“What do you mean, ‘losses’?” Val asks, a skeptical tone entering her voice.
“I’m not privy to the details yet,” she answers uneasily, “I only know what my assignment is. Here is the official request.”
Again, silence fills the hallway and I hold my breath. Losses? Readjusting amounts? This makes no sense whatsoever.
“I’m sorry...but these amounts are far below what is needed to feed our territory. This won’t even—”
“I’m aware, but this is how it’s always been. For years we’ve been lucky to have an abundance, but we couldn’t expect it to last forever.”
“Lori, we haven’t seen numbers this low...ever. This is going to cause a complete—”
“Val, there’s nothing I can do,” she says softly. “Tomorrow morning, you need to hit these sites and readjust the distribution. I have been given assurances that Tier 1 is doing everything they can to minimize the impact that this will have on our population. Personally, I can only imagine that this will be short-lived.”
I grip my glass, carefully removing it from the wooden surface and pressing it against my chest so I won’t accidentally drop it. My heart pounds in horror as my wide eyes meet Eric’s.
“Tomorrow, Eric,” I mouth. “Tomorrow Berg is going to get their revolution.”
“Not if we get to them first,” he mouths back.
Hearing the door shut, our bodies tense until we hear Val’s voice.
“It’s secure,” she says, and immediately Tal and Bentley pop up from behind the bed.
“What happened?” Tal asks, but my brain doesn’t even register the question.
“The meeting isn’t for another day and a half,” I say. “That’s too long.”
“Move it to tonight,” Eric says intensely, gripping the handle of the door and flinging it wide.
“Val, we need to go to the lab now.”
“But it’s still during normal hours—”
“Doesn’t matter at this point,” Eric says.
Jessica, emergency. You probably already know. Meeting needs to happen tonight. Coming to Tier 1 as soon as we can to check lab results. Get us in.
I am not only asking her to call a meeting with just a few hours notice, but forcing her to get us through the Tier 1 borders unnoticed. With zero prep. If she didn’t already regret her decision to work with me, she must be regretting it now. I slip on my shoes to follow Eric.
“You aren’t coming, Kate,” Eric says.
“What? But I—”
“I agree with Eric,” Val interjects. “You need to find Kip. And fast, before this information goes public.”
“It probably already has,” Eric mutters.
“I’ve seen the resource numbers,” I say. “There is absolutely no way that they are experiencing a shortage. Ridiculous,” I reiterate, fuming.
Val’s mouth is drawn into a tight line. “I don’t know what they’ll do to me if I don’t order those redistributions in the morning.”
“You won’t have to,” Eric asserts. “Just get that blast ready to go. And get me to the lab. Now.”
Val nods, and follows him out the door.
“Mom?” Bentley’s voice, small and unsure, calls from the hall.
“You boys need to stay here,” I say. “Do not leave under any circumstances. Eat, sleep, and don’t bring any attention to yourselves.”
“What is happening?” Tal asks, worry written on his face.
“Our plans are being moved up by a couple of days. The bad news...is that we don’t have every detail of our plan mapped out. The good news is that it’s all going to be over sooner rather than later. Either way, we’ll be able to go home knowing we did our best.” I move toward the door, but Tal’s voice again causes me to pause.
“Mom, how do you know they’re going to just let you walk out of there?”
This thought hits me like a ton of bricks. Right. We no longer have time to run through those logistics. But my initial panic at this thought is replaced by a gentle calm.
“You weren’t ever planning to walk out, were you?” Tal says softly.
Tears sting the corners of my eyes. “It’s kind of all or nothing,” I answer. Though Eric and I didn’t ever talk about this, I think we both knew that deep down, this was either going to be a success, or it was going to be an utter failure. I guess I just didn’t let myself consider the consequences of the latter.
Tal nods, and Bentley squares his shoulders. “If we don’t hear from you, when should we start the journey home?” Tal asks.
“Tal, you two can’t—”
“Mom, if you and Dad don’t come back, we are all those kids have left,” Bentley asserts.
“Tal, it’s not even possible for you to make that trip on your own right now. We are going to do everything we can to make it back,” I assure them, my voice hard, “but if we aren’t back and you haven’t heard from us by tomorrow at five, make plans with Val to get back to the children. Our home likely won’t even be safe anymore—” I begin, my voice catching.
“They’re smart, Mom,” Bentley interjects. “They’ll find a safe place, and we’ll figure out where they are.”
Is there any chance that Nick removed records of where we ended up? I hope against all reason that this could be a possibility. If Berg doesn’t know our exact location, that will at least slow them down.
“I love you both,” I say, rushing to them and wrapping my arms around their shoulders.
“Please come back,” Bentley whispers.
Taking one last look, I attempt to memorize their desperate expressions. Then I turn and walk out the door.
Chapter 123
The light is barely beginning to fade as I send another message on my sensor. There are only fifteen minutes before Jessica is going to be here to collect me, and so far, no Eric. If he even sent a message letting me know what to expect, this wouldn’t feel so stressful. A million possibilities flicker through my mind. None of them good.
