The Gender Game

by Bella Forrest

  There was an exercise room on the second floor, containing dumbbells and several large pieces of equipment, and next to it I discovered a library. Its walls were lined with tall glass bookcases, and I noticed he had an awful lot of books on guns, explosives and other weaponry, a lot more than he had about biology, which was supposed to be his primary occupation—this kind of unnerved me. Then there was a whole shelf dedicated to psychology.

  I picked a book up—one about the history of arms development in Patrus, which listed every single gun invented by Patrian natives—and sat down with it in an armchair. A few of them were familiar to me from my training with Ms. Dale. Although I was sure the weapons I'd trained with had been produced in Matrus (it would be rather hypocritical for Matrus to import goods as destructive as guns from Patrus) the design was practically identical.

  I paged through the dusty pages until Lee and Samuel returned, both panting as they moved inside. Apparently their walk had turned into a jog.

  Lee headed to his room to take a shower and get ready for the evening—something for which he only needed fifteen minutes. Then he was downstairs again, looking crisp and fresh as ever, wearing a new suit—deep burgundy in color.

  Leaving the house, we rode back down the mountain to the city, while the sky darkened overhead. On arrival at the lab—a seven-story building whose walls consisted entirely of shiny, dark-tinted glass—Lee punched a code into a number pad and the gates drew open, allowing us inside. After parking and removing our helmets, Lee took my right hand and planted it firmly around his arm before leading me through the revolving doors.

  My heels clacked against the sleek floors of the reception area. There was nobody behind the long white desk, even though a phone was ringing. Lee moved to it and, leaning over the counter, picked up the phone.

  "Hello?" he answered, frowning. "Oh, Viggo. Yes, Lee here. Nobody's behind the desk. Why were you calling? Maybe I can help. Huh. Okay, yes." Lee moved behind the desk and examined a computer. Then he read out a string of numbers. "Did that work? Okay."

  Lee hung up and looked at me. "That was Viggo Croft," he murmured, moving to my side. "The code to the back gate was changed, he was calling in for it. He'll be heading here—"

  A door creaked from some distant part of the building. Then footsteps grew louder. A door opened to our left and in stepped a tall, handsome man with a mane of dark brown hair. Wearing a trench coat and heavy boots, he looked less unkempt than in his photo, with just a little stubble darkening his thickset jaw, though he had a scar across his right cheek which I hadn't noticed in the photograph. His olive-green eyes swept over the room and landed on us. They paused on me for but a second before he gave Lee a brief nod and headed across the room to another door.

  "Viggo." Lee spoke up before he could reach it. He took my hand and led me toward the warden. "This is my new wife, Violet." My attention was drawn momentarily to Viggo’s hands as we neared; his knuckles were red and raw, like he'd punched someone or something one too many times without adequate protection.

  Viggo's eyes returned to me, his right brow raising a fraction. He nodded, his expression remaining stoic. I nodded back just as curtly.

  Then his focus resumed on Lee. "Good evening, Mr. Bertrand." He turned and left the reception.

  The room went quiet, still, in his absence. As though his presence had brought with it an aura of tension.

  "Well," Lee whispered, blowing out softly. "That was quick…"

  "Yeah," I said dryly. "He didn't seem to approve of me."

  Lee chuckled. "There aren't many people he does approve of, apparently. He's a loner. Lives in a cabin by himself up in the mountains."

  Lee fell silent, his eyes narrowing like he was straining to listen to something. Then he said, "Do you hear that?"

  I strained to listen and nodded. I could just about make out voices murmuring somewhere in our vicinity.

  "My colleagues, a few rooms away. The work day is over, but they often hang around in the evenings… Anyway, let's take a look around."

  We moved to an elevator and Lee punched the button for the seventh floor.

  "There are seven levels in total, as you can see," Lee said, trailing a finger over a map of the facility that hung against the elevator door. "The lab is huge with hundreds of rooms. It's recently been renovated and expanded," he explained. "It was less than half the size only last year."

  That would explain why everything looked so new and shiny.

