The abandoned water treatment plant had the two large vans that the EOA team had arrived in parked just inside the gate. Barbou moved to a storage shed that looked like it hadn’t been opened in decades, but the door slid open on a perfectly lubricated rail with barely a rumble of ball bearings. Inside was Barbou’s own car, a high-end Mercedes. He retrieved a padded box from the glove compartment containing a rack of vials, which he handed over to Pavel.
“Get your men on their feet and we’ll head straight for the fortress.”
“…we have her in custody,” Anna continued, briefing Jason via video conference, “but Sebastian was out of the building before anyone was the wiser. Miranda was quite thorough in her preparations and was gone herself long before we realised what was happening. We have no idea where she is, now. If she’s smart, she’ll stay beneath whatever rock she’s crawled under and never come out. If I get my hands on her I’m going to strangle her with her own hair.”
“So, what now?” Ketevan asked, standing next to Jason in the small office at the airstrip. Asya and Chathura were also present.
“Asano,” Anna said. “I assume that your intention is to continue to France?”
“It is,” Jason said.
“A plane is being made ready as we speak. The good news is that the Lyon branch had contacted the IC and is ready to fully cooperate. The bad news is that their operations director has gone rogue. The International Committee is assembling a response force to hunt him down, a multi-branch group from across Europe. If he’s defected to an EOA cell, then he will potentially hand off dangerous secrets. Not just those of an Operations Director either.”
“He’s trying to pass my friend off to the EOA since she has limited value to the Network?” Jason asked.
“That may only be the beginning, from what I’m learning,” Anna said. “You’ll be briefed further on landing. For now, get on your plane and go. If the rest of you would leave, I’d like a private word with Asano.”
Chathura and Asya went outside, leaving Jason alone with Anna on the screen.
“Thank you for getting our people out,” Anna said. “Mr Corwin said that if it weren’t for you, you and he would have been the only survivors.”
“I’m sorry I couldn’t do anything for the others,” Jason said. “And don’t let Bruce sell his contribution short. My familiar was only able to stop one of the rockets that went by me. If Bruce hadn’t stopped the others, they would have found targets. Without him, there really wouldn’t have been other survivors.”
“Thank you for saying,” Anna said. “There was one other thing I wished to discuss—the security of your family. It’s unlikely but not impossible that Miranda, Sebastian, or both will attempt to use them as some kind of leverage. I’ve dispatched a security team to watch over them and I suggest you enact whatever measures that you have in place.”
“Thank you, Anna. I set things in motion the moment you told us that Sebastian was loose but appreciate you looking out for them.”
Emi arrived in front of her mother’s Castle Reach restaurant on a jet-black motorised scooter. As she was about to take off her helmet, she was approached by a pair of uniformed police officers.
“Miss, I’m afraid you can’t ride a motorised scooter in New South Wales, especially at your age. I know that a lot of stores are claiming it’s legal, but that isn’t the case.”
Emi absently meandered with a thoughtful expression, placing the officers between herself and the scooter. They turned to watch her, wondering what she was up to. Once their backs were to the scooter, she stopped, took off her helmet, and tucked it under her arm, scratching her head curiously.
“I’m not sure what you’re talking about, officers,” she said.
“The scooter you were just riding,” one of the officers said.
“What scooter?” she asked, the picture of innocent confusion.
“This scoo… where did it go?”
While the two officers were looking at the spot the scooter had vanished from, Shade took the helmet from Emi and placed it into his storage space before returning to her shadow, unnoticed. The officers turned back to Emi.
“What happened to the scooter?” one of them asked.
“Are you alright, officers?” Emi asked. “Has it been a long shift?”
“Where’s your helmet?” the other officer asked.
“What helmet?”
“Young lady, what’s your name?”
Emi pulled out her phone and started recording video.
“Put that away,” one of the officers said.
“If you’re going to fine me for riding an imaginary scooter,” Emi said, “then I’m going to film this interaction for the hearing where I contest it. Would you please point to the scooter that you allege I was riding?”
“You little…”
“It’s not worth it,” the other officer said, putting a restraining hand on her partner’s arm. “Just let it go.”
“You could have handled that in a much less provocative manner,” Shade told her.
“You seemed to go along with it quite smoothly,” Emi said.
“I know a man with similar proclivities. We should go talk to your mother.”
Behind her restaurant, Erika was talking to Jason through Shade while Emi was inside, devouring a panna cotta.
“Talking to you like this might take some getting used to,” Erika said.
“Well, there’s some stuff going on, so you’ll need to raise the bar for how quickly you can adjust to things. Talking through Shade is like using a phone, except he’s way, way better. Also, could you give me a panna cotta too?”
“Aren’t you on a plane to France?”
“I’m in Sri Lanka right now,” Jason said. “There was a technical issue with the plane and they’re switching us to a new one. Just give one to Shade, who can store it there, and bring it out here. It’s super handy.”
“You can teleport a dessert to Sri Lanka?”
“I have the power. Like He-Man, but with desserts instead of startling homo-eroticism.”
“Jason, I’m doors open in less than two hours. I don’t have time for you to be you. What’s this about?”
“You promise not to freak out?”
“No. Tell me anyway.”
“Okay, so this didn’t really come up in conversation, but last week, I got mildly kidnapped.”
“What?” Erika exclaimed.
“It’s fine.”
“You were kidnapped?”
“Mildly kidnapped. I unkidnapped myself as soon as the sedative wore off and the guy responsible has been locked up ever since.”
“You need to explain all of this right now.”
“I know,” Jason said. “It’s a whole thing, but we need to push on to what’s happening now. The guy who kidnapped me escaped, which is not great, obviously. It’s just a precaution, but some security people will be arriving very soon to make sure he doesn’t come after you.”
“Why would he come after us?”
“I don’t think he would,” Jason said. “He probably thinks I died when my plane blew up.”
“WHAT?”
51
THE LONG GAME
In the time it took Jason’s plane to arrive in France, circumstances on the ground had gone through significant changes. The Sydney Network team was met by a driver who took them in the direction of the Network’s Lyon branch to participate in an operational briefing.
“It’s a beautiful city,” Jason said as they drove.