There were ten people sitting around the table in the centre of the warehouse. Fewer than I had hoped, but more Partials than I could ever remember being in the same place at one time. Even in training, there had only ever been a few of us at a time. In truth there were 15 of us here, but the other 4 were too injured to participate, and the 5th was tending to the injured. There had been a couple of confirmed deaths, but the remainder of the agents were just… gone. James was still holding out hope that some of them would resurface eventually, but few of us shared his optimism. Personally, I wasn’t even sure it was really optimism, more like a coping mechanism. He couldn’t deal with having lost that many of his people, so he simply held out hope that they weren’t really gone. By unspoken agreement, the rest of us didn’t challenge him. Well, except for Wallace, but what could you expect?
“I suppose we should get started,” James brought the meeting to order.
“At least we don’t need to find any more chairs,” Wallace muttered.
James ignored him. Everyone else glared.
“Let’s start with an assessment of the current situation. Gail and Vasili have just returned from the headquarters. What does the situation look like?”
“The Organization is quiet, for the most part. Based on surveillance of the parking lot, most of the people scheduled to be working are in the building, but also many people who shouldn’t be there. They must have instituted emergency protocols, called in all the support staff.”
“Calls to family and friends support that, many people have been called in on their off hours,” James added.
“Hard to note anything else from the outside,” Vasili added. “But we did see them bring a few people into the building, while we were watching.”
“Who?”
“Some of our missing. They appear to be prisoners.”
There was a pause for creative swearing.
“Why?” came the obvious question. “What are they doing with them?”
“They are experimenting on them. Or planning to.”
Ten heads swiveled to face Simon.
“You want to explain that, incubus?” Wallace was openly hostile.
“It was part of the plan,” Simon sighed deeply. “They want to test methods of blocking Partials ability to sense them and resist them. They realize that there will be other Partials, other Immune. In the civilian population. They want to find a way to neutralize them, so that none can ever challenge them in the future.”
“They actually have a method to do this?”
“Nothing confirmed, to my understanding. Theories, maybe, but nothing solid. They don’t care, they will test it anyway, even if all it brings is suffering.”
There was a moment of silence at the table as we all considered the implications.
“Well, perhaps now would be a good time for you to give us the rest of that plan,” James watched Simon carefully.
“I’ll tell you what I can,” Simon said slowly. “I really only know the broad strokes. They didn’t share the details with little people, like me. I was just support staff, to be called in if needed. Overall, there were three main branches of the Domini, run by Omega and his Lieutenants, each targeting and infiltrating one group: the Organization, the Council and civilian organizations. The branches didn’t share information often, to limit what could be leaked.”
“Which group were you in?”
“Civilian.”
“So, I bet you don’t know much that can help us at all, do you?”
I was beginning to rethink my opinion on Wallace being harmless, now he was just being an ass.
“I know more than you do,” Simon snapped. “If you don’t want to hear it, just say the word.”
“No one is saying that,” James raised his hands, placating. “I understand that everyone is very emotional right now, but let’s all try to stay calm and professional, at least until we get through this. Ok?”
Everyone nodded sullenly.
“Good. Now, Simon? Please continue.”
Simon took a breath, gathered himself,
“Right. Ok. Here is what I can tell you. The Domini started as a small group of ubarae who were dissatisfied with their role in society under the current regime. They didn’t like their lives being controlled by people that they considered inferior, prey animals. That feeling is not uncommon among ubarae, especially those going through their rebellious youth. Initially, that was all it was, kids whining about the unfairness of it all. Maybe that is all it ever would have been, except for Omega. When he joined, things changed. Of course, that was before my time, but the story is told often to new recruits, it is part of his mythology. He started making plans, recruiting skilled help. Made things real. His plan was three-fold. First, insert people in the Council and start bending its politics towards his. Second, get people close to the world leaders in each enclave, to control their response to the crisis. Not too close, so as not to tip their hand, but they have people in place. Third, infiltrate the Organization; eliminating Partials and compromising the Immune so that they could be easily neutralized. In this way, he felt that he could effectively eliminate or control anyone who knew anything about the ubarae and the Pact, and then, the ubarae implanted near the world leaders would form the vanguard of the next phase, where the Domini would take subtle control of all world governments, so that he could shape human society for the benefit of the ubarae.”
