Papaya 9, Passionfruit 1
Title: Ring Out The Changes
Author: lost_spook
Story: Heroes of the Revolution
Flavor(s): Papaya #9 (I’ve got my eye on you); Passionfruit #1 (One paints the beginning of a certain end)
Toppings/Extras: None.
Rating: PG
Word Count: 1992
Notes: 1991, the fall of the government. (Anna, Charles Terrell, Michael Seaton.)
Summary: Now the revolution is nearly over, Anna’s work has only just begun.
***
When they dragged Hallam outside, Anna kept back against the wall, watching everything, keeping a sharp eye out for any untoward movement, any unfamiliar faces, or anything in the least out of place. She wasn’t going to let the revolution fall at the last step.
Arran - Colonel Seaton - walked through the doorway and halted beside her. He didn’t speak, but he turned his head fractionally towards her.
Anna reached into her pocket and passed him the roll of paper. She didn’t say anything, either, but she nodded. It was a decision they’d already made, and now they had to go through with it.
She clenched one fist and carried on watching everything intently. They’d told Hallam, once they’d cornered him, that this was not murder, this was not an assassination; this was a long overdue execution.
The Colonel marched forward and passed the roll of paper to Major Harrison, who opened it up and began to read the list of names. It was a long list, but only the tip of the iceberg: a representative collection of those who had died as a direct result of Hallam’s actions over the years. God alone knew what the full tally must be, though no doubt someone in the future would calculate it and argue over it.
It was an execution, not a murder, and Anna was glad to see Hallam pay. He was a dictator. He had brought down the last elected government nearly thirty years ago, had caused the ensuing fighting, almost a second civil war, and then he’d ruled inflexibly, supposedly fighting to save them all from the crisis threatening Britain. There was a crisis, one that had been going on for so long now it needed a better term, but that didn’t excuse Hallam’s methods.
What made it hard to watch now, even after all she’d seen and done, was not Hallam but the Colonel, herself, the rest of them. Anna knew her history and the danger of becoming what you fought to destroy; she knew what they said about the means becoming the end. That was what she feared; that was why she wished even now they didn’t have to do this.
She swore to herself that she would never see that happen, and she would try to make this the last death that she had any part in. Then she closed her eyes briefly and remembered another private promise she’d made. If things didn’t go well, there’d be at least one more. She opened her eyes again, in time to see Hallam die.
*
That was the ending, the final ending of something that should have died a very long time ago. Once it was done, Anna turned her back, and went in search of a beginning.
Or, in more prosaic terms, she went in search of a minor member of the former government who’d been an ally of theirs for a long while. She just hoped no one had shot him by accident while taking New Parliament House.
*
Anna led Charles Terrell along the corridor, opening the door to the nearest empty office and ushered him in. She shut the door by leaning against it, and remained there for a moment, wondering in passing whose office it had been, before realising it didn’t matter. It was an oddly exhilarating thought and she had to remind herself again that power wasn’t a good thing.
“Well?” said Charles, brushing aside a pile of papers and perching on the desk, and watching her. “Much as I appreciate being released, I’d like to know what you want. I’m assuming you’re not going to shoot me, because there’d be no hurry for that.”
She prised herself away from the door, but didn’t look at him, busying herself pulling a chair across to the desk. Once she’d sat in it, she glanced up at him. She knew him from files and a few blurred photographs, but that wasn’t the same as the reality. He was watching her in return, his face etched in lines of wary puzzlement. Eyes that had been dark in the photos were lighter in life, an uncertain shade, maybe grey, maybe blue. He leant back slightly on the desk, thin but wiry, with a slightly worn air about him.
“I’m hoping you’ll agree to be a member of the Emergency Government.”
Charles put a hand to his forehead. “Oh, no,” he said. “No, no, no. Thanks for the thought, but I’ve done my time. Now it’s your turn. I’m going home.”
“Home?” she said, without thinking, and he looked down briefly, as if she’d struck a nerve.
