Episode 104

(San Bernardino, September 13, 2019)

Both Alana and Finn were silent as they processed Rin’s proposal. Twice, Alana began to speak but stopped short.

After the silence stretched on longer than anybody was comfortable with, Rin smiled.

“Please understand: I don’t mean this as extortion. It’s just an offer. You are welcome to reject it, and we’ll pretend this conversation never happened.”

“And we walk away,” Alana added, eyeing Rin warily.

“Of course,” she chirped. “Today.”

“So, let me get this straight,” Finn began after another long silence. “If we promise to be your slaves, you won’t kill us.”

Rin shook her head. “Not slaves. You can do whatever you want, as long as what you want is what I tell you to want. Oh, and I’ll still kill you — or, more precisely, encumber you.”

“I fail to see the appeal of this,” Finn grumbled.

“First, you wouldn’t exactly be under my thumb. Ninety-nine percent of the time you’d get to do your own thing,” Rin explained. “You’d just have to come running the one-percent of the time that I require your services. Maybe I’ll never even call upon you. Who knows?”

“It doesn’t matter whether it’s one percent or one hundred percent,” he snapped. “Why the hell should we help you if you’re going to kill us anyway?”

“No, no, you completely misunderstand. It’s very simple. You do what I want, when I want, and then I destroy you.”

“That’s what I just said,” Finn replied. “Call me stupid, but I’m not going to help somebody who plans to kill me.”

Rin smiled at him. “There’s no point in calling you stupid. You make that clear with every word you utter. Nobody could mistake you for —”

“He’s not wrong,” Alana interjected.

Rin sighed. “I’m surprised you don’t get it. The magic word is ‘then’. ‘Then’ means later, not now.”

Alana and Finn’s bodies both tensed, and Rin quickly clarified. “Well, not now now. Whenever I normally would have gotten around to you.”

“And I don’t suppose you’ll tell us when that would be?” Alana asked.

Rin grinned. “Where’s the fun in that?”

A moment later, she grew serious. “Look, in order for us to work together it’s important for there to be a certain degree of trust. It won’t do for you to live in constant fear of me. That’s why I’m willing to make this deal.”

There was a predatory glimmer in Finn’s eye, and Alana wondered what idiotic notions were running through that little head of his. He looked like a con-man who had just perceived a weakness. Did he imagine that because Rin used words such as ‘want’ and ‘need’, they somehow had leverage?

Alana scrutinized Rin’s face. There was no sign that the woman had noticed anything. Even if she had, she probably wouldn’t care. Maybe she’d even encourage his misconception if it brought cooperation, though that could invite trouble later. Betrayal was born of such stock. Alana decided it wasn’t worth worrying about. Rin clearly needed them and would be willing to overlook some indiscretions — within limits. Alana just needed to focus her energies on making sure that Finn didn’t probe those limits too often or too recklessly.

Rin’s voice formed an indistinct accompaniment to these ruminations, as she droned on with her sales pitch. A sales pitch in which a lunatic sat stroking her gun and asking whether they wanted to die now or later. Not exactly a textbook marketing strategy, but nonetheless quite effective.

“As long as you help me, I won’t be a threat to you,” Rin reiterated. “You needn’t watch your backs all the time. I’m offering you safety.”

“Thanks for giving us what we already had,” Alana replied.

Rin smiled. “Did you? I can’t tell you how many others thought the very same thing. This makes life a lot easier for me, incidentally. It’s a limitation of the human mind. Nobody believes — truly believes — that bad things will happen to them, even if they see those same things happening to others all the time. If ordinary people delude themselves this way, imagine how confident Proteges with real protections must feel. They genuinely have no clue that such a thing can happen to them.”

“Even before I took up my current … occupation, I saw it many times. They’ll confuse themselves into thinking Two is Four or Four is Eight or Eight is Infinity.”

Rin gave Alana a cold smile. “They make such silly faces when they discover that it can happen to them, that they’ve been wrong all along, and that — far from invulnerable — they are quite vulnerable. Of course, by then it’s too late.”

“Mortals have an advantage at that point. Most don’t realize why they died or get an opportunity to rue their arrogance. For those that do, it’s brief — as is any pain they may suffer. But a Protege has no such shortcoming. He or she —” Rin lingered on the word ” — has forever in which to dwell on their mistake and fully appreciate its consequences.”

