Stephen stared for a long time at the door Marc had disappeared though, oblivious to the people who were trying to get his attention.  Nor did he hear the excited din behind him.  One thing exercised his mind.  What had Marc meant?  What was the ‘job’ he’d just done for him?    And what was Marc going to do now?

“Stephen,” Eli tapped on his shoulder, finally getting his attention.  “Come on, let’s get outta here.  Charlie wants to get the babies to bed.”

Stephen looked at him and asked softly, “Do you understand what just happened there?”

“No, though I have a few thoughts.”  He looked at Stephen with open affection.  “Don’t you think it’s time you let us in on what you’re doing?”  Liam, coming up just as he said it nodded vigorously, his agreement plain.  Eli went on, “It’s obvious you’re planning something.”

Stephen looked at them both, Eli, his foster father and staunch ally, and Liam, his oldest and closest friend.  Behind them Tabitha stood, listening and rocking the baby she held.  “This isn’t the place to discuss this and I’m not sure...”  He stopped and looked around.  “Not now.  Let’s get out of here.  We can talk at home.” 

He registered the irony of what he’d just said.  For him home was where it had always been, back on earth where he’d been born.  What the Awakened called Home had never been home to him.  It had been a bargaining chip and stop-gap measure, a way to begin what he’d always known would be a long and arduous process.  His goal, first, last and always was the emergence of the Awakened as one more race among the others on earth.  To achieve that he first had had to nudge the Awakened themselves onto and along the path to seeing themselves as a people.  He’d achieved that though he hadn’t always liked the ways that had played out nor agreed with the choices the Awakened had made.  Regardless, they now saw themselves as a people who shared significant commonalities and interests, not just as a bunch of folks without a common bond or purpose.   What he was planning was the next step, which, if successful, would start them onto the road to reintegration with the rest of the human race.

Stephen did not believe, when you came right down to it, that the Awakened were no longer human.  He believed that they were simply an evolutionary branching of the tree.  He thought it possible that they were the bridge between what humans were now and the next big evolutionary leap they would take.  Those were just theories, though. What wasn’t theory was the fact the Awakened and the non Awakened needed each other. 

Richard, he recalled, had been adamant that the time had come for the Awakened to take the next step. It was time, he’d said, not only to begin to lay the groundwork for reintegration but to begin to make the Awakened see just how interdependent they were on each other and on the non Awakened.  The Awakened were like people who when confronted with a common enemy would come to each other’s aid, but they still didn’t realize they were more than that.  The commonalities went deeper. And the best analogy for that was that while they shared a nationality, they just didn’t realize it.  

The Covenants had been hammered out hundreds of years ago when the Awakened numbered in the hundreds and had been living isolated lives wholly separate from each other.  Now they numbered in the thousands.  What had been designed to bring a few hundred people together into one tribe, as it were, would no longer work for what needed to be a nation.

That was his goal.  Changing the Covenant by moving away from what was essentially a paternalistic form of control, borne out of a conviction that they needed to protect themselves from the prejudice and fear of the non Awakened was the first step.  But first he needed to figure out what Marc meant. 

Was it as simple as wanting the meeting adjourned?  Or even simpler, that the suspension meant Stephen was still suspended from the Council, a consequence that was only just occurring to him and would require serious thought and soon.  Or, even more troubling on a number of levels, did he mean that his goal was also a change in the Covenant?  And if he wanted it changed what did he want it changed into?  Or was there something else on his mind altogether?  The other looming uncertainty was what he’d do in the meantime and how it would impact his plans to liberate the Listeners from the control of the Council.

He had always understood that ultimately if he and the Listeners said no, they weren’t going to play by those rules anymore, there really wasn’t much the Council could do, unless they were willing, and able, to physically restrain them, or remove them bodily back Home and lock them up.  They certainly weren’t going to kill them all.  Nor was it possible to strip them, en masse, of their Awakened powers. 

That had always been his fall back plan, but he had no desire to start a civil war or lead the equivalent of a coup.  He was not a revolutionary no matter what some might think.  He wanted to build a nation, not destroy one.  And he wanted it to become one nation among many which he rather suspected was, in the long term, going to be the crux of his problem. 

