“They haven’t been here yet,” I signed, noticing everything was still in place.
“Quick take a look around,” Oliver instructed. “If you find anything just take it first. I don’t know when they will be here, but it could be anytime soon.”
I started searching in the living room while Oliver went upstairs to the other rooms. I saw lots of photos of Dr Liverfield with her men and some of the others, possibly parents and, to be honest, I wished there was one with my parents, but, then again, I doubt I would have been able to recognize them even if there was.
It was the first time I had seriously thought about my parents and wondered what they had been like when they decided to have me. Was I more like one of them? What would they think of me all grown up? Would they be proud of me? I hope so. I wished I knew more about them.
Oliver rushed back into the living room. “Look at this!”
He threw some papers on the table and, as I looked at them, I realized that one of them was some kind of document detailing the plans of the process. The title of the document was “The Process: Five-Year Plan.”
“This document talks about an army M,” Oliver signed excitedly flipping a few pages.
I scanned it, saw what Oliver was talking about and knew this was what we had been looking for. We now had the evidence we needed to expose Dr Liverfield.
“Did you see the part about her creating a new city controlled by her army?” I highlighted.
“Oh wow!” Oliver gestured. “I didn’t read that far into the document. A new city would be like her own kingdom which she could rule.”
“She knows she cannot take over Vinder without a major fight,” I signed. “So, her own city would be a better option. She could already be creating this city somewhere outside of the control of the Council.”
“It is time we get out of here,” Oliver indicated. “We got what we came for. This evidence will help send Dr Liverfield to prison for a long time.”
I was excited that we had finally found something against her.
As we were about to leave the building we heard vehicles approaching, I stopped and looked at Oliver.
Oliver peeked out of one of the windows. “It is Dr Liverfield and her men!”
“We need to hide now,” I highlighted looking around the living room.
“Upstairs,” Oliver pointed.
I raced upstairs, Oliver followed me as we heard doors slamming outside and footsteps approaching the front door.
We shuffled into one of the rooms, kept its door slightly ajar to see what was going on, as the front door opened and Dr Liverfield walked in flanked by two armed men and, except for a shoulder sling, she seemed like she hadn’t taken a bullet or suffered much since our last encounter. It appeared like luck was on her side again.
“Have the all workers and parents been moved to the new location?” Dr Liverfield asked.
The first man turned to face her. “Yes, there is no one left here. Everyone was cleared yesterday.”
“What about the underground facilities?” Dr Liverfield questioned.
“We shut down the train platform while the lift access from the barn has been destroyed,” the first man motioned. “No one can get down there ever again.”
“Good. Give me a few minutes to get some of my stuff,” Dr Liverfield stated as she started to go upstairs.
We quickly backed further into the room and hid inside the closet, which was the only place that could fit the both of us. By now I was breathing heavily and Oliver was standing like a statue. One day I needed to ask him how he was able to do that.
Dr Liverfield’s footsteps approached the room we were in, stopped for a few seconds and then went past us into the only other room on this floor and I heard a door being slammed shut.
“We need to get out of here now,” Oliver motioned with a sense of urgency.
I didn’t understand what was going on, but nodded.
Oliver stepped out of the closet, walked over to the window, opened it and waved for me to follow him. He stepped outside of the window onto the ledge and I followed quickly, but realized we were standing on part of the building’s roof and there was nowhere to go.
“Someone has been here,” Dr Liverfield screamed. “Search this building now!”
“Jump,” Oliver gestured and leaped off the ledge onto the grass hedge below.
I guess there was no turning back as I followed Oliver and managed to land on my feet without breaking anything and that, itself, was a miracle.
“Hurry M,” Oliver pointed to the fields and started running.
We both raced into the fields and down one row of the fruits until we were well-hidden from anyone’s line of sight.
I was breathing hard and noticed Oliver wasn’t any better than me even though he was a guy and it made me smile.
I turned around and there were at least a dozen armed men swarming all around the building and some had even crawled onto the roof ledge we had just been standing on. However, they all looked lost as if they didn’t know who or what they were searching for.
I turned to Oliver. “How did you know?”
“The room Dr Liverfield went into was the same one where I found these documents,” Oliver signed. “She must have gone there to get the documents.”
“She will then know we got her evidence,” I gestured.
Oliver grinned. “It is about time we got the upper hand. Let’s get out of here before her men start searching the entire farm.”
