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  Larry gives a thumbs up at the use of the company’s slogan in Claire’s reporting. Claire nods while she waits for her audience to see the facts on their television screens.

  “As you can see,” Claire continues, “crime was especially high around the entire world leading up to the disturbing hostage scene at Miss Ery’s in Colberton, which unfortunately, I had to witness first-hand.”

  Claire pauses to steady her emotions assigned to that day.

  “Once Abel exposed and brutally killed the Malignant spy, you can see an even sharper increase in crimes around the world that I think is safe to assign to fear. However, despite what you may think or the nightly riots and protests around the world imply, crime as a whole has gone down this past week since Mother appeared on this show. There are a lot of theories as to why this is, but I like to believe it’s because many of you think as I do. You know that the Malignant seem to care very much for their rules and you want to show them that we do, too. We aren’t barbarians or savages or sub-human. We aren’t ISH, as they seem to regard us. We are people. Many of us descendants of the same people they are. We need to continue to follow our rules and prove to them that our lives have meaning. Perhaps they’ll share the rules they live by. I suspect they’re similar to our own laws and social norms. So, before we go to our commercial break, they paid for them before all of this happened, people, listen to my plea one more time. Behave yourselves out there and prove to the Malignant and Mother specifically that we are not ISH.”

  Mother sits on her throne as she observes Claire’s passionate plea for civil order. Drorus and Leebuch stand nearby.

  “That is the ISH who gave me my platform, correct?” Mother asks.

  “You equal correct, Mother,” Drorus answers.

  “Interesting, I like this one,” Mother says. “She seems to comprehend better than most.”

  “She does, Mother,” Leebuch agrees.

  “You are certain she is not Malignant?” Mother asks.

  “I have regarded many of her informational recordings. She has many Malignant present to her public, but she does not display any augmentation of her own. I hypothesize that she would have displayed an augmentation by now if she had the ability,” Leebuch says.

  “Curious,” Mother says. “I surprise myself when I admit that she is somewhat optimal.”

  “Do you require me to allow the ISH more time to follow her wishes?” Drorus asks.

  “Negative,” Mother responds. “The ISH still have time to celebrate their losses. Perhaps they can sway me in that time, but I doubt it.”

  “Optimal,” Drorus says.

  “Still,” Mother comments, “I am intrigued by this one. Perhaps she best serves us by coming to the Womb.”

  “I do not comprehend,” Leebuch says.

  “I desire the Malignant hiding on that planet to announce themselves and join us. They appear to prefer to hide amongst the ISH. If we have the one they turn to for their information on my ship, she will convince them to turn themselves over to us before we have to destroy the planet and reset the ecosystem.”

  “Mother, she is ISH; you would tolerate her presence on the Womb?” Drorus asks.

  “I would until the decisive battle is fought. If she serves my purposes, she will prove herself not to be ISH. If not, she can die with them.”

  “As you desire, Mother,” Drorus says. “I will assemble an extraction team.”

  “Negative,” Mother states. “I will retrieve her.”

  “As you desire, Mother,” Drorus repeats.

  The sun has set on Colberton. A calm Monday has turned into another night of riots. The Colberton Police Department is spread thin across the city. Their block formations are scattered and smaller, but the brave police officers stay committed to their duty.

  Maria leads a block formation as they advance on a group of several hundred rioters holding signs that profess their allegiance to the Malignant and denounce ISH law and order.

  “Go home!” Maria barks into her bullhorn.

  The unruly crowd ignores her orders. Nervous police officers look at the two-year veteran with hopeful eyes. Maria looks at them, mostly cadets, and considers her options. Her mind briefly goes back to the night of the Osaka Riots and how easily pandemonium ensued. Maria looks at both sides of the streets, half expecting an Enterprise hit squad to appear and shoot into her formation.

  Crowd members throw bottles and rocks at the shields of the lead police officers. They stomp in unison as they hit their shields with their batons. The crowd doesn’t back down. Maria can tell they believe their numbers make them the more formidable force. Maria decides to point out the fallacy in this thinking.

  She removes the bullhorn from her face. “They had their chance. Give them the gas.”

  “Ma’am?” a police officer with a tear gas launcher asks.

  “I told you to give them the damn gas. All of it,” Maria instructs. “Masks on, people!”

  The police officers take turns putting their protective masks on their faces. Some in the angry mob understand the implications and try to move away, but most of the crowd respond by throwing heavier rocks at the police officers.

  Once all the police officers have their protective equipment in place, Maria signals her authority to lob the canisters into the citizens of Colberton. The cans spiral through the air and clatter when they hit the ground. Some actually connect with people and knock them down as well. Once the smoke billows out of them, the crowd turns on itself. Many people are trampled and injured as they scatter in every direction. A large majority of the crowd rushes toward the police formation.

  Maria knows that her training dictates she allow the panicked people to pass through her formation, but her anger burns. She isn’t inclined to permit hoodlums to sleep peacefully tonight.

