“We have to act, Odette,” said Saskia, taking her hand gently. She was exquisite, in a delicate white dress that bespoke elegance and civilization and calm afternoons. “We have to make the changes, the better changes. Please, please, come with us, darling.”
“I can’t!” sobbed Odette. “I can’t turn on my family! And what about Alessio? You want to bring your fight to him? Why do you have to try and make this worse? Isn’t peace better than war? You don’t know that a future with the Checquy will be a bad thing.”
“We know,” said Saskia sadly, and there was a momentary stinging sensation in Odette’s hand. Odette looked down and saw a spur stretching out from Saskia’s wrist to touch her hand. A single droplet of blood welled on her skin. She looked up at Saskia in horror. “I’m so sorry, ’Dette.”
“We all are,” said Mariette, and her words seemed to echo in Odette’s ears. The lobby and the faces of her friends wavered, twisting and blurring. Pim was gazing at her and his eyes were full of tears.
I love you, he mouthed.
“We love you,” she heard Simon say distantly. She felt a kiss on her cheek and Saskia’s hand holding hers tightly as she sank into sleep.
*
“I woke up in the lobby of the hotel three hours later,” said Odette. “They bribed the manager and told him to keep an eye on me while I slept, that I’d just had bad news. A death in the family. They’d even arranged for a waiter to bring me a coffee and some aspirin when I woke up.
“By the time I was awake enough to think straight, I realized that my friends had been very busy,” she continued. “They’d returned to the big Paris chapter house and lifted a lot of things — materials and tools. Then they killed the house and fled.”
“They killed the people in the house?” asked Rook Thomas intently.
“No, they killed the living components of the house,” said Ernst, real sadness in his eyes. “Two centuries’ worth of thoughts, memory, and service, wiped out.” He sighed. “That house was a good friend, a member of the family.”
“Since then,” said Marie, “they’ve been waging war on the Broederschap in Europe. Infiltrating installations and damaging projects. Some were major endeavors — years of work ruined in a matter of moments. People have been hurt, people have died, and property has been destroyed.”
“And now they are here,” said Bishop Attariwala.
“They have been for a while,” said Ernst. “They have already made some attacks. For instance, those people killed in the Italian restaurant the night of our cocktail party. That was the Antagonists’ work.”
“Oh God,” said Rook Thomas. “Why? Why would they do that?”
“We do not know their purpose in that instance,” said Marie. “But it is not the only time you have encountered them.”
“What else?” asked the Rook.
“The creature in Portsmouth,” said Odette.
“That gigantic sea monster they dredged out of the Channel?” asked Rook Kelleher, an extremely fat white man who was attended by a dozen iridescent butterflies fluttering in the air above him.
“We think it is how they entered the United Kingdom,” said Marie.
“Too good for the Eurostar, are they?” asked Chevalier Whibley.
“You know what kind of compounds and equipment our work requires,” said Marcel. “They could never have risked shipping it in through conventional means. Using one of our major constructs, they could transport a substantial amount of matériel across the Channel.” He snorted. “If they had managed to do it without running it into a cargo ship, they would have had a very useful engine of war as well. Still, I wasn’t surprised. That creature was experimental, unique, and apparently a complete bitch to pilot.”
“So who was the dead person inside the creature?” asked Bishop Attariwala. “Which of the Antagonists?”
“I think it was Dieter,” said Odette weakly.
“My son,” said Marcel quietly. There was an appalled silence.
“It had his eyes,” said Odette, “but it wasn’t his skin, it wasn’t his face. He was wearing some sort of white utility epidermis. We have something similar for conducting major surgeries or operating in harsh conditions.”
“In order to pilot the vessel, he would have had to link his neurons to the creature’s,” said Marcel. “When he crashed into the ship, the feedback would have killed him outright.”
“That would count as a design flaw in my book,” remarked Rook Thomas.
“We probably would have worked out that detail,” said Marcel.
“Why did it come alive again in the hangar?” asked Felicity. She was thinking of those horrible moments when she was trapped in the creature’s living flesh. “Was that part of their plan?”
“No, we believe it reactivated in response to Odette’s presence,” said Marcel. “With a living Grafter inside it, it turned back on, although the damage it had taken in the collision with the ship meant it would not have survived for very long.”
“And the people who attacked the car this evening?” asked Chevalier Whibley. “Any ideas?”
“I didn’t recognize them,” said Odette. “None of them.”
“They sounded English,” remarked Bishop Alrich. “Tasted English too.”
“We’re having their fingerprints analyzed,” said Rook Kelleher. “Two of them were in the system — minor criminals out of London.”
“So the Antagonists are recruiting,” said Rook Thomas sourly.
“They wouldn’t,” said Odette. “They might give those men weapon implants, use them as muscle, but there’s no way they’d accept them as equals.”
“Elitists,” said Lady Farrier. It wasn’t clear if she disapproved or not.
“Justifiably,” said Marcel. “That group of students was our most promising in decades. They’re unorthodox, but they’re brilliant. All of them.” He put a hand on Odette’s shoulder.
“And the blond man, the leader?” asked Bishop Alrich. “He was particularly eager to kill Rook Thomas. It seemed almost personal.”
“I have no idea who he is,” said Rook Thomas. “He was unconscious by the time I woke up in the car, even before the staff from Hill Hall arrived. The holding facility sent me some photos of him, but they rang no bells for me.” She flushed a little. “I have a bad memory for faces, though.” Lady Farrier snorted at this.
“Currently, he’s comatose,” said Rook Kelleher. “The doctors at the Rookery have examined him. No Grafter implants, so far as we can tell. No explanation for why he went unconscious. We have him in a secure medical facility in the building.”
“He seemed to be calling the shots,” said Alrich.
“And he seemed to know who you were,” said Odette to the vampire. “He was horrified to see you.”
“I can have that effect on people,” said Alrich modestly. Odette blushed.
“Well, this is all very well,” said Lady Farrier, “but let’s move beyond the minutiae of the situation and focus on the big picture. I’m sure you can understand, Graaf van Suchtlen, that these revelations have cast our negotiations in an entirely different light.”
“Yes, Lady Farrier,” said Ernst soberly.
“We, the Court, will need to discuss the implications of this. If you would excuse us?” The Grafters looked at one another and then began to rise. Marcel gathered up his papers. “Dr. Leliefeld, I wouldn’t bother taking those notes with you,” the Lady said.
“Oh? Why not?”
“Because this is a dream.”
*
Odette woke up. She was in the bathtub of her hotel suite, warm in her gel. Unbelievable, she thought. There was absolutely no doubt in her mind that it had been a real meeting, even if it had taken place while she was asleep. She was aware that Lady Farrier could manipulate the dreams of others — she must have reached out to all the attendees’ sleeping minds and gathered them together.