Coming of Edge 14: Women in a High Castle

Elise threw her light jacket onto the sofa in her Berlaymont office. She then sat in the chair at her desk and logged in with her wrist. The translucent screen on the desk sprang to life and filled chalky white. It reminded her of milk poured into coffee.

She sighed. The afterimages of the night before reverberated in her inner eye. She had spent it with Andrew, a proximity and action which could be compromising in the long run. He was smart, attractive and emotionally mature enough, though. And she had needed the release. Her head hurt. Menopause was a bitch.

“Aw, fuck it.”

She rubbed her eyes and hit the intercom panel.

“Therese? Can you get me a chamomile tea and an Ibu? And I’d like to have an update on the search for potentials. Thanks.”

She looked out of the window into a bleak, drizzle-filled sky over Brussels. The glass was covered in rain drops, the night had seen torrents coming down. She remembered how she liked watching those little droplets gain sufficient weight to slide down and pull other droplets with them.

The door opened and Therese came in. The young woman was immaculate as always. She wore modern slacks and a wide blazer in dark green-grey colored rayon. It contrasted with the brighter creamy-white and tightly fitting top.

“Good morning, Elise,” she said and put the cup, a bottle of water and the small blister on her desk. She walked over to the couch, put Elise’s jacket neatly aside and sat down.
“How was Norrahammar?”

Elise chortled, popped the pill into her mouth and washed it down with water from the bottle.
“I hate shit going sideways, Therese. And my god, the whole thing is awful. Did you read the Hugger report?”

“Of course.”

Elise deflated. “He looks so horrible. And how he affected the others… ahh. Scares the shit out of me.”

The young assistant watched her without any specific expression.

Elise looked at her with a raised eyebrow. “You know, you should mirror my feelings here. So, I feel validated and bond with you more.”

This produced a smile with the younger woman. “Thanks for the strategic advice,” she said.

“So, what’s up for today?” Elise asked.

“You got a presentation review for the new federal structure at 11. We should be able to finalize that one, you’ll need it for Friday and the stakeholders will want to have a look at it before.”

“Hm, good.”

“Then there’s lunch with Alexander Dingert at the Brasserie at 13.”

“The right-winger? I’d wish I could insult him by inviting him to that Moroccan place.”

Again, a smile by Therese. “I suppose he already feels very humiliated because you did not invite him to the Gus Gus.”

“Very true, good planning on your part. Okay, what else?”

“Juliette Laurent wants to discuss the policies her department is working on and Miguel feels a bit lonely and out of the loop.”

“Ah, that baby of a man. Try to move him to tomorrow. I don’t have the capacity to deal with self-pity today, I already have plenty of it myself. Make sure I have enough time for Juliette, though. We need this stuff to be air-tight. I really hope she has already figured out which expert models the others use.” She paused. “Ah, one thing. Please try to get Rob on the line. I know he’s busy but I need some perspective,” Elise said, “and optimism.”

“Will do.” The young assistant did not take notes. Elise was still sure she’d deliver everything as expected. “Ready for the report on the search?” Elise nodded.

“So, tech and analysts build some profiles resembling the cases we had so far and ran it over the data we have available from the federal health departments. Turns out we got some very shaky 40, 50 leads across the EU – might turn out a few single-digit-hits, but if the powers are low-key it will be hard to find them. We did not encounter a second Hugger or Müntzner, yet.”

Elise inhaled sharply. “And except for that South Korean disco girl international occurrences are not really happening. Yet. But if we cover them up, others will as well. Do we have someone investigating on the ground?”

“A task force is on it. We will act as Department of Health personnel, which is not even a lie.”

“Good.” Elise liked actionable items and people following up on them. The image of Curreri starving in front of her eyes crept up. How she had watched only.

“There’s one more thing. Do you remember the german case worker who found the Adamczyk girl?”

Elise was pulled back instantly. “Yes.”

“We put a tracker on him as the dossier suggested. The risk occurred that he would not be dulled by our hasty cover-up. He’s active, pulling files he should not be interested in. He’s Hamburg based and searches all over Germany. The pattern partially matches our leads.”

Elise placed the fingertips of both hands together and was silent.

“Should we take him out of the picture?” Therese asked.

“No. You can’t remove him in an ethical way and everything else is simply over the top. He’s motivated and not daft – something which can backfire hard. Rob would have my head if we don’t handle this the right way and rightfully so.”

“Okay.” Therese was a fast learner but apparently she was not yet able to have solutions ready in this case.

“Maybe we can use him. Keep tracking him, get a trojan into his equipment and see what he finds out. He’s an unsuspecting case worker with experience and that may be an asset we do not have yet.”

“Alright, will be done.”

“And now I have another thing. Rosenberg insisted on involving the parents. It’s such a nice thought, really. Sick kids being comforted by their mommies and daddies.”

Therese tilted her head. “It does sound reasonable. You don’t like moms and dads?”

Elise punctured her assistant with a glance. “Sharp, but inappropriate, more restraint please. No. The problem is containment.” She tried the steaming hot tea.
“We essentially bribed the Adamczyk mother to look the other way. Müntzner’s mother still believes her boy went up in flames and buried his virtual remains. And the Huggers got served a story about quarantine. How to get them into the picture and make sure they do not spill the beans?”

Therese looked at her with the open curiosity of a motivated student. She felt warmth in her heart for the young woman. She was so different than her own daughter and Elise felt guilty that in some weird way she wanted to replace one with the other.

“It’s very difficult. They would have to travel to Norrahammar. Would they stay there? How do we make sure they don’t tell friends and family? Do we put them into arrest at the depot? What if social dynamics make things awkward? Damn you, Rosenberg.”

She reclined in her chair and blew a raspberry.

“I think Rob would have your head if we did not do it the right way?” Therese grinned at her.

Elise raised her eyebrows in appreciation but Therese already moved on to another thought. The assistant tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, her tell of being vulnerable in the very moment.

“The thing is – we try to find bio markers to find the potents, that’s why de Vries is on the team. But whether we do and until then they can be totally invisible and might do whatever.”

“Yes.”

“And if people like Stormer or Novikov get access to those–”

“Yes. But there’s no need to look to the West or the East. Imagine someone like Dingert. It could range from terrorism to warfare that put 9/11 or Nitra to shame.”

“How do we control this?” Therese’s eyes were wide open, her hands fiddling.

“We don’t. We navigate with what we have. But we certainly cannot give up our empathy.”

She did not tell her, that she was quoting Rob’s answer, when she had asked him the same.

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