When Janice was seven, her teacher asked her what she wanted to be when she grew up. This was a normal question, one that every child is asked from time to time. Janice could still remember her response.
"I want to be the leader of the world," she'd said. "I want to work to right injustices and inequities throughout the world and make it a better place."
Her teacher was impressed that she knew words like "injustices" and "inequities" but did not pursue it, thinking that this was just another manifestation of the intelligence she'd come to expect in her very private student. Janice realized much later that she was just regurgitating the doctrine she'd been taught since she was very small. She'd had that desire burned into her - to fix the world through an appropriate use of power and the careful manipulation of information. This game was taught to her early and she witnessed it being played by the two most masterful people on earth: her mother and her father. The difference between the two is that while she felt genuine love and concern from her mother, her father was always cold and hard, calculating and distant. It was difficult to determine who was really behind the power moves that were being made as she grew up and was aware of the things that were going on. Her mother had the ability to affect things at a whim, but her father was the one who carried them out and fed her mother the information she needed/desired. It was clear to Janice, however, that he was filtering some of the information before it reached her mother. So the game went on.
She missed her mother.
"You know who your daughter is," Rick was saying. "You know what she represents. Because you know all of this, you know why we cannot allow her to leave. She's got to be trained - it's not too late! - and she's got to know who she is so she can be prepared to take her place in the world, just as you've taken yours. The team needs her. The world needs her."
"I cannot allow it. Father, it is imperative that you understand. I came here with the thought that they - Michael and the children - would be spared all of this. Now I find them here and incarcerated like criminals. Why haven't you given them any more information? Why didn't you tell them who you really are?"
"I thought it best that it come from you," Rick replied.
"Yes, perhaps you're right. It would mean a lot more coming from me, and I'll be able to tell them what's going on."
Still, she couldn't help but feel that she'd just been manipulated again. If the information did come from her, Michael would wonder why she hadn't told him before. But there was probably no way around that. She had to tell him everything. Which meant that she had to know everything.
"OK, father. Please brief me on what is going on here."
"How much do you want to know?"
"Everything."
"As you command."
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