SETTING THE SCENE

Serena had not realized that the nearest land border between Canada and the 'No Man's Land' was so far east of Toronto. It wasn't even south of the Canadian province of Ontario, the 45th parallel was mainly the border between Quebec and the old US States of New York and Vermont. That was a long way away.

When Mr. Shaw picked up speed on the Canadian highway #401, she got a little nervous. She asked him, he being in the front, "is this a safe speed, Mr. Shaw?"

"It is, Mrs. Waterford. We have a six or seven hour drive, as it is." He explained, that was why they had left so early, before first light.

"Geography was not my strong suit," she said to him. "I was in social anthropology. Was very unpopular with the faculty in Boston. I couldn't get a faculty advisor to sponsor my master's thesis, one on the 'new feminism'. I left to become an independent author."

"I wouldn't know, Mrs. Waterford," Shaw said, "I'd been Special Forces in the old 101 Airborne. Then when the revolution came, I dedicated myself to the safety of Gilead." He said he'd been one of the first to attend the retooled, Guardian training centre at West Point. He said, "our training, it was tough, Mrs. Waterford. A lot of guys didn't make it. But we all knew what we were fighting for."

The speed, it still worried her. She'd not gone this fast in a car in years. Unlike Gilead, there were so many other cars competing for the road, going just as fast!

Watching some of the farmlands whizz by, Serena wondered how she was going to accomplish what she was setting out to do. She was amazed that Ryan Wheeler had fallen for her line about wanting revenge on June Osborne. He had made the classic mistake that men like him make with women like her, women of the new feminism.

Perhaps the reason why Mr. Wheeler had fallen for it, was that it had the benefit of being true. Serena, indeed, wanted June dead. She'd just never had such strong competing priorities.

But like a man, Wheeler had mistook meekness for weakness. So he caved in. In her estimation, he was ripe to suffer the same fate as her own husband. 'Men,' she said to herself, 'they let their advantages dull them. They succumb to their weaknesses, their sicknesses.' She filed away in her brain a new chapter for her next book. About how God lays low the proud. The Song of Mary. How God regards the lowliness of his handmaiden and lifts her up in her humility.

'Stow that', she thought. 'Handmaiden' language was way, way too close to home. June, the proofreader, would have caught that.

Shaw piped up, "Stow 'what', Mrs. Waterford?"

"My apologies, Mr Shaw. I'm just thinking out loud. I think I got up too early." She paused, "Mr. Wheeler was right to be concerned - I've never been pregnant before, nor this tired."

"I have my orders, Mrs. Waterford," he said. "Mainly to see to you."

'Right!', thought Serena. She thought about what might happen up ahead. She said, "How do we get into the No Man's Land, Mr. Shaw. Isn't it dangerous being there?"

"It's mainly empty land, Mrs. Waterford." Changing lanes to pass a transport truck, he continued, "Gilead tried to claim it early on. Our forces got too stretched. Then it was clear we had to set up our own checkpoints way, way south. Then Guardians were tasked with 'the clearances'. We had to move Gilead's population south. It's now mainly empty - as such, Canada never secured the 45th the way they used to."

"The 45th?"

"Yeah," Mr. Shaw said. "It's actually not a straight line, but the official border, it mainly follows the 45th Parallel. It stretches from the Mohawk autonomous lands in the west - right where the St. Lawrence river meets the Ontario/Quebec border, then goes east all the way to what used to be New Hampshire. The Missisquoi want their lands to be recognized as autonomous, too…. but it's simply too convenient to keep it a No Man's Land."

The indigenous, they were now not subject to some other nation-state, giving Canada and Gilead a buffer between their respective militaries. Shaw said, "there's a few rebel groups who operate there, but also mercenaries who you can do business with."

"It sounds like you know a lot about it, Mr. Shaw," Serena said. "Is that why you got this assignment? The assignment with Mr. Wheeler north of the border?"

"I'm assigned to you, Mrs. Waterford. I am to see to your safety and comfort, especially with the baby coming."

Serena seriously doubted that statement. She had been involved with Gilead from the beginning. If she had not pointed Fred in the right directions, if she had not explained 'how things worked' to him, Fred would never have risen to prominence in New Gilead the way he had.

So far, men underestimating women was Serena's plus one. Serena's hidden friend who men never saw. Mr. Shaw probably believed that Serena was that stupid, to think that he was working for her.

PITSTOP

Pulling off to the south from #401, Serena asked if this was the border. Shaw indicated, no, this was a stop to fill up, and 'see a man about a horse'. "Always go into that area with a full tank," he said. They drove the short distance towards the river, where Shaw pulled into a 'HandyMart' gas station at Morrisburg.

He pulled up beside the gas-pump, turned off the car, took the keys with him, then went to the back to fill up.

It was too late for Mr. Shaw to do anything - Serena was sure of it - but no sooner had Shaw started pumping that an O.P.P. police cruiser pulled up to the HandiMart itself, and male and female officers got out and went inside.

Serena never intended to open it, but she tested her door. It was locked. For a brief second, she wondered what would happen if she pounded on her window. Just like June Osborne had, Offred, what she had done those years' ago. When Serena had broken down and let her see her daughter - when Offred had gone nuts.

