Xavier and I leave the shooting range and make our way to the Personnel floor. He’s technically not a field operative, but nobody stops him when we enter the cavernous room. That’s progress, I suppose.
We shuffle in and join Tana, who recently passed all her assessments and is finally living at the Dagger.
Teriq leads us off, his dark eyes serious as he scans the room. I haven’t seen him around lately. Gray told me he was spending some time at Bramble Base and running recruitment missions in the wards.
“When we bombed the Command base this past winter, it wasn’t just a warning shot to the Company. It was also an appeal for recruitment,” Teriq says. “It’s yielded results, certainly. Declan and the other Bramble Mods have been training a ton of new recruits. We’ve been doing the same here, and most of the Mods from the salt mine have now joined our ranks.”
“But?” Henley drawls from his perch across the room.
Adrienne takes over. “But we need more allies. There aren’t enough Mods on the Continent to wage a winnable war against the Company. We voted this morning, and we’ve all agreed it’s time to reopen communications.”
“With whom?” Evlynne says sharply.
“The Faithful, for one.”
A disgruntled hum travels through the room. What I’ve learned since coming here is that the Uprising and the Faithful hold very disparate views about how society should be run and are the most reluctant of allies in this conflict. The Faithful want the old ways back. The Uprising, not so much.
“That means we need to renegotiate with Jasper,” Adrienne says. “He’s one of the few people on the Continent who knows the locations of all their camps.”
I raise a brow. That’s a huge position of power for Jasper Reed tohave. But I guess it makes sense. He’s the one who smuggles supplies out of the city and trades them with the Faithful. He’d have to know where their camps are.
“We’re hoping he’ll strike a deal,” Kallister says. “Maybe get us an audience with various Faithful leaders.”
“In exchange for what?” someone asks.
“We don’t know. We’ll see what his terms are.”
Evlynne speaks up again. “You said the Faithful, ‘for one.’ Who else are you planning to parley with?”
There’s a pause. Kallister glances at Adrienne. He’s clearly reluctant to field that question, which tells me it won’t be a popular answer.
With a shrug, Adrienne says, “Tierra Fe.”
She’s rewarded with loud protests and irritated curses.
“Those people are fucking crazy,” someone else says. “They’re not going to join with us. They literally think we’re demons from hell.”
“And yet they trade with us,” Adrienne points out. “If you believed someone was a demon, would you really trade glenshade and medical supplies with them?”
She has a point.
“Here’s the thing about the devout,” she says, rolling her eyes. “If you’ve studied your history, then you’ll know the one theme that always crops up with religion is hypocrisy.”
There are a few chuckles.
“We’re not ready to approach them yet,” she assures the room. “We’re simply mentioning it because we do believe a mission to Tierra Fe will be necessary in the future. But that’s a problem for another day. Right now, we’re setting up a rendezvous with Jasper in the city.”
Gray steps forward. “I’m mission lead for this. Jas has agreed to meet in two days. He’s insisting on meeting in the Point.”
“Why can’t he come here?” grumbles Evlynne.
“Because he’s a difficult prick. He claims he’s in the middle of a delicate business deal and can’t leave right now, so we need to go to him. I’m assembling a security team of four. I need snipers.”
My heart jumps.
“Who’s in?”
Not every hand goes up this time, as opposed to the Ice Canyon mission. I suspect some people aren’t interested in risking their lives for Jasper Reed.
