Zachary Rawlins - The Anathema

“About that. I know that Margot was your most promising candidate. I heard that Grigori turned down the invitation to join the department as well. Mitsuru isn’t at her most stable; frankly, neither is Alice. But I’m afraid you are going to lose one more Auditor, Gaul.”

Gaul had seen it coming, but it still shook him to hear her say it. He was grateful that she hadn’t mentioned Alistair, because he didn’t want to think about his Chief Auditor, or the way he’d looked, before Parson and the rest of them ported from the underground chamber that held the Source Well. Still, he didn’t like thinking about the Auditors without Rebecca Levy.

It hadn’t been her alone who had turned the tide, of course. Alex had provided the power for the whole operation. Actually, it had been frightening how much power Alex had expended, acting as a catalyst for Rebecca’s abilities, but at the end of it he didn’t seem tired, or even aware of how remarkable what he had done was. Rebecca knew exactly, of course, but she was too modest to say. Privately, though, Gaul knew that she was just as aware as he was that what she had done, with Alex’s help, was perhaps the greatest feat of empathy in recorded history.

Rebecca had broken the lines of communication and control between John Parson and the Anathema in Central, inserting herself into the heart of their network, following the same well-worn paths of manipulation that Parson had provided. She couldn’t take control of his soldiers directly, but she had been able to play on existing fears and frustrations, phobias and weaknesses. In addition, she had freed the Weir and Witches the Anathema held in thrall, who immediately fled or turn on their former masters. By the time Black Sun forces, led by Anastasia Martynova, and Hegemony troops, led by Lord North, had swept into Central, their opposition was largely in the midst of an emotional meltdown. Those that had not been able to flee were cut down ruthlessly. A few prisoners were taken, mostly out of curiosity. The rest had been burned at the barren eastern edge of Central unceremoniously, in the great charnel pit, black with the ash of centuries of bones.

“I assumed as much,” Gaul admitted. “Can I ask why?”

“It was nothing you did,” Rebecca said comfortingly. “But I messed up, Gaul. I missed it all. I missed that they turned Alistair. I didn’t notice the command implants in Alice and Mitsuru. I didn’t even notice that Emily and Therese Muir had become desperate enough to turn to the Anathema. I failed completely, at the part of my job that matters the most to me. And,” she added hesitantly, “I think it was a mistake to try and do both things at once. I should have retired when I took the job at the Academy.”

“I’m not so sure,” Gaul said doubtfully, glancing down at a worn headstone as they passed it, wondering who was under it, and how much rain had to fall on a piece of carved limestone before the words washed away. “But I respect your wishes. I’ve always wondered, though — why did you turn it down, when I offered you the chance to become Chief Auditor? Why did you insist on becoming the school councilor instead?”

Rebecca bit her lip and didn’t answer for a little while. Gaul let it be.

“Mitsuru Aoki,” she said finally, tossing the stub of her cigarette off to the side, oblivious as always to Gaul’s glare. “After she went wrong, I blamed myself. I figured that if I had been there from the very start, paying attention, that I could have made a difference. I guess that’s why Alex Warner is such a big deal to me — he’s so much like her. I want it to turn out differently for him. If I can get him to trust me again — if I can get all of these kids to trust me — then maybe I can do it. I have to try, Gaul, and I can’t be your Auditor and their friend at the same time. For what it’s worth, I’m really sorry to put you in this position.”

“its fine,” he lied, knowing that she wouldn’t believe him for a second. “You may even be right. Everything may end up depending on this class. We may not have the opportunity to train another, if we can’t succeed with this batch. Speaking of which — any thoughts on the untimely passing’s of Steve Taylor and Charles Brant?”

“None in particular,” Rebecca said unconvincingly. “I suppose they must have been killed in the attack.”

“I thought the same thing at first,” Gaul continued, studying Rebecca minutely. “Then I received the autopsy results. Despite what I had assumed, it seems that the bodies had been there, out in the old PE offices, for at least a day before the attack. Does that strike you as odd?”

“Odd,” Rebecca nodded, agreeing.

“Here’s something even stranger — they were poisoned, both of them, with a toxin that our labs haven’t seen before and can’t identify. Something very quick acting. Something that, judging from the concentrations in the bodies, they touched with their hands shortly before they were overcome. However, as I’m sure you are aware, nothing of the sort was found in the building. There were, however, signs of struggle.”

Rebecca nodded, frowning.

“Observations?”

“It’s a mystery,” Rebecca said, shrugging. “It must have happened during the attack. Didn’t one of Chris Feld’s people have weird necrotic powers? They must have been hit with something that accelerated decomposition.”

“I suppose so,” Gaul agreed slowly. “On an unrelated subject, I understand that Eerie had an accident of some sort, and was admitted to the infirmary briefly? I hope she didn’t come to some sort of harm?”

He made sure that Rebecca understood what he meant by the seriousness of his expression.

“Nothing bad happened,” Rebecca said, patting his arm soothingly. “She was mainly just scared. She fell down and bruised her tailbone. Must have hit something on the way down, because she bruised her arm, too. You know,” Rebecca said casually, looking away, “Changeling physiology is a fascinating thing. For example, do you know what would happen if you scared a Changeling really badly? If she thought she was in dire peril?”

“No,” Gaul said, his mouth suddenly dry. “What?”

“Well, it seems that the Changeling would start secreting a poison. A contact neurotoxin, rapidly fatal to humans. I don’t think it would even require prolonged contact to be lethal — grabbing an arm, for example, would probably be enough, if she were extremely agitated. The Changeling wouldn’t even be conscious of doing it. It’s an involuntary response, a biological self-defense mechanism.”

“I see. Something to keep in mind when dealing with our own Changeling, then. Speaking of which, would you be interested in hearing a story about her from when you were indisposed?”

Rebecca looked abashed, just for a moment, and he relished it, while she made herself busy lighting another of her infernal cigarettes. When she was finished, she perched on top of one of the old headstones, while Gaul leaned his back against the cold, pitted stone of the mausoleum behind him.

“What did she do?” Rebecca asked, avoiding any preamble. Gaul decided to indulge her.

“She repurposed a whole section of the Etheric Network, and used it to reactivate Mitsuru’s Black Protocol,” Gaul said dryly. “I’m not sure what she did, after that, but I have reviewed the probability mapping for the event from that point on, and I see evidence of massive probability tampering. The manipulation is very similar to a few previous incidents we’ve had.”

Rebecca blew smoke up at the sun, one hand shielding her eyes.

“I’m not sure how long she’s been able to do stuff like that,” Rebecca said reluctantly. “But there were some oddities last summer, when Eerie worked at Processing. She made some unauthorized changes to the network. They weren’t mad, because most of them seemed to make the damn thing work better; they just couldn’t understand what she had done or how she had done it. Because the Etheric Network wasn’t supposed to be capable of the kind of stuff she was doing with it. I’ve suspected her, since then.”