06-26-2023, 10:22 PM
Kerlian Intelligence Service HQ, Grapevale, Kerlile
Councillor Pierre slapped the woman hard on her cheek. “Did you truly believe this was information we would use!?” she shouted in the woman’s face. “This is Kerlile!”
“Councillor, the girl…” the woman began only to be silenced by another slap.
“You were instructed to get the girl to spy on the Zongongian royal family! Not her own family; and certainly not about this. We are Kerlians! We do not use pregnancy against women, no matter how much treason they commit! Even during the Civil War, we gave prisoners the choice and you know fine well what we did to them after!” Pierre shouted, drawing the attention of the security guards outside.
“Is everything okay, Councillor?” one of them asked, popping her head around the door.
“No,” Pierre responded. “Please put this woman under arrest,” she gestured towards the recently arrived spy from Zongongia.
“Councillor!” the spy reacted in shock. “I was just doing my job!”
“You have been corrupted by the patriarchy,” the Councillor recited as if by rote while the spy was dragged away. “If you think we have fallen so far.”
Once the spy was gone, Pauline Pierre groaned and leaned back. This was not how she had intended the Imogen Robinson affair to go. Zongongia was hardly the best place in the world for an accidental pregnancy, and if the father was the Crown Prince, then Natasha was in deep trouble. This was the sort of thing Kerlian agents were trained to notice, yes – in order to offer help to the woman in the situation, not to use the information against them! For all the Robinson family did, she did not deserve the likely outcome here.
It had happened before; accidental pregnancies in unmarried partners of Zongongian princes – not that history recorded such. It was something monitored in the files of Kerlian intelligence, along with the result. Zongongia lost a fair number of KWSI points for it. The long and short of it was that they generally forced the woman into marriage. A cardinal sin in Kerlian eyes, if ever there was one. Natasha was still a Kerlian citizen.
Pauline took out her phone and brought up Carmen Robinson’s number. She stared at the screen, at the messages from two years ago before the arrest of her former counterpart. It would be very awkward for her to contact Carmen now, especially since Pauline had failed to keep her promise to Carmen when the other woman came to her to confess back in 2021. Pauline had promised to protect the Robinson Auroras. She’d tried to keep the promise; but she’d failed. Even Georgiou couldn’t forgive the treason. It was her and Hale against the others in a bizarre Council session.
Please call me. I know. I can help you. She typed the message, but couldn’t send it. It sounded too much like a threat. But Pauline didn’t know a way to contact any of the Robinsons that wouldn’t sound like a threat, coming from her. Her stupid grandmother had stupidly killed Carmen’s grandmother in 1983 and the consequences of that act were never far from rearing their ugly head.
*
Royal Palace, Zongongia
“Are you sure you’re okay with this?” Xia Chiu asked her daughter in Mandarin. The Kerlians figured that if the Zongongians weren’t spying on them before, that they would be now. At least make them take the time to find a translator.
“Yes,” Jia nodded, placing another neatly folded top into the suitcase. “I don’t fear the Kerlian government, even if you’re wrong. It wasn’t that bad.”
The Chiu contingent of the Kerlian group in Zongongia intended to head back home, now that everything was supposedly water under the bridge regarding the Reena Patel affair. Xia had been concerned that Jia would be too afraid to go back, but her eight-year-old had only shrugged and begun packing.
“You came all this way to get out of Kerlile, Jia,” her mother reminded her. “It’s okay if you don’t want to go back, we can figure out an alternative.”
“I came because you were here,” Jia replied as if it was that simple to get on a horse and flee her country as a small child accompanied by a literal toddler. “I didn’t know what was going on. Now I know. And great-grandmother has been sending me texts, and emails, and voicemails, and videos apologising. Like, ten a day. I believe her. She won’t do it again.”
Xia was unsure if she should be concerned that her daughter was too trusting, or marvel at how forgiving she could be. Both, she decided in the end. Regardless, they couldn’t stay in Zongongia much longer with the information hanging over them. It wasn’t safe. The Robinsons were forming their own plan, since they were still banned from Kerlile, but the Chiu were welcome back, if they chose to accept. And if Jia was fine with it, which she seemed to be, they fully intended to take the offer.
*
Camille Pierre had flat-out refused to go with the Chiu, and so would have to be factored into the Robinsons’ plans. After a tearful confrontation, the three Robinsons had managed to work something out between them. Natasha was terrified though, when she found out what her sister had passed on to Kerlile. Carmen and Xia had assured her that there was no way the Matriarchy would use such information as a weapon, but Camille was less sure.
Either way, with the situation likely to become more noticeable by the day, Carmen was quickly making plans to slip out of yet another country in the dead of night. The former Councillor was getting rather fed up of what seemed like a chase across the whole planet, but needs must. Imogen was just relieved to be leaving Zongongia. Camille just didn’t want to go back to Kerlile.
Her phone rang, and Camille checked it only to see it was her mother again. She declined the call once again. If her mother wanted to speak to her, she shouldn’t have let the rest of the Council use her to make some point.
