Bloodline

Chapter 5

The Rogers had long held the Presidency office of the Tribune since General Michael Rogers cemented the Tribune's power  hundreds of years back when the people revolted against them because of the Bearer regime .

President Linda Rogers smiled as she stared at the portrait of her great ancestor . It is because of him and the regime that she was a Roger and a second generation substitute , her son was her own but her daughter will not have her own. Never mind that , Veronica is excited with the prospect of adopting triplets and she will have the very best.

Linda's father made sure she understood that celebrities and plutocrats adopt and politicians have bloodlines but triplets , this is an exception . Those children are unicorns , who sells a unicorn .

' You sent for me ?' Christian walked into his mother’s oak paneled office with an impressive library of books that can be passed off as tomes to rival those in a public library.

She couldn’t help but smile at his dapper appearance in his preppy navy blue three piece suit and spectacles .  Christian like his younger sister inherited their mother’s strawberry blonde hair , blue eyes and her refined elegance but Veronica was what her mother would describe as a  simpleton like her late husband while Christian on the other hand was born to be a leader just like her.

' Yes , ' Linda smiled and got up to greet her son , ' Yes I did . '

Christian sat down on the sofa across the room and braced himself , ' What is it?' He knows his tmother enough to know when something was wrong.

' The bearer is missing .' She replied and waited for his confused face to rearrange itself after the information dawned on him.

' Define missing because I fail to understand how trained professions fail to simply get a pregnant woman .'

' In the beginning we were treading softly so not stress the Bearer in her fragile state but now issues have become …hmmmm..complicated and can become even more complicated by the looks of things.'

' I’m confused ,' Christian leans forward , ' Are you telling me a team of intelligence are incapable of bringing in a lawyer before the other Tribune and plutocrats smuggle their people.'

' The lawyer they can get but the male she ran to for help who is of no relation to her with only one conclusion of being the father is making things harder .'

' That is not an issue mum , ' Christian arrogantly leans back into the rich brown leather sofa , ' Get David James to send one of his guys to eliminate the father and bring in the package safely . He has one of the best guns right ? So far he has never let us down. '

' This time he might ' The President coldly smiles at her son . ' The father , of all people is Marvin Grey , a.k.a T-23 . As in the T-23 , as in David’s favourite T-23 because he recruited him when he was so young and now they have a father-son relationship , T-23 . As in the best in the industry T-23 , the one we sent to assassinate the late President Lui five years ago because he is like a ghost no one sees him , stops him , fights him off and better yet believes he exists. The very T-23 we just assigned to eliminate that European oligarch funder of the rebels , the T-23..'

' Shit .'

' We have to hit him with all we have got because I don’t doubt it in my mind he won’t die trying to keep the Bearer away from us and from his street record , T-23 is not easy to kill .'

' If we hit him with all we’ve got , the Bearer might become collateral damage .'

' Then so be it , ' The President points her finger at her boy , ' don’t look at me like that . As my successor you have to know that they are some difficult decisions we have to make to maintain power . Ideal the woman and her triplets should be alive and unharmed at all cost . The four of them with their genetics will no doubt strength our lineage , more heirs for presidency but also note this , we are not the only ones after her .
' If she ends up in the hands of the others , we will appear weak and fragile and unlike the twenty-first century were people lived with putting differences aside and fighting for socio-politics we practice realpolitik and true power is when you have the one thing no one else has but everyone wants . If we are the most powerful society then this bubble of a country should have the trophy and the medals . Your sister gets the triplets and in future we will marry them off to your cousins and you get the woman . We need heirs .'

' Her name's Shannon .' Christian corrects his mother.

' I’m not entirely surprised you remember , beautiful thing she is .' The President returns to her seat at her desk , ' And I hope you will be able to call Assistant Director Gibson , I’m sure she and her agents won’t mind ending T-23.'

' Of course I do, the woman is a psychopath and the agent she uses , A-7 as her crisis control has a way of controlling crisis . I think she is horrid even for my standards and people call me a monster.'

' You are a man , ' Linda wears her specs and opens a file , ' You are born commanding respect while Gibson is the first woman to hold a title of director since the societies were built and she is an assistant. Unlike you , we cannot afford to be nice and throw crude sexist jokes , every woman who got to the top had to be a bitch to get there because you only listen when we bite and bark . You may go I have work to do and send in Tiffany on your way out , I need her.'

She said a this without facing her son and moments like these Christian couldn’t seem to decide whether he liked his mother or not . He loved her no doubt but like her ? The woman was right , she is a barking , biting bitch.