I first came to standing among the Quasing in India when I, along with Chiyva, laid the foundation for Hinduism. After that, sensing opportunity with the unrest in the Median Empire, I moved west and joined a young prince named Cyrus who rebelled against his father.
Together, we overthrew the Medes and ushered in the first Persian Empire. The region was wracked by strife, though, and his empire was short-lived. However, with this experience, the Council hypothesized that humanity’s conflicts were a great catalyst for their innovations.
Zoras
Austin died three days after the cowardly ambush at the Church of the Disposition of the Robe. Any time an Adonis Vessel passed, the loss was widely grieved. Any time it was someone from Enzo’s Assembly, his inner circle, justice demanded vengeance. Any leniency he might have given Vinnick was now off the table. To strike at one of his Hatchery siblings was a personal affront to him. To strike at Enzo himself was treason.
It was one thing for them to play at Council Power Struggle. That was expected and even approved of by the Holy Ones. However, the attempt on his life changed the game. It broke the unspoken rules among the Council. Now, Enzo was going to treat Vinnick as he did all enemies.
This meant war.
The death toll had risen to twenty-six, and Enzo intended for Vinnick to pay for every single one of them. An entire wing of the Botkin Hospital was cordoned off for its fourteen newest patients. His entire security team had swooped in and locked down the building, and now the entire city block was a veritable fortress.
Vinnick’s desperation will not go unnoticed. However, restraint in this case will curry more favor than recklessness.
“I won’t stand for it, Zoras.”
You will not have to. I may need to speak with Flua directly. We cannot tolerate a delay to Quasiform at this important stage of the project.
“Impossible. You already saw what he attempted when I tried to parlay in good faith. Besides, it would lower my standing if I put myself in that position again.”
See to it. I do not care how.
Enzo grimaced. “As you wish, my Guardian.”
Amanda pushed her way through the gaggle of doctors fussing over his wounds and whispered into his ear. “Azumi and Jacob have arrived, Father. The Assembly is complete.”
Enzo waved off the nagging nursemaids. He had suffered worse injuries during training. Still, Amanda, the only non-vessel he allowed within his Assembly, insisted. She had previously been Devin’s aide and continued to serve Enzo faithfully. No one knew the daily operations of his vast holdings as well as she did. He had been meaning to bless her, but her standing was far too low for any Holy One to accept. Still, loyalty, much like treachery, had to be rewarded.
“Get out.” He pushed the doctors aside and hopped out of bed. His shoulder ached and he would need to walk gingerly for a few days, but otherwise, Enzo couldn’t waste his time with rest. Amanda helped him into his shirt. “Clear and assemble in ten minutes.”
She nodded and left the room. He could hear her shout through the hallways to clear the floor. A few minutes later, Enzo and his most trusted lieutenants squeezed into one of the small hospital meeting rooms. Amanda, who was sitting next to him, activated a small machine on the table. The group waited as a low-pitched resonance in the room got higher and higher until it got imperceptible to the human ear. She looked over at him. “The room is soundproofed, Father.”
“Praise to the Holy Ones,” he intoned.
“Praise to the Holy Ones,” the rest of the room repeated.
“Vinnick’s on his last legs,” Enzo began, looking each of his Hatchery siblings in the eye as he spoke. “He’s desperate. His last cowardly act has proven that he is unworthy of the Council. However, it is our duty not to destroy his operation, but to take it intact in order to continue serving the Holy Ones’s end goals. Our primary objective will be to unseat him from power in Russia. With the old snake so embedded, we will be under constant threat. Austin has fallen and Matthew is injured. Therefore, Palos will take point on my security detail going forward.”
Palos, an older operative and the only non-Adonis Vessel in the group, stood up and bowed. “Your will, Father.”
Enzo looked over at Azumi at one point, a close second to Enzo at the Hatchery. “Where are we on the Russian Parliament?”
“Father,” she said, “all from the Federal Assembly can be leaned on, except those with close ties to Councilman Vinnick.”
“And the State Duma?”
She paused. “They might prove problematic. United Russia can be bought. However, all the other minority parties have been non-committal.”
“Salvageable?”
