Part III
SPIRITUS MUNDI
Chapter 31: Tet Media
Susannah Walker: Are you absolutely sure that this chat is secure?
The Ferryman: If it wasn't then I would not be contacting you.
SW: Can you really blame me for being so paranoid? If anyone knew I was contacting you it would me more than my job. ONI doesn't take too kindly to acts of espionage.
TF: And here I thought you were just an investigative journalist.
SW: I really don't think ONI understands that distinction
TF: Fair enough. I suppose you want some proof that I'm not a spook in disguise.
SW: Are you?
TF: Of course I am. To be a whistleblower you first have to be inside the organization you're blowing on.
SW: You know what I mean.
TF: Well there is no way for me to prove it too you that you would believe. Let me just put it to you this way. If I am then you are already screwed to put it mildly, so why not act like you have nothing to lose?
SW: Alright fine. First off who are you?
TF: I came here with the promise of anonymity.
SW: I understand that. I mean what do you do for ONI? I don't need specifics, just a sense of what your knowledge base might actually be.
TF: I work in Section Two. Propaganda. To be a little more specific I assist in conducting research on human behavior models. All the best to brainwash you with dear.
SW: Lovely. Now, why did you come to me?
TF: The Assembly instructed me to.
SW: The Assembly?
TF: Yes. The general consensus was that you were the best person to talk to on these matters which I'm about to discuss. A certain ace in the hole. As I said my specialty is studying human behavior, and based on my personal projections, as well as the projections of many of my peers, chaos within human controlled space in imminent.
SW: Okay, where do I begin? First, what is the Assembly? Second, what do you mean by ace in the hole? Third, what do you mean by chaos?
TF: As to the Assembly I cannot answer you even vaguely without potentially compromising out identity, but what I can tell you is that our little collective is very fond of contingency plans. The chaos which is about to unfold, while planned for some time by various parties, can potentially have consequences far beyond even our ability to predict. Some unforeseen circumstance may cause the Assembly itself to become compromised. We are giving you what information we deem necessary so that incase that outcome were to occur our narrative will not be lost.
SW: You have a bad habit of raising more questions than you answer.
TF: I know. It is a bit of a character flaw of mine.
SW: And the third question?
TF: You are Susannah Walker correct?
SW: Yes.
TF: Investigative Reporter for Tet Media?
SW: Yes.
TF: I hear they give excellent dental care.
SW: Get to your point.
TF: I am, but you must allow me my fun. I get very irritable if I don't have my fun. Now, you published a book last October correct?
SW: Yes I did.
TF: Titled 'The Decline and Fall of the American Hegemony: The Untold Story of the Second American Civil War'
SW: I should know, I wrote the damn thing.
TF: Then the answer to your question should be clear to you then.
SW: A Civil War?
TF: Precisely. Of course it all hinges on what happens at Alesia. If Romanov loses then chaos can largely be avoided. If he wins, then there will be a Civil War.
SF: What makes you so sure?
TF: How much time do you have?
SF: As much time as you need to explain.
TF: Well then get comfortable. This might take a while.
…
January 1st, 2561 (Military Calendar) Sol System, Earth, New York City, Tet Media Building
"Suze," an urgent voice whispered persistently into her right hear. Susannah Walker waved a dismissive hand in the voice's direction, brushing up against a nose with the tip of her middle finger in the process. She then buried her head further into her arms, her upper body spread out across her desk, hoping to get back to the uncomfortable sleep she had been so thoroughly enjoying.
"Oh Suze," the voice said again in a sing song like voice. Susannah then smelt a whiff of coffee fun across her nose, and a dark brown eye slowly opened.
"Why can't you ever leave me alone?"
A young man with hazel green eyes smiled back at her, a cup of coffee in either hand. "Wouldn't be me if I did would I? Besides, I like watching you wake up."
Susannah smiled and took on of the cups from his hand. She grimaced as she took a sip. "You always put too much sugar in it."