He lifted his head again, and studied her more closely. “I haven’t done as much as you people, perhaps, but it’s been a long time. I’ve been in and out of prison, and one or two of those occasions were preferable to some of the posts I’ve held. What the hell is it you want with me?”
Anna shrugged. “But that’s it, don’t you see? Most of us, we’re what we are, what we’ve had to become - fighters. You’re still a politician.”
“You know,” he said, with a flash of amusement, “you almost made that sound like a compliment. Congratulations.”
“You’re on our side, and you’ve got the experience. We need people now who can fight with words, not weapons.”
“And you believe I’m one of those people?”
Anna nodded. “You’ve been involved in government one way or another for the last thirty years. You were even elected the first time. Plenty of people round here who’ve never seen an election. I’ve been looking at people’s records - finding copies of speeches, all that sort of thing, and, yes, I think you’re the best option we’ve got.”
“And what exactly did you have in mind for me, or hadn’t you got that far?”
Anna looked down again in an uncharacteristic moment of hesitation. (Say it, and there was no going back. In some ways, there was no going forward, but that part didn’t matter. It was personal and unimportant.) Then she looked up and gave him a smile, the light of challenge in her eyes. “Prime Minister, Mr Terrell.”
Charles Terrell started so hard he nearly lost his position on the desk, and then stared back at her. “Good God, you’re serious, aren’t you?”
“Colonel Seaton will be Head of State, naturally, and whatever we decide besides that will only be temporary pending an election. However, we’ve still a lot of work to do before we can get to that point, and we need some sort of government in the meantime.”
Terrell looked back at her, wary again. “Your people aren’t going to like it, you know. You might understand what I’ve been doing, but I was never one of you. I was with Whittaker, before we lost him, not Arran. And once that’s out, I’m not going to be popular with my former colleagues in government, either.”
“I expect nobody’s going to be very happy about very much for a while,” said Anna, with another grin. “All this time, and they’re all going to want rewards left, right, and centre, but we’ve got to put the right people in the right places.”
He tapped his fingers on the desk, and inclined his head slightly as he looked at her. “I don’t suppose it bothers you, but it’s the last thing I ever wanted.”
“Good,” said Anna. “That was one of my reasons.”
Terrell raised an eyebrow at her rather mockingly. “Not the best qualification on its own, but I know what you mean. Well, I don’t know what the hell I said last time we met but I -”
“We’ve never met,” said Anna, a little too quickly, and was irritated at herself. She gave him a smile. “I don’t forget much.”
He scratched his head. “Oh, I thought we had. Must just be the files, then.”
“Infamous, that’s me. One of the most wanted people in the country.”
Terrell nodded. “Yes. The Colonel’s right-hand woman, no less.”
“Not what I’d choose to call myself,” she said. “I was in this for years before Arran turned up.”
He looked at her, frowning a little. “There is one thing I don’t understand. I accept your reasons for wanting me in the government, but why me for Prime Minister? Why not you? It ought to be you, you know.”
Because I don’t deserve to be, she thought, but didn’t say. Because of what might still have to be done. “Maybe that’s why,” she said. “Of course, we’ll have to convince the rest of the central committee, and that’s not going to be easy, but I think I can get enough people behind me -”
“I haven’t agreed,” said Charles. “The government, yes. If I must, to get us through this. I’ve given enough not to want to see us fail now, any more than you do. But Prime Minister! Is this a set up, so when everything goes wrong at the start, as it inevitably will, you’ve got someone expendable to blame?”
Anna laughed. “No. Mind, if you want out anyway, what would be wrong with that? Should suit you.”
“I’ll have to think about it,” Charles said. “It’s a lot to ask, and I don’t know if I can do it.”
She nodded. “Of course. But you are considering it?”
“I think,” he said carefully, “that if you’re asking me in all seriousness, then I must.”
Anna looked up, startled by that. Her heart gave a small jump, and she balled her hands into fists again. (It didn’t mean anything, she told herself again. It didn’t mean anything.)