  Arriving on the seventh floor, I realized why Matrus ought to be afraid. I wasn't a scientist, but the apparatus contained within these labs looked sleek and sophisticated. The building itself seemed to be almost as large as the city lab in Matrus. That was saying a lot, considering that Matrus' lab was also used for routine euthanasia of criminals. In Patrus, from what I knew, they didn't bother with all that hassle. If somebody committed a serious crime like murder, they were publicly hanged.

  "Are you aware of everything they're developing here?" I asked Lee in a whisper as we moved along the wide hallway and peered through open doorways of the labs.

  "Not everything," he said. "But a fair amount. A lot of time and resources are going toward developing the 'smart drug'. Its official name is Benuxupane," he added. "The drug has already been formulated and deemed fit for consumption. Several scientists in this lab are going to take it within the week."

  "Will you?"

  He shook his head. “No.”

  "Do you know the real reason they're developing it? What exactly do they plan to do with it?"

  "Matrus' news channels have basically got it right," Lee muttered beneath his breath. "Emotions are a hindrance to King Maxen's plans."

  Before I could ask anything more, we turned a corner and arrived outside a closed white door, next to which was a screen. Lee swiped his thumb, and the door opened.

  We emerged in another lab, the largest I had seen so far, with row after row of tables lined with microscopes, Bunsen burners, and specimen racks filling the room from wall to wall. Around the edges were glass cabinets, some containing books, others piles of folded lab coats… but as we roamed the lab, one in particular caught my eye. Lee noticed where my attention had flown, and it appeared that this was where he was leading me.

  "You've spotted it, haven't you?"

  It was hard not to spot. One of the glass cabinets was unique from the others. It didn't have shelves, and the glass looked much thicker, even reinforced. Perched in a tall, black metal tripod was a silver egg. The silver egg. I moved up to the cabinet and stared at it. I couldn't believe it was just here… visible to anyone entering this lab. Just a few feet away from me.

  I turned to Lee in confusion. "So this is definitely it?" I asked.

  He nodded. "This is the egg."

  "Can't you open this case?" There was a number pad next to it.

  He grimaced. "No. I'm not high up enough to access the code."

  I dared reach out and touch the glass. "But it's just… glass. Couldn't it be broken easily?"

  Lee reached for my hand and pulled me back. He began leading me to the other side of the lab. He didn't answer until we'd exited and returned to the corridor.

  "We ought not linger in that room," he whispered as we made our way to the elevators. "As for the glass, yes, it could be broken if enough force was applied. You're talking about explosives, though. That glass is tough as hell. It wouldn't be so simple as smash and run… and then"—we moved into the elevator and he hit the button for the ground floor—"of course, you'd have to escape Patrus… Trust me, if it was simple, I would have done it already. Remember also that we cannot get caught—neither you nor I. If one of us was, they would quickly place the blame on Matrus."

  I was mired in confusion. We had to retrieve the egg from the glass cabinet, but at the same time, nobody could suspect that it was us? What about when we suddenly went missing? Even if Lee didn't come with me, but stayed behind, what about me? I'd had these doubts before, and Lee still had not clarified them.


  "You'd better start giving me details," I said irritably, no longer able to hide my frustration. I was fed up of being led blindly along.

  "I will," he said. "Tonight, when we get home."

  The elevator reached the ground floor and we stepped out. "For now," he said, his tone raising and brightening, "I ought to take you to briefly meet my colleagues." He glanced down at me, an artificial smile on his lips, clearly indicating that I assume the same. "We got married today, remember?"

  Right.

  He led me across the reception area toward a pair of double doors. Before pushing open the door, Lee whispered, "The head scientist of this lab is in here. My boss, Richard. He's the overweight one."

  He replaced my arm through his and walked me inside.

  A group of ten men were gathered around a billiards table, all of them older than Lee—I suspected in their mid-forties—except for one, who looked about the same age, perhaps in his late twenties.

  My eyes lingered on the short, rotund man with blond hair and a thick mustache. Richard.

