‘It’s clear you can’t stay here, you need to find a place to create a Hive,’ Claire said as she and Seetha
finished a vigorous yoga session. Claire laid out a towel on the floor of the conservatory and lay down on
her stomach. Seetha unfolded herself, softly placing her body on Claire’s, a few minute adjustments
bringing them together. The Silkworm’s arms ran down Claire’s until their fingers joined, both sets of
arms outstretched. Seetha’s head resting softly beside her partner.
‘Have we worn out our welcome already?’ Seetha inquired.
‘Of course not, I just worry that besides the training FORCE offered and your ladies excelled at, we and
by we I mean FORCE run the risk of contaminating you,’ Claire explained.
'And by you, I take it you mean Silkworms,’ Seetha answered.
‘I don’t want to be the saviour and destroyer of such a rich organisation. The Silkworms have had their traditions and ways of doing things for millenia, too much exposure to how others do things can only contribute to a dilution of the purity. You and the others are the gatekeepers of that rich heritage and it needs to be preserved,’ Claire said, Seetha hearing the worry in her voice.
‘Circumstances at the moment don’t exactly give us options. All the money and property is gone, taken by TRIDENT. At present we’re no better than paupers, living off the generosity of a distant relative. I dare say we are inhabiting a Jane Austen novel,’ Seetha mused.
‘Is that what you think?’ Claire said in an annoyed tone that was all about her mistake. ‘You mean more to me than money, things, pride and whatever else. There is no charity in this or anything I’m doing right now. This is respect, compassion, caring and yes love that does not count the cost. Right now I’m more at peace, relaxed and cared for than I have felt in a long time. You can come to me for anything, ask for anything.’
Seetha switched her head over to the other side, her scented hair cascading with her. She folded their arms in little as the two lay still.
‘I have been thinking about these and other things for some time now, but I have not, and I am ashamed to say this, the courage to bring them up,’ the Silkworm softly began after a few moments.
Claire curled a finger around one of Seetha’s, nothing more but motion said it all.
‘I don’t think going back to the traditional Hive will work. It's too concentrated, all the Silkworms in one location. I was thinking the Queen should live alone, the others come for various things, meetings, education, well being of the collective, but they all live separately. In that way we are harder to hunt down, let alone locate. Modern communications can keep us in touch whenever and wherever. To most people we would just appear as single ladies. Silkworms are very good at being aloof, but in a polite way,’ she added. ‘I like Allison’s recruitment plan, but I would like to suggest something,’ she added with a little hesitancy in her voice.
‘You’re doing it again,’ Claire said in a calm relaxed voice.
Seetha adjusted her body, rolled her head over to the other cheek and softly kissed Claire’s cheek.
‘We are far too vulnerable at the present to do the recruiting by ourselves. Would it be possible for some of your agents to accompany them for this, there being strength in numbers.’
‘Have you ever met Paige Worthington?’ Claire asked.
‘Not personally, but I know of her by reputation. Beautiful, inventive, extremely lethal,’ Seetha answered.
‘I met her while on a mission. She was nothing like she is now, but she had that something. I think you meet potential recruits in all situations, but I’ve always found missions work for me. So, no to recruiting missions, yes to active missions. We can learn from and help each other. You and Susan can work out the pairings if that is ok with you,’ Claire offered.
‘There are other concerns,’ Seetha added. ‘We have no more intelligence services and access to designer weapons, not to mention money.’
‘We can support both of those needs. David and his team love what they do. I can introduce all of you to our clothes designers, jewelry makers and other needs a woman desires. They will need your help in replicating some of your needs. Do not worry about money, I’ll see to that, in fact I think you and I should go house shopping or should I say Hive shopping. Are there places you are fond of?’ Claire asked.
Seetha moved her head moved again, the Silkworm tossing it so her gardenia scented hair formed a canopy as they talked further.
^^^
Newton’s Third Law applies to the spy game as well. TRIDENT had discovered the Male Silkworm Hive, the carnage left behind by Allison and Esha and the missing items The Strippers Guild had taken from their victims. David Jacob’s and his team had kept FORCE up to date on chatter they had monitored. It was surprisingly Mekong LLP and SALON that had more Intel to offer.