"I always put in the right amount. You're the one that's off your rocker," Eddie said, winking at her. He sat down in the chair on the other side of the desk, smiling at her. She was rather beautiful when she woke up in the morning. Susannah would never admit it, but he knew it to be true. Her skin was light brown, her hair a dark black and curly in a way that Eddie likened to a spring or one of those plastic slinkies you let topple down the stairs. She was beautiful in his mind. She had always been beautiful.
"Pull another all nighter?" he asked.
"No," Susannah said. "I just really prefer sleeping at my desk over a nice comfy bed." She cracked her neck a few times, taking a sip in between the sharp pops.
"So your new contact," Eddie asked. "Can you trust him?"
"Probably not," Susannah said. "But I really don't know of any contacts I ever could fully trust, except for one of course but he's the exception." Susannah frowned as she looked down at her coffee, swirling the mug until it made a dark whirlpool. "Doesn't really matter anyway. Can't publish a word of it."
"Why not?" Eddie asked. It really was not like her to not want to publish anything. Usually the only people that could stop her from writing a piece was either the Editor in Chief or their friendly neighborhood ONI Public Relations Officer. Eddie was personally not sure who he hated more.
"Because," Susannah sighed. "One of the organizations my contact ratted out on also happens to write our paychecks."
"Tet?" Eddie asked. "Find it hard to believe. They make toothpaste for Christ sakes."
"They also happen to own several media outlits, financial institutions, research and development firms, and a bunch of other shady semi legal corporate bullshit that they are only half attempting to hide. Not exactly innocent."
"Yeah," Eddie said. "But I'm sure there is like a law or something that says if you make toothpaste you can't possibly be part of an evil conspiracy."
Susannah rolled her eyes. "You're an idiot."
"Yeah, but I'm your idiot."
Susannah chuckled lightly. "Well I do only keep you around because I find you funny." Her smile then faded, her forehead furrowing.
"What's wrong?" Eddie asked.
"Nothing, just something my contact said, or rather didn't say. What do you know about Jack Toren?"
"Toren?" Eddie asked. "He's the guy that owns Tet right?"
"Yes, but I mean other than that what do you know?"
Eddie thought for a moment then shrugged his shoulders. "Nothing I guess. What do you know?"
"Nothing, and that's what worries me. My new contact in ONI doesn't even know anything about him. ONI in general knows nothing about him, which makes it one of the very few secrets within the UNSC they don't know."
"There has to be something," Eddie said. "I mean even if the guy doesn't really exist and he is just a front for something else there would have to be some clues lying around."
"There is one thing I do know," Susannah said. "He is perhaps the only person Romanov is legitimately afraid of. Romanov is not afraid of Hood, not afraid of Osman, not afraid of the UEG president, not even afraid of North Central even with how nasty he can be, but Jack Toren genuinely seems to terrify him."
"Why?"
"Think about it," Susannah said. "We've been keeping an eye on the Romanov crisis since it began. Every single move he's made on the chess board has been flawless. He's been able to predict what people are going to do before they even know what they are going to do. It's obvious he's been planning this out for a very long time with every angle and calculation factored in. Every variable accounted for except for one. Jack Toren is the one variable he can't account for because he knows nothing about him, and that's why he fears him."
Susannah leaned back into her chair with a heavy sigh, closing her eyes heavily. "Remind me to retire when this is all over. At this rate I'm going to end up killing myself with stress before we can have a chance to spend all that big journalism money we've been raking in."
"Hell I'm just an overpaid secretary. You're the one that rakes in the big bucks."
Susannah opened one bleary eye and smiled at him. Extending one long slender finger she motioned for Eddie to come to her. He did, getting down on both of his knees in between her legs, wrapping his arms around her waist. "You wanna get out of her?"
"Desperately," Susannah said wistfully, closing both eyes again. "To hell with the war, the UNSC, ONI, the Terra Party. To hell with all of them. Just you and me sugar and some tropical moon all to ourselves."
"Wished you said something sooner. I'd have us halfway there by now," Eddie said, his thumbs making circles on her waist.
Susannah groaned playfully. "Eddie Walker what do you think you're doing?"