THIRTY
Back in his friend’s place I watched Oliver doing some research. He seemed so engrossed in his work. The journey back from the farm had been tiring since we weren’t sure how far Dr Liverfield’s men would go to search for us. We had to walk a couple of miles until we felt we were safely several bus stops away from the secret farm before we boarded a bus in the opposite direction.
“What are you doing?” I signed.
“I am trying to find a way to get this evidence to Susie,” Oliver highlighted.
“Okay, but this document alone isn’t enough because people could say we faked it,” I motioned.
“I know, but it is a big piece of evidence,” Oliver signalled.
I nodded. “This document and me talking would be more than enough to prove everything to the world.”
Oliver stopped what he was doing and glanced at me. “Are you sure you are ready for it? I mean talking would attract so much attention to you. Your life as you know it would be gone, M. There would no longer be any privacy for you and the media would hound you every day. You would need to disappear for a long time from everyone, at least, until they forget about you.”
I knew Oliver was thinking ahead for me and I hadn’t really thought about what would my life be at the end of this saga, but all I could see in front of me was stopping Dr Liverfield and her evil plans. Too many people had died because of her and it was time someone stopped her.
“There isn’t any other way to prove Dr Liverfield’s intentions,” I motioned. “The people need to see me talk. If not, it will always be my word against hers and, seriously, I am a nobody compared to the head of the Council. Who are they going to believe?”
“I agree with you,” Oliver indicated.
I continued. “Anyway, even right now I cannot show my face anywhere. I have to be in disguise no matter what. So, it is best to show the world what I can do. At least, the truth will then be out there for the people to decide.”
“Well I can’t send the file over,” Oliver signed. “We will need to take this document to Vinder.”
“We should leave for Vinder in the morning,” I signed. “Today isn’t safe because they could be looking for us at the train station.”
Then I received a message and I was stunned to see it was from Josh and I didn’t know how he got my number.
“What is it?” Oliver motioned.
I showed him my phone. The message “Marinette, I think you will want to see this.”
“How did he get yo
ur number?” Oliver gestured. “And how does he know you are in Thomson?”
“Oh my gosh! NOOOOOO!” I indicated, dropping the phone on the kitchen table.
Oliver grabbed my phone. “It cannot be. Is that who I think it is?”
Josh had sent a photo of Felix standing next to him and it looked like they were beside some train tracks. Felix looked healthy although it seemed like he was being forced to pose for the photo.
“It could be a fake M,” Oliver highlighted. “I wouldn’t trust Josh at all. I still don’t know how he knew you were here. They must have identified us somehow.”
My phone lit up again, I saw another message from Josh, which said “In case you think the photo isn’t real here is a link” followed by a link to a video.
“He sent a video,” I signed showing the link to Oliver.
Bracing for its content I pressed the link.
The video played, Felix signed something, which I couldn’t understand, and Josh shook his hands and then I passed the phone to Oliver to take a look. The handshake was obviously forced because I could see Felix’s eyes in the video and they were anything, but happy to be doing what he was asked to do.
As Oliver kept replaying the video I was still going through the rollercoaster of emotions from seeing Felix alive after all this time. I was both happy and angry; happy Felix had survived the gunshot and was alive, but angry Josh and the Magistrate were using him as bait to get to me. The extent to which Josh would go to get me was unbelievable and it made me more angry with him, but I needed to try and stay in control of my emotions.
“I need to reply to him,” I signed.
Oliver nodded reluctantly.
I wrote a message to Josh. “What do you want?”
“I want to meet you to talk about what’s happening,” Josh messaged back. “You can choose the place and time.”
“You know this is a trap, right?” Oliver gestured. “By now he should know you can make sounds. So, the moment he sees you he won’t hesitate to kill you. He won’t care what you have to say or even about Felix. We don’t even know if Felix is still alive or when this video was made. This video could have been created days ago M.”
Oliver didn’t have to convince me of the evil behind Josh whose only goal left would be to destroy me since I was the only one who could make sounds. In recent days the thought had crossed my mind more often that there could be others like me out there. And, if there were, who would help and protect them?
“That’s why I have a plan,” I signed and explained to Oliver what I wanted to do.
THIRTY-ONE
Choosing a public place to meet Josh and most likely his men was an easy decision for me as I stood at the corner of Thomson’s main mall inside the same Compound building Susie and I had visited what seemed like years ago.
“Do you think this is going to work?” Oliver indicated still having some doubts. “What is there to stop him from shooting you the moment he sees you?”
“Look at the crowds here,” I pointed out as Oliver looked around.
