Chapter 7
Mike stood up after Wizzit turned off the video. He faced us, perched on the edge of the desk. "Whew! I, erm, I don't know quite what to say after that."
"I do," Trina said. "Wizzit, how are we going to help Shelley?"
"Yes," Nicolai agreed. "She said we would have to keep her sane. What does that mean?"
We all looked blankly at one another. "Well, I hate to say it," Mike said after a moment, "but they're probably going to subject her to some pretty heavy interrogation to try to find out whatever they can. How our tech works, the names and addresses of the rest of us, stuff like that."
"They would torture her?" Padma asked, aghast.
Mike shrugged. "Maybe. I don't know. I'd be surprised if there weren't some . . . coercion of some sort. I doubt there's much we can do to help her through that, though."
"Except get her out of there!" Toby said grimly. "I know she said not to try a rescue, but --"
"But nothing," Nicolai interrupted him. "She said she has a transponder. Wizzit can locate her wherever they take her. Don't you think he could teleport her right back here if he wanted to?"
"Ya damn betcha, ol' son!" Wizzit drawled. "With that there transponder, why, I could haul that li'l heifer back over here in two shakes, but that ain't the point."
Mike covered his face with his hand and shook his head. I could sympathize. I hate it when Wizzit does accents. "Then precisely what is the point?" he asked. "In plain, non-Texan English, please?"
"The point," Wizzit said, mercifully dropping the accent, "is to let these people, and any others with the same sort of ideas, know that Earth needs the Primes, but the Primes don't need Earth."
"What?" Trina exclaimed. "Of course we need Earth! It is our home, our --"
"Specifically," Wizzit went on as if Trina hadn't spoken, "the nations of the world will be put on notice that the Primes will not counter any Enclave attacks in countries where we are subject to arrest or detainment. No, amend that: The nations of the world have been put on notice, as of the moment I posted the vid of Shelley's arrest."
There was a stunned silence. Padma was the first to recover. "So, if Enclave sends a monster somewhere in the United States, we will not go there?"
"I will send you there, but only in camouflage mode, and only to monitor and record what happens when Primes are not allowed to counter Enclave attacks. Those vids will then be posted alongside vids of our missions for comparison."
Mike whistled. "Damn, that's cold-blooded!"
"No, it is sensible," Trina retorted. "We can't protect people who don't want us to protect them."
"Exactly," Wizzit said. "And I don't want you kids to have to dodge bullets while you're pounding Zoinks. I believe you Earthlings call this an object lesson."
"Well, I can understand not wanting to put us in anyone's crosshairs," Mike said, shaking his head, "but do you really think it will work?"
"Whether it works or not, it is our only reasonable course of action. I will not send you where you are not welcome. The others will simply have to accept the consequences of their actions."
"Well that's great. Just great. I'm glad we've got the problems of Earth all sorted," Toby said impatiently. "But where does that leave Shelley? What are we going to do about her? I for one am not about to leave her to rot in some jail cell somewhere."
Mike spread his hands. "Toby, old friend, I'm open to suggestions."
"We visit her," Trina said firmly, "as often as we can, just like you would do with any friend who is in prison. We . . . we bring her little presents. We talk to her. We hold her hand and let her cry if she needs to. We let her know that we are with her and that she is not alone. We keep her sane. That is what we do."
Mike looked around at the rest of us, then nodded judiciously. "Yes. Trina, love, that's spot on. You're right; that's exactly what we're going to do. Good on you for thinking of it."
"I will let you know when her position has stabilized," Wizzit promised. "We can plan visitations then."
Nicolai was looking troubled. "Wizzit, what will happen when an Enclave monster in the United States doesn't get put down?" he asked. "If it doesn't get destroyed soon enough, then that will allow Enclave to send down more monsters more quickly."
