to her daughter’s bedroom. Standing in front of a monitor, Jason and Emi were holding plastic guitars and playing a rhythm game. Taika sat on the floor behind a plastic drum kit. All three turned guiltily to face the door.
“Jason,” Erika scolded. “We have thirty family members in the back yard and you’re in here?”
“Those may not be unrelated facts,” Jason said.
“Well, Nanna just arrived, so get your arse downstairs.”
Emi and Jason immediately perked up, putting aside the guitars.
“I’ll head back to the houseboat,” Taika said.
“You can stay if you like, Taika,” Erika said. “I didn’t see you arrive.”
“I left a portal open in your bedroom,” Jason told her.
“What?”
Erika marched to her own bedroom and opened the door to find a shadowy archway at the end of her bed.
“Seriously?” she asked, turning her glare on Jason.
“No one’s going to come in here,” Jason said.
“Excuse me,” Taika said as he brushed past and paused in front of the portal. “We’re heading into Sydney tomorrow, yeah, Jason?”
“Yep,” Jason said.
“No worries,” Taika said. “You have a lovely home, Mrs Asano.”
Taika disappeared through the portal.
“Come on, Emi,” Jason said. “Let’s go see Grand Nanna.”
Arriving downstairs and going through the kitchen, Jason was intercepted by one of his cousins. Koji was the son of Ken’s brother, Shiro. Being Jason’s age, they had spent a lot of time together as children, without ever really being friends.
“So here he is, back from the dead,” Koji said. “I guess there’s no keeping Bananaman down.”
“Koji,” Jason said, “you do realise that you’re implying that I’m too invested in white culture by referencing a British cartoon series from the 1980s that you and I used to watch together, right?”
“I see dying didn’t make you any less of a smart arse,” Koji said.
“No, that’s pretty set in stone,” Jason said. “Still, I won’t begrudge you going the other way.”
“What?” Koji asked.
“He’s calling you a dumb arse, Uncle Koji,” Emi explained.
“Oh, Jesus,” Koji said. “You’re going to turn out just like him, aren’t you?”
“You hear that?” Jason asked Emi. “Uncle Koji thinks you’re going to be super good-looking. Let’s go find Nanna.”
“I hate you so much,” Koji said. “Glad you’re not dead, though.”