  “If they charge us, protect yourselves with batons and stun guns!” Maria orders.

  Some are confused, but none ignore the command. The first protestors hit the limit of the police formation, and batons swing powerfully into them. The crowd pushes in all directions. Many try to retreat into the safety of their alleged allies, but most find these avenues blocked. Some are able to squeeze through the police lines, albeit with bruises and blood to show for their efforts. Maria is pleased. She pulls her own baton and strikes a middle-aged man in the kneecap.

  The man falls to the ground, and Maria gives his injured leg a second blow to ensure his protesting days are behind him. Maria notices a young woman using her phone to record Maria’s actions. Maria isn’t inclined to let actual evidence exist. She swings with her baton at the woman and hits her hand holding the phone. Maria thinks she hears broken bones, and she knows she hears the piercing scream of an injured female.

  Maria stomps on the phone and shatters it while aiming her stun gun at the injured protestor. The woman’s body convulses as she takes a full ten seconds. Maria only stops because more fearful people rush through the formation and step on the woman as they pass. Maria swings her baton with abandon as she connects with more and more people. Despite her situation, Maria wears an excited smile throughout it. She enjoys this, and she’ll never run away from her duty. Her baton strikes a man in the back of the skull and knocks him to the ground by her feet. Maria barely even registers him as she hits another passerby.

  Chapter 3

  Alex fumes as he searches the end table in his bedroom for his keys. Kim stands with crossed arms, blocking the exit to the room, and scowls at him throughout the ordeal. Alex catches her demeanor, and it sets him off on another round of shouts.

  “Did you hide them?”

  Kim doesn’t answer. Alex ceases his search and marches toward his wife. The woman furrows her brow and takes a reinforced grip on each side of the door frame.

  “I’m going in to work. Now give me my goddamn keys!”

  “I’m not letting you abandon your family
again,” Kim declares when Alex stops directly in front of her.

  “I’m not abandoning my family!” Alex screams. “I thought I was making a living to support them.”

  “Not any more you aren’t. There are fewer and fewer stores open to even take the money that you’re allegedly making. Something tells me that electronic deposits may soon have glitches because the person responsible to push the button cared more about his family in a time like this.”

  “What time?” Alex asks. “People are just letting their paranoia get the better of them. I’m not going to be a part of that group any more. Sickness and injury don’t take a break because the media wants to report the sky is falling.”

  “It is falling!”

  “Just give me the damn keys! I’m late as it is. It’s shameful enough walking through that place after taking an unauthorized week off.”

  “All the more reason to stretch it to three or four weeks, or months even.”

  “You can’t stop me. I’m going to work. I’ll call for a car if I have to.”

  Kim snorts. “Good luck. Most of them are protecting their families, too. It’s what real men do.”

  “Then I’ll walk. I have to do this. I have to protect the city the best that I can.”

  “At least someone is getting your protection.”

  Alex clenches his teeth to keep from throwing more insults at his bereaved wife. He grabs her left wrist and easily moves her from his path. Kim protests throughout the assault and slaps him on the back as he defiantly walks to his front door.

  Alex feels something metal strike him between his shoulder blades. The object falls and bounces when it hits his carpet. Alex turns around and picks up his key ring. When he stares back at Kim, he sees fresh trails of tears flowing down her face.

  “We’ll talk when I get home tonight.”

  “We won’t be here anymore when you get home, whenever that may be.”

  Alex purses his lips and slowly vents a portion of his frustration.

  “Don’t say that,” he begs. “I love you.”

  Kim doesn’t reply. She turns and heads back into her bedroom. Before the door slams shut, Alex can see his wife’s shoulders rise and fall to the rhythm of her disappointment.

  Alex places his keys into the front pocket of his trousers. He turns again, intent on leaving, and sees his daughter. Ava also has wet cheeks from crying. Alex reaches for her, but she runs back into her bedroom and closes the door behind her. Alex approaches the bedroom and knocks on the door.

  “Sweetie,” Alex says.

  The only response he gets is the sound of sugary pop music at a volume that would normally result in her punishment. Alex doesn’t have the inclination to press the issue and realizes that it’s best if he just leaves. He hopes that Kim is all bluster, but his gut screams that if he walks out the door, he’ll lose his family. The only thing that still compels him to leave is his old military sense of duty. He imagines how many other families will lose their loved ones forever if he stays. The battle of his conscience is fierce and brief, but the closing of a front door and the roar of an awoken sedan engine announces his ultimate decision to his family.

  Cecilia casually sits on the end of a bench in a mostly deserted park.

  Most people don’t feel comfortable outside, she muses.

  Despite her recent promotion as The Speaker of The Enterprise, she doesn’t have a protection detail with her. She dismissed them through clever comments that she hopes protect her true intentions. Things wouldn’t go well for her if they knew the purpose of her park visit.