One of the reasons I had picked this location was because I had seen flyers of some kind of shopping festival happening outside the main mall and I knew it would bring the crowds. Thomson, despite being very dull, always came alive with these shopping festivals, which lasted about a week. Although I hadn’t gone to any of them, I had heard my classmates gossip about them and the large crowds that visited them.
I guessed Oliver had never seen me in this mode before and it probably made him nervous.
“Have a little faith in me,” I smiled. “Remember how Susie and I got you out of Dr Liverfield’s clutches. This will work too. I am not the stupid little girl from Mrs Wills’ classroom.”
Oliver grinned. “I can see that. This is definitely the new you.”
“Do you like the new me?” I teased him as I put on a new green jacket we had picked up earlier. The jacket was a new addition to my disguise.
“Hmmmm ... “ Oliver began before I punched his shoulder.
The area outside of the main mall was busier than usual as expected all thanks to the shopping festival which was in full swing now and I knew it was a good place to meet Josh.
“I see Josh,” Oliver pointed.
I glanced as Josh approached the center of the area with one of his men and they both wore normal clothes so as not to attract attention. Both Josh and the man tried their best to stay in a single spot as people continued to jostle about them trying to buy things from the shopping festival booths, which had been setup.
“Do you think he has men around the area with their guns?” I signed.
I nodded. “There should be many of them. I tried looking around, but couldn’t see any and it would be difficult for them to keep me in their eyesight because of the moving crowds. Even Josh is getting irritated by the crowds.”
“Okay, it is time to do this,” I motioned. “And don’t worry I will be careful.”
“I will be watching from here,” Oliver indicated.
Ever since I had revealed a bit of my ability to Oliver and Susie I knew Oliver had become less worried about me being able to handle myself.
I walked out of the Compound building and towards Josh who was standing around watching the sea of people visiting the different sellers. Josh didn’t recognise me at all until I was close enough to him.
“Where is Felix?” I motioned.
“How nice to see you again Marinette,” Josh signed. “I have heard you’ve been keeping yourself very busy in many places. The Magistrate should’ve listened to me about you resourcefulness.”
I wasn’t interested in playing his mind games. “Stop with the nonsense. I don’t think you have Felix at all. I am leaving.”
“Wait a minute,” Josh signalled.
Josh waved to his man who took out a phone and passed it to me.
“Play it,” Josh indicated. “All the proof you want is there.”
I clicked on the video and saw Felix sitting tied to a chair with an armed guy standing behind him and Felix appeared to be fine with there being no signs he had been mistreated by them.
I threw the phone back to the man in disgust who managed to catch it just in time.
“This video could be old and Felix may already be dead,” I gestured calmly. “This doesn’t prove anything.”
“Well you are going to have trust my word on Felix,” Josh signalled. “You have no other choice if you want to see him alive again. Are you going to risk his life?”
“I have no reason to trust you,” I signed. “Are you here to kill me?”
“I am not so stupid to even think of that here,” Josh motioned waving his hands at the crowds. “I must admit you did pick a good location to meet. Who knew a shopping festival could bring in so many crowds in the middle of the week. You are getting smarter by the day.”
“Well before you or your men around here think of trying to kill me, I have something for you too,” I gestured.
Josh looked puzzled and took a step back because I suspected he was still nervous of what I could possibly do to him and his men.
I then pulled out a phone, which Oliver had recently purchased, and threw it at Josh who nearly fumbled while catching it.
“Since you have a video here is my one,” I signed. “Why don’t you play my video? My one is much more interesting.”
The look of surprise on Josh’s face was priceless as he opened the phone, played the video and then angrily shut the phone.
“Did you like it?” I gestured sarcastically. “Those vials in the video aren’t fake by the way and they contain my blood and if anything happens to me here my friend will send them out to different towns and many more people like me will get it and be able to speak.”
“You piece of ...,” Josh started in frustration. “You don’t know what you are doing. You are playing a dangerous game.”
I ignored his pathetic threat. “I don’t think you want my blood and DNA being shared with so many others, right?
Keep the useless phone as a reminder of what is at stake.”
“You think you are so smart,” Josh gestured. “By one wave of my hand I could kill you in a heartbeat.”
“Go ahead and let’s see how many more people rise up to make sounds and speak,” I challenged him. “Once it spreads you will never be able to stop it. Humankind will have its voice back and the world will be a better place for everyone except for you. Are you willing to risk that?”
Emerging Above the Silence Page 13