The Trial

Chapter 29 - Edited

Month after month has passed with no sign of the mist. My cowardly watchers continue to hide from me, but I know you're there. Not once have you revealed yourselves in all this time, but you must be growing weary of this game.

Why do I bother talking at all? You may think I'm on the verge of losing my sanity, but speaking is keeping my feet grounded. If you haven't broken me by now, you never will. Give up your game, and release me. Bring on the mist or the darkness. Neither matters to me at this point.

Rabbi Solomon's standing next to me as Benjamin Tallmadge stares at me with continued hatred from across my desk. The iciness in her voice's starting to soften a little, but I know I must do far more to prove my loyalty to the cause she's so passionately driven to serve. I've yet to find out what started her on this course of hatred for the state and the three in particular, but it certainly predates the purge by decades.

Rabbi Solomon's voice takes my focus off of her. "She's dead."

I turn towards him, and shake my head in disbelief. "I've heard that before. How many times has the last judge been declared dead? She's a modern day Rasputin. She's been shot, stabbed, poisoned, blown up and still manages to claw her way out. How can you be so certain?"

Her voice may be icy, but there's a certainty within. "The name's pretty accurate for that one, but not even he would've come back from having his head being severed from his body. It won't look like an accident, but that couldn't be helped. She just couldn't accept death like the others. Nasty piece of work requires a nasty way of dealing with her."

It's reassuring to know she speaks without any hint of being wrong about her long awaited death. "Beheading should do the trick. And if she comes back from that, I'm out of ideas."

She laughs, which is the first time I've heard her make a pleasant sound in my office. "You may be out of ideas, but I've got plenty left. Not that it matters. She is quite dead this time and will never come back."

I smile as I change the subject to something far more pleasant. "How is Project Cicero coming along?"

Project Cicero was one of my better ideas and remain quite proud of it even in death. We never wanted a mindless army to follow for no other reason than hatred of the state. It was important to educate those who joined the anti-revolutionaries. Cartoons may have had their uses, but the written word's far more effective. After all, what good would Common Sense have been if there had been no one to read it?

Benjamin Tallmadge actually gives me a warm look with just a hint of anger to be found in her eyes. "It's going well. If you're waiting for a thank you, it's never going to happen."