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Of course it would happen going back to my country’s capital.
The current public opinion of The United States isn’t…good… but Ryland Grace liked to believe that it’s the people that bring a place together. America is more than it’s administration.
Though it’s hard to argue this when upon landing in Dulles International you (a legal American citizen) and your boss (EU citizen and current leader of the Entire World) are brought directly to airport detainment.
The one time Grace insisted on normal plane travel. No MiG-31. No Grumman Prowler. A regular, under Mach 1 plane ride.
‘Normal’ became a state of the art Bombardier private jet that was “technically under Mach 1” but was smooth enough that Grace’s breakfast stayed in his stomach, which was a small win for someone that had technically been kidnapped and lost most of his agency.
What little he had left was now long gone. Standing behind grey bars in the windowless holding area Ryland was starting to feel nauseous for a completely different reason. He bent forward, head cocked to the side and let out a small groan.
“Don’t you dare do that here.” Stratt commanded from the bench. Grace looked to her with pained eyes, is she trying to save his dignity or does she not want to be stuck in here with a spattered floor? He wished he knew. He really didn’t know much about his boss besides the scary amount of power she held and her unyielding determination. Eva Stratt was driven by purpose. Her purpose was saving humanity, and the only way to do that was by staying on a very strict schedule.
And jail? Definitely a schedule disrupter.
For someone who had an appointment to speak with President and the head of the Department of Agriculture in ten minutes, Stratt did not look as stressed as a normal person would be in airport jail. One could say she even looked comfortable sitting leaned back, legs crossed with hands folded neatly on her knee.
Honestly, Stratt always looked like that. Calm, collected. A touch bored, eyebrows raised ever so slightly like she knew something more.
This look he’s specifically seen before. It’s the look she had before, during, and after all political meetings, one of her top three “worst perks of the job”.
Grace always found that a little funny. Stratt had a lot of meetings with a lot of people. Scientific meetings, which Grace always sat in with her for to translate said science, she looked thoughtful, engaged. Businessmen (because the business meetings were always with men) she was alert, less thoughtful but still sharp and attentive, usually very demanding.
But politicians were a whole different game with very different rules.
”These meetings are either for them to believe they are stroking my ego or trying to put me in my place. It does nothing to save humanity.” Stratt once said after an EU council meeting in Strasbourg, ”It is like a mock attempt at a Last Rites and confession in hopes they have played on the right side.”
That’s why Grace was surprised when she didn’t pull the “Director of the Petrova Taskforce: Humanity’s Only Hope” card. It got them through quite a few situations in the past. Instead, Stratt barely said a word to TSA or the National Guard except to confirm that she was “The Eva Stratt”, only nodded before they began to lead her, Grace, and their security team into liminal back hallways.
Ryland Grace however did not stay silent. The American in him lit back to life and he did the exact thing ancestors would have done.
”Hey, you can’t detain us! You don’t have any papers. What law are we breaking coming here? I am a legal United States citizen and I still have rights that you have to uphold!”
He pulled out every card he could think of. When hindsight hit, he would be quite ashamed of the scene he made, but that’s a future-him problem. Unfortunately for him, that future is him began behind those dull matte bars when a man in a sleek grey suit walked into the holding room to read them the laundry list of apparent crimes.
- Environmental Terrorism on a Global Scale
- Copyright Infringement and Intellectual Property Misuse
- Kidnapping of 42 American citizens
- Misappropriation of American funds under the Anti-Deficiency Act
- Illegal smuggling of goods (technology and classified information) from the United States
- Criminal trespassing
- Civil property conversion
Grace’s jaw dropped somewhere between copyright infringement and criminal trespassing. He looked back towards Stratt at some point and wished he could gape again at her impassiveness.
He turned back when the man flipped his packet of papers back to the front page with a dry slap. ”Your security team has informed me that they have contacted your legal team who will be coming within the hour. I am told only after they arrive can we transport you to MPD. Once there, you both will be processed and due to your high flight risk, will stay until arraignment.”
”Wait, wait, wait.” Grace waved both hands to get the man’s attention, “Both of us?”
