To Be A Leader

Chapter 22: Baby Come Back

"Do you think we convinced them?" Jaime asks.

"New Albion?" Sam asks, then sighs. "I mean, they're keen on royalty, so maybe they'll stay with the Abel alliance for a few more weeks."

"How long until Sigrid's promised them their doses of vaccine?"

There's a beat of silence.

"A few more weeks."

Nicole sighs over my headset. "Just what does New Albion have that we need resource-wise? If they have something important to us, and it's possibly important to the Ministry, then maybe it would be best to-"

"We aren't stealing from them and then destroying their settlement," I interrupt. "There are innocent people that live there."

"Innocent people who are going to join sides with the enemy the first chance they get."

"Are you always this brutal?" Jaime asks.

"When I need to be."

"So that's a yes then."

"Your Majesty, my job is to keep my bosses informed who's winning where, since here in England is the place with the most knowledge about the zombie apocalypse," She informs curtly. I can almost picture the bored look her face must hold. "They want me on the winning side, since the last thing we need is someone who knows more than us deciding to go against us. Since I informed my bosses I'm on the side of Abel, and there is no possible way for me to switch sides, I need to make sure Abel comes out victorious. I'm just giving suggestions which could raise those odds. Doesn't necessarily mean I like them."

Jaime doesn't look pleased with that answer, but before he can say anything we hear the coms shack door open.

"Sam, Nicole, I have to talk to you now," Amelia says, and I grimace at the sound of her voice. Why is she here in Abel? "It's urgent."

"Urgent as in urgent, or urgent as in you've run out of rouge nail polish?" Sam asks flatly. Even without seeing him I know he wears an annoyed look not too different from mine.

"You wear nail polish? Who the hell has time for that?" I hear Nicole ask, but she's ignored.

"Both of those would be urgent, actually," Amelia corrects, "but the first one. We've got a lead on the baby factory. A member of the Laundry wants to come over to us if we can guarantee her safety."

"Big if," Sam says. "Remember what happened to Sweetpea?"

"This woman is important! It's our best lead in months. Runner Five, we know Sigrid's working on some way to exploit our weakness in the form of Moonchild in your head. Well, we're working on a way to exploit her weakness, aren't we? If we take those babies away from her, no more immunity serum, no more colonies going over to her."

"And no more arguing with Nicole about burning down settlements that leave the alliance," I mutter.

"And we'd be saving those babies," Jaime adds, slowing his pace down a bit.

"Oh, yes," Amelia says in surprise. "I forget that other people care about this too. How funny. We all care about something. Anyway, this woman, Selma, is hiding just over the border in Anstice territory, but they're rabid Wakened Land loyalists, so I'm going to give you a one-time-only route into their territory. And it has to be Jaime and Five because... Jaime, you used to be a member of the European Rescue Force, correct?"

"Weren't they the people who worked with oil wells and natural disasters and stuff in the UK?" Nicole asks.

"Yeah," Jaime replies. "Me and Cam were both on the force 'til I switched over to bein' a fireman. Cam switched once she figured out she was pregnant with Jasper."