“Possibly, with the exception of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia. They consider our influence an encroachment on Russian nationalism.”
You must consolidate quickly. The delay of Quasiform has already reached unacceptable levels. Tighten your control and move on to our real goals. Do not get bogged down with the meanderings of Russian politics.
“How strong is the LDPR currently?” he asked. “And how many are vessels?”
“Eighty-four seats and none, Father. The LDPR uses Penetra scanners on all their ranking members. They are hardline xenophobes.”
Enzo scowled and recalled his education from his Hatchery days. “Sacrilegious animals. Fifteen percent of the Duma. Very well. Organize a shade team and have it stand by just in case. If we cannot coerce them, we will find more direct alternatives. Coercion first.”
Azumi hesitated. “We cannot guarantee the Holy Ones’s safety in the event of discovery.”
“Then use the newborns.”
This will be frowned upon.
“Times are too critical for half-measures, my Guardian.”
Shade teams were a relatively new branch of Genjix operatives. With the ability to procreate under their control now, Quasing extinction on this planet was no longer a threat. Initially, Enzo had planned to just overwhelm the entire planet with Holy Ones. What better form of invasion could there be than one from within? However, his plans were derailed when the first batch of Quasing were born. They discovered that the incubation process was woefully inadequate.
On Quasar, new births had a near-infinite number of other Quasing to interconnect and share knowledge with. This allowed them to grow and mature rapidly by quickly merging and transferring thought. Because of the limited size of the ProGenesis vats, the newborns on Earth required a much longer period of time to incubate.
This was a difficulty the Genjix scientists had not anticipated. They determined the only solution was to speed up Quasiform. At this moment, the Quasing could only procreate and allow the new Quasing to gestate slowly. His scientists estimated that it would take centuries before these incubated Quasing were mature enough to truly join the ranks of the Holy Ones.
For Enzo, it had become an expensive and frustrating process. His initial plan of creating a vast vessel army was destroyed. Not only that, maintaining even the current vats was a drain on their resources. Currently, over fifteen percent of their expenditures went to maintaining the housing facilities for the two million Quasing birthed in the past half-decade. That was two million Holy Ones who would be ineffective for the next couple of hundred years.
However, that was also ten times the number of Quasing estimated to be alive on Earth just ten years ago. It was progress, not the sort Enzo had hoped for, but progress nevertheless. There was another advantage to this: shade teams. Because the threat of extinction was no longer as relevant, the Genjix could afford to take greater risks with their Holy Ones, using them more and more as weapons and spies against their enemies.
Furthermore, as in the instance of the LDPR, the Genjix could use the currently barely-sentient newborn Quasing to inhabit humans not amiable to the Genjix. After all, how could they object if they themselves were vessels, even if it was forced? Most of the Holy Ones disapproved of this process, but they saw the value of it. This was war, after all, and sacrifices were expected, even from the gods.
There were side effects to using the non-sentient newborns though. Much like a human baby, the newborns tended to be vocal and uncontrollable. Several of the early vessels who had taken on these newborns were driven to insanity from their constant mewling. It took several years before medication was developed to allow the vessels to filter those sounds out. Even then, they would be dependent on it for the rest of their lives.
Those Holy Ones are the future, not expendable tools. Do not set a poor precedent and dip into this well too often.
“Everyone has their place in achieving victory, my Guardian. Myself, the original Holy Ones, the newborns. We will do our best to ensure their safety. However, I believe blessing those in the Russian government who oppose us will help keep the country under our control.”
We will not tolerate unconcerned casualties among our kind, regardless of whether they are still too young to have become sentient.
“Your will, Zoras. I will do my best to see to their safety. However, as in the case of all wars, casualties are necessary, regrettable as they may be.
“All targets blessed by a shade will require twenty-four hour surveillance,” Enzo added.
The rest of the meeting went more or less as planned. Enzo’s teams were outnumbered badly here in Vinnick’s home region, but this was never a war of numbers. He would defeat the old billionaire at his own game by buying the right people and assassinating the rest.