  Cecilia nonchalantly scans the couple who passes by her on the trail around the park. Neither seems concerned with her presence, exactly as Cecilia hopes. Eventually a man in an out of fashion track suit jogs up to her. The man pants heavily and leans over with hands resting on his knees. Cecilia smiles as the jogger goes through his ruse as an extremely winded middle-aged man. He waves at Cecilia, a gesture for any casual observers to indicate the coincidence of both needing the same bench. The man walks over and collapses onto the bench at the far end from Cecilia.

  Cecilia looks at the man and smiles.

  “I swear you enjoy coming up with these unique performances each check in.”

  The man smiles back.

  “I fully commit to my roles just as much as you do. What do you have this month?”

  “Funny you should ask. I got a promotion.”

  “So quickly? Great. Which Enterprise boss do you report to now?”

  “The Chairman.”

  “I know, obviously, but who directly?”

  “The Chairman.”

  The man holds a puzzled look. Cecilia takes a bit of pride in her next statement.

  “For reasons that are beyond me, I’ve been made The Speaker.”

  The man gasps and briefly forgets his ruse as a casual jogger. He leans in to hear Cecilia more clearly.

  “You’re the number two of the world’s biggest criminal organization? You haven’t been under cover long enough for that. It’s a new FBI record.”

  “That’s what scares me,” Cecilia admits. “Julie had no reason to know I existed, yet she sought me out and personally said that I was the most qualified to be her proxy.”

  “Why would she do that?”

  “I don’t know, Hank, but she did. She talked a load of shit about it protecting her from a power struggle during her many expected absences.”

  “What absences? The Enterprise is making enormous profits due to the Malignant presence.”

  Cecilia smiles again. This report has become quite fun.

  “Well, apparently Julie got herself accepted into the Templars of Olympus.”

  “Bullshit! She just lied to cement her power.”

  “If she did, I’m never playing poker with her. She revealed this information while sitting in black and red armor. The number of people who shot at her and failed suggests it’s the real deal. So, either she got the armor legitimately from the Templars or she acquired it through more resourceful measures. Honestly, I don’t know which idea is scarier.”

  “It doesn’t make sense. The Templars wouldn’t join forces with The Enterprise. They hit them more than any other group of criminals out there.”

  “I get the distinct feeling the Templars are at a disadvantage to the Malignant. They probably can’t choose their allies. The only logical solution is that Julie is an auggie. I’ll see if I can get that information out of her. She doesn’t seem like the type to boast, but you never know.”

  “She won’t boast,” Hank declares.

  “You said that rather matter-of-factly. How can you possibly know that about her?”

  Hank sighs. He reaches inside the jacket of his track suit and pulls out a folder. With what seems like resignation, he hands it over to Cecilia.

  “I bring this with me to each of our meetings. I guess it’s finally time for you to read it.”

  Cecilia opens it and sees a dossier on a woman named Amanda Hunter, who looks exactly like Julie Tress. Cecilia quickly searches through the file, then looks back at Hank.

  “Explain yourself,” she demands.

  “The file explains for me. I’ll be taking it back with me, by the way, so make sure you memorize what you think to be most pertinent.”

  “This says that Amanda Hunter is an undercover FBI agent.”

  “She was an undercover FBI agent. She hasn’t been that for several years.”

  “What happened?”

  “Amanda was the perfect agent. She had genius level intelligence, a top-notch shooter, great at hand-to-hand fighting, beautiful, and female. Nobody would suspect her to be so lethal. We inserted her into The Enterprise to gather information. Much like you, she was able to quickly ascend the ladder. There was just one problem.”

  “What was that?”

&nb
sp; “She liked that life more than this one. Eventually we realized she fed us bad information to make her look like a hero to The Enterprise or she gave us excellent information that led to the downfall of a rival organization. Amanda Hunter, now Julie Tress, made herself indispensable to The Enterprise. Seeing how she’s the queen bee now, I guess it worked.”

  “If you knew who she was, why didn’t you grab her when she pranced around as Yuri Osaka’s aide?”

  “Because we forgot we knew who she was.”

  “Meaning?”

  “Meaning that she killed her handlers. At least, that’s what we believe. Her handlers disappeared and we don’t have any leads.”

  Cecilia nods knowingly.

  “Her mission was extremely classified, just as yours is. She was methodical and thorough. A few deaths later and her file just sat in a safe. We only just came across it about a year ago. By that point, she had begun to limit her public appearances.”

  “Shit,” Cecilia curses, “you have to bring me in. It’s too much of a damn coincidence that a rogue FBI agent selected a current agent to be her successor. She has to be playing with me.”

  “Has she threatened you in any way?”

  “No, but you can’t send me back in. You’ll be signing my death warrant.”

  “Currently, The Enterprise has been reported as helping law enforcement manage the panic. Maybe she knows you’ll follow that order more than a random thug.”

  “Perhaps, but once the streets calm down, they’ll kill me.”

  “We don’t have anyone else we can send in. I don’t plan on the world ending. I plan on seeing my granddaughter graduate high school. I’d like to think that you feel the same about the world existing and would like to eliminate a scourge like The Enterprise.”