The Rook Chapter 8 – The Roll Call

With Comic-Con acting as an interruption I’m happy to be getting back to my chronicle and Myfanwy. In the last segment, we journeyed back with the schoolgirl Thomas and got more of a feeling about how she dealt with her powers as she was growing up. Suffice to say, she had no friends, no one wanted to be near her, and she really didn’t really live up to the hope her teachers had for her. But now she’s a Rook and one of the most powerful agents of the Checquy…one that’s being hunted.

Inchoate Thoughts

Summing up where things are…we know someone is out to get Myfanwy. If it wasn’t for the notes her previous self left for her, the attack that erased her memories would have been a success. But because of her forewarning, Thomas was able to set things up so that Myfanwy could sorta impersonate herself and reintegrate into the Checquy. And it’s a good thing too since these supernatural secret agents don’t mess around.
We’ve seen dozens of people die, including a spy that was being interrogated but before he killed himself he blurted out something…something that caused the top officers of the Checquy to become fearful but which Myfanwy was clueless about. What could possibly scare a bunch of elite super powered government operatives?

No Toblerone

First off, I have to question the character of Gestalt since he turns down a Toblerone. Anyone one, even someone with 4 bodies, that turns down such a delicious piece of chocolate raises suspicions in my mind and at this point I’m much more likely to think Gestalt is evil than any of the other Checquy members.

But even without the chocolate, the Gestalt twins do bring some important information about the interrogation of Peter Van Syoc but the dire implications of the message were meaningless to Myfanwy because of her amnesia.

Obviously an invasion is serious but for an organization as powerful as the Checquy to be fearful of the Grafters, they must be pretty badass.

The Roll Call

Now we finally get a bigger view of the Checquy Court as they are all called for the executive meeting…it is also the first time we are introduced to some of them. Considering that Thomas believes one of the Court is out to get Myfanwy we should probably get to know these officers well.

• Lady Linda Farrier
  We’ve already met her and know she’s able to jump into people’s dreams and as we see when she’s called for the gathering, distance means nothing to her ability as she is able to contact people around the world in America. We also know she figured out about Myfanwy’s memory wipe but agreed to keep it a secret for the time being…I’m sure we’ll see how well she can be trusted to keep that secret.
• Chevalier Heretic Gubbins
  We haven’t seen Harry before but we learn he’s acrobatic and computer illiterate. Not much to go on except the cleaning staff complains about him leaving footprints on the ceiling.
• Conrad Grantchester
  This guy is the previous Rook that decorated Myfanwy’s office. He’s a womanizer and I’m pretty sure he jumped up in rank when Myfanwy took over as a Rook. He’s in such a powerful position that he has no problem dressing down a government Minister but then I’m not sure if all the members of the Cheqcuy Court have that much power.
• Joshua Eckhart
  is still a mystery even after he’s been introduced. We don’t learn about his abilities or his rank in the Checquy but we do see him torturing someone or something he refers to as “Your Highness”.
• Sir Henry Wattleman
  Henry seems a bit of a snob based on the fact that he’s found in some sort of exclusive men’s club but we’ve also heard in previous chapters that he’s a very capable assassin, sometimes killing bunches of people while wearing no clothes. He was there when Thomas was handed over to the Checquy as a child and I didn’t get the sense that he was all that friendly to children…he was there more for the prestige of bring in a child with a new and unique ability.

Thoughts on the Interrogation

After we zoom through everyone learning about the meeting (which really makes me think of a heist or a super team roll call) we get to learn a bit more about the situation with the help of Ingrid. She seems to be pretty smart and someone Myfanwy can trust…at least, I’m pretty sure she’s figured out that something is different about her boss but she’s still being discrete.

In any case, for the cost of some Toblerone, Ingrid shined a light on the big baddies that Van Syoc spoke of, namely the Grafters. Apparently these are the invaders Van Syoc was scouting for and from the explanation, they haven’t been a threat for hundreds of years but are apparently back.

Retrospective

In this eighth chapter of The Rook, we get a brief glimpse of rest of the Checquy top officers as they’re being called for a meeting. I’m sure we’ll learn more about them as we get to that meeting in upcoming chapters but for now the roll call is all we have. And the reason for the meeting sounds pretty ominous…a rival organization that was supposedly defeated by the Checquy centuries ago has risen from the ashes and is now sending operatives to scout out England for invasion. I wonder if these guys had anything to do with destroying Myfanwy’s memories.