“Surely the other ubarae would never agree to this.”
“You might be surprised what people would agree to when Omega is the one suggesting it,” Simon muttered darkly. “But it doesn’t matter, he wasn’t planning on giving them a choice in the matter. This plan will be as much a surprise to them as it was to you. Our people rely almost exclusively on the Organization for security and policing, as we are expected to remain demilitarized. The rest of us will be helpless once he has control. With the Domini in control of the remnants of the Organization and also human authorities, the other ubarae would have no choice to cooperate with them, or be destroyed. After all, who could they turn to?”
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He made a good point. Under the terms of the Pact, the ubarae were strictly limited in their ability to organize and own weapons, the logic being that they were dangerous enough without them. But only to humans. Other ubarae, armed, prepared and backed up by the human forces and advanced weaponry would be impossible for them to stop. As horrified as I was by how things were unfolding, I had to admit, I was impressed by the plan. Everything had been accounted for. Every eventuality covered. If Cooper hadn’t helped Simon survive that hit, it would probably all be over by now and they would be settling into power. Not for the first time, it occurred to me that the secrecy that we all promised to protect was our worst enemy here. It was entirely possible that the ten people at this table were all that remained to stop the enslavement of the entire human race. If they failed, no one else would even realize the danger until it was too late. If ever.
“What about the other enclaves?”
“They were all hit. I can’t get in touch with anyone at the moment,” James said grimly. “I have put messages up on the boards, all the usual places, maybe some of the survivors will get in touch.”
“If there are any,” Wallace snorted.
“So, we are on our own?” Gail cast a skeptical eye over the people at the table. “I don’t see what we can do, with so few people, against so many.”
“How many of them are there?” Vasili asked the most relevant question.
“I don’t know,” Simon sighed. “We were always told that we had countless members, all over the world. But I suspect that is more propaganda than anything else. The section I belonged to had maybe a 7 or 8 members, but I don’t think you can really extrapolate from that.”
“Fantastic,” Gail muttered.
“Alright, let’s focus on one thing at a time,” James broke in. “We need to gather more information on their forces and how they are arrayed. We need to look for weaknesses. Let’s figure out how to make that happen.”
The rest of the meeting devolved into one long argument. No one could real agree on the best way to proceed. Some thought we should fortify here. Others thought we were too vulnerable all together and would only be inviting as assault. Some advocated patience, while others thought quick and decisive action was the only chance we had, before they were completely entrenched. I had my own thoughts on the matter, but I wasn’t ready to say them out loud just yet. Maybe once we had more information, I would change my mind. When the dust had finally settled, we had all come to a grudging agreement on compromise. Most of our people would scatter, find places to lay low and conduct surveillance. Those that remained would fortify here and coordinate their recon work and eventually lead whatever action was decided on, when that information was in. As the highest-ranking person remaining, and our leader, James was going to remain in the warehouse and act as the main point of contact and coordinator. He knew all of the agents and their strengths and weaknesses and so he would be dividing people up. That decided, everyone spread out in the warehouse, waiting to hear from James what they would be doing next. I decided to keep Simon out of the way, as Wallace wasn’t the only one who seemed hostile, and finding out the purpose and goals of the Domini had not helped the problem. People had, quite naturally, reacted with disgust upon finding out what Simon himself had participated in, what he had planned to do to humanity. I couldn’t say I disagreed, but he also seemed to genuinely regret what he had done, and he had taken a big risk to warn us. I was willing to give him a chance. In typical ubarae fashion he seemed to sense this and so he stuck by my side closely, without my even needing to ask. I found a quiet corner and sat down on an old crate. Simon leaned on the wall nearby.
“They hate me,” he muttered. “I can tell.”
“Can you blame them?” I shrugged. “You spent most of your life planning to kill all of them.”
“It wasn’t really me who was planning that. I wasn’t an assassin or a lieutenant or anything.”
“But you knew what they were planning. And you agreed with them. People take that personally.”
“I know. It’s just hard. To be hated by both sides.”
