TRANSCRIPT (EXCERPT)
INTERVIEW CONDUCTED BY DR. ROGER BLEVINS (RB)
WITH MUON RACHEL BAT AVRAHAM (RA)
11:00, DAY 1807 (10 JULY, YEAR 5)
NOTES: Video recording was made automatically by a motion-activated security camera system in Conference Room #2 at DODO HQ, Cambridge, MA. In the wake of subsequent events, the file was salvaged from a secure server by DODO personnel and transferred to the ad hoc GRIMNIR backup system, where it was later transcribed. Excerpt below begins at approximately 11:15 local time.
RB: In preparing for this meeting, I took the routine step of reviewing your file. I see you have once again started asking the DOers you Send back to your native DTAP to get word to your family that you’re safe.
RA: Yes, I am sure they are worried about me. It has been nearly three years. I want to reassure them.
RB: You signed a nondisclosure agreement. That means nothing can be disclosed. To anyone.
RA: Except God, you mean. You cannot tell me to keep anything from God.
RB: Ask God to tell your family how you’re doing.
RA: I do, of course. But I am a good daughter, and so I must make the effort as well.
RB: No, you mustn’t. In fact, you signed a paper swearing you would not.
RA: The commandments come before any pledge I make to a worldly regime, and the commandments say honor your father and—
RB: You ran off. You abandoned them.
RA: No, my mother is the one who Sent me! [weeping] I had her blessing! She said she would make it all right with my father. I am the fastest Sender of all the witches, and the most precise. I am a benefit to you because my mother sent me here. It is okay that I send reassurances to her.
RB: You can’t. If you insist on attempting it, we will assign you to other DEDEs and you will never Send anyone back to Constantinople.
RA: Will you lame yourselves out of spite? I am the best witch for Constantinople.
RB: Security is our first priority. If you will not cooperate with us, then we cannot cooperate with you. I will have to reassign you to the Antwerp and London DTAPs. We will need additional help there when we bring Gráinne forward.
RA: But I am Tristan’s preferred Sender for Constantinople.
RB: Lieutenant Colonel Lyons is subordinate to me and all of his decisions are subject to my review.
RA: I understand.
RB: In any case, his habit of disappearing into remote DTAPs for weeks at a time leaves an operational void, obliging colleagues to fill in for him.
RA: Constantinople is not remote, it is the most cosmopolitan city in the world!
RB: Not for long.
RA: What does that mean?
RB: After what happens next, everything looks so different that it doesn’t matter how well you know the city, it’ll be completely rebuilt.
RA: What do you mean by these words, “what happens next”?
RB: I have reason to believe that by going back to 1203 Constantinople, Tristan has blundered into a trap of his own devising. Unwittingly, of course. But he is still culpable, because of his arrogance, his lack of accountability.
RA: What sort of trap?
RB: The details are complicated. There’s not time to explain them here. The point is that he needs to be evacuated. If he were a commando on some kind of raid, we’d be sending in the helicopters right now, the SEAL team, to extract him from the mess he has made. But since he’s a DOer and he’s been deployed to a DTAP, instead we need to Send someone who knows the territory and who can get to him and Home him with extreme prejudice, as the saying goes.
RA: You want me to Send another DOer to rescue him?
RB: You’re not listening, Rachel. The person we Send back on this rescue mission can’t just be any ordinary DOer. It must be a MUON, a witch who has the capability of Homing him as soon as he is found. One who is intimately familiar with every byway of the city, every nuance of its languages.
RA: You’re asking . . . me to be Sent back?
RB: ODEC #4 has been made ready for action. One of our other MUONs is there waiting for you. I have provided her with cover—with plausible deniability. You can be back home in ten minutes, if that is what you really want. But you can never come back. You must decide now.
URGENT BULLETIN
MISSING: RACHEL BAT AVRAHAM
MISSING SINCE: TODAY, 11:25, July 10
MISSING FROM: Conference Room #2, top floor
DETAILS: During interview with Dr. Blevins, became combative, removed pepper spray device from purse, discharged it toward Dr. Blevins, fled the room; when he had finished washing the residue from his eyes, she was gone. Security reports she has not exited the building, however, her whereabouts are unknown.
APPEARANCE: Long dark hair, pale skin, dark eyes. Dressed in gray sweater-dress and jodhpur boots, lots of eye makeup and bangles. Late teens. Speaks heavily accented English.
Security is currently searching the building, which is in lockdown. Rachel lives in the MUON residence. We have contacted or left word with the off-shift MUONs there. Also sending word to local precincts and hospitals. Likeliest that she is hiding in the building somewhere waiting for somebody else to leave so that she can sneak out.
Journal Entry of
Rebecca East-Oda
JULY 10
Temperature 79F, dry, still. Barometer steady.
Faring well: cucumber, squash, chard. Starting to harvest basil leaves. Re-seeding salad greens.
Frank called from the DODO offices to say he will not be home for dinner: the building is in lockdown because the witch Rachel assaulted Blevins (how very satisfying that must have been) and disappeared. Surprised it took this long for somebody to snap.
Exchange of posts between
Dr. Melisande Stokes and Mortimer Shore
on private ODIN channel
DAY 1807
Mel: Where’s Rachel?
Mortimer: idk. Checking her calendar . . .
Mel: NVM. Calling her. 1 sec.
Mortimer: looks like she had an 11:00 with Blev.
Mel: Went to vm.
Mortimer: Conf rm 2
Mel: I know but something crazy happened, Blev called security—medics are there. No Rachel.
Mortimer: Where r u?
Mel: OMW down to ODECs. WHT Rachel?
Mortimer: CU down there.
Mel: Bio breach!
Mortimer: ?
Mel: Rachel ran through decon area, didn’t follow protocol.
Mortimer: ICU through glass wall now.
Mel: FUCK. Whole place will have to be scrubbed. Going in to check ODECs.
Mortimer: Someone’s in #4. Check that first.
Mel: OK
Mortimer: Not on calendar.
Mel: It’s Nadja.
Mortimer: ?
Mel: New MUON.
Mortimer: Rachel?
Mel: Gone.
Mortimer: Never there? Or . . .
Mel: Nadja’s confused, says she just Homed Rachel.
URGENT BULLETIN: UPDATE
OK, everyone, Mortimer here, there’s a lot of confusion and so I’ve been asked to post a temporary status update: