by Judd Vowell
“Ok, there was one thing, early on. Before we formed the excursion team. My group was on guard duty one night, on the southwest corner of the grid. It had been quiet that night. Most of the random attacks had all but disappeared. Anyway, I’m patrolling, watching for anything strange, when I saw a flash in the building across from us. A few stories up. I put the scope of my rifle to my eye and could barely make out the silhouette of somebody with a gun pointed at my group. I fired immediately. The others saw where I was shooting and unloaded on the area with me. When they investigated it, they found three men with sniper rifles and pipe bombs. Three dead men, that is.”
“And if you hadn’t seen that flash...,” Simone said, acting impressed.
“They would have killed my entire patrol. No doubt about it.”
That was more talk than she had gotten out of the other excursion team members combined. Simone was making progress.
She pressed. “I’d say that was pretty damn heroic, wouldn’t you, Jacob?”
Jacob nodded and said, “Pretty damn heroic is right.”
The Omega XT responded with a twinge of pride in his voice. “Just doing my job. Doing what’s required.”
“I understand,” Simone continued. “And we thank you for that. Just a couple more questions, then you can go.”
“Shoot,” he responded, loosening up.
“You can obviously spot things unusual, right? You proved that on the night with the snipers, huh?”
“No need for glasses, if that’s what you mean.”
“Yeah, that’s what I mean. Now tell me, have you seen anything unusual on any of your excursions? Anything at all?”
“Don’t take this the wrong way, miss, but everything outside of here is unusual.”
Simone laughed lightly. “I know. What I mean is...anything we should be concerned about? You and I both know something strange is going on somewhere out there. I just need to know if you’ve got any clues as to what that may be?”
He thought for a minute. He was considering not speaking anymore, but he did. “Maybe there was something. I didn’t think much about it when it happened, but it stuck with me. We were out a few weeks back, to the west. We were at the five-mile limit, loading up some food supplies from a grocery store. I was the only one on watch. I was looking down the main highway that leads out of the city. Just off the road, hiding almost, I saw this group of people. Five or six of them. I reached for my rifle and raised my scope to the spot. They were watching us through binoculars, and they took off as soon as I got a good look at them.”
“Something tells me that’s not the first time you’ve seen outsiders on an excursion,” Simone said.
“No, not the first.”
“So why did it stick with you?”
“It’s hard to say. Maybe it was the way they were dressed, all alike in military-type clothes. And they looked healthy, something we just don’t see anymore out there. And the way they moved when I spotted them. It was like they were trained. Like they were on a mission. I haven’t seen outsiders act that way since the takeover.”
Simone turned to Jacob with a look of accomplishment. They had been hunting a lead, and she had just found the first one.
She turned back to the Omega XT. “I’m gonna need to see that spot on the highway as soon as possible, soldier.”
20.
T hey left the next morning with the Sector 3 excursion team to search the area where the Omega XT’s strange sighting had occurred. They spent an hour there, but it became obvious rather quickly that whatever they were looking for was further west, further out on the highway.
“We need to see what’s down that road,” Simone said. “I’ve got a feeling there was something to that sighting.”
“I can’t say I disagree,” Jacob told her. “But this could get dangerous. What if, by some crazy chance, it is a rebel force out there. What are we supposed to do then?”
“Observe,” she replied. “And that’s it. I’m not going to screw this up, Jacob. Trust me.”
“You’ve got three miles, Simone. And then we come back and re-double our efforts on the electronic side of this. Got it?”
“Yeah, sure.” Then she turned to the excursion team. “Listen up, guys. Here’s what we’re doing...”
As he listened to her bark instructions, Jacob hoped that three miles would give her what she wanted. But it didn’t.
◊◊◊
She and Jacob took one vehicle with a driver and gunner from the excursion team and sent the rest back to the grid. The plan was to stay on the highway and look for anything suspicious as they rode in the back of the jeep. They would stay underneath the gunner and his machine gun, from where they could hopefully see anything that might be noteworthy. But by the eighth mile, they had seen nothing.
“We’re going back, Simone. That was the deal,” Jacob stated as emphatically as he could, yelling over the wind noise from the moving jeep.
“Listen, Jacob, there’s something out here. I can feel it. Let’s go a little further,” she yelled back.
Jacob leaned into the jeep’s open cab and instructed the Omega XT driving to stop. He didn’t truly know who outranked who between Simone and himself because Salvador had never spelled it out in definitive terms. But he was about to exert the authority that he felt was needed to preserve their overall mission.
“No way, Simone. Absolutely not.”
“C’mon, Jacob, what are you worried about? This is what we’re here to do. You think Salvador’s going to come down here and give us a lecture or something?”
She was doing that thing again with her questioning, trying to make Jacob feel small and stupid. But they were way too far outside the grid in his opinion. They had ridden eight miles by his count. He could feel the trip getting riskier with every rotation of the jeep’s wheels.
