Chapter 25
“I object to this mission,” I said into the stark, slightly crackling silence of the phone.
“Noted,” Senator Foreman said on the other end. Because of my enhanced hearing, I could detect all the imperfections that came from the digitalization of the voice that was carried to me now from Washington, D.C. “But you have your marching orders.”
“This is taking our eye off the ball,” I said as I walked down the cement stairs to the first floor of HQ. “It’s a distraction, something that’s not in accord with our greater focus—”
“It’s something that’s vital to the continued existence of your main mission,” Foreman said, and I could hear the tension in his voice.
I listened to the echo of my shoes as I took each step. “I disagree. Whatever Hildegarde is doing is bad, I’ll grant you that, but—”
“If you don’t handle Hildegarde, there won’t be anything left of your organization in a month,” Foreman said abruptly, surprising me. He wasn’t the type to interrupt, preferring to wait until someone had spent their argument so he could counterattack and win. “I have used every ounce of political capital I had to set this up. Every ounce. When the committee looked over the reports, their temptation was to let it all ride, to wait and see. To go with rote instinct and prepare the military to counter any threats from Sovereign and Century. I told them no, that we needed a response force. They countered that not only would it be expensive but that it would take too much time to vet and set up. I told them I’d take care of it, keep it off the books, make sure the revenue didn’t come out of the budget and contain any negative publicity.
“Then they pulled out Sovereign’s threat, about what he’d do if we got into the meta policing business again.” He paused. “I told them it was going to happen anyway, and if they wanted to look like they were caught flatfooted worrying about other things when it did, they could deal with the inevitable outrage from John Q. Public when people find out that they knew and did nothing. But now we have a problem. Hildegarde is killing our agents, and she’s killing civilians.”
“Li told me,” I said. “Four agents is a genuine tragedy, it really is—”
“And two civilians,” Foreman said, cutting me off again. “One of them a teenager. It’s not playing well on the evening news in Oregon.”
I paused, waiting. “I’m not indifferent to their plight, having seen a few innocent bystanders die that shouldn’t have—”
“Yes, you are,” Foreman said. “You are absolutely indifferent to their plight because it doesn’t fit your single-minded obsession.” His voice was crackling at the other end of the phone now. “You’re waiting for an attack from what you suppose is the greater threat, and I agree, Sovereign is. I wouldn’t have put this together if I didn’t, and I wouldn’t have put you in charge if I didn’t believe you were truly obsessed with stopping this extinction. But I’m telling you now, my distinguished colleague from Oregon,” he said every word of that with disgust, “who is a prominent member of our committee, is currently back in his home state mourning the loss of two of his constituents, and he wants this solved so he can tell his voters that it’s handled.” Foreman’s voice rose in pitch. “So if you value your mission, get this done and get back to work!”
There wasn’t a click like in the old books I read when someone hung up on someone else, but the faint beep-beep that told me he’d cut the connection was dramatic enough. I put my cell phone in my pocket and opened the door to exit the staircase. My mother was waiting in the lobby, arms folded, looking like she was lost in thought. “Ideas?” I asked her as I passed, and she fell in beside me as I headed toward the dorm.
My mother seemed to deflate a little. “Foreman put you on it, huh? No wiggle room to get out?”
“No,” I said, shaking my head. “Politics got involved in this one; he seems to think it’ll be the end of our little group if we can’t convince one of the Oregon senators we’re doing everything we can to actually be a meta policing unit.”
“I have some experience tracking metas,” she suggested.
“So do I,” I said. “But I don’t really want to waste time on this.” I stopped, cursing under my breath. She gave me an amused look. “We’re facing the extinction of our entire species, and I’ve got to go play this small-ball bullshit to keep the government off our backs.”