Chapter 8: Shift in Perspective

“I suppose you think you’re pretty clever.”

Jacob looked up from his mac and cheese dinner. “Clever?”

Rachael sat down on the seat opposite him. The fast food restaurant was fairly empty and the few patrons were plugged into their headsets, providing them with the most privacy the campus had to offer. “Getting Conrad to put together a presentation for you, then having students do most of the talking.”

“The president was happy and the deans seemed happy.” Jacob shrugged.

“You forgot about the meeting.”

“No.” Jacob shook his head. “I wasn’t aware there was a meeting in the first place.”

“Don’t you ever check your email?”

“What do you want from me Rachael? To play politics or to save the world.”

Rachael crossed her arms. “Well if it took politics, we would be plenty safe now.”

“Next time you handle the meeting.”

“I can’t do that.” Rachael huffed. “I’m not the department head!”

“I never wanted to be a department head! I’m a researcher who teaches classes so I can get funding for my research. Now I’m supposed to come up with classes for an entire department and run a big fancy lab with equipment I have never had the pleasure of handling before.”

“I would think that would make it easier to figure out what we need to do to stop the riders.”

“Riders?” Jacob stared back blankly.

“Riders of the Apocalypse? You remember them, right?”

“If I ever forget, I’m sure you or your new boyfriend would remind me.”

“Seriously Jacob, there is a freaking castle overlooking the school.”

“I’m aware.”

“So what are you doing?”

The mac and cheese stuck to his fork in an unappetizing blob. Jacob was sure it was getting cold by now. He pushed the dish away. “What do you suggest I do?”

Rachael seemed taken aback. “Maybe use the lab to search for some document to upend the one that started this whole mess?”

Jacob laughed. “You want me to use the shiny new lab provided by the college to discredit the document that not only produced those funds, but is very likely funding raises for the administration, not to mention all the new programs the university now has to offer? Are you nuts?”

“Well, I guess since you put it that way, it does seem kinda stupid.”

“I don’t think they would just fire me, I think my body would never be found.” Jacob reached in his pocket and took out some of the cold remedy he was carrying. “I’m just starting to feel better. I don’t think death would be an improvement.” He washed down two tablets with his diet soda and leaned back. “I’m open to any suggestions that don’t involve me dying.”

“Maybe go back to the source of the original scroll?”

“Why didn’t I think of that? Oh wait, I did. Dead end.” He laughed at his dark joke. “Get it? Dead end?”

“Yeah, I got it.” Rachael said dryly. “Not funny. It really won’t be funny when we all wind up dead because you did nothing.”

“I’ve been busy.”

“Doing what?” Rachael demanded.

“Well today I picked up a new laptop, agreed to an interview with the school paper, assisted a student with a grad project and then ran a show and tell meeting I wasn’t even aware was scheduled. Speaking of which, what kind of coordinator waits until the last minute to contact the person running the meeting for an itinerary? I should fire this Conrad.”

“You can’t fire him, he was appointed by the board of directors, which you would know if you bothered to show up to work in the last two weeks.”

“Don’t get all pouty with me. I wouldn’t have needed two weeks if one of your boyfriend’s uncles hadn’t got me sick in the first place.”

“You could have caught a cold anywhere.”

Jacob lifted one eyebrow. “Seriously? I don’t know anyone who has been ill and that man doesn’t like me.”

“Famine likes you. He brought you soup.”

“Now who’s playing politics?”

Rachael slumped down, resting her head on the back of the low chair. “I can’t do this anymore.”

“Now you know how I feel.”

“You know I requested the undergrad position with you because I admired and looked up to you. You were an expert in the field of recovering and interpreting ancient manuscripts. I thought, ‘here is someone I can learn something from’.”

“How did you know about me?”

“The papers you wrote for the journal.”

“On ancient publications and manuscripts?”

Rachael nodded. “Yes, that journal.”

“I didn’t think anybody read them.”

“A lot of people read them, you idiot!” She gestured to the mostly empty restaurant. “How do you think we got where we are now?”

“In a Quick Sams?”

“Not the restaurant, the current situation. We are facing the end of the world! My life is finally starting and now, now it’s going to end before it even begins. The ship is sinking, but you won’t direct the crew. You influence people, make things happen, but when the going gets rough, you won’t even try to sand down the situation.”

“You’re mixing metaphors.”

“Are you even listening to me?”

Jacob nodded, but he was thinking about something she said. He sat, staring at the blob of congealed mac and cheese. “Maybe I’m going about it all wrong.”

“What?” Rachael sat up.

“Maybe I’m going about solving this problem the wrong way. Maybe it’s not about finding another document to refute this one. Maybe it’s about politics.”

“Ummm, I’m lost.”

“You said you respected and admired me for my writing.”

“Yeah, so?”

“I never realized anyone might look up to me, let alone respect me.”

“Respect is going a bit far.”

Jacob didn’t seem to hear her. “You and others like you respect me for academic reasons. The president respects me for bringing attention to the university. The town respects me for bringing in added income.”

“Is this going someplace?”

“If these people do have such a high opinion of me, as you indicate, then it means that what I say and do has the ability to sway them.”

“Still not following.”

“I don’t need to find a document to refute the one I have uncovered. Even if such a document exists, it doesn’t matter. What matters is how I use the document I already have.”

Rachael sat up a little straighter. “What do you intend to do?”

“Play politics.” Jacob smiled.

“You might want to go back to looking for documents.” Racheal said doubtfully.

“No, hear me out. The president played politics to get the university noticed and increase enrollment. What if I do the same?”

“How?”

“I present this document as a warning.” Jacob picked up the plastic fork and used it to punctuate his statement. “This scroll is a warning to humanity.”

“I thought one of the riders told you it wasn’t a warning.”

“Maybe not for them, but for the rest of us. After all, that was what I originally thought. I couldn't have been the only one. I highly doubt all those folks from town came out to picnic on the hills to see the ACTUAL end of the world.”

“They came out to be entertained.” Racheal pointed out. “It was a publicity stunt put on by the office of the president.”

“Exactly! And why? Because the president spun it that way. He played politics to get the advantage he wanted.” Jacob beamed.

“And?”

“I just need to do the same. I convince people that the document can be used to catapult social change.” Jacob gestured with the fork, sending a yellow lump flying across the room where it stuck to the window beneath an advertisement for bacon burgers.

“Aren’t you forgetting something?”

“Like what?”

“Oh, I don’t know, maybe the four horsemen of the apocalypse.”

“But that’s just it, there are five of them and one hasn’t shown up. Therefore this is just a trial to see if humanity is paying attention.”

Racheal shook her head. “I don’t see them going along with this. They’re pretty serious about their jobs.”

“But what if their jobs are actually to be our heroes?”

“Heroes?”

“Who doesn’t want to be a hero? Instead of starting a war on humanity, War starts a war on drugs? Labs can study Pestilence and work to cure cancer. The Conqueror can lead humanity to a new era!”

“What about Famine?”

“I don’t know, maybe he could make us hunger for knowledge?”

“What can I do to help?”

“Let’s start by arranging a meeting with the riders. Can your boyfriend do that?”

“My boyfriend has a name.” Racheal rolled her eyes. “It’s Alex.”

“Can Alex arrange a meeting?”

“I’m sure he can. He is their trusted strategy coordinator.”

“Good. Have him find a time and a place where we can all meet.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I am going to write a proposal.”