“What’s your real name, anyway?” he said. “Isn’t the time for code names over?”
She shrugged. “Catherine Miller, but it’s been Anna for years - I’m too used to it to change. Anyway, as far as I’m concerned, Catherine Miller is no longer alive.”
“I don’t think it works like that,” said Charles, but before she could snap, he drew back a little, and smiled at her. “But Anna it is, then. Now what, or do we hide in here for the rest of the day?”
Anna glanced around the shabby office. “I’d rather not, thanks. Have you met the Colonel?”
“I haven’t had that honour, no.”
She nodded, and got up from the chair, her movements brisk and decisive. “Then I’d say it’s about time you did. He’s yet to be convinced, by the way. See if you can do that, and then you’ve probably got your answer, haven’t you?”
“And you think I can?” he said, not moving away from the desk yet, watching her in bemusement. “You do, don’t you?”
Anna shrugged, and then gave a wry, private smile. “I have every faith in you.”
“I thought it was an odd end to a sub-committee meeting earlier,” Charles said, standing up, ready to follow her. “Revolution and being locked in right in the middle of one of Sir Kenneth’s most interminable speeches. But now I see it wasn’t. Fighting, imprisonment, tedious meetings - I’ve had days like that before. Being asked to become Prime Minister - that’s a first.”
“Last, too, I should think,” said Anna. “Not the sort of thing that happens very often.”
Charles stood back, waiting for her to lead the way out. “Of course, it’s all academic anyway. Ten to one we’ll be dead before the week is out.”
“No!” Anna said. “There’ll be trouble; there always is, but it’s not ending like that, not now. Not this week. That’s a promise.”
He looked back at her again for a long while; his face suddenly unreadable again, and then finally he said, “You almost make me think there’s a reason I’ve survived in this game for so long.”
“Yes,” said Anna, lifting her head again, the light catching her eyes, because there were some things that were true, even when they might be a lie. “Yes, of course there is, Mr Terrell.”
***
Author: lost_spook
Story: Heroes of the Revolution
Flavor(s): Papaya #9 (I’ve got my eye on you); Passionfruit #1 (One paints the beginning of a certain end)
Toppings/Extras: None.
Rating: PG
Word Count: 1992
Notes: 1991, the fall of the government. (Anna, Charles Terrell, Michael Seaton.)
Summary: Now the revolution is nearly over, Anna’s work has only just begun.
***
When they dragged Hallam outside, Anna kept back against the wall, watching everything, keeping a sharp eye out for any untoward movement, any unfamiliar faces, or anything in the least out of place. She wasn’t going to let the revolution fall at the last step.
Arran - Colonel Seaton - walked through the doorway and halted beside her. He didn’t speak, but he turned his head fractionally towards her.
Anna reached into her pocket and passed him the roll of paper. She didn’t say anything, either, but she nodded. It was a decision they’d already made, and now they had to go through with it.
She clenched one fist and carried on watching everything intently. They’d told Hallam, once they’d cornered him, that this was not murder, this was not an assassination; this was a long overdue execution.
The Colonel marched forward and passed the roll of paper to Major Harrison, who opened it up and began to read the list of names. It was a long list, but only the tip of the iceberg: a representative collection of those who had died as a direct result of Hallam’s actions over the years. God alone knew what the full tally must be, though no doubt someone in the future would calculate it and argue over it.
It was an execution, not a murder, and Anna was glad to see Hallam pay. He was a dictator. He had brought down the last elected government nearly thirty years ago, had caused the ensuing fighting, almost a second civil war, and then he’d ruled inflexibly, supposedly fighting to save them all from the crisis threatening Britain. There was a crisis, one that had been going on for so long now it needed a better term, but that didn’t excuse Hallam’s methods.
What made it hard to watch now, even after all she’d seen and done, was not Hallam but the Colonel, herself, the rest of them. Anna knew her history and the danger of becoming what you fought to destroy; she knew what they said about the means becoming the end. That was what she feared; that was why she wished even now they didn’t have to do this.
