“You still had at least one Checquy traitor on your side, though,” said Odette. “Didn’t you? Sophie Jelfs.”
“We had someone keeping an eye on you, certainly,” said Claudia. “And I was looking through her eyes too.”
“In fact,” said Odette, “you’ve had quite a few new people working for you. You’ve even been making them, somehow. Like that clone who led the attack on the car at Hill Hall.”
“Saskia, could you please nod for me?” asked Claudia. “It’s killing me not to be able to bob my damn head. And don’t roll your eyes like that because I’m looking out through them.”
“Who was that man?” Odette asked. “What was he?”
“So you haven’t figured it out?” said Saskia.
“Don’t gloat, Sas, it’s really annoying.”
“I’m sorry, really,” said Saskia, “but I was so pleased with the idea, and I finally get to share it with someone.”
“The rest of us stopped being impressed a while ago,” said Simon drily. “Especially since it meant tying ourselves to a tremendous pain in the ass.”
“It was still brilliant,” said Saskia defensively. She turned back to Odette. “From the very beginning, we knew we were going to need more information, more help. We were only six people, after all. And then we lost Dieter on the trip over here.”
“I saw his body in that whale creature,” said Odette.
“It was quick,” said Saskia sadly. “But I’m sorry that I can’t say it was painless. He collided the vessel with a ship, and the feedback killed him. Losing him meant that, more than ever, we needed an ally. Someone who hated the Checquy as much as we did and who could bring us information about them.”
“Oh my God, Saskia, I can’t take any more lead-up,” said Claudia. “Just bring her in.” Saskia shot Claudia a sour look, which was totally wasted since she couldn’t possibly have seen it. She sighed, got up, and strode away into the darkness.
“You seem to be giving an awful lot of orders,” said Odette suspiciously.
“It’s one of the things that comes with not being able to do stuff for yourself,” said Claudia. “Plus, she’s been so self-congratulatory about it.”
“So, where are the others?” asked Odette. “Mariette and Pim?”
“Pim’s over in the surgery,” said Simon. “He’s wrapping up a little project. And Mariette is out — you’ll see them later.”
“Well, that will be good,” said Odette. She was still trying to come to terms with the situation. Every few moments, they would all slide into the easy, casual tone they’d enjoyed before everything happened. They were eager to show off for her, but the conversation seemed very careful, as if they were trying not to shock her. I guess it’s strange for everyone. A door opened in one of the temporary walls, and an arm of light cut into the darkness as Saskia returned, accompanied by a familiar figure. As they approached the table, Odette found herself clenching her left hand into a fist. Her right hand trembled a little but remained obstinately unclenched.
“Pawn Sophie Jelfs,” said Odette, and her disgust could be heard in her voice. Saskia looked at her with surprise, taken aback by the contempt. Odette realized she was as outraged by Jelfs’s treachery to the Checquy as she was by Jelfs’s treachery to her.
“Not quite,” said Jelfs.
“I beg your pardon?” said Odette coolly.
“You can call me Sophie if you like, I suppose,” said the woman. “But I’m not a Pawn, and my last name isn’t Jelfs.” Odette kept her mouth shut. There’s something here I’m not seeing, she thought.
“My real name is Gestalt,” said Sophie, a small smile twisting around her lips. “Rook Gestalt, although I’ve been informed that my rank was stripped from me.”
“That can’t be,” said Odette. “Rook Gestalt’s female body was killed. Fell out a window.” Sophie’s face soured. “There are only three Gestalt bodies left, and they are all imprisoned.”
“Well, you’re wrong on a few counts,” said Sophie. “First, my female body didn’t just fall out a window. I was shot by a girl who was acting under the control of Myfanwy Thomas. Then I fell out the window. And there aren’t three of my bodies in Checquy prisons, there are four. And now there are a few more bodies running about, thanks to my friends here.” She gestured around the table. “They very obligingly grew me some new ones, including this one.” She tapped her own chest.
“But you can’t clone Checquy powers,” objected Odette. “The Broederschap tried for centuries. All it got was regular people. Unless” — she turned to Saskia — “did you manage it somehow?” Saskia shook her head.
“You’re quite right,” said Simon. “You can’t clone powers. If you clone Gestalt, any of Gestalt’s bodies, all you get is a new person. One that’s completely unconnected to the hive mind.”
“Useless.” Sophie sighed.
“But there is an exception,” said Saskia. “A child whose parents are both part of the Gestalt hive mind will be part of the Gestalt hive mind too.”
“That fourth body I mentioned?” said Sophie. “The one in prison? It’s a baby I made. My female body and one of my male bodies had sex and conceived it. I suppose really it’s a toddler now.”
“I understand that,” said Odette. “It’s disgusting, but I understand how it works. However, the female Gestalt is now dead. So how could any new ones be conceived?”
“You can harvest eggs from a dead body,” said Saskia. “Gestalt’s female body, Eliza, was retrieved by the Checquy after it fell out the window.”
“After it got shot and fell out the window,” said Sophie testily. “It’s not like I got drunk and just toppled out.”
“The body was not in good shape, to say the least,” said Saskia delicately. “But the Checquy had put it in the fridge almost immediately, and that bought us some time.”
“I thought the Checquy destroyed the bodies of their dead,” said Odette. “They’re burned, and the ashes are scattered from some mountains.”
“Bitch Myfanwy Thomas’s little initiative, yes,” said Sophie. “But before they do all that, they examine the hell out of the bodies. It’s the Checquy’s last opportunity to unravel the mysteries of their people.”
“One of the Broederschap’s moles among the Retainers was in the morgue,” said Claudia. “We got in contact with him, and he smuggled Saskia in.”
“Walking into that place was absolutely terrifying,” confessed Saskia. “But I retrieved as many eggs as I could from the corpse. Most of them had deteriorated and were no longer viable, but there were still quite a few we could use, especially once I applied some rejuvenation techniques.”
“And the sperm?” asked Odette. “It takes two parties to make a baby.”
“Checquy prisons are still prisons,” Sophie said with a shrug. “And no prison is completely cut off from the world. All sorts of things can get smuggled in or out if you have enough money or the creativity to come up with some interesting threats for the guards.”
“We had both,” Simon put in. “And there was a guard who had already sold his soul to the Broederschap.”
“There I was, rotting in four different prisons around the country,” said Sophie. “I had no idea that there were some people fiddling around with my female remains. And I was extremely surprised to receive an invitation to meet with some mysterious people. The message said that they might be able to arrange my freedom in exchange for helping them to harm the Checquy. All I had to do was provide a little bit of semen, and they’d arrange a meeting. What did I have to lose? I provided the product and then waited. To be perfectly honest, I thought they were going to break one of my bodies out, or maybe smuggle a representative in.”
“So why did you think they wanted the semen?” asked Odette, frowning.