“No, I don’t,” he said with authority. “And stop with the ‘smarter-than-thou’ act. It isn’t attractive.” He finally knew how to push her buttons. “What if we go another three miles and nothing? What then?” She didn’t respond. “We’re turning this ignorant adventure around, right now.”
And, under Simone’s silent protest, they did. She was angry and frustrated, and she didn’t try to hide it. When they arrived back at the grid, Jacob told her, “You know it would have been foolish to continue, Simone. We had to come back.”
She didn’t respond until after she had climbed down from the jeep’s bed. She looked up at him and said, “Yeah, it may have been foolish, Jacob. And yeah, we had to come back. But the reason we’re in Sector 3 right now is out on that highway. I know it is.”
Before he could say anything more, a familiar voice rose up from behind them. It was one of the directors. “She’s right.” Jacob turned around and saw him holding a piece of paper in his hand. “And now we have proof.”
21.
J acob read the printed email that the director had given him twice before Simone grabbed it out of his hands. She skimmed over the short message, then once more like he had done. Her face was bright with excitement when she raised her head from the piece of paper.
“This is it, Jacob,” she said. “This is the break we needed.”
His analytical nature tempered his reaction. “We need to make sure it’s authentic, but I have to say – at first glance, this looks like an attempt to infiltrate the grid.”
“There’s no way it’s not a play, right? This is them. This is contact, Jacob. And they think we’re stupid enough to fall for it, but they’ve actually given us the upper hand.”
Her elation was infectious. Jacob found himself nervous about what to do next. This had become actual espionage, and he and Simone were controlling it. It was as exciting to him as watching a computer virus spread, but the difference was detachment. He had always been a spectator in the hacking world. This time, he was playing in the game, and the risk was exhilarating.
He took off toward the Sector 3 headquarters, yelling as he ran. “We’ve got to formulate a res
ponse quickly. Let’s go!”
◊◊◊
After looking at every angle he could imagine, Jacob determined that the probability of the email being a ruse was high. Combined with the strange electronic signal, the surveillance sighting, and his gut feeling, he decided to treat it as enemy-produced. He had not thought in those terms before then, but it was part of his recent wake-up call. These outsiders were his enemy because that was how he had to view them. And because he was coming around to the new world’s brutal realities that Simone had been so casual about. If the email happened to be real and four people were sacrificed innocently in the name of protecting the ANTI- revolution, then that was just part of the war they had begun waging.
The email represented its author as an ANT named Paul who had been injured in the early days of the takeover. He had missed his opportunity to live in the grids, and now he wanted inside, along with a relative and her children. He would be awaiting instructions on how to gain access.
“Paul” passed verification, but just barely. He matched the profile of a low-level ANT who had not been seen since before the Great Dark. And his membership then was minimal at best. He had been involved in a few protests, but that was it. The whole thing was transparent, even without deep analysis.
After Jacob had sat with the email for an hour, he created a response to bring the outsiders in with little to no suspicion:
ID: HQ-5051
SECTOR: NA-3
Re: Grid Access Instructions
2-370-552 -
Your transmission has been received. Welcome back. You and your companions who seek refuge are instructed to meet at the northwestern corner of the grid at sunrise tomorrow morning. There will be a group of us there waiting.
FtSoH
It was short and direct, but encouraging. Jacob wanted them to approach the next day with as little caution as possible. The ANTs needed to catch them off their guard if possible. He hoped the style of the message would help do that.
Once the email was sent, Simone presented the plan for the group’s arrival to Jacob and the directors. A group of Omega XT would be stationed at the corner with two vans. Paul, the former ANT, and his companions would be stopped just outside the grid and told to kneel. Four of the Omega XT would approach the group and begin a frantic interrogation of Paul: the first step of fear. No matter what he answered to any of the questions, one of the Omega XT would draw his pistol and shoot him dead.
One of the directors spoke up, asking exactly what Jacob was thinking, “Forgive me, but is that necessary?”
Simone darted her eyes at the questioner. “For us to determine why this group truly wants to be inside, it is absolutely necessary.” She started pacing across the front of the room. “I want everyone to realize something right here and now. This is a threat. There’s no doubt about it. And these four people most likely represent something much bigger. We can’t afford to not know what that is anymore. We have to scare information out of them, quickly. We kill the strongest one,” she stopped and looked at everyone with assurance, “and the others will talk.”
She went on to explain that the woman and two children would be taken separately to the grid’s utility station. There, she would begin questioning them, specifically the woman. No interrogation tactic would be off-limits with her. But the brilliance of the plan was what she had in store for the children.
She held up something small and black between her thumb and forefinger. It was the size of a quarter, and it blinked a dull blue light. “This,” she said, “is how we find out the real story.”
22.
