Gisk made air quotes as he said the last words.
“Wait,” Quilen said, still staring towards where Yidel’s body disappeared, as if he just noticed that Gisk was leaving from the corner of his eye.
“Excuse me?” Gisk asked incredulously, still facing towards his destination.
“Er, I mean, please wait, sir,” Quilen corrected himself, looking down.
Gisk smiled. “Go on,” he said as he turned.
Quilen finally looked up at Gisk.
“Sir, all of these interrogations… Getting information from this one,” Quilen said, motioning towards the prison unit. “We have video feeds from everywhere else in the Facility – why not in the laborer units and halls?”
Gisk shook his head, paused, and then leaned against the wall.
“I’m surprised it took you this long to think about that,” he said. “It is unfortunate, indeed. Several hundred years ago, the citizens of the Facility weren’t quite so—hmm, how should I say it—apathetic towards the well-being of the laborers. They actually saw them as equals in most regards.
“In order to keep the laborers in line, our Forefathers had to regularly send in small groups of control officers to beat or kill them to show them that they should obey. Not completely different than we do now.
“But the difference is that back then, anytime someone would come across those videos, there was an outrage. The citizens would actually fight on the behalf of the laborers. So, they started editing those scenes out of the recordings.”
Gisk paused. Quilen almost asked further questions before he realized that Gisk was not simply stopping for effect, but he was taking a deep breath. Walking and standing were not things that Gisk enjoyed doing, and they seemed to take a lot out of him.
“They did this for years,” Gisk continued, “editing those scenes out. And I think they started realizing that the only time they ever needed to recall the recordings was to destroy them. We’re not certain, but the assumption is that they decided to stop the video feeds before those control officers were sent in. And at some point, they diverted all of those resources to other sections that were in need of them.
“The funny thing is, as long as the beatings and the executions continued, their fear was a far better tool for surveillance. For most of my time as chairman, all I had to do is pull a random laborer, tell them that I knew what the talk is and how they were involved. They would always confess something – as little as someone showing up late to their purpose assignment as a way to protest, or as great as someone talking about an actual rebellion. I’d let them free, and sometimes kill whoever they referred to. I’d at least beat them very publicly. Those laborers were excellent at keeping me informed after that. And there are just so many of them, that I could keep killing off my informants without even affecting the overall amount of work getting done.
“I had long since handed that task off to others, but I had to execute the last person assigned to that – for something unrelated, of course. We didn’t have any problems until your daughter got caught up with a terrorist. I regret giving you any power, thinking that you could handle something as simple as controlling the laborers. I thought your loyalty could overcome your incompetence. And I don’t mind saying that you don’t have any more chances after this one. Either you restore order to the laborers with the way you handle this situation, or they’ll all have to be exterminated. And you’ll be among them.”
Gisk turned and continued walking.
“Good luck,” he called back as he waved his hand. “Don’t let your wife and son down!”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
“No one has seen either of them,” a laborer said, looking hopelessly at Hokmah. “It’s been at least three hours since they left together.”
Both of their faces were worried. They had sent multiple search parties for Reena and Yidel throughout the Midlet and came up with nothing. Preparations for the oncoming battle continued, and most of the laborers didn’t realize their leader was missing, but several of the original thirteen were getting very nervous.
“I know it’s useless,” Hokmah said after staring at the ceiling for a moment, “but keep searching. There are only two options. One is that they’re wandering the halls and we simply haven’t found them. The other is that they’ve left these halls, either by force or by choice. I wouldn’t put it past Reena to sacrifice herself even after all of our talks. Something that Yidel told her could have made her change her mind, but if that were the case, at least he would be found.”
The younger laborer nodded his head once. He stood still for a moment, then turned and left the sleeping unit.
Hokmah moved to Reena’s bed and lay down. He looked up at the pictures her son had drawn that were still pinned to the underside of the bunk above. He stared through them into space, thinking about his own past. He had never had a son, daughter, nor wife. He was always afraid of being too close to anyone because of how many people he saw die needlessly.
Part of him felt cold, knowing that he missed out on a family. A different part of him considered every single person in the Midlet his family. Anytime a boy or girl lost their parents, he would stand beside them and teach them. Anytime a man or woman lost their spouse, he would give them wisdom. He had always told himself that he had a wonderful family.
But he knew it was not the same. He brought the hand-drawn picture back into focus, thinking about all that Reena had lost. He knew that if he asked her if it was worth having a son and husband just to lose them, her answer would be a resounding Yes. While his fear protected him from some loss, it did not protect him from loneliness.