  "Lee!" the youngest man cheered.

  "This is your girl?" another man spoke up. "Violet, did you say her name was?"

  "Yup. My wife," Lee said through his plastic smile. He displayed my ring finger to them.

  "Good man," the younger guy said, patting Lee on the back.

  "Thanks, Simon," Lee said.

  Richard and the others weren't nearly as informal as Simon. They nodded politely and murmured, "Congratulations."

  Lee took a seat with me on a couch, accompanied by Simon and three others who abandoned the game. Richard also strolled over.

  "How many more days of leave will you be taking?" Richard asked Lee, his voice rich and throaty.

  "Oh, I'm not entirely sure, Richard," Lee replied. "As you can imagine, Violet and I have a lot to catch up on and a number of things to adjust around the house."

  "I understand. Let me know once you have a date."

  "Of course."

  Lee fell into five minutes of small talk, throughout which nobody bothered to address me. If I wasn't a guilty spy on a hazardous mission for Matrus, I would have been annoyed by that. As it was, I was relieved that the attention was kept off me and Lee tackled all the questions.

  Lee stood up. "Well, we're off to have dinner,” he concluded. “I'll catch you around."

  "Where are you going to eat?" Simon asked.

  "Uh…" Lee said, slipping a hand into his pocket. He bobbed thoughtfully on his feet.

  Before he could reply, Simon suggested, "How about The Red Boar? We were planning to go there ourselves tonight. I'm pretty starved now, in fact. You could join us."

  Lee hesitated, but apparently struggling to find a polite way to turn Simon down, replied, "Okay. Sounds like a plan."

  Other than Simon, four others accompanied us: Luke, Frederick, James and Rocco. The others remained in the billiards room, except for Richard, who headed home.

  Lee pulled back with me as the men exited. "The restaurant's not too far from here," he said beneath his breath, "about twenty minutes by car. Though it's in an area I'd hoped to avoid. Not the end of the world though, as long as you stick with me."

  On exiting the lab, we headed to the parking lot where Simon offered to drive us in his vehicle. I sat in the back, while Lee sat in the passenger's seat next to Simon. We drove out of the lab compound and passed road after road that was teeming with life. Men with their wives and children populated the sidewalks, milling in and out of shops and restaurants. These were the same streets that had been almost empty earlier in the day.

  I sensed us approaching the river that encircled the palace by the subtle change of atmosphere, the breeze seeping through the car windows becoming crisper. We reached a parking lot at the end of a long promenade, beyond which were the river's gushing currents and the tall, well-lit walls of the palace. On our side was a long line of bars and eateries. I immediately noted the lack of women and children in this area.

  "There's the place." Lee pointed it out to me. A bright red sign depicting a muscly boar hung above a large, dimly lit restaurant, outside of which was an open-air enclosure of tables. Our group managed to secure a table from a group who'd just finished eating as we arrived.

  I didn't have an appetite as we sat down and eyed the menus. I always felt tense around strangers, and particularly these men who were potential obstacles in accomplishing my mission. I told Lee to order me whatever he was having before leaning back in my seat, half in and half out of the conversation sparking up among the men around me. I'd hoped that, as uncomfortable as the meal might be, it would at least prove to be interesting; that they'd talk about their work, and the types of experiments they ran all day in that monstrous lab, but apparently work talk was reserved for work hours. Their primary topic of conversation became a major event that was due to take place soon, a cage fight between two of Patrus' most skilled professional fighters.

  I found it endlessly strange to listen to them talk about fighting as a sport, something that people watched for entertainment, when in Matrus any sort of physical combat was discouraged to the point that even a punch could have somebody reprimanded.

  Violence was taboo in my world, as much as women getting jobs was in theirs.

  "What are your hobbies?" Simon turned to me and asked as the food arrived.

  Oh, someone's deigned to ask me a question.

  Hm. Hobbies? What hobbies would be deemed acceptable here in Patrus for a woman? Cooking was the first that sprang to mind. Ironically, I actually couldn't cook to save my life. Lee was a better cook than I could ever hope to be.

