supposed to mean?" Halpren asked.
"Somewhere within the walls, but isolated from the rest of the building?" Margaret said.
"Precisely."
"Such as, a sealed off room in the basement?"
"Most probably."
"Can you pin her location down more exactly?"
He shook his head. "No; something is blocking me."
"Redjack no doubt. But you're sure she's alive?"
He flashed a malevolent grin. "I can hear the blood flowing through her veins; I can feel each breath she takes. She is as much alive as you are."
From "Ceres Weeps"
Eile sat with Sunny on the dais at the west end of the great hall of Differel's ancestral manor, listening to the quiet babble of a multitude of voices talking at once. The hall itself was filled with her whole staff--analysts, servants, guards, and commandos alike--sitting in the provided chairs or standing wherever there was room. They were packed in like sardines, being as everyone was present, even those normally on important duty. That technically left the estate unguarded, the Order stations unmanned, and the rest of the house unoccupied, but it couldn't be helped; this was far too important to leave to secondhand reports and wild speculation.
Differel sat in front of them. On either side of her sat her senior staff: Maggie King, formerly Miss Primary her best double, now Manager of the Order; Giles Holt, her master-of-arms and head of the household guard; Mrs. Widget, her housekeeper; Madam Trumbo, her chef; Sharona Turing, her chief analyst and logician; and Dr. Carmichael, her chief surgeon; only Aelfraed, her butler and Chief of Staff, was missing. Dracula, meanwhile, stood off to one side, close by but otherwise unobtrusive.
Differel turned to glance at them over her shoulder; Eile smiled with Sunny and nodded at her. She was probably looking for moral support. This was probably the most difficult task she would ever do, and she had discussed with them whether to have this meeting for several days, as she worked through the conflicts within her conscience. But from the beginning they had been adamant: yes, do it; her people deserved to know the truth, and she owed it to them to tell them herself.
Differel faced front as Eile spotted Aelfraed making his way through the crowd. When he reached the dais, he mounted it and came up to her side. Bending over her he said in a low voice, "Everyone is in attendance, My Lady."
She nodded. "Then I suppose I should get started."
He smiled and patted her shoulder, an overly familiar gesture for him, but she seemed to welcome the comfort of his support. He then sat down in the empty chair on her right.
She took a deep breath and stood up. All eyes turned on her and the babble stilled as she stepped to the edge of the dais, but she stopped well away from the drop-off. Eile knew that every time she held one of these meetings she had an irrational fear of stepping off the dais and collapsing in front of her people.
She cleared her throat as the last of various conversations ended.
"Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for attending. I will not mince words: we are witnessing the start of what will become a global catastrophe."
The babble broke out again as her news stunned them. She let it go for a few moments before she started speaking again.
"People, please, we don't have much time. I assure you all your questions will be answered and your concerns addressed, but I ask you to give me your undivided attention." She waited for silence to fall over the hall a second time.
"Now, I realize that is not what Whitehall is saying, but I'm afraid the official story of a temporary blight is false. This disease, whatever it is, is not affecting just a few fields, or a few crops, nor is it limited to Britain and Western Europe. It is pandemic. Every field that has been examined has been found to be affected, and the disease is present throughout Europe, Russia, Asia, and Africa. For now, it only seems to affect grasses, but that means all cereals are vulnerable, from wheat to rice to corn to oats to barley; even unusual types such as fonio and teff, and hybrids such as triticale. For a short time there was hope it would not spread to the Americas or Australia, but just yesterday the first reports of it appearing in fields in Alberta, Kansas, and New South Wales came in. Considering how rapidly it spreads, there seems little hope that the local authorities can contain it."
"Excuse me, Director?" A lady analyst stood up.
Eile remembered her telling them she expected interruptions, so while she hoped to get all the way through her announcement before taking questions, she would prepared herself for the alternative.
"Yes, go ahead."