“I want a bio of all Federation Council and State Duma members we can purchase,” he said. “Those we can’t, we blackmail. If that’s not possible, we assassinate. Give me a list by the end of the week. As for the LDPR, work the same angle, and then use a shade team if necessary. Is there anything else?”
The room was silent. Then Amanda looked up at him. “Father, we just received a communication from Councilman Vinnick. He wishes to parlay. This time, while the Russian Parliament is in session. At your convenience.”
The room was still, with everyone watching what Enzo would do next. He made a fist and cracked his knuckles. The safest thing to do would be to reject any overture and grind out a war of attrition with Vinnick, either politically or through clandestine means. However, it could also be a wasted opportunity. The old man was near defeat anyway. Maybe that assassination attempt was his one chance. When it failed, he realized he had no other alternative and was now truly trying to negotiate peace. Or maybe he was going to try and take Enzo out again.
How would his people react if he allowed Vinnick to ambush him like a coward, and then give the traitor the privilege of another meeting? No, it would just tell all the Genjix that there were no consequences to attacking the greatest Council member. Enzo’s reputation was more important. He couldn’t show any weakness. There were hundreds of other vessels who would kill to assume his position. He glanced around at the faces looking at him expectantly. How many here in this room?
None of your Assembly has given you cause. Trust should be rewarded. Distrust likewise. Wandering down that dark path will only make it a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Zoras was right. The ones in this room were the only ones he should trust implicitly. No one else. Enzo stood up abruptly, masking his grimace and ignoring the pain shooting through his body. “No meeting with the traitor. Set up my first meetings with the State Duma in four days. By that time, I want the names of those in my pocket, and a list of those I need to buy. Warn Vinnick that the State Duma building is mine while I am there. Wander there at his own risk. Get to work.”
Enzo watched as his Assembly dispersed. These days, it had become almost as dangerous to be part of the Genjix as it was to be an enemy, though he wouldn’t have it any other way. With a world war just on the horizon, and Quasiform nearing its final stages, everyone on the Council was maneuvering for higher standing.
Conflict bred innovation, after all, and that was doubly true of conflict within. In preparation for the upcoming world war, the aggressive Genjix war machine built up over the past five hundred years had turned on itself, especially now, with the Prophus nearly dormant. Of course the two strongest factions within the Genjix went head to head, and now victory was near for Enzo and his Asian stronghold. However, rules still had to be observed and Vinnick had broken them.
“Jacob, a moment,” Enzo ordered as the rest of the Assembly filed out. He watched as Jacob walked up and knelt before him. The grandson of a prominent vessel, he had lost his patronage when his grandfather, Sean Diamont, was murdered by the Prophus. He attended the Hatchery late in his youth and was not chosen to be blessed with a Holy One. Instead, he had joined the ranks of the officers and distinguished himself in the war. Eventually, Sean’s Quasing Chiyva, thought to have been lost to the Eternal Sea during the debacle at the Capulet’s Ski Lodge, found his way back to the Genjix and had chosen to bless Jacob.
The Adonis was a blunt-force instrument, more fanatical than most and possessing a singular devotion rare even among vessels. No one else under Enzo exhibited the same intense will in hunting the Prophus. He blamed the Prophus for Sean’s death and carried a personal vendetta. While that was a useful trait to leverage, the man was often blinded by his hatred. However, give that dog the trail and he would follow it until the ends of the Earth.
“I have another task for you,” Enzo said, beckoning Jacob to follow him out of the room. “Did you find out anything else regarding our lost Quasiform architect?”
“Yes, Father. Vinnick was intent on taking Rin to the loyalty haven in Canada. I dispatched a team to intercept her, but she has evaded capture and disappeared.”
“The Prophus have her.”
“I had guessed as much. How can you be sure?”
“Seems some of Vinnick’s faction is still loyal to the true Genjix after all. I want you to take a team to the United States and retrieve Rin personally.”
That command surprised Jacob. “Father? Have I done anything to displease you?”
“Not at all, my son. Consider it a favor.”
“Why would you task me with such mundane work?”
Enzo pulled up the information in his tablet and showed it to Jacob. The blood drained from his face. “Because it seems Roen Tan is alive, and he has our scientist.”