  It felt like the only thing I knew how to do well was fight.

  I was glad when Lee helped me out. "Other than being a bread artisan, Violet is a painter. An excellent painter."

  I scoffed internally.

  "Wonderful," Simon replied, sipping from his glass. "Next time I come to visit Lee, I'll have to take a look."

  Yeah… Good luck getting yourself out of that one, Lee. He'd have to go hunting for some unsigned paintings to brighten up his walls, though it shouldn't come to that. I was still holding out hope that this mission would only take a matter of days (then I could see my brother again as early as next week!)—though I'd been given no reason to hope this. Nobody had mentioned a timeframe yet, neither Alastair nor Lee.

  "What are your hobbies?" I returned the question to Simon, hoping to divert the attention away from myself.

  But as Simon began to answer, I hardly heard him. Something—someone—caught my eye across the tables.

  It was my cousin, Cad. Cad, whom I had not seen in years.

  He was with two other young men I guessed were friends. The three of them were moving toward our eatery, already scanning for a seat among the outside tables. He hadn't spotted me yet, but that wouldn't last long if I didn't get the hell out of here. Being surrounded by Lee's colleagues, I didn’t have the time or ability to explain anything to Lee, of course. I immediately turned my back on Cad while lowering my hand beneath the table to grip Lee’s knee. I held it firmly, hoping to instill in him my urgency.

  "I-I'm sorry, Simon, you'll have to excuse me… Lee, where are the restrooms?"

  Lee looked confused, but nodded toward the entrance of the restaurant. "At the back, near the bar. I'll come with you."

  "It's all right," I murmured, biting down on my lower lip. "Stay here. " I feared the two of us standing at once would attract more attention our way. Cad might even think that we were a couple freeing up a table.

  There was a moment of hesitation in Lee, when I feared that he would insist on coming with me all the same. But it was just the back of the restaurant. That could hardly be considered leaving him—could it?

  I tore away from him, trying to make my retreat as undramatic as possible, even as I was forced to walk sideways so that my face remained obscured from Cad, who was nearing closer and closer with his friends.

  The restaurant was huge. It had fou
r main entrances, and I could hardly see through to the back of it as I stepped inside because of all the men moving around. I spotted the sign for the ladies' restrooms at the back, but to my dismay, they were closed for maintenance. Closed. How could they close the restrooms? The men's were open on the other side of the bar. Dammit. I was still the only woman in this place that I could see, so I supposed they'd hardly had any complaints.

  I backed into the shadows as best as I could while trying to keep a tab on Cad's movements, which was hard with all the bobbing heads. I caught a glimpse of him entering the building with his friends—obviously having failed at finding a table outside. They were making a beeline for the bar, which meant I needed to move again and fast, but I had effectively backed myself into a corner. There was only one path I could take from here to the main aisles that led to the doors, and that would mean crossing straight in front of Cad.

  If he saw me now, it could be a disaster. He would cause a scene and demand not only that I explain myself, but also that I go to see his parents. I wouldn't be able to shake him off and he wouldn't believe the lies that I'd fallen into a romance with Lee. Cad would know that it was impossible. And if any of those scientists heard him talking or discovered we were related… it would be far too much of a footprint for me to leave in Patrus.

  My palms were sweating as I kept my gaze trained on the out of service sign on the restroom door and their conversation floated in my ears above the rest of the noise in the pub. They were talking about rowing, Cad was, apparently, as keen a boater as ever.

  It was strange to hear my cousin's voice again. Strange, yet comforting. I felt a bittersweet twinge in my chest, wishing I could greet him. But I couldn't stand where I was much longer without looking seriously odd. I sensed that a waiter would be the first to ask me if I was all right.

  I twisted ever so slightly, just enough to glimpse the nearest exit. If I moved tactfully, I could slip around the back of Cad and his friends' chairs while they weren't looking. Then I could get lost in the crowd and make my way back outside. I could rejoin the dinner and tell Lee that I was feeling sick and that we needed to leave.