The man nodded, “Yes.”
”Me?”
”Yes.”
”But, I—“ He looked back and forth between the man and Stratt before pointing back at her, “You just asked for her.”
“Depends, either we will subpoena you as a key witness or try via accomplice liability, the prosecutor will decide.”
“Accomplice?!” Grace sputtered, grabbing at the bars, “No, wait, no! I’m a scientist, not an accomplice! I haven't accomplished anything! I’m technically one of the people she kidnapped!”
“That’s why I gave you an ‘or’.” The man said, waving said papers for emphasis as he stepped back towards the door. “We will meet at MPD once your team arrives.” Suit man gave a little bow before his exit and left them alone in their cell.
The air felt stale in the sealed room, so closed off compared to being on the Vat. Grace dropped his head into the bars, reverberating a clang that echoed both inside and outside of his skull.
”Do not do that. I still need your brain.” Stratt said.
”You won’t need my brain in jail!” Grace whined, turning and flinging his arms down in a fit. “We won’t even be in the same building as each other. They separate criminals by sex in the US. Stratt, some of those are felonies, it’s going to be years before I see another microscope lens of astrophage. Even as just a witness, I can’t leave the country. They won’t let me go back to the Vat! This could take months, even years!”
”Don’t be so dramatic, Dr. Grace. They will not be putting you on trial.” She said, waving a hand like she waved off engineers for simple tasks.
”I don’t see another accomplice anywhere else in this cell.”
He had started to pace at some point, he only noticed because her eyes followed him back and forth like a predator watching her prey. A hint of emotion was flickering through her veneer, maybe shame? “Dr. Grace, sit down.”
He shook his head, rounding after the fourth and final step across the small room. “I don’t think I can sit down.”
”Sit.”
Grace sat. She turned to look at him with a pinched smile that he thought was supposed to convey compassion. “You are not going to trial. We will be leaving the United States in 3 days time. We will see the Hail Mary launch on schedule.” Stratt spoke, as always, in a way that came off like she knew the future.
”How?”
”Multiple reasons.” She shrugged, so nonchalantly. “One, because the Taskforce is still needed, if I go to jail now, then there is a zero percent chance to save the Earth instead of a ten percent chance.
”Two, because some of these crimes cannot stand by themselves with the current power I have, which they know. This is a power play by the government to remind them they are important and belittling law will not go unpunished. But they played their cards too soon and their ego’s will be squashed until at least the launch of Hail Mary. Three, I planned for this to happen.”
Grace gawked again and Stratt gave him an objecting frown. “Do close your mouth, Dr. Grace.”
”You…you,” He pointed meekly, “Planned this? Getting arrested?” Stratt gave him the same nod you’d give a toddler that brought you a shiny rock. “That it would happen on the visit today?”
”Not exactly today, but I had made a contingency for when it happens and what to do for the foreseeable days it would interrupt.”
“You even planned for them arresting me?”
Stratt shrugged, “I had a hunch. Though you being an accomplice will not stand. Your contract states that you hold no authority to anything you’ve done in the Taskforce and all your signatures are co-signed by me. Most likely they will attempt to use you as a witness since you’ve been to the majority of the meetings I have been to and have seen me sign approval to most things. But it is a very fine line. Many organization cases, the whole administration board gets tried.”
”Why in the world didn’t you tell me?”
”Because it would have given you undue stress, do you not see yourself right now?”
Grace dropped his face into his hands. “Then will you please tell me what to do now? What does your plan say to do next?”
”You will do nothing. Because you will not be going to court.”
He huffed, cocking his head to the side. “I think suit man back there disagrees.”
She sat in silence for a moment, quietly watching Grace’s breakdown before sighing. “I think I’ll have you sit in the back with Carl.”
“The back?”
”The last row of the gallery? Surely you’ve seen “To Kill a Mockingbird” as a school teacher? The public can view most court proceedings in the United States.”
“I know that, I meant—“ Grace couldn’t decide which emotion he was supposed to be landing on. Stratt still looked a little bored. ”Why?”