"Two days ago the Home Secretary told a news conference that if we burn the affected fields and wait out the winter, the blight will be destroyed and we can replant with uninfected seeds."
There was a chorus of affirmations, from most of the people assembled by the sound of it. Eile couldn't blame them. She had held out hope for a speedy recovery as well, until Mabuse had given Differel her report.
"The blight isn't in the seeds!" Differel said over the tumult. She waited for silence to return. "That pronouncement was made in preparation of the full facts getting out, as they will inevitably. It was meant to foster the false hope that even if all cereals throughout the world are killed off this season, next season will be different. No doubt there are those who hope it is true or really believe it is. I have received reports of speculators hoarding seeds in the hopes of making a killing come spring.
"But the seeds are not the problem. The blight is in the soil; Dr. Mabuse believes it is some kind of free-living fungal organism. It kills the roots, which in turn kills the plants. Once it contaminates the soil it is impossible to get rid of; there are no effective pesticides and cold, even freezing, has little effect. No cereals can ever again be grown in a contaminated field, and once our supply of seeds run out, those crops will become extinct. Whitehall knows this; whatever a government official at any level may say, they won't allow any seeds to be planted until they can find a way to kill this thing."
"Can't we just remove the soil?" a voice called out.
"You would have to remove all soil from everywhere in the world. Leaving even one contaminated patch of ground would just restart the cycle. Save for the oceans, there would be no place to put all this dirt, and we would have nothing to replace it with. Not to mention the monumental cost and effort. We also don't know how this thing is spread over long distances. If it's spread by some kind of spore, the effort just might make the situation worse, or at best fail to remove the blight altogether. It is easier and cheaper to find a way to kill the blight, or develop a cereal immune to it, but either will take time, and meanwhile we need the soil for other crops."
"What other crops?" another voice asked.
"Anything that isn't a cereal: vegetables, potatoes and other tubers, soybeans and other legumes, fruits, nuts, etc. There are also certain non-grass crops called pseudocereals that also seem immune, such as buckwheat. Given time these might substitute for traditional cereal crops."
A male guard stood up. "I'm sorry, but I don't understand. Even if all cereal crops do go extinct, it sounds like we can still grow enough food to feed ourselves. Hardly a reason to declare a catastrophe" His comment was followed by another chorus of affirmations.
"Cereals account for 50% of the caloric intake of the entire world. They are staple crops: they are grown in greater numbers and provide more food energy worldwide than any other type of crop. There are large swaths of the world where they are virtually the only food eaten. It was mass cereals farming that made it possible for large populations to develop. Even developed nations such as the UK and the States heavily depend upon cereals production. If cereals went extinct, we would be faced with famine and starvation on an incomprehensible scale. Yes, other crops can be substituted and raised commercially, but it would take time to make the switch or introduce them into regions that never raised them before. Even after that is accomplished, they don't produce as much per acre as cereals do. There would still be severe food shortages, and what food there wa
s would be more expensive. Also, grains are a major source of fodder for cattle and other food animals, and don't forget that all grasses are affected, so pasturing is out. So most will have to be killed and some varieties may go extinct. Many people are likely to die until the population drops low enough to be sustained by this new lower level of food production."
"Good; let them!" a male voice cried out, supported by a few affirmations. Eile frowned as she saw Differel tense. She figured there were bigots even in the Caerleon Order, but she assumed they would keep a low profile.
"Keep in mind that before they die, they are likely to migrate in mass hordes looking for food, and will certainly loot and pillage when they become desperate. Some governments will break down under the pressure, thereby adding to the problem; others will take extreme measures to preserve what little food there is for themselves and their supporters, even if that means the average citizen will starve or be shot. Urban centers will collapse, even in western countries, as people riot over food shortages, or flee into the countryside in hopes of finding viable farms or stockpiles. Civilization will fall apart as civil servants abandon their posts to flee with their families and government officials surrender any attempts to maintain order and control, and instead regroup to protect their interests. More people will die