by Terry Schott
"No." Jane's calm expression became frustrated. "We have introduced radioactive isotopes, genetically modified bacteriophages, and every other trick that we have learned over the decades with our own studies in biology and nanotech. We haven't been successful yet."
"Have any other Families?"
"No." All had agreed to keep the leaders together in one hospital, combining the best medical and technical minds from each Family. Such a thing had happened only rarely throughout history, and only in the case of a full-dress offensive against the entire organization.
"Let us know if anything significant develops," Harry said. "Josh will report recent developments regarding the SHEPHERDS division."
Josh stood and walked to the large whiteboard on the wall behind his chair. With a red marker, he began to draw and label circles on the board, each circle representing a city in their game holdings. He wrote the number 1 inside the middle circle, then drew a diagonal line through it. "Less than an hour ago, our primary territory, City One, was hacked."
"Hacked or sheared?" someone asked. There was a difference. Shearing was a legal move made within the rules of the game. It involved shifts in digital cash, target acquisition, and transfer of territory ownership for short periods of time. Hacking involved theft of accounts, real dollars, and identities. Shearing was permitted; hacking was cause for concern, and often led to more serious—and militant—involvement from other Family divisions.
"Hacked," Josh confirmed.
"Players?"
"No," said Josh, shaking his head. "The entire city of civilians has been hacked."
The room became silent as the implications sank in.
"You'd better expand on that," Harry said.
"Not a single occupant of City One can obtain cash, credit, or any other form of purchasing power that requires electronic communication."
"Oh god," said a pair of twins, in unison.
"Have they started to riot?" an older man asked.
"Not yet," Josh said, "but that will happen soon. People are used to brief local glitches in digital banking, but when word gets out that it's city-wide, they'll lose it."
"This has never happened before." Harry paused. "Has it?"
"Never," William said.
"Is it tied to the game?" another woman asked.
"Absolutely," Josh confirmed. "A group has stepped forward to claim responsibility."
"The same group that dropped our elders." Harry looked around the table. "It would seem that there are those out there who have discovered our game, and resent that we are profiting from it. They are determined to bring the entire system to a crashing halt."
"Can they?" a young man asked. "We control the worldwide grid from Wallaceton, right? There are override protocols that enable us to assert full control of anything and everything connected to the grid. That includes private sector, non-game technology. The data we shear, we may sell, but we also keep. That will allow us to take over and control anything electronic if we decide to."
"Yes," Harry said, "but that would require unanimous consent from the top seven Families."
The young man shrugged. "That shouldn't be a problem, considering all that has happened."
"It will blow the lid off the game," William said. "Once we make a move like that, it won't take long for civilians to follow the trail and realize that SHEPHERDS is more than a game."
Harry's ansible chirped, and he glanced down at it. "Oh no," he said. His face began to flush.
"What is it?" William asked.
Harry pushed the ansible toward his brother. William looked down and he swore softly under his breath."City One, we are told, will be restored in less than an hour."
"That text just tell you that?" Josh asked.
"Yes," Harry's expression had changed to that of a man ready to kill.
"What does it say, exactly?"
"That all will be returned to normal within the hour," Harry said, glaring down at his ansible, "and that someone has taken my kids."
"You look like you know who sent the text," a female cousin said.
Harry's face flushed a deeper shade of angry red as he nodded. "I do."
***
Under Kyle's direction, Sam parked the car in front of a small, tidy house, then switched off the ignition. The three of them got out.
Kyle leaned against the car door and nodded toward the house. "This is as far as I go for now," he said. "Both of you head in."
True to his word, Kyle had refused to answer a single inquiry during the twenty-minute drive. Neither Dawn nor Sam saw any reason to try now. "Come on," Dawn sighed. "Let's just get this over with."
Sam nodded, and the two of them walked toward and up the three grey concrete steps that led to the front door.
"Just walk on in and head into the kitchen." Kyle called out.
Sam opened the door. Dawn entered the foyer, waiting for her brother. The little house's interior and furnishings reflected sophisticated taste and a generous bankroll. They walked ten steps down a small hallway, then saw the kitchen entry on their right. Brother and sister entered the room together.
Dawn gasped in surprise, and Sam let out an exclamation of shock.
After a second that seemed like eternity, Dawn spoke the one word she had never expected to utter aloud again.
"Mom?"Dawn wanted to rush forward and hug her mother, but she couldn't. Sam hadn't moved either.
"You're angry," Desdemona whispered, glassy-eyed, forcing a smile. "I expect that you're both angry."
"Yeah, I think anger is in here somewhere." Sam's voice sounded detached and calm, but his eyes weren't. "I guess it's mostly shock that I feel at the moment. There is some happiness in there too. I know I've wished for this so many times."
"To be abducted and taken to a house in the middle of nowhere, and then find your dead mother standing alive and well in front of you?"