Wizzit hesitated. "We will have to deal with that problem as it comes up," he said at last. "I have a few contingency plans if things really go sour. It may be rough on you kids for a while; that's one reason we are bringing in Prime Black. And Trevor, we may need to make use of Junior Prime Pink occasionally as well."
"I understand," I said, nodding reluctantly. "And I agree. I just don't want our problems to take over her life."
Mike said, "So, when is this Prime Black person going to join us, anyway? And who is it?"
"I sent Prime Black an urgent message as soon as Protocol Black was implemented," Wizzit replied evasively. "I am expecting a reply soonest."
"The name, Wizzit," Toby said. "Tell us the name."
"Are you sure you want to spoil the surprise?"
"The name, Wizzit!" Trina snapped.
He sighed. "All right." Wizzit's only means of communication with us is verbal, and he puts a lot of effort into it. Right now, he sounded just like a little kid, and we were spoiling his fun. "If you reeeeeally need to know . . ."
"Wizzit," Mike said patiently, "I think we really need to know."
"Fine. Bill Harding."
"Bill?" I could tell that Mike was taken aback. "That's . . . damn, that's actually a good choice." He sounded surprised.
"Good?" Toby exclaimed. "It's bloody brilliant!"
"It's amazing!" Trina agreed.
"I am receiving a message from Prime Black now," Wizzit announced. "He says, 'Give me two days to get my affairs in order. Then I'm in for as long as you need me.'"
"That's great news!" Nicolai said enthusiastically.
I caught Padma's eye from across the room. She looked a little at sea, and I couldn't blame her. Neither she nor I had ever worked with Bill. In fact, I'm pretty sure I was the one who came in to replace him, which was about six months after he left. "Um, that's great, guys," I said, "but Padma and I don't know Bill all that well. Could you, you know, tell us a little bit about him? I've heard some of the history, and I met him at the party, but beyond that . . ."
"Bill was Prime Red before Shelley," Trina said, "and he was our tech guy before Nicolai."
"Yeah, I know that much. He was the one who made the Junior Prime Pink badge my sister carries."
Toby said, "He wasn't Prime Red all that long, was he?"
"Two years, seven months, six days," Wizzit said.
"Oh. Longer than I thought. Still, it would have been even longer if it hadn't been for . . ." His voice trailed off.
"Yeah, we all know the story," I said impatiently. "Bill attacked a monster before Wizzit gave the okay, they argued about it afterward, and Bill got canned. That's all part of the history that every new Prime learns, and according to Shelley, they have since patched things up and are all buddy-buddy now. But what kind of a guy was he? What was he good at? What was he bad at? Heck, what fighting style did he use?"
"I know he is a mathematician," Padma offered. "He would have to be, to have been our tech guy. I met him very briefly at the number theory conference in Cambridge. He was Nicolai's . . ." She turned to Nicolai beside her. "What is the word? Not minder . . ."
"Sponsor," Nicolai told her. "He was our sponsor." He turned to the rest of us. "He gives lectures at Cambridge. He was the one who invited me to speak at the conference."
"He was always a good man," Trina said meditatively. "Very thoughtful. No, that's the wrong word. Not thoughtful like he would buy you flowers on your birthday. He . . . he would think about things. Something would happen, and he would think about it, and then later on, after you had forgotten the entire matte
r, he would do or say something that told you that it had been on his mind. I spoke with him a few times after he left us, and I know he sincerely regretted the argument that caused Wizzit to fire him. He was . . . unhappy with how he had left things here at HQ, and I know he really wanted a chance to come back and somehow make things right."
"It sounds as though he is getting his chance now," Padma said.
"I'll tell you what, he was a lot of fun to train with," Toby said. "I remember one time when he --"
Mike silenced him with an upraised finger. "Hold that thought, Toby," he said. "Wizzit, are we done here?"
"Unless you wish to badger me for more information, we are done."
"Fine. In that case, I would suggest we adjourn to the lounge to talk about Bill and make our plans. It's much more comfortable there."
Attack Doll 3: Protocol Black Page 7