Hunkering down behind the trunk of the tree, I wait. There’s nothing left to do. Kip has been made aware of the situation, and I can only hope that he is getting the word out to his group before they hit the resource centers in the morning. The timing of all of this is so incredibly tight...one wrench in the works and we are done. Rationally thinking about our plan, I am beginning to seriously doubt our sanity.
Ding. A message from Val hits my sensor.
>Go without me.
Eric? I’m not going to go without you.
>Trust me, Kate. Go without me.
But I’ll have nothing to present!
>You’ll figure something out.
I’ll figure something out!? Flying by the seat of my pants is not my strong suit, and Eric knows it. If he is putting me in this situation, it must be out of necessity. Before I can panic, a Tier 1 car pulls up along the road and a woman with shoulder-length, auburn hair hurriedly waves me over. Please be Jessica, I think, as I walk toward the vehicle.
“Get in,” she instructs. When I’m situated and strapped in, the car resumes its journey and she breathes a sigh of relief, relaxing into her seat.
“I’m Jessica,” she says in a high-pitched, breathy voice. Not what I expected from our previous digital interactions.
“It’s great to finally meet you,” I say warmly.
“Agreed. No time for pleasantries, unfortunately. We need to discuss this meeting now. We’ll be there in about fifteen minutes.”
“Where is it being held?” I ask.
“The community center auditorium.”
My heart stops. I don’t know why I expected something different, but presenting in the same room that Nick—I close my eyes and take a deep breath.
“I know,” Jessica says softly. “That room brings up intense feelings for me, too.” She pauses, waiting for me to re-engage. “I wish I could give you great news, Kate, but I can’t. We haven’t been able to retrieve specific information from Nick’s car—besides the fact that a directive exists, w
e don’t have anything. And that’s hardly enough to accuse Berg of foul play.”
I nod. I hadn’t expected anything where that was concerned. The car must be registered because we don’t even have to stop at the border. I don’t take for granted the ease of that crossing, considering all of the effort we had to put in to get across with Val into Tier 2. And we got lucky at that.
Around me, homes and buildings begin to appear, and my gaze is drawn to the left. Just a few streets over is Washington Park. Emotions swell within me. Being here and physically seeing this place again is harder than I thought it would be. I miss it and hate it all at once.
“And with having to move the meeting up,” Jessica says, pulling me back to reality, “I really have no idea how many Committee members are going to be able to make it in person, but I have prepared the room for people to join us remotely. Again, I just don’t know if anyone in other regions will be available. I know that many of them were highly interested in the subject matter, though, so hopefully they’ll make an effort.”
Discreetly, I flick a few tears from the corners of my eyes. “What did you tell them?”
A sly smile crosses her face as she pretends not to notice my emotional state. “That we had internal info about revolutionary groups in Tier 2.”
I laugh. “There’s no way our Director will be able to resist that bait.”
“That’s the goal,” Jessica chuckles.
“Do you think they’re onto us? Or you?” I ask.
“Oh they definitely don’t trust me—or the other Committee members I’ve been working with, for that matter—but I don’t think they have any reason to suspect what I’ve been up to.”
I nod. “I’m dying to know whether they’ve instituted new policies regarding reversal,” I admit.
“Oh they’ve ‘instituted new policies’ alright. That’s actually why I’m positive that they’re not onto me. I would have been dealt with already.”
“What do you mean?” I ask, my eyebrows furrowed.
“They’ve become even more aggressive with their treatments,” Jessica explains. “Anyone who is deemed a threat—they find some reason to pull them in. And they aren’t trying to be secretive about it, either. It’s nearly impossible to expect the population to act any differently, given that kind of threat.”
“That makes a lot more sense,” I admit. “When you mentioned the apathy of Tier 1, I was shocked. I couldn’t believe that they were more concerned with potential placement than doing what’s right.”
“I don’t think anyone really knows what’s right anymore,” she sighs. “I mean, everyone recognizes that something is very wrong, but it’s not like we have any ideas on what to do about it. Right now, everyone is just trying to lay low.”
I can’t help but put myself in their situation. Would I be able to come up with anything different when my life, family, service assignment, and standing were at stake? For so long, the history that I’ve written for myself was that our actions in Tier 1 were selfish, but seeing what it’s turned into...maybe we were the only ones willing to stand up. Though I’m not convinced that we were acting on anything other than base instinct, that realization builds my confidence.
“Kate, Shari has Beth and Leah. I was hoping that I could find some reason to have them with me, so you could see them, but—”
“No, I totally understand,” I answer quickly, ready for this information. Since Jessica hadn’t said anything previously, I figured it wasn’t good news. “I’m amazed that you even thought about that, given everything else that’s going on.”
“Of course I did. It’s been on my mind since we first made contact. I can’t imagine being ripped away from my children…” she trails off, unsure how to finish the thought.
“It was unbearable,” I admit softly. Clearing my throat, I move on, “Will Shari be there tonight?”
Jessica nods, watching my face for a reaction. I have none to give. Somehow, knowing she will be there actually fires my resolve instead of weakening it.
“Can I ask why Eric isn’t here?” Jessica says.
“You can definitely ask, but I don’t have an answer for you.”
“We’ll be pulling up in three minutes,” Jessica states nervously. “What’s our play?”