‘We need to be very concerned about this!’ Alice explained. ‘TRIDENT appears to be a little bigger than we thought, they have their tentacles into many countries, industries and governments. They seem especially strong in South East Asia, the MIddle East, Central and Northern South America.’
‘Weak governments, corruption, offers that are too good to turn down. It's the same playbook,’ Susan Janus offered.
‘I think we hurt them,’ Tina Samuels interjected. Your points are valid, the data backs it up, but TRIDENT’s reaction is a little more than should be expected. Yes, they failed to wipe out the Silkworms. If they thought that was going to happen, then they are incredibly bad planners or very naive.’
‘Exactly where does the hurt come from?’ Cindy Krutzler asked.
‘It’s sitting right there,’ Tina said looking at Claire. ‘They didn’t count on her reaction, which tells me they have no idea about how she thinks or acts. TRIDENT probably thought we’d be ecstatic about an adversary getting wiped out, one less problem to deal with, never thinking they’d, meaning TRIDENT, would have one more problem to deal with. Now they will become very aggressive, that’s what the chatter is about.’
‘Enough of referring to me in the third party,’ Claire smiled. ‘Besides, you all supported me on this venture, thank you again. FORCE is not me, it’s we. Now I know sometimes I make the calls, but I try to keep those to a minimum. We,’ she said, circling her hands around the table, still make the strategic choices and we need to make this one.
‘I vote full frontal,’ Cindy smiled, knowing it would be well received in both ways. ‘But, I will add, we are strategic and above all ruthless in our dealings.’
‘I see no other course of action,’ Fan Li added. ‘My ladies can play both parts, but I will caution, that some of them may have to play the long game here to keep the Intel coming which means we cannot alway be giving a heads up without revealing ourselves and risk cutting off the supply.’
‘The same would apply to us, Yen Chau,’ added.
‘Of course,’ Claire said. ‘We have to play the long game and keep our agents safe. That should not be a problem as the women are leaving for training in a few days. Let me go back to the Intel for a minute, or should I say, a specific aspect of it, the jewelry. Speaking just for myself I have a rather extensive collection, a great many of them functional, others just decorative. They are important to our jobs and some are very special to me for a variety of reasons. But, with the Silkworms, every piece is special. It becomes part of who they are, their status in the Hive and outside of it with other Silkworms. Losing a piece is like losing part of who and what they are. Now, these ladies have hidden that very well, but not well enough. Allison please explain.
‘When Graveeta put the pearls back on Esha she cried and I don’t mean tears of joy. This was from somewhere deep, I could feel it. She has the longest continuous strand of any Silkworm over 1500 years. She carries that legacy and in truth that burden and when she had it taken from her, she lost herself and the respect of the Hive. You all saw the reaction the other day when she came back with me from the other Silkworms. What you, none of us saw in fact, was the distribution of the other pieces we recovered to their rightful owners. Some women got nothing back, others a few things and a small minority almost everything they fled with when this whole thing started. I’m saying it will be easy or even feasible, but if we can we need to use our resources to find more of their pieces. It’s all very high end, so the field is narrow.’
‘Seetha has decided and I agree with her to change the model of how the Silkworms are set up. It was in the briefing notes, so I assume everyone has seen it and now's the time to offer counter proposals or to add something that may have been missed,’ Claire picked up the conversation.
‘I want to see how they do in training and how their evaluations come out. The physical I’m sure will be fine, I’d be much more interested in the mental reports,’ Tina said and she saw Claire give her the go on look. ‘I remember my own start here, having to face unpleasant truths that were told to me. Things I never wanted to admit, but knew were true. These women have a mystique about them, always have, an aura of sophisticated sexiness and confidence, age was never an impediment, it was an advantage. I gained some of that mystique, but it took others to help me realise it, but I wonder what would happen to me if for some reason I began to question if I was losing it. Clearly, Seetha has it, Esha just got it back, but what of the others. When I watch them walk about or interact with them, honestly I don’t see it. Most of them are questioning themselves. They are dependent on us for the first time since they became Silkworms, they are just what they were before they joined, essentially, back where they started. Now clearly we can do nothing about the financial aspect of the dependency, but the other part we can do something about.’
‘I think I know where this is going but the floor is still yours,’ Claire smiled.