W hat Simone showed the directors and Jacob was a tracking device. She went on to explain just how she planned to use it. While transporting the children back to the utility building, the ANTs would plant a pair of the devices on them, either in their clothing or the lining of any packs they may be carrying. Simone would proceed with a light interrogation of them, and then they would be left together in a locked room. At some point after, one of the ANTs would check on them and leave the door unlocked, seemingly as an act of incompetence. Anticipating the children would be astute and aggressive, an attempted escape would be imminent. And Simone would let that escape happen without challenge. She would let them lead ANTI- back to their starting point, and back to what she predicted would be the home of the strange electronic signal.
“Any questions?” Simone asked.
“What about the woman?” a director wondered. “What do we do with her?”
“I’ll get as much from her as I can. But if the children lead us to the answers, then she becomes useless. And I don’t have time for useless people.” Jacob understood what she meant. He was understanding just how callous she could be the more he worked with her. But it wasn’t turning him off. Not yet. She continued, “Alright, everybody. That’s it. Meet back here at 5 AM. See you then.”
As the roomful of directors stood and broke into small conversations, Jacob went to Simone. She had been confident and powerful in her presentation, strong without qualms. That was the Simone he liked, and he was strangely feeling very attracted to her at that moment.
“Hell of an idea you’ve got here,” he said. “Think it’ll work?”
She smiled. “Of course it will work, Jacob. I don’t come up with bad ideas. Right?”
He followed along. “Like endlessly driving into the unknown without considering the consequences? Nah, you never have any bad ideas.”
“Thanks for that, by the way,” she said. “You were right. That was dangerous.”
“Look at this,” he said sarcastically. “You’re about to walk yourself into an apology, Simone.” Jacob moved in closer. “Watch your step.”
“No, I’m serious. Thank you.” She gave him that look again, the one from the street. She was weak and wanting. And it was working.
◊◊◊
That night, before the battle that would change everything, Simone and Jacob shattered the sexual tension that had been building between them for so many years. It was the most engagement he had ever experienced with a woman. It was soulfully invigorating and physically debilitating, all at once. They replenished their energy often, and used most of the night to continually satiate themselves.
Jacob had always mocked the term “making love” – to him, it was a greeting-card description of chemically-charged animal behavior. But it made sense in his head and heart that night. As he and Simone breathed simultaneously and moved in tandem, he understood what it meant. Never-felt emotions began to overtake him. If this was love, he was having a difficult time processing it, but he didn’t mind trying either.
He got up at 4:30 in the morning to take a quick shower and prepare for the dramatic day ahead. She roused as he was about to leave, and looked up at him from the bed, smiling drowsily. “We’re going to have to do that again,” she whispered.
“And again and again and again,” he responded. He leaned over and kissed her on her forehead, then he left with a happiness he had never known.
23.
S imone wanted to watch the group of exiles approach in person, even though the ANTs had cameras set up to record their interaction with the Omega XT and the subsequent capture. She and Jacob found a vantage point inside a building just above the proceedings. As they were waiting for the sun to rise and the events to unfold, he wanted to say something about the night before. She did, too. He could feel it. But they remained professional, only swapping inside glances with each other until the outsiders appeared.
“On your toes, Jacob,” she said when she saw them. “Here they come.”
The email description from Paul, the former ANT, proved to be accurate. There were two adults, a male and female, and two children, a girl and boy. The children appeared to be teenagers. They were all dressed for hiking, and they each carried a backpack. While they appeared weathered from foot travel, they were not repulsive like so many of the outsiders had become.
The following few minutes went as Simone had explained they
would. The group came to the center of the road and kneeled. Four Omega XT approached them and began questioning Paul. Not long after, the Omega XT in front of him shot him through his head. The other three were seized, bound, and hooded, then thrown into the two awaiting cargo vans and driven away.
Simone turned from the window and said to Jacob excitedly, “Showtime!”
◊◊◊
She had prepared two rooms in the grid’s utilities building to use for interrogation. One for the children and one for the woman. Simone wanted to start with the children, interviewing them separately. For the woman, she instructed one of the directors to begin the questioning to wear her down a bit. ANTs had built a two-way mirror and placed microphones in one of the rooms, the one that would be used for the captured woman. Simone wanted to watch her before she interrogated her, analyze her behavior and develop a strategy for getting as much out of her as possible.
Once the prisoners were placed in their holding areas and Simone was ready, she went to the room where she would begin her process and asked for the teenage girl. “I won’t be long with these two,” she told Jacob before she left. “Wait here and keep an eye on the woman.” So he did, watching her sit at the interrogation table without emotion until the warm-up director entered.
Within twenty minutes, Simone was back.
“How’d it go?” Jacob asked.
“As expected,” she said. “Just a taste of fear, but not enough to traumatize them too much. Especially after what they just witnessed in the street. They’re strong. No doubt in my mind that they’ll try to escape. What about this one?”
“Not much yet,” he told her. “She’s been giving it right back to that director since he began, but not telling him a thing. She’s a hellcat, Simone.”