“Stall,” I say. “We’re going to stall.”
Chapter 124
I hide in plain sight in the hall beside the entrance to the auditorium. Thankfully, many of the people who could potentially recognize me are already seated in the room, per Jessica’s stealth observations. Facing the back wall, I pretend to be working on my sensor. Eventually, the traffic into the room begins to slow, and I find myself blissfully alone.
Taking a deep breath, my shoulders relax for the first time in over twenty minutes. Jessica and I both realized earlier that it would be an unmitigated disaster for me to walk in—or be recognized—prematurely. The unfortunate consequence of this plan is that I have no idea what I’m walking into.
“Kate?”
My eyes fling open and dart toward the voice. My breath catches as I recognize the man in front of me. Though he looks at me expectantly, I can’t bring myself to speak.
“Kate, is that you?” he asks again softly, moving toward me cautiously.
“Sam,” I finally acknowledge. “Yes, sorry, it’s me.”
Sam smiles, leaning against the wall next to me. Continuing to keep my back to the hall, I look down. “I’m not really supposed to be here,” I admit. “I’m going to keep my face hidden if that’s alright with you,” I laugh, my body tense. While I don’t think Sam would turn me in, I don’t necessarily want to stake my life on it.
“Nick told me about what happened,” he breathes. “I’m so sorry, Kate—”
“You’re sorry?” I interject, tears beginning to pool in the corners of my eyes. “How can you be sorry, Sam? I’m the one who ruined Nick’s life, who left him alone, and then wasn’t here for him when—”
“Kate,” he says gently, gripping my arm. “No, stop. That’s not true, and I know for a fact that Nick would vehemently disagree with you if he were here. You didn’t ruin anything,” he assures me, his hand dropping to his side. “Nick’s choices were his own. And he was grateful for you.”
Tears stream silently down my cheeks. “I’m so sorry he’s gone,” I whisper. Sam reaches around my shoulders, pulling me close while still preventing my face from being seen.
“Me, too,” he breathes. He holds me for a few moments and then steps back, allowing me to collect myself.
“What are you doing here?” I ask, suddenly realizing how odd it is to see him in this building.
“You know. When your son is killed in an accident that shouldn’t have happened, you tend to tune in.”
“You’re attending the meeting?”
“I’m attending all the meetings.”
“Berg allows you to do that?” I ask, incredulous.
“They haven’t stopped me yet,” he says. Before I can ask how he has access to meeting information, or how he relocated to this area, or the other fifty questions that are running through my head, Sam steps away from me and enters the auditorium.
Jessica should be starting the meeting any minute, and I carefully follow him—inching toward the door and waiting for my cue. As her voice wafts into the hall, my heart drops and my hands go numb. Hold it together, Kate, I chastise myself. You only have to keep things interesting until Eric gets here. But what if he doesn’t get here? It’s Eric. He’ll get here.
Just as I finish arguing with myself, I hear it.
“First, let me present our two different sources—”
Jessica’s sentence is cut short as I enter the room. She does a bang-up job of looking shocked as I stride toward the center of the room, directly toward her. Currently, we don’t believe Berg has anything to link her to me. We want to keep it that way.
I force myself to stride calmly to the center of the small stage. “I’m sorry to interrupt, but I’ve come a long w
ay to be here,” I start. “Would you mind if I took a few moments?”
Jessica glances from me to the other attendees. I still haven’t had the guts to scan the room, but as she moves to the side, I can’t avoid facing the seats any longer. The room is approximately half full—faces scattered throughout the seats—but then my attention is drawn to the display set up above the center seats. More faces than I can count appear in small boxes across the projection. Looks like Committee members did, in fact, make time for this.
“My name is Kate—”
“How dare you!” a voice erupts from the crowd, and my head snaps toward the disturbance. The Director is standing in front of his seat, pointing his finger in my direction, and shaking with rage.
“Who are you working with here?” he asks, fuming, whipping his head from side to side. Other regional Committee members glance at each other in confusion, but the people I initially recognized haven’t finished staring yet, their eyes still wide with shock. Shari sits just to the left of the Director, and her jaw hangs slack. I am taken aback at her appearance. She looks...awful. Has it only been two years? It looks as though she has aged at least ten.
“I’m not working with anyone,” I say, pulling my gaze from her and facing him directly. “Well, not anyone alive, that is,” I add, my eyes burning with intensity. Shari puts a hand on the Director’s arm, and this seems to at least make him pause before saying something he might regret. This isn’t going to be as hard as I thought.
Seeing them here makes my blood boil, and my concerns about having the emotional fuel to go through with this disappear. If anything, I’ll need to be careful about dialing it back. Before our Committee can do anything else to interrupt, I continue.
“Many of you may remember my pair, Nick, presenting information on reversal a few years ago. I’m not sure if you knew then, but Nick saved my family. I had been treated—against my wishes—and Nick, after seeing many signs of deterioration in our local leadership, took action to put my family back together while pushing for societal change. Through his own personal sacrifice, I might add. I have been living with my pair, Eric, and my children outside of the Tier system for the last two years.”
Tier Trilogy: Books 1-3 Page 63