Sam smiled. "Well, not exactly like that. Seeing you alive, though, that was the part I wanted." He moved forward, and Desdemona stepped into his arms. Sam buried his face in her shoulder and wept as a flood of emotions overwhelmed him. Dawn closed the distance and joined the embrace.
After a few moments they stepped back and rubbed away tears. "There," sniffled Desdemona, "that's the tough part out of the way." She offered her children a box of tissues.
"Thanks," said Dawn, blowing her nose.
"I'm surprised at least one of you didn't leave," Desdemona said.
"Why would we do that?" Sam asked. "And which one of us did you expect to leave?"
Desdemona bit the bottom of her lip and looked up toward the ceiling, failing to blink back the tears. "I don't know how you can forgive me when I can't even forgive myself." She lowered her hands into her face and cried.
Dawn put her hand out, lightly resting it on her mother's shoulder. "I'm sure you had a good reason," she said, softly. "You were a great mom. We know how much you loved us. We've been learning lately that our lives are more complicated than most, and Dad told us a little bit about you as well."
The sobs trailed away and her mother looked up to meet her daughter's gaze.
"You had a good reason," Dawn said. "For leaving us. Right?"
Desdemona closed her eyes. "Yes, I had a good reason. But I'm glad that you are willing to talk to me. I figured your dad would have told you the whole story by now, especially before taking you into Wallaceton." She walked to the kitchen table and sat down. Dawn and Sam joined her. "Who did you meet? Your grandparents?"
Dawn nodded. "We got to meet Grandfather, and Uncle William, plus a few cousins. Things went sour before we could meet with Grandmother, though." Dawn glanced at Sam, who shook his head slightly. She did not continue.
Desdemona caught the exchange and chuckled. "You're well-trained. Harry began that early."
"He tried," Sam said. "I'm certain we would have said less if it had been anyone sitting here but our long-dead mother."
"That's a fair point, but don't worry. I know what occurred dur
ing the quarterly dinner. You won't be sharing any information that I don't already have."
"How?" Dawn began to ask.
"I'll tell you in a few minutes. First, you are owed an explanation regarding why I had to leave."Brother and sister nodded.
"Years ago, just before I left, your uncle William met with your dad and I to ask for our help. Of course, we both knew the request came from your grandfather, but there was no reason to force that issue by making him present it in person. We had come to grips with our exile, and both your dad and I had hoped we could live apart from the Family for the rest of our lives. William told us that there was a new threat to the status quo, and they needed our help because we were off the grid in many aspects."
"Everyone believed you were exiled and not talking to the Families?" Sam guessed.
"Exactly. That put is in a very unique position, and your grandfather wanted us to capitalize on it."
"How?"
"For almost as long as the organized Families have existed, there has been one other group in existence as well. They call themselves the Displaced, and they are very dangerous."
"What makes them so dangerous?" Dawn asked.
"They are the sworn enemy of the Families," Desdemona said. "They exist for the sole purpose of destroying the Families' and preventing them from accomplishing their long-term plans."
"They sound like another group with a secret agenda," Sam shrugged. "Just because their plan is different doesn't mean that it's any better or worse than the Families'."
Desdemona chuckled. "You sound just like one of them. Maybe it's because you never grew up under full Family indoctrination. It doesn't matter. The point is that your father and I have known all our lives that the Displaced are a very real, and very dangerous threat to everything good in the world." Desdemona poured them all some tea. "We were asked to infiltrate a new chapter that had just moved into our city. Your father and I made contact and began to go to some early meetings. After a few weeks, they were willing to let us join. When it came time, your father changed his mind. I didn't."
"You went ahead and pretended to join them and Daddy didn't," Dawn said. "Is that when the two of you split up? Is that when you left us?"
"Yes," Desdemona said. "After a few months of attending meetings and events, your father demanded that I discontinue the operation. He had learned things which led him to believe it was too dangerous for us to continue. Rather than agree and quit, I told him that I was going to join. We argued. I left in the middle of the night."
"I don't see why it's such a big deal," Sam said. "Why did you have to leave? Why did Dad tell us that you were dead?"
"Because I didn't pretend to join the Displaced."
"What do you mean?" Dawn asked.
"What they said made sense, more sense than anything I had ever been told by my Family." Desdemona looked up and met her children's eyes. "I told your father that I was no longer spying on the Displaced. I told him I was going over to their side. I renounced my Family and completely joined them."
"Dad knew that was what you were planning?"
Desdemona nodded. "Yes. I embraced our enemies' principles and became one of them. In your father's eyes, and the eyes of the Families, I died when I made my decision."
45
"I've discovered who is behind the attack," Josh said, looking across the table at Harry.
"Who?"
"The Displaced."
Harry looked at Josh blankly for a moment, then shook his head. "I don't buy that."
"Why not?"
"It's too aggressive for them."
"They've been aggressive before," William said. He opened the lid of his laptop and began to type commands as he spoke. "Remember the trouble they started seventy-five years ago?"
"The entire world remembers the trouble they started back then," Harry said. "It's why we have since kept a tighter leash on them."