Alana grimaced, and Rin pointed at her. “There! Like that. You don’t want to be stuck for all eternity with a dumb expression on your face, do you? It’s unbecoming.”

She suddenly clasped her hands together and beamed. “Really, I don’t know what you’re hesitating for. It’s a win/win scenario.”

“Sounds like a win/lose-slightly-later scenario,” Alana countered. “I tell you what: how about you don’t kill us? We’d be a lot more apt to help you.”

“You’ll be just as apt to help me, regardless.”

Alana scowled at her. “You seem awfully confident yourself. Are you sure you’re not the one who’s deluded?”

Rin studied a small piece of glass on the floor. “The future is abstract, whether far or farther, but the present is the present.”

Alana recoiled, and she quickly rephrased. “Not the present, but it doesn’t sound as profound if I say the near-term. It’s important to sound profound. Look, how many times do I have to promise —”

“What makes you think you could find —,” Finn interjected, but Rin cut him off.

“Well, gee, how could I ever find you? Hold that thought.” She picked up her cellphone and scrolled down a bit. “It took me all of four minutes to locate your city, and about an hour to find you once I got here. The rest of my time was spent shoe shopping and sightseeing.”

“Seriously?” Finn asked. “What did you get?”

Rin rolled her eyes. “Really? That’s your question. You want to exchange bargain tips? What’s your favorite local crack den? Really, mine too! Do I look like a fucking tourist?”

She turned and smiled sweetly at Alana. “Do you have any idea how conspicuous he is? You’d do well to stay away from this walking target.”

Alana responded with a wry look. It was true, but she wasn’t about to abandon her little brother. Especially not to her. If absolutely necessary, she’d share him — but she’d never relinquish the boy.

“And what if Kar-whatever comes looking for us because we’re helping you?” Finn objected. This earned him a glare from Alana.

Rin scratched her chin conspicuously. “Hmmm … let me see how your reasoning goes. You’re terrified — trembling in the corner like the most timid little mouse — at the remote possibility that Karkov decides to get back at me by eliminating you. Which he can’t do, incidentally. Which you know he can’t do, and just minutes ago said you know he can’t do. If he somehow did manage to, it would be a favor not a bother. And he knows this. I’d probably have to write him a thank-you note for saving me the trouble. My penmanship isn’t great, so that would be a bother, I suppose. Anyway, you’re concerned about this entirely implausible scenario but not about the woman sitting next to you who verifiably can destroy you in horrible ways and has sworn to do so?”

“Well, he’s not asking for our help,” Finn retorted. Both women rolled their eyes, almost in unison.

Nonetheless, Alana was grateful to the boy. His stupidity had bought her some time to steel her resolve. “You’re offering us a reprieve,” she replied. “We want a pardon.”

“You’ve committed no crime that needs pardoning.”

“Whatever you call it, then.”

“You’ve already asked, and I’ve already refused. Even if I wanted to, I’m afraid I can’t do that. What I can do is try to find a somewhat merciful accommodation.” Rin offered a maudlin smile. “The truth is, I’d probably have done that much for you anyway.” Her eyes flitted over to Finn. “One of you.”

“That, plus I’m offering to stay my hand,” she continued, “until nobody else is left.”

Alana shook her head. “But you’ll still kill us. We live forever, so it doesn’t matter how much time you give us. You’re still stealing eternity.”

“That makes it sound so sordid,” Rin replied. “Actually, I’m just reclaiming the eternity I gave you. I don’t recall promising to let you keep it.”

“You can’t loan somebody immortality.”

Rin studied her for a moment. “You’re thinking about this all wrong. Even if you don’t value the extra time, remember the other part. As they say, ‘the quality of mercy shall not be strained.’”

“I don’t think that means what you think it does,” Alana retorted.

“It means exactly what I think it does. From my mouth, everything means exactly what I think it does. The question is whether you successfully understood your Queen’s will.”

Alana rolled her eyes. “That again.”

“Consider two prisoners,” Rin continued. “One is kept in a rat-infested dungeon, tortured daily, and fed gruel and piss. The other does their time in a modern prison, with decent food and no torture. You may think that bad is bad and life in prison is objectively bad. These two would disagree. To them, the details really matter. Now, imagine that your sentence is infinite. Even the slightest difference has infinite significance when multiplied by forever. As your judge and jury, I get to decide how you spend eternity. That’s my prerogative as your Queen.”