THE NEXT MORNING. PUEBLO, COLORADO. 9:04 AM MST. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2025.
This is not going to be easy. Heather looked down
at the notes she had scrawled minutes ago, after her quick
conference with Arnie. Leslie Antonowicz had been no more
forthcoming this morning, refusing to answer any questions, saying
only that she was innocent, which is kind of
what you’d expect, isn’t it?
She looked up; both
delegations were silent, either watching her or working over notes.
Probably they both already know. It’s not like
we’re hard to penetrate or anything. Her own sarcasm was
bitter brass in her brain.
She drew a breath and
began. “There’s something we need to cover before talking about
anything else this morning. Last night an ongoing investigation
discovered that one of the Reconstruction Research Center’s top
analysts, Leslie Antonowicz, was working for Daybreak. At this
point we don’t even know what that really means, whether she was
actually in the pay of some Daybreak-related organization or
whether she is a believing convert to the Daybreak system of ideas.
Ms. Antonowicz is in detention at a secure location.
“My senior
researcher, Doctor Arnold Yang, is interrogating her, and I hope
within a few days we will know much more about what has been going
on, for how long, and how much damage has been done. At this point,
however, because she was on our Board, the librarian for our field
reporting system, and a senior researcher, and therefore her
routine access to information was at such a high level, we have to
assume that no communications between
RRC and anywhere else—including either the Temporary National
Government or the Provisional Constitutional Government—have been
secure, since the founding of the RRC. The responsibility for this
is entirely mine. I urge that you immediately contact your home
offices by your own most secure channels and begin appropriate
investigations. I ask your patience while we investigate our own
very serious situation. Thank you.”
General Grayson
cleared his throat as if to say something, but Cam froze him with a
glance, then pulled a file card from his pocket and read, “‘Whereas
any agreement on the matters currently in negotiation is absolutely
dependent on maintenance of full security, we believe the
conference must be canceled for the time being, until RRC is able
to show that security is re-established. We expect that this will
take a period of weeks or months and therefore will return to the
temporary capital at Athens in the TNG District. We regret this
necessity and look forward to reconvening at the earliest feasible
date.’”
He had that ready to go on his card; he
knew.
Graham nodded, pulled
out three cards (Heather could see they were in Allie’s all-caps
printed scrawl), and selected the one he wanted; he read, “We will
be happy to reconvene as soon as security issues are settled, but
we do not believe this can be done at any early date, so we are
returning to Olympia, where we will await the successful conclusion
of the RRC’s investigations.”
And Allie had prepared Graham Weisbrod to go three
different ways. Gah. There used to be high school marching bands
that had better security than we do.
That afternoon,
walking back with James from seeing off the PCG train to Olympia
(just twenty minutes after the TNG train to Athens), Heather
spotted a newsboy running up the street toward the riverfront. She
flagged him down, paid him, and showed James the extra edition of
the Pueblo Post-Times. Half the front
page was headline:
PEACE TALKS COLLAPSE
SENIOR RRC OFFICIAL IS COVERT DAYBREAKER
PROSPECTS FOR REUNION ELECTION NEXT YEAR DIM
“This might be the
first issue, ever, that I don’t read,” she said. As they walked on
they could hear the shouts of “Extra!” in the streets around
them.
“I don’t suppose many
people will be collecting those,” James said. “Not the way they did
the PEACE headline a few months ago.”
After another block,
Heather said, “I got all three of your notes about Leslie. James,
we all know you’re her most loyal friend. There’s no reason for us
to consider you a suspect, but it’s only common sense for us to
keep you away from the investigation. And for God’s sake, James,
it’s Arnie. Are you expecting him to
torture her or something? He’s told me already that he really wants
to believe she’s innocent, but she’s not cooperating at all. I know
she’s important to you, but what else would you have us do? Now, of
course you have to worry. She’s your friend and you don’t think
she’s guilty. But I know that if she’s innocent, Arnie Yang will
find that out. And I promise, no matter what, you’ll see her
again.”
James nodded, said,
“Thanks for understanding,” and walked away, hands in his pockets,
head down, kicking at the dirt.
He’s thinking, and that’s not as good a thing as it
usually is, Heather thought, turning toward her own office
door. And I hope he doesn’t realize how likely
it is that when he sees Leslie again, it’ll be to sit up with her
the night before we hang her.