‘How are you doing, Fox?’ Vaughn asked, her expression sincere. ‘We, um, we’re sorry for your loss.’ There were murmurs from the others; some of them had lost people and knew, at least to some extent, what Fox was going through and all could imagine.
‘Getting there,’ Fox replied. ‘The memorial was on Saturday. Jackson, Mariel, and Terri went up to Toronto with me and I think Jason’s parents appreciated it. They’re… a mess, but I guess they always knew it could happen. His father’s an ex-cop and his sister’s a tech. We could tell them that the people responsible are going to spend the rest of their lives in Cold Harbour. That helped a bit too. We’re all getting there.’
Vaughn gave her a smile, and clearly knew that ‘getting there’ was as good as it got.
‘Is the Eden thing wrapped?’ Eaves asked. ‘From our end anyway.’
Fox gave a small shrug. ‘More or less. It’s pretty much down to the UNTPP now. They’re screening the, um, believers before transfer back to Earth. Most of them will probably vanish back into the protectorates, but some might end up better off than they were. The ones who don’t pass the screening will be shipped to secure holding at Cold Harbour. They’ll probably never set foot on Earth again. We’ve established that the computers the Children of the Pleasure Garden had set up were being used to distribute a number of the memes the Eden people were creating. That’s in America. There could be another one, and there probably are more in other countries, but that’s all down to NAPA and the UNTPP.’
‘Has anyone managed to identify Joshua?’ Jarvis asked.
‘Uh, sort of,’ Fox said. ‘Maybe. There are records of a Joshua Carpenter the UNTPP managed to find. There’s a registration of birth on a Jin Shu station out at L-five. Mother was Jin Shu, but there’s no father listed. Some attached notes indicate that he was passed to an uncle and aunt when his mother died and the ID picture that came with those seems to be him. He’s noted as being “very religious.” Might be him. No one’s entirely sure and it’s unclear how he got hooked up with Montcairn. But the name, the religious bent, the shock of losing a parent and, of course, he doesn’t appear to have a father. Might have broken him. Might have formed this delusion.’ She gave a shrug. ‘Or maybe he was the Son of God.’
‘Yeah. Sure,’ Jarvis said, but there was a pause which went on a little too long…
‘Order of business then,’ Eaves said. ‘Before we get to progress on the contracts, Fox has a… small announcement.’
‘Huh, yeah,’ Fox said. ‘Garth knows about this because he has to. Same goes for Helen and Kit. As of January first, I will be stepping down as CIO of Palladium Security Solutions.’ Vaughn gasped. Jarvis frowned, but there was shock behind the frown. ‘You’re not getting rid of me. We’re… restructuring.’
‘Yes,’ Eaves said. ‘Fox will be operation lead in charge of antiterrorism operations and activities, handling general investigations under Helen when not so employed. They will both be advising our new CIO.’
‘That would be me,’ Kit said. ‘Fox, Jackson, and Mariel cornered me and I still haven’t worked out how to get out of it.’
‘It makes the management structure at the top of the division a bit… woolly,’ Fox said. ‘I guess, really, we’ll all be working together to make it function right, but Kit’s much better at administration than I am. Hell, she’s been running things since we started. I just provide direction.’
‘Yeah,’ Helen said. ‘You realise Kit is going to be our boss and your PA at the same time.’
‘I intend to deploy multiple copies,’ Kit said, ‘so that I can gang up on Fox as much as possible.’
‘Ah, but one of your copies will be your boss too.’
‘Oh, I hadn’t thought of that one…’
Fox grinned. ‘I’m sure we’ll make it work. We’ve a few months of overlap to iron it out. A new start. Things end, but there’s always something new around the corner.’ There was, she was sure of it. Now all she had to do was believe it.
###
About the Author
I was born in the vicinity of Hadrian's Wall so perhaps a bit of history rubbed off. Ancient history obviously, and border history, right on the edge of the Empire. I always preferred the Dark Ages anyway; there’s so much more room for imagination when people aren’t writing down every last detail. So my idea of a good fantasy novel involved dirt and leather, not shining plate armour and Hollywood-medieval manners. The same applies to my sci-fi, really; I prefer gritty over shiny.
Oddly, then, one of the first fantasy novels I remember reading was The Dark Is Rising, by Susan Cooper (later made into a terrible juvenile movie). These days we would call Cooper’s series Young Adult Contemporary Fantasy and looking back on it, it influenced me a lot. It has that mix of modern day life, hidden history, and magic which failed to hit popular culture until the early days of Buffy and Anne Rice. Of course, Cooper’s characters spend their time around places I could actually visit in Cornwall, and South East England, and mid-Wales. In fact, when I went to university in Aberystwyth, it was partially because some of Cooper’s books were set a few miles to the north around Tywyn.
I got into writing through roleplaying, however, so my early work was related to the kind of roleplaying game I was interested in. I wrote science fiction when I was playing Traveller. I wrote “high fantasy” when I was playing Dungeons & Dragons. I wrote a lot of superhero fiction when I was playing City of Heroes. I still love the idea of a modern world with magic in it and I’ve been trying to write a novel based on this for a long time. As with any form of expression, practice is the key and I can look back on all the aborted attempts at books, and the more successful short stories, as steps along the path to the Thaumatology Series.
Recently I took the big step of quitting my day job and taking up full-time writing. My favourite authors are Terry Pratchett, Susan Cooper, J.D. Robb, and Kim Harrison. Kim’s Hollows books were what finally spurred me to publish something, even if the trail to here came by way of Susan, back in school, several decades ago.
For More Information
Take a look at the Witches and Ray-guns blog: http://witchesandrayguns.wordpress.com
Amazon US Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B006J6II9O
Amazon UK Author Page: http://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B006J6II9O
Other Books by this Author
The Thaumatology Series
Thaumatology 101
Demon’s Moon
Legacy
Dragon’s Blood
Disturbia
Hammer of Witches
Eagle’s Shadow
Ancient
Dragonfall
The Other Side of Hell
For Whom the Wedding Bells Toll
Vengeance
A Midsummer’s Nightmare – 2018
Anthologies in the Thaumatology Universe
Tales from High Towers’ Study
Tales from the Dubh Linn
The Aneka Jansen Books
Steel Beneath The Skin
The Cold Steel Mind
Steel Heart
The Winter War
The Greatest Heights of Honour
The Lowest Depths of Shame
Hope
The Ultrahuman Books
Ugly
Shadows
Hunting Mink
Frostburn
Guardian – 2017/18
True Dark – 2017/18
The Unobtainium Books
Kate on a Hot Tin Roof
King Solamet’s Mines – 2018
The Reality Hack Books
Reality Hack
The Fox Meridian Books
Fox Hunt
Inescapable
DeathWeb
Criminal Minds
Emergence
The Ghost in the Doll
Eden Burning
Dominance – 2018
The Princeps Venator Books
Hunter’s Kiss
Be My Valentine
The Gunw
itch Books
Gunwitch: Rebirth
The Children of Zanar Series
The Zanari Inheritance
The Misfits Series
Misfit Magic
Misfit Witchcraft
Table of Contents
Part One: Eve of a New Age
Part Two: The Death of the Old World
Part Three: The Falling Sky
Part Four: Everything Ends
Epilogue: To Begin Anew
Eden Burning (Fox Meridian Book 7) Page 27