She swore to herself that she would never see that happen, and she would try to make this the last death that she had any part in. Then she closed her eyes briefly and remembered another private promise she’d made. If things didn’t go well, there’d be at least one more. She opened her eyes again, in time to see Hallam die.
*
That was the ending, the final ending of something that should have died a very long time ago. Once it was done, Anna turned her back, and went in search of a beginning.
Or, in more prosaic terms, she went in search of a minor member of the former government who’d been an ally of theirs for a long while. She just hoped no one had shot him by accident while taking New Parliament House.
*
Anna led Charles Terrell along the corridor, opening the door to the nearest empty office and ushered him in. She shut the door by leaning against it, and remained there for a moment, wondering in passing whose office it had been, before realising it didn’t matter. It was an oddly exhilarating thought and she had to remind herself again that power wasn’t a good thing.
“Well?” said Charles, brushing aside a pile of papers and perching on the desk, and watching her. “Much as I appreciate being released, I’d like to know what you want. I’m assuming you’re not going to shoot me, because there’d be no hurry for that.”
She prised herself away from the door, but didn’t look at him, busying herself pulling a chair across to the desk. Once she’d sat in it, she glanced up at him. She knew him from files and a few blurred photographs, but that wasn’t the same as the reality. He was watching her in return, his face etched in lines of wary puzzlement. Eyes that had been dark in the photos were lighter in life, an uncertain shade, maybe grey, maybe blue. He leant back slightly on the desk, thin but wiry, with a slightly worn air about him.
“I’m hoping you’ll agree to be a member of the Emergency Government.”
Charles put a hand to his forehead. “Oh, no,” he said. “No, no, no. Thanks for the thought, but I’ve done my time. Now it’s your turn. I’m going home.”
“Home?” she said, without thinking, and he looked down briefly, as if she’d struck a nerve.
He lifted his head again, and studied her more closely. “I haven’t done as much as you people, perhaps, but it’s been a long time. I’ve been in and out of prison, and one or two of those occasions were preferable to some of the posts I’ve held. What the hell is it you want with me?”
Anna shrugged. “But that’s it, don’t you see? Most of us, we’re what we are, what we’ve had to become - fighters. You’re still a politician.”
“You know,” he said, with a flash of amusement, “you almost made that sound like a compliment. Congratulations.”
“You’re on our side, and you’ve got the experience. We need people now who can fight with words, not weapons.”
“And you believe I’m one of those people?”
Anna nodded. “You’ve been involved in government one way or another for the last thirty years. You were even elected the first time. Plenty of people round here who’ve never seen an election. I’ve been looking at people’s records - finding copies of speeches, all that sort of thing, and, yes, I think you’re the best option we’ve got.”
“And what exactly did you have in mind for me, or hadn’t you got that far?”
Anna looked down again in an uncharacteristic moment of hesitation. (Say it, and there was no going back. In some ways, there was no going forward, but that part didn’t matter. It was personal and unimportant.) Then she looked up and gave him a smile, the light of challenge in her eyes. “Prime Minister, Mr Terrell.”
Charles Terrell started so hard he nearly lost his position on the desk, and then stared back at her. “Good God, you’re serious, aren’t you?”
“Colonel Seaton will be Head of State, naturally, and whatever we decide besides that will only be temporary pending an election. However, we’ve still a lot of work to do before we can get to that point, and we need some sort of government in the meantime.”
Terrell looked back at her, wary again. “Your people aren’t going to like it, you know. You might understand what I’ve been doing, but I was never one of you. I was with Whittaker, before we lost him, not Arran. And once that’s out, I’m not going to be popular with my former colleagues in government, either.”
“I expect nobody’s going to be very happy about very much for a while,” said Anna, with another grin. “All this time, and they’re all going to want rewards left, right, and centre, but we’ve got to put the right people in the right places.”