Councillor Pierre slapped the woman hard on her cheek. “Did you truly believe this was information we would use!?” she shouted in the woman’s face. “This is Kerlile!”
“Councillor, the girl…” the woman began only to be silenced by another slap.
“You were instructed to get the girl to spy on the Zongongian royal family! Not her own family; and certainly not about this. We are Kerlians! We do not use pregnancy against women, no matter how much treason they commit! Even during the Civil War, we gave prisoners the choice and you know fine well what we did to them after!” Pierre shouted, drawing the attention of the security guards outside.
“Is everything okay, Councillor?” one of them asked, popping her head around the door.
“No,” Pierre responded. “Please put this woman under arrest,” she gestured towards the recently arrived spy from Zongongia.
“Councillor!” the spy reacted in shock. “I was just doing my job!”
“You have been corrupted by the patriarchy,” the Councillor recited as if by rote while the spy was dragged away. “If you think we have fallen so far.”
Once the spy was gone, Pauline Pierre groaned and leaned back. This was not how she had intended the Imogen Robinson affair to go. Zongongia was hardly the best place in the world for an accidental pregnancy, and if the father was the Crown Prince, then Natasha was in deep trouble. This was the sort of thing Kerlian agents were trained to notice, yes – in order to offer help to the woman in the situation, not to use the information against them! For all the Robinson family did, she did not deserve the likely outcome here.
It had happened before; accidental pregnancies in unmarried partners of Zongongian princes – not that history recorded such. It was something monitored in the files of Kerlian intelligence, along with the result. Zongongia lost a fair number of KWSI points for it. The long and short of it was that they generally forced the woman into marriage. A cardinal sin in Kerlian eyes, if ever there was one. Natasha was still a Kerlian citizen.
Pauline took out her phone and brought up Carmen Robinson’s number. She stared at the screen, at the messages from two years ago before the arrest of her former counterpart. It would be very awkward for her to contact Carmen now, especially since Pauline had failed to keep her promise to Carmen when the other woman came to her to confess back in 2021. Pauline had promised to protect the Robinson Auroras. She’d tried to keep the promise; but she’d failed. Even Georgiou couldn’t forgive the treason. It was her and Hale against the others in a bizarre Council session.
Please call me. I know. I can help you. She typed the message, but couldn’t send it. It sounded too much like a threat. But Pauline didn’t know a way to contact any of the Robinsons that wouldn’t sound like a threat, coming from her. Her stupid grandmother had stupidly killed Carmen’s grandmother in 1983 and the consequences of that act were never far from rearing their ugly head.
*
Royal Palace, Zongongia
“Are you sure you’re okay with this?” Xia Chiu asked her daughter in Mandarin. The Kerlians figured that if the Zongongians weren’t spying on them before, that they would be now. At least make them take the time to find a translator.
“Yes,” Jia nodded, placing another neatly folded top into the suitcase. “I don’t fear the Kerlian government, even if you’re wrong. It wasn’t that bad.”
The Chiu contingent of the Kerlian group in Zongongia intended to head back home, now that everything was supposedly water under the bridge regarding the Reena Patel affair. Xia had been concerned that Jia would be too afraid to go back, but her eight-year-old had only shrugged and begun packing.
“You came all this way to get out of Kerlile, Jia,” her mother reminded her. “It’s okay if you don’t want to go back, we can figure out an alternative.”
“I came because you were here,” Jia replied as if it was that simple to get on a horse and flee her country as a small child accompanied by a literal toddler. “I didn’t know what was going on. Now I know. And great-grandmother has been sending me texts, and emails, and voicemails, and videos apologising. Like, ten a day. I believe her. She won’t do it again.”
Xia was unsure if she should be concerned that her daughter was too trusting, or marvel at how forgiving she could be. Both, she decided in the end. Regardless, they couldn’t stay in Zongongia much longer with the information hanging over them. It wasn’t safe. The Robinsons were forming their own plan, since they were still banned from Kerlile, but the Chiu were welcome back, if they chose to accept. And if Jia was fine with it, which she seemed to be, they fully intended to take the offer.
*
Camille Pierre had flat-out refused to go with the Chiu, and so would have to be factored into the Robinsons’ plans. After a tearful confrontation, the three Robinsons had managed to work something out between them. Natasha was terrified though, when she found out what her sister had passed on to Kerlile. Carmen and Xia had assured her that there was no way the Matriarchy would use such information as a weapon, but Camille was less sure.
Either way, with the situation likely to become more noticeable by the day, Carmen was quickly making plans to slip out of yet another country in the dead of night. The former Councillor was getting rather fed up of what seemed like a chase across the whole planet, but needs must. Imogen was just relieved to be leaving Zongongia. Camille just didn’t want to go back to Kerlile.
Her phone rang, and Camille checked it only to see it was her mother again. She declined the call once again. If her mother wanted to speak to her, she shouldn’t have let the rest of the Council use her to make some point.
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