‘Get the leads if we can and send them after their stolen items, but send them with a, and apologies for the blatant sexism, but with a male partner, only if the data from the evaluations points in that direction, but I’m betting it will,’ Tina finished.
‘You think they need that?’ Cindy said.
‘They’ve been here for, what, six weeks. Not one of them has had a liaison. For an organisation that uses the smouldering exotic femme fatale motif to the maximum not to have had an encounter, especially in this environment, tells me somethings not right upstairs,’ Tina explained.
‘So you think pimping them out with a male agent will build some sort of confidence back into them?’
Claire said in a shocked tone.
‘Don’t act so shocked, all of us have done it on missions, even when we didn’t have to, if we’re all honest,’ Tina said, looking directly at Claire then Cindy.
‘True, Cindy said thinking of how she and Quinn had met. Claire didn’t answer, she knew it was true.
‘I will consider looking at it once we have the data,’ Claire answered.
^^^
‘See you back here in 16 weeks. Take good care of them, take advantage of everything offered and by all means mix in with the other trainees and staff,’ Claire smiled.
‘I was nervous about this and so were they,’ Seetha said. ‘But when Esha came back with a recruit and the jewelry it seemed to perk most of them up again. So I think the majority are looking forward to it as well.’
‘We’re working on finding other pieces, we have several good leads and a few new sources, hopefully we can send along a care package or two.’ Claire explained.
‘I will miss you Claire,’ Seetha said as her arms opened and they hugged.
Claire watched the private jet takeoff before she turned and walked back to her car.
‘More Intel to review and some of this is very promising,’ her assistant said as the car pulled away.
‘Let’s get dossiers ready for what we know are hard leads. Also, pull Cara from Myanmar, the situation is not stable and frankly I don’t want to aid this illegal military junta in any way. Let me know when you’re ready and we’ll proceed. If TRIDENT wants a fight they can have all the fight they want.’
^^^
‘I get that everyone thinks we’ve done enough for these women with nothing to show for it, but I thought we all bought into the long game here?’ Claire said to a room of tight jawed faces. ‘Come on then, speak up or are you all too fucking afraid!’ she added.
‘What a pathetic attempt at getting a rise out of us and uncalled for,’ Cindy said in a slow and controlled manner. ‘No one in here is afraid of anything and you know that and we, all of us,’ Cindy said, her hand sweeping the table past Allison, Alice, Fan, Mai, Susan, Tina and Jacob. ‘Will do anything for the cause, but you're asking people to risk their lives for a nebulus goal, one that we and you, have no idea will ever become a reality.’
‘That’s what we do here everyday or maybe you’ve forgotten that!’ Claire shot back then regretted it, but it was too late.
Susan shot a hand onto Cindy’s thigh under the cover of the table to keep her in place and Cindy took it the right away as she inched back into her seat.
‘You’re a piece of shit for saying that and you know it,’ Cindy said. ‘You can give them all the money you want, none of that matters to us, what matters is expending agents for no reason. Chasing down gems, they could just as easily find on their own once they get back. How much favour do we have to curry with them before we see a return, if any and that’s my point. SALON has been by our side since day one, never a moment's hesitation when by all reason they had a right to be wary. But, these Silkworms are somehow treated differently. I think this woman Seetha has gotten into your head, among others areas,’ Cindy finished and this time it was Claire who felt the hand of Alice on her shoulder. ‘Oh and one more thing. The next time you recall an agent in my department, how about you talk to me first about it!’
Eyes darted about the table, the last point was the one most taken in as it affected them all, but the former about Claire and Seetha was not being totally disregarded either. Finally it was Mai who decided to speak.
‘Sometimes openly airing your thoughts, however raw, is a good thing, cathartic, but other times it does more harm than good, damaging to the point of non repair. There are boundaries, not always definable until we step over them. That is not the worst thing, not acknowledging and asking for forgiveness is,’ and here she took a long breath before speaking again.
‘SALON came to this organization a little while ago, circumstances were somewhat but not dissimilar to
what the Silkworms now face. We had an adversary now grown to stature and resources. Now you
could say we made a deal to save ourselves and you wouldn’t be wrong to think that, we did indeed, but
we also made a deal with a woman and an organisation we knew we could trust because she was a true
believer, for better or worse and she believed in us. We weren’t a pawn to be played and sacrificed for
the better when it suited her, we were part of something bigger, we’d all win by getting there together.
