Rook

negotiator. Regardless, when George Washington arrived home, he found himself in possession of a covert supernatural agency.
    Historians have noted that George Washington was quite the spymaster and spent a large portion of his budget on intelligence. Well, I can tell you that a sizable cut of that was spent on the activities of the Croatoan. In many ways, the Croatoan’s organization mirrored that of the Checquy. It, too, received a ridiculously oversize budget and retained a hierarchical structure, despite protestations by Martha that it was not in keeping with the new ideals of the nation to have a ruling Court. Shadrach, however, had been very firm. But unlike the Checquy, the Croatoan was denied the right to forcibly extract powered children from their families. Martha, in fact, had been all for it, but the president was adamant on that point. Instead, the Croatoan members were obliged to lure their operatives with exuberant references to duty and responsibility, which worked almost as well as force and had the advantage of not being a flagrant mockery of the Constitution.
    Finally, and crucially, it was agreed that the Croatoan, like the Checquy, would not interfere in nonsupernatural affairs. Its remit was strictly confined to the realm of the unnatural.
    As the nation grew, so too did the Croatoan. However, they did not grow proportionally. For some reason, far fewer powered children were born in the continental United States than in the United Kingdom. This would have been cause for concern had it not been for the fact that there were also far fewer supernatural threats. This is not to say that there were no problems. It was in America that the mathematically created Irregularities arose, warping the very material of time and space while secretly manipulating the silent-film industry. The Cult of the Estrangement. The Horseman of Famine. The Rattling God. All of them were dire, but in terms of sheer number, supernatural threats did not seem to be too much of a problem in the United States.
    Richard Swansea, before he died of repeated decapitation by a spurned (and increasingly bewildered) civilian lover, had noticed this trend, and a possible explanation was found in his diaries. Swansea’s close friendship with the Native Americans had allowed him to observe their rites and practices. He postulated that a series of protections had been laid in place, woven into the very fabric of the land. Even as the tribes diminished, their work endured, and the continent remained relatively free of paranormal manifestations.
    Despite the state-mandated separation of the two organizations, the Croatoan and the Checquy continued to maintain excellent relations. Formalarrangements were avoided initially, but they communicated regularly. Scarcely a decade went by without a member of one Court visiting the Court across the ocean. In 1850, a formal agreement—the Sororitas Pact—was entered into, codifying the many bonds of friendship between the two groups. Among the features of this agreement were the establishment of the List, the commitment to the extradition of transgressors, and the solemn and binding promise that neither organization would consent to be part of a war against the other’s country. The List was a catalog of threats each group regarded as most dire. Any developments that involved a threat on the List were to be shared immediately.
    There were even a few collaborative efforts. During the American Civil War, the Croatoan called in reinforcements when the gigantic mollusks, excited by the violence, rose again and stalked the land. In 1903, the Checquy appealed to their American siblings when a portal opened in Hong Kong and demons began infiltrating the community. In 1989, the two groups coordinated the suppression of the animated dead on Hawaii—a state that did not enjoy the mystic immunity of its continental brethren. The success of these campaigns served to strengthen the bonds of friendship.
    Today, the Croatoan members are our staunchest allies. They know secrets that not even our countrymen know. They are fewer than we are, yet they police a territory many times larger than ours. Personally, I have nothing but the greatest respect for them.
     
    Well, that’s all very nice,
thought Myfanwy.
But did you ever actually meet any of them? Am I going to need to acknowledge any private jokes? Do I need to be asking after their kids?
Myfanwy flipped helplessly through the binder, but nothing caught her