“Oh, they don’t all hate you. They are just angry right now. Most of them will come to terms with it in time.”
He looked at me sideways,
“Why don’t you? Hate me, I mean.”
“Well, when we met, I didn’t have the chance. I was just focused on keeping us both alive. And by the time we were able to catch our breath I had come to the conclusion that you deserved the benefit of the doubt. To stop what you had helped set in motion, you betrayed everyone you knew and trusted. That isn’t something that people do on a whim. That counts for something. Most of the others will get there, too. It will be better once they have other targets for their anger.”
“Maybe we can help them find some,” James put a hand on Simon’s shoulder as he approached.
Simon smiled at the comforting gesture,
“I’ll help however I can.”
“And I appreciate that, son. We will definitely need your help,” James, like most good leaders, had a talent for making everyone feel useful. “How about you, Rayna? You ready?”
“Always, boss. You want me to pack my bags?”
“No, you are staying here. I need you to help me with a special project.”
“Sounds ominous.”
“I am going to ask you to do something that you won’t like too much, but I don’t see another way. We need inside information.”
“Shit,” I knew where he was going with this. “You want me to reach out to Tom, don’t you?”
“I don’t see any other options, Rayna. You have a relationship with him. That is a rare thing between Immune and Partials. Usually there is a frosty professionalism maintained, but the two of you were close. And he reached out to you. We have a possible in, and we can’t waste it. We will have your back, keep you safe.”
“It isn’t me I’m worried about, James. If he agrees to this, who will have Tom’s back when he goes back in? There is a good chance asking this will get him killed. You know that, right?”
James nodded solemnly,
“I know. But a lot more people will die if we can’t get ahead of this. We have to try. Are you willing to help?”
I didn’t like it, but he was right.
“All right. I’ll get in touch with him and see if I can set something up. But we need to be careful about this. You have a clean phone for me?”
James handed one over,
“Let me know when you hear back. I am going to go talk to some of the others.”
I nodded absently, logging in and opening up Tom’s email, as he walked away. Ideally, I could find a way to contact him and arrange a meeting, without making it obvious that it was me. He had set up the code by using Carpenter’s name. So, who was I going to be?
“You are worried,” Simon said softly.
“Obviously. I said as much to James just now.”
“Not just about that. You are afraid he’s setting you up. That he has been turned already.”
“Of course I am,” I snapped. “Wouldn’t you be?”
“I would. You shouldn’t go.”
“Don’t have a choice.”
“Then take me with you. I should be able to tell what his intentions are.”
He seemed genuinely worried about me. Of course, he had few allies at the moment, so perhaps that wasn’t surprising.
“I appreciate the offer, really. But that would be a phenomenally bad idea. If it is a setup, they’ll know you by sight. We don’t need you in harm’s way, too.”
He frowned but didn’t push the issue. In the meantime, I had decided to reply to the message as Carla. That should make it clear who I was. I would set up a date with Carpenter in the bar of the hotel where we run our stakeout. If Tom agreed, I would have James set up surveillance on the hotel, to make sure he came alone. It wasn’t perfect, but it was the best I had right now. I sent the email. While I had a phone, I decided to call in and check my messages from the cellphone I had thrown in the lake. The first two messages were from telemarketers. The third was something worse. It was Steve Collins, Jessica’s husband. We had met a few times, but I wouldn’t say we were friends. If he was calling me, it was because something was wrong with Jessica. Apparently, she never came home last night, and he couldn’t reach her. He had left two more messages this morning, each increasingly frantic. I hung up the phone. There wasn’t anything I could do for him. He didn’t even know what she really did for a living, and now wasn’t the time to explain how it might have landed his wife in a very bizarre hostage situation. Of course, they would have taken her easily. She was the most vulnerable person it that building. With any luck, they wouldn’t hurt her, because she could be useful to them and was not much of a threat. If they were performing medical experiments, she could help them more than anyone. I hoped that would be enough, because at the moment, there was nothing I could do about it. If I could, I would get everyone out. But that wasn’t possible right now. One thing at a time. The phone pinged and I looked down at another message from Henry Carpenter, agreeing to meet me at 8 tonight. I waved James over. We had planning to do.