You’re not only as good as your last mission, all your missions, all your victories and failures, no matter
when they happened, were respected. Along with that was the autonomy on the missions, the trust in the
agent not the system that was one of the reasons FORCE was founded I believe or was I misled?’
‘I would trust Esha with my life,’ Allison said but Claire jumped in.
‘I don’t need your help, Allison, but thank you for that. For the record, Seetha and I have a strange erotic relationship, never fufilled and it never weill be, that would ruin it. We each know the other's emotional scars on some level, we never talk about it, we don’t have to, but being with her is healing for me, but she does not and will not ever cloud my judgement about us and yes I mean us. TRIDENT is the enemy and they are coming hard for us, harder than they ever came for the Silkworms, because I pushed it in that direction and I will continue to do so. The fact is we have got nothing back from the Silkworms, because they could give us nothing, they were a spent force, but with training they become another weapon, the Mature Section we always wanted, but never saw through. They will give us the best of east and west in one more sharpened package when they return. My apologies for not explaining that more clearly and now I wish I had a time machine to go back and not say what I said to my best friend, the woman who along with her Section single handedly saved FORCE on more occasions than I can count. Without you Cindy Grace Krutzler none of this would have been possible and what I said I can never undo, but can only explain in this way. When you married Quinn I lost the best agent I ever had and I knew you could not continue as an active agent much as I wanted that, a selfish narrow minded petty woman that could not see the joy you brought each other but only see the loss for me and not the joy you bring me everyday for sticking with me when I say stupid thoughtless cruel things like I just did. Sad fact is I’m jealous because I won’t allow myself the happiness you do, but that is no excuse for what I said. There are three people I love in this world, you, my Great Gran and Mrs. Hawthorne. I am so sorry for what I said and did,’ Claire finished as she tried to hold it together.
‘Meeting over,’ Alice said softly and they all left the room.
^^^
‘I’m having trouble coming up with three worse locations to send agents,’ Susan said as she reviewed the dossiers for the missions. ‘Jaipur, Hong Kong and the Silom neighbourhood in Bangkok and Chanthaburi in eastern Thailand, the latter two are certainly extremely dangerous.’
‘We agreed that Pushpa is perfect for Jaipur. Who should we send to Hong Kong?’ Claire asked, pushing the meeting forward.
‘Irene Wen is the perfect choice. Sexy, sophisticated, cultured,’ Fan Li offered.
‘I agree,’ and nods confirmed the choice from the others at the table. ‘Now that just leaves the hardest one, Bangkok and Chanthaburi,’ Claire added.
‘I would like to suggest Ivory Stevens,’ Cindy said and Claire looked alarmed.
‘I thought we talked about this,’ Claire said. ‘The CURVE Section has done more than enough and then
there’s the other issue.’
‘Your ladies do tend to attract attention from the wrong types of women,’ Alice added.
‘Exactly the point,’ Cindy smiled.
‘It certainly is,’ Claire chimed in. ‘You know what she’ll be up against, lithe women who are deadly to her kind. They’ll attack in multiples and overwhelm her and not even Ivory’s talents will be able to overcome them. I’ve been entangled in a double and a triple, I was lucky to escape the double, the triple was impossible and it nearly killed me,’ Claire stated.
‘She’s our best option and she wants the mission, she knows the risks and can’t wait. She reminds me of another certain PLUS agent who used to be your mentor,’ Cindy smiled.
‘She does to me as well. Ok, but please tell her, no unnecessary risks,’ Claire added.
‘I’ll tell her to be just like you, me and Sharon,’ Cindy added with a smirk.
Claire and Cindy had made up at the end of the meeting, each understanding more about the other. Cindy desperately wanted to take on assignments, but she could not shake the thought of being disloyal to Quiinn even though he had told her not to even consider that, she just could not get past it, so she concentrated her time on making her CURVE Section agents the best in FORCE. Claire now understood this and Cindy understood Claire’s inability to let herself care for a lover like she had before. In essence, both were on islands of their own making.
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