”Because I think you will find it entertaining.” For a moment, one split second, a mischievous smile flitted across his boss’ face.
Ryland often didn’t find himself speechless, but he’d also never known anyone close to as enigmatic and unpredictable as Eva Stratt. Instead, he let out a high pitched laugh that was definitely not as mysterious or cool. “You are…” He trailed, finding his voice again. “Okay, so it sounds like you have this in the bag. Then tell me, what’s the plan to keep me out of the trial?”
Stratt leaned in ever so slightly, like she was sharing a well kept secret. ”You have spousal immunity.”
Well kept secret it was. Grace was still smiling when he asked, “What?”
”Spousal immunity. Specifically, the spousal testimony privilege. It will work in the United States and most of the European countries though probably not in Asia. I’m sure by then they’ll give up by then on attempting to use your presence against the me.”
Grace’s brain felt gummed. “What?”
Stratt looked almost amused. “Surely you remember talking about this.”
Grace frowned. Opening his mouth but stopping before—
Don’t call me Shirley.
Trying to concentrate and remember when and where this would be discussed. Marriage for legal— wait a minute…
”I thought that was a joke.”
”You know I am not very good at jokes.”
”You aren’t, but almost everything I say is a joke!”
”Yes but it was a technically possible way to solve some of the court problems in the later years after the Hail Mary is in space.”
“You let Olesya do that for fun.”
”Partially, she said she wanted to as her suicide wish. Morale boost was secondary, I would not have thought of it without you bringing it up.”
“Those were real certificates?”
“Do you not remember the Notary making his speech?”
“I didn’t know Ian in accounting was a priest!”
“Easily gained certification in American standards.”
”Why was this the one thing you took so seriously?” Grace griped.
Stratt let out a quiet scoff. She turned away from Grace, looking past the iron bars. ”Because, it is reality, Dr. Grace. There will be many trials to come, new crimes being named each month. But this is more important than me. Anyone can lead and make decisions, but you and the scientists on the Gansu are the ones actually saving humanity. You are one of the most important, if not the most important person tied to the Petrova Taskforce and the launch of the Hail Mary.”
Grace opened his mouth to argue but Stratt cut him off with a raised hand. “Once the hope of humanity is sent to Tau Ceti, you will be tasked with making sure people can survive for the next thirty years. Astrophage will become the primary energy source as the sun dims and the ground freezes. You will make the world they can survive in.”
”You can’t be serious.” He shook his head. “I’m not… You barely let me out of your sight? How can you trust me with keeping all of humanity alive?”
Stratt turned back and gave him a look that was outright scandalous on her face. It was soft, so full of fondness that it almost made him blush under the gaze. “They trusted me with it, and I trust you.”
Ryland meant to say something back, maybe a thanks to the uh, compliment? Maybe to tell her that he trusted her more than he trusted himself. But he wasn’t quick enough, before he could muster up the courage, Stratt fell back into her stoic mask and eyed the door. Grace caught the tail end of footsteps when the door opened and what must have been the Petrova legal team filed in.
Eva Stratt, Director, stood up and met her team with hands in her pocket. “We will show hand with the Copyright claims. Call the United States Army Chief of Staff. He is the closest in vicinity and easy to identify. They will know we mean business then.” Once she finished the team set into motion, pulling documents from folios and making several calls.
Within minutes, Suit Man was back with a single piece of paper in his white knuckled hands. “Mr. Ryland Grace—“
”Doctor Ryland Grace.” Stratt interrupted.
Suit Man paused, openly trying to not lose his job. “Doctor Ryland Grace. You are free to go. No further contact is needed.”
Grace rolled his neck, dropping a look that he’d seen from his middle schoolers give to Suit, then lolling it towards Stratt, who gave him a sweet and entirely fake smile. “Come dear, l’ve booked a hotel room until the arraignment.”
It took all his might not to pitch over in a laughing fit. Instead Ryland Grace let out a bemused smile towards herm hopefully pulling off the doting husband type. He took his place, falling in step behind her and hoped one day he could live up to her expectations.