So, his mind working furiously on the problem of Marc, he went home, only to discover that there would be no time for conversation.  Between the flooding in Texas, the war in Iraq and Afghanistan and the continuing troubles in Darfur, he was gone again immediately along with Liam and every other available Listener.  By the time he got back the only thing on his mind was bed.  Marc and conversations about his plans would have to wait which was probably for the best, since he didn’t know anymore what his immediate plans were, though the course he’d decided upon was unchanged. 

 It was Marc’s move.  Marc and the Council and he found he didn’t mind at all waiting to see what they did. 

Margaret was pacing the sumptuously furnished room that served as a waiting room, reception room and private study for the Council members.  The non-permanent members of the Council had scuttled off fairly quickly after the meeting had finally broken up.  Margaret and Maya had sat frozen at their places until the council meeting room had finally emptied. Marc had disappeared early on.

Maya had looked cool and collected as she usually did, but Margaret knew she was seething inside too.

A whisper of a door, and then a voice, "You'll wear out the rug. I don't think he's coming."

It was Bella looking annoyingly amused.

"Damn him!" Margaret swore.

Marc had a habit of disappearing. Sometimes he'd disappear for days, for weeks, sometimes for years. But he always seemed to know what went on in his absence. It was frightening how good his intelligence always was. Margaret suspected Bella of being his informant.  But she didn't know for certain.

"What does he expect us to do now!" Margaret hissed as Maya came in to join them.

"He's left us instructions," Maya explained, handing out copies of a memo to Margaret and Bella.

"Bastard. He acts like we all work for him."  Maya and Margaret exchanged a look which Bella missed.

"Council actions (the memo read):

1. Reno Taylor to be assigned to the Refuge immediately.

2.  A room at the Refuge to be permanently assigned and readied for Marc Rogatien

3. Stephen's suspension from the Council on hold until next full Council session.

4.  Next full Council session to be scheduled for one year hence.

5.  A commission to be formed to review the Covenant itself, and consider updating its terms in light of current state of affairs."

"What!" Margaret hissed. "A year from now?"

Bella hid a slight smile. "Obviously Marc plans on collecting a lot more ammunition. And this commission will give him an excuse to do so.   Besides, Reno is... well, Reno. He doesn't miss much.  And apparently Marc plans on making himself a pest there too."

"So where is he now?" Maya asked, looking up from the memo.

Bella shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine. Earth, Home, elsewhere, elsewhen?  We've never known where he goes."

"What did Marc mean by that comment regarding Stephen doing his work for him, anyway," Margaret muttered.

"I took him to mean that he was glad Stephen had walked himself off the cliff. After all, by suspending the Council meeting, that means Stephen has no say in our deliberations. And we can move more freely against the Refuge."  Maya's words were cool, impressed.

Bella frowned, opened her mouth to say something, then thought better of it.

Meanwhile Marc was ... elsewhere. He'd never told anyone at Home exactly where he disappeared to so often. Or where he went when he'd disappear for years at a time. And especially not what he was up to. But then everyone was busy keeping their own secrets and plotting, so that his attitude wasn't all that different.

Now he sat back, a cold drink in his hand.  The wicker rocker he occupied creaked comfortably under him, making music along with the frogs and the other night creatures who were entertaining him. A sea breeze warmed his cheek and he looked out into the soft darkness of a summer night.

Stephen was a problem. Didn't know when to keep his mouth shut, didn't know when to stop pushing. How much longer Marc could continue to manage things..... well, he still had a few aces up his sleeve with regard to Stephen. And now might be the time to set the chain of events in motion that would appraise Stephen of one particular ace.

He'd gone along with the Council's obsession with attempting to control the Refuge. He'd been away when they'd attacked the Listeners. As far as Richard and Lily, and the plot against their children, he'd only learned about that after the fact. It was at that point he decided to become more active in Council matters, having pretty much ignored them for some centuries. Obviously, a mistake on his part.

So, how to repair the damage and still keep events from interfering with his own plans.  He might have to try a more direct method to slow Stephen down; and attempting to control an entire species was a bit complicated, as he'd learned to his sorrow.  So, armed with that knowledge, if he wanted future events to unfold in their proper order, then... Then...  Well, he'd see. First he needed to learn more about Stephen and the Listeners. First hand, rather than through the filters of the council members.

Marc smiled down into his drink. If only Stephen realized just how close his desires were to Marc's. But Marc could not let Stephen find that out. At least not for a very long time yet.