"You say that as if we are their masters," William chuckled. "We do our best to stay ahead of them by wiping out cells when we get the chance. We don't always get the chance, though, do we? Sometimes they are made stronger by our attempts."
Harry ignored the jibe. "For the past seven decades, they have been disorganized and in hiding."
"Maybe that's what they wanted us to think," Josh offered. "Their stink is all over this attack, Harry. They aren't even trying to conceal it from us."
"What do you mean?"
Josh turned his laptop to face the brothers. "We know their signatures and code words, the calling cards they leave behind when they want to claim responsibility. Their mark is all over the trail I've been following."
Harry's screen beeped to notify him of an incoming email. Harry absently glanced at the message on his screen and clicked it. A video message started playing. The second it began, the table fell silent.
"Hello, Harry," said the screen's smiling image of Desdemona, sitting in what appeared to be a small kitchen. "I'm back in town and I have the children. If you want to see them again, I think you should listen very carefully to what I am about to say..."
***
"We don't have much time left," said Desdemona.
Sam groaned. "Why not? We just got you back, and now you're telling us we have to separate again?"
The three had spent the last two hours laughing, crying, hugging, and talking. Sam and Dawn did most of the talking.
"I'm afraid so," Desdemona said. "This city belongs to your father. He will find you sooner than later, and it wouldn't be good for me to be here when he finally does. I plan to be far away by the time his forces locate you."
"Will we see you again soon?" Dawn asked.
"That's up to you," Desdemona said, smiling, "although I am sure you're both old enough by now to realize that your lives are not entirely your own. There will be more opportunities to meet, but the choices you make will follow you for the remainder of your days."
"We are adults and free to do as we want," Sam said.
"You are. Dawn is not, yet." Their mother stood and walked to the cupboard. She opened the door and retrieved a box of chocolate-covered biscuits that had always been their favourite. She returned to her seat and took a cookie before pushing the box toward her children. "You are about to learn that, no matter how old you become, you are never fully in control of your own life."
"That's depressing," Dawn said.
"It sure is. It's one of the worst lessons life teaches us. "When I was young, I had to do what my parents told me. When I got older, I had to do what the leaders of the Family wanted. I hate being told what to do, yet growing up taught me that there will always be someone, or something, telling you what to do. The best you can do in life is choose who will be giving you the orders." She smiled. "Of course, advancing in the ranks of leadership also minimizes the number of people who can boss you around, but even the supreme leader of an organization is not entirely free to do whatever they want."
"Why did you leave us?" Dawn asked, finally giving voice to the question that had been looming in the background.
Desdemona looked at them sadly. "Leaving the two of you was the price that I had to pay for a chance to make the world better than it is." She reached out and grabbed another cookie. "Being a soldier in the Family would have been a waste of my time and talents. Keeping things the way they were would have led to some happiness, but ultimately it would have ended in pain. For all of us. They are about to train you, am I right?"
Sam and Dawn nodded.
"'Indoctrinate you is more like it," she said. "The good news is that both of you are less fanatical than the rest, because your father was able to keep you separate as long as possible. During your training over the next few years, you would become as dedicated as the others. It is part of the process. You won't be entering the training program, though. They will be too busy from now on to worry about such things."
"Why do you say that?"
Desdemona smiled. "The world is about to change, children. I came here to warn you."
"Change? In what way?"
"The Displaced have been very busy over the past few decades. SHEPHERDS helped us tremendously. We have infiltrated the game in every country where it is played."
"How many countries is that?" Sam asked.
"All of them," Desdemona said. "Every country that has an economy, power grid, and some form of organized government. The Families have spent considerable time, resources, and effort to make certain that the game is everywhere. With it in place, their plan was to finally achieve the ultimate goal of world domination and control."
"Are you serious?" Dawn asked.
"Absolutely. Through the game, they control all information flow. They know everything that is being said, thought, and acted upon by every member of society. If a housewife is a dissident, or the ruler of a country is not as loyal as he claims to be, the game allows the Families to know the truth. They are only a few years away from placing a single world leader in a position of supreme power over everyone else. Of course, the Families will control that leader and the government that is formed, from the shadows."
"We just learned that SHEPHERDS is much more than a game," Dawn said, "but we had no idea it was that much more."
"Only a few at the very top of the world leadership know the stakes that are being played for," Desdemona said. "The Displaced know as well, and we have a plan to prevent them from succeeding."
"How?" asked Dawn, not expecting an answer.
"That's why I'm here tonight," Desdemona said. "To tell you. To warn you. The Families have ruled the world for centuries. They have done a poor job, and it is getting worse under their control. I am about to take that control away from them." She smiled calmly at her children. "The Displaced intend to introduce a virus into the game. SHEPHERDS will collapse, and so will the governments and economies tied to it."
Sam thought for a moment. "But if all economies and governments are connected to it, then that means..."
"Money is about to be worthless," Desdemona said. "Governments are about to lose their power over the people."