“Every guard is a person. Every person can be handled.”— Jess
Every door in the occupied territories has a guard, every guard is a person, and every person can be handled. Jess is the handler. Forged papers, borrowed uniforms, a different accent for every checkpoint. She can walk a crew through the front gate of a fortress with a smile and a clipboard.
The crew knows almost nothing true about her. Different stories for different people, all of them charming, none of them matching. On a job built on trust, the infiltrator is the one nobody can check. Jamy vouches for her. Jamy recruited everyone.
The Chronicle
I
Origin
She does not remember a peacetime. She has been told there was one. She is not sure whether to believe it.
II
The Waiting
The system failed her before she was old enough to know what a system was. She is searching for something and she cannot name it yet, but she has stopped waiting for somebody else to find it first.
III
The Answer
She is still deciding what she owes it in return. The answer, when it comes, surprises everyone. Her most of all.
She has stopped waiting for someone else to find it first.
Jess