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Abby:A collective vs. a hierarchy.
Benny:Exactly. Which is stronger, Professor Stafford?
Abby:We talk about resilience. But it’s complicated. A collective is more resilient, but collectives are hard to scale up. Eventually you specialize, and then you have to have bosses or coordinators, and pretty soon you’ve nation-states, Wall Street, and military — all hierarchal.
Benny:Interesting.
There was a pause, while he thought about it, then he continued, changing the subject slightly.So we learned more about the enemy —the man Chen allied with. The family patriarch who was actually working with Chen and their partners called him the Chinese Emperor, not the Chinese Alpha. And you need to make sure Cujo and Haru know about this, OK? Jessie says she heard Chen talking in Chinese about it, and translated it as Alpha, but he may have said Emperor. She says she thinks it’s an ancient. Someone who may not be on a Council at all.
Abby:I’ll pass it on. They’ll want to debrief you when you get here.
Benny grimaced.Joy,he muttered.So I’m wondering if Anton Vuk wasn’t older than we thought. No one seemed to know where he came from — a lot of people thought they did, but since they don’t seem to agree, I have my doubts. And I wonder if he wasn’t a remnant of that former epoch? And he came into the modern era determined to figure out how to amass power and still be the dominant — still be the Alpha. And to do that, he had to diminish women’s abilities to connect. And he demonized it — demonized it in so many ways. No female Alphas, or pack Seconds, for a start.
Abby said slowly,Spiders. Even the ability to make links became an anathema — a death sentence.
Benny:Interesting. But yes. All kinds of things fall into place. Here’s an interesting one, and you’ve seen it. What happens if you call what we’re doing right now telepathy?
Abby laughed.Someone raised in a traditional pack immediately says there is no such thing.
Benny:Exactly. It’s drilled into us when we’re young. Just like be one thing or the other. Anton Vuk created the New World packs — all the packs of the modern era really —in his own image. But why? His own personal proclivities, sure. But I think it was more than that. And the only Alpha he feared enough to leave alone? A female Alpha from the Russian steppes. He was willing to bargain with Ayta. He wouldn’t touch their way of life, if she let him form the first World Council and claim them as his. And she agreed, for the good of the packs.
Abby:Interesting. Benny, I’m fading. Jake is feeding me chocolate. I need to go. I’ll start a list of questions that this raises, and we’ll talk more about it when you get home.
Abby paused.Love you.
Benny snorted and teased her back:I know you do.
And then, just as Abby lost the link, she heard him say,I love you too, Abby. Don’t ever think I don’t.
***
Benny felt the linkdrop, and he knew Abby had pushed it too long. I’m not worth that, he thought painfully, returning to his earlier thoughts about the ugliness of what he —and Stefan and the others —had done.
He managed to get over Blewett Pass without too much of a problem. It had started to snow, and the roads were slushy. He hated that, and it took all of his focus to find a rut and stay in it. He reached Cle Elum, and almost turned east to go to Odessa and to Ayta. Going back to Hat Island meant facing all those women. How could they stand to be around him? Around any of them. He shook his head, anguished by what he’d finally realized.
Maggie, his wolf reminded him. And Benny sighed. True. He had Maggie’s bike. He had to get it back to her in one piece. He felt like he had a mental checklist, tell Abby about what he knew about links and bonds — check. Get Maggie’s bike back — check. And then?
He refused to think about then.
He rode toward Snoqualmie Pass and to Seattle, the self-loathing so strong he was afraid he was going to have to stop and throw up. They had taken those women’s lives from them and said they were worthless. And then they had thrown the women away — thrown them to Jedediah Jones — as if they no longer had any worth to them now that they were finished with that cohort.
Dear God. Maybe even a death penalty was too kind.
How the hell was he supposed to live with the realization of what they had done? Of what kind of person he was?
He rode into the snowstorm, ignoring all the warnings of the dangers ahead. If he was lucky, maybe the storm would take him.
Maggie, his wolf said again.
Benny sighed and agreed. He owed it to Maggie to get her bike back in one piece. He’d promised.