He tapped his fingers on the desk, and inclined his head slightly as he looked at her. “I don’t suppose it bothers you, but it’s the last thing I ever wanted.”
“Good,” said Anna. “That was one of my reasons.”
Terrell raised an eyebrow at her rather mockingly. “Not the best qualification on its own, but I know what you mean. Well, I don’t know what the hell I said last time we met but I -”
“We’ve never met,” said Anna, a little too quickly, and was irritated at herself. She gave him a smile. “I don’t forget much.”
He scratched his head. “Oh, I thought we had. Must just be the files, then.”
“Infamous, that’s me. One of the most wanted people in the country.”
Terrell nodded. “Yes. The Colonel’s right-hand woman, no less.”
“Not what I’d choose to call myself,” she said. “I was in this for years before Arran turned up.”
He looked at her, frowning a little. “There is one thing I don’t understand. I accept your reasons for wanting me in the government, but why me for Prime Minister? Why not you? It ought to be you, you know.”
Because I don’t deserve to be, she thought, but didn’t say. Because of what might still have to be done. “Maybe that’s why,” she said. “Of course, we’ll have to convince the rest of the central committee, and that’s not going to be easy, but I think I can get enough people behind me -”
“I haven’t agreed,” said Charles. “The government, yes. If I must, to get us through this. I’ve given enough not to want to see us fail now, any more than you do. But Prime Minister! Is this a set up, so when everything goes wrong at the start, as it inevitably will, you’ve got someone expendable to blame?”
Anna laughed. “No. Mind, if you want out anyway, what would be wrong with that? Should suit you.”
“I’ll have to think about it,” Charles said. “It’s a lot to ask, and I don’t know if I can do it.”
She nodded. “Of course. But you are considering it?”
“I think,” he said carefully, “that if you’re asking me in all seriousness, then I must.”
Anna looked up, startled by that. Her heart gave a small jump, and she balled her hands into fists again. (It didn’t mean anything, she told herself again. It didn’t mean anything.)
“What’s your real name, anyway?” he said. “Isn’t the time for code names over?”
She shrugged. “Catherine Miller, but it’s been Anna for years - I’m too used to it to change. Anyway, as far as I’m concerned, Catherine Miller is no longer alive.”
“I don’t think it works like that,” said Charles, but before she could snap, he drew back a little, and smiled at her. “But Anna it is, then. Now what, or do we hide in here for the rest of the day?”
Anna glanced around the shabby office. “I’d rather not, thanks. Have you met the Colonel?”
“I haven’t had that honour, no.”
She nodded, and got up from the chair, her movements brisk and decisive. “Then I’d say it’s about time you did. He’s yet to be convinced, by the way. See if you can do that, and then you’ve probably got your answer, haven’t you?”
“And you think I can?” he said, not moving away from the desk yet, watching her in bemusement. “You do, don’t you?”
Anna shrugged, and then gave a wry, private smile. “I have every faith in you.”
“I thought it was an odd end to a sub-committee meeting earlier,” Charles said, standing up, ready to follow her. “Revolution and being locked in right in the middle of one of Sir Kenneth’s most interminable speeches. But now I see it wasn’t. Fighting, imprisonment, tedious meetings - I’ve had days like that before. Being asked to become Prime Minister - that’s a first.”
“Last, too, I should think,” said Anna. “Not the sort of thing that happens very often.”
Charles stood back, waiting for her to lead the way out. “Of course, it’s all academic anyway. Ten to one we’ll be dead before the week is out.”
“No!” Anna said. “There’ll be trouble; there always is, but it’s not ending like that, not now. Not this week. That’s a promise.”
He looked back at her again for a long while; his face suddenly unreadable again, and then finally he said, “You almost make me think there’s a reason I’ve survived in this game for so long.”
“Yes,” said Anna, lifting her head again, the light catching her eyes, because there were some things that were true, even when they might be a lie. “Yes, of course there is, Mr Terrell.”
***