"Just trying to start the vacation a little early," he said, his hands becoming more adventurous with each passing second.
Susannah shook her head, leaned forward, and kissed him on the forehead. "You know my rule, no sex before an interview."
"Which makes absolutely no sense. That's why I try and break it so often. That, and I like annoying you. It's a bit of a hobby of mine."
"So I've noticed," Susannah said. She stretched out her legs on either side of Eddie and sat up straighter in her chair. "What I do need you to do is help me take these damn things off. Want to give my skin some fresh air and some odor eaters before they stink up the whole studio."
"God forbid that happens. Hey, look at it this way. If the smell is bad enough it might cause August to throw the interview."
"Eddie," Susannah said with a warning tone.
"I'm on it. I'm on it," Eddie said. He reached up underneath Susannah's knee, the movement of his fingers no longer seductive but rather having taken on the characteristics of a trained mechanic performing a familiar action. There was a click, and Susannah sighed in relief as the two prosthetic legs slipped off of her.
"Never let me sleep in these things again," she said, rubbing the stumps where her real legs ended, somewhere just below the knee cap.
"Little bit hard to do that when you don't come home and spend all night chatting with your boyfriend online. Got a feeling I'm going to be replaced eventually," Eddie said. It was his sarcastic sense of humor that had won Susannah over in the long run, that and his boyish looks and those gorgeous hazel eyes. God, she thought. Did he even realize just how attractive those eyes made him?
Susannah rolled her eyes. "Please sugar. If I got rid of you then who would I have to put lotion on me." She reached into her desk and pulled out the bottle of said lotion, shaking it at him expectantly.
"You I would assume," Eddie said. "Last time I check you were just missing your legs, not your arms."
Susannah tossed the lotion at him, the tube bouncing off of Eddies shoulder and giving her some level of satisfaction as he had to bend over backwards to pick it up. "Just get to rubbing white boy. I got a date with the craziest politician in the UEG I need to get ready for."
"Yes ma'am," Eddie said, squirting a generous amount into his right hand before rubbing both hands together vigorously. He started with her left leg, using his fingers to massage the part of her knee that still remained. "You do realize your dad was white right?"
"Mmhmm," Susannah said, trying to focus on how good Eddie's fingers felt. "But I got all my looks from my mother."
"Yeah, I'd say your kinky hair is a testament to that."
"Oh really?" Susannah asked. "You better get used to it. Just for saying that now all our kids are going to have hair kinkier than mine."
"Nope," Eddie said. "They are all going to be blonde haired, blue eyed, and white as ghosts."
"You keep thinking that," Susannah said, watching as Eddie squirted more lotion onto his hand and moved on to her right leg.
"Ready for the interview?" he asked, glancing up at her.
"I'm the best damn journalist in Tet Media. Maybe even Earth. What do you think?"
"Hubris much?" Eddie asked.
"Only when it's warranted."
"Pride comes before the fall," Eddie warned.
"If that's the case then August is about to fall pretty damn hard. As long as the ONI censors don't try to hamstring me too much I should be fine."
"I'm not so sure," Eddie admitted. "You've never seen him speak in person. I have. The guy is a damn snake charmer. The way he can work a crowd is like nothing I've ever seen before, and he'll turn them on you if you give him half the chance. He's managed to convince a lot of people to buy into his bullshit."
"Which is why I'm here," Susannah said. "Somebody has to stop them. August, Romanov, the Terra Party, and if ONI is doing a shit job at it then it means it's up to you and me."
"There are a lot of nuts out there," Eddie said quietly.
"I've dealt with them before."
Eddie shook his head. "Not like this Suze. There's something coming. A change in the wind. I don't know exactly what it is, but I can feel that it's out there. Like a guy with arthritis can tell when a storm is about to come. A lot of what August says makes sense, and that's the most dangerous part about him. He's bat shit crazy, but if you listen to him long enough it becomes harder not to agree with him. I just want you to be safe, that's all."
"I will," Susannah said. She leaned forward, cupped his chin in her hand, and kissed him gently on the lips. "Now let's go make this asshole eat his own words."