There they were again. The cops, now just standing outside of their cruiser, having a laugh. Serena wondering if Shaw had noticed.

Shaw, he was cool like Nick. When he was finished, he put the pump away, then casually walked straight past the cops, briefly peeking back at the car before going inside.

Serena tried the door again. What's the definition of doing the same thing, expecting a different result?

When Shaw came out, the female cop went over to him. She must have asked for some I.D., because Shaw pulled out his wallet, gave her some papers. She passed it to her male colleague, he went to sit in the cruiser. Then a minute later, he came out, gave Shaw back the I.D., and gave him a wave.

Getting back in, and driving back up to the #401, Serena asked, "was there a problem back there?"

"Not really," Shaw said. "They saw my Gilead pin. I told them that it was not illegal to wear one, but the lady, she recognized it as official. I then showed her my visa - I'm legally in the country."

He then leaned over to the passenger side, opened up the glove box. "Then again, they didn't see this," he said, as he showed Mrs. Waterford the pistol inside.

Serena thought, 'damn'. 'Why didn't I look there?' Then she thought, 'Shaw is not like Nick. Shaw is sloppy.'

WHITHER JUNE OSBORNE

The two of them had sat in silence for the longest time in front of the barricade. The only sign of military of any significance had been when crossing the bridge into Mohawk lands at Cornwall Island. Then they'd pulled up to this barricade, with a lone sign on it, 'You are in Mohawk territory'.

'Military' at Rooseveltown in the old New York, was now all Mohawk warrior. When they'd been stopped, Serena was anxious seeing rifle toting, mask-wearing Mohawks approaching the Mercedes.

Mr. Shaw, he was like Nick in one respect, Fred's old driver. Cool as a cucumber. After a brief encounter at the driver's window, the warrior motioned to the others at the barrier, motioning that it was to be lifted, and that the car could proceed.

Five minutes down a very rough road, Serena felt strangely safer - the car was going at a mercifully slower speed for her, with no other cars around them. She finally piped up. "What now?"

"We find June Osborne, Mrs. Waterford."

Serena asked if the Mohawk men back at the border, if they knew where Osborne was.

"No, they've just guaranteed safe passage for us in their autonomous lands. Trouble is, Mrs. Waterford, their definition of their lands does not match anyone else's. But they do business with Mr. Wheeler."

"Do they know where June is?" Serena asked.

"I think I do. The mercenaries, they keep to routes and schedules. They've been known even to send empty buses south, when they've not caught people in flight. I know the routes. All I have to do, really, is find one of those buses and he can tell me about the others." Shaw said that the resistance - being mainly Quaker people - they did not arm themselves. "I don't worry about the resistance, not up here. It's rogue Guardians you have to watch for."

Serena waited, then asked, "You understand why I am with you, Mr. Shaw?"

"Yes," he said, "Mr Wheeler was very clear."

"So, what happens when we find her?"

"I get her off of the bus, we let the bus get some distance, then I dispatch her. Then you and I, we head back to the Mohawk checkpoint. That's the easiest way back into Canada - Canada does not want to pick a fight with Mohawks."

He told her, "if when we get back, we're stopped by Canadians, just tell them that we were visiting Gilead officials who'd come up to Akwesasne. That's all we need to tell them."

Serena's mind was working in overdrive. She was severely torn. There'd been no opportunity to separate herself from Mr. Shaw while speeding on the #401, nor, not really, at the gas station. It would have been a gamble in the extreme to have thrown herself on the mercy of the Mohawk at Cornwall Island. They seemed to be in league with Ryan Wheeler, not even so much with Gilead.

What was the play?

Seeing a dilapidated bus kicking up dust in front of them, she tried to slow her thoughts. Seeing it panicked her. It was happening. She was racing through possibilities too fast. With too many unknowns. In No Man's Land.

"With any luck," Mr. Shaw said as he maneuvered in front of the bus to stop it, "Osborne is on this one. Either that, or they'll know which one." Both vehicles now stopped, Shaw collected his pistol, then exited the driver's side with his I.D. held high aloft. He boarded the bus.

Serena tried the door, it was unlocked and it opened. Was this her play? Shaw had left the keys in the ignition. Surely these things were not hard to drive - she'd not even got her license when she'd been a teenager - her dad had said that women shouldn't bother themselves with things like that.

It had been his way to kept her mom confined to the house. 'Shit!' she thought. She immediately thought, 'Damn, if dad was here to hear me now. Dad would be screaming at me because I was being too much of a girl!'

She got out. But it was too late, there was Mr. Shaw with June Osborne in tow. Seeing her, June's face contorted with a rage, filled with disgust - as if she was the one with the upper hand! Serena's head spun.

Seeing her nemesis, she went into her own rage. Her inner, more rational-voice was overwhelmed. That silent, inner voice was drowned out by the scream-within, 'I want her dead'.

Then there was her dad screaming in her head. 'Don't be such a girl!'

"Let me think! Let me think!" Serena shouted.