If his fears were true, Reena had given herself up, thinking that she could save the people of the Midlet by giving in to Quilen Coomy’s demands. He knew it wouldn’t actually stop anything, nor would it get them all to the surface, but she didn’t let something as heartless as logic stop her from doing what she felt was right.
Reena had listened to him. She followed his advice and stepped up to become the leader that he knew she could be. But that meant she wasn’t simply sacrificing herself for the Midlet, but that she was being sacrificed because of him. She became the focal point of all of the tired, struggling eyes of his family, and he simply stayed in the shadows.
He quickly sat up from the bunk and jumped to his feet. “I’ve got an idea,” he announced to everyone in the sleeping unit as he walked towards the center.
.- -.-. -
Reena shook her head in disgust at Quilen. She had already asked everything she could about Yidel, not believing it at first. But even Quilen’s eyes held regret when he told her that Yidel had been killed. She stared at him, wondering how a man like him could live with the pain he caused. Especially when she could tell there was a part of him that really didn’t want to cause it.
He sat outside her prison unit in the chair that had been brought for Gisk. He had moved it near the barred entrance and held his head in his hands, as if he were the one being pumped for information.
“Tell me anything,” Quilen pleaded to her. “Anything at all. If you don’t help me stop it, all of your people will be killed.”
Reena scoffed.
“Why would you care if every last person in the Midlet were killed?” she asked harshly. “Are you afraid that your Food Substance would stop pumping through their tubes to your dining unit? Are you afraid that the air temperature would rise or fall five degrees and you wouldn’t know how to change it?”
Quilen leaned back, slouching in the large chair. He was panicked. Mostly because he was afraid that his life could be lost, but a part of him thought about all of the souls below the Upper Levels. Laborers might hold no regard among the citizens of the Facility, but after dealing with them for months, he knew that they were humans. He was starting to see them as such with each interaction.
“What about a family,” he pried, trying to reason with her. “A husband? A son or daughter? If you don’t help me, they’ll die.”
“They’r
e already dead,” Reena screamed at the top of her lungs, throwing a tray that was still smeared with Food Substance. It was ironic to Reena that the amount of Food Substance originally on the tray was more than she had ever been given in a single meal, and she wasn’t able to finish it.
“If you had paid attention to any of us when you questioned us months ago, you would know that my family is dead. They’re dead because of you, and the men like you.”
“I didn’t—” Quilen started to protest, but stopped himself.
He might not have killed her family directly, but she was right. He had been the reason for the laborer boy’s death – chosen specifically because he had no family, but chosen nonetheless. He was standing idly by while another laborer was killed by Gisk only hours earlier. And he was the reason that this woman was in the prison unit, awaiting her death. Not only that, the laborers had been beaten and killed for years by whoever held a purpose assignment similar to what he had now.
The tightness in his chest grew, and the weight of his thoughts were unbearable for him. So much for power and strength. He was looking at what a true leader was; someone who would rather die than give any detail about her people.
Another person like that boy, he thought. Azazel.
“I’m sorry,” he said instead of skirting the blame.
Reena snorted.
“Your apology means nothing,” she said. “You say you’re sorry while you threaten to kill my entire people.”
“You’re right,” he said. “My apology is pretty terrible. I didn’t kill your family – I only started this post a few months ago. I was just a Regulation Officer before that. But I’m the reason that Azazel’s dead.”
“Don’t say his name,” she screamed. “You didn’t know him. He was a strong young man who didn’t deserve the punishment you handed out.”
“I know,” Quilen accepted as he absent-mindedly looked down the hall. “I’m also the reason that Yidel just died. I thought I could make all the trouble disappear if only one more person – you – died. He died because he believed me.”
“Your apology is getting even worse,” Reena said. “Something tells me you don’t say that you’re sorry very often.”
Quilen allowed a single chuckle to escape his lips.
“You’re right,” he admitted. “I think this is the first time that I’ve said the things that I’ve done out loud. I think I need to do that so that I know it’s true. So that my apology is real.”
“Well, it still doesn’t sound very real to me,” she said. “Not until you stop everything that you’re doing.”
Quilen let out an exhausted breath.
“That’s the problem,” he said, finally looking in her eyes. “I’m not the Leader here. At first, yes, I was just trying to find any other terrorists, and was trying to do my purpose assignment well. But when Azazel died, I realized that I wasn’t in control of anything. And even now, I don’t have any control. If I come back with nothing from you, there’s a good chance that my superior will execute your entire people. If you work with me, I might be able to prevent that.”
Reena shook her head.
“If you think you’ll be able to execute everyone in the Midlet, you’re a fool. And if you think I would be able to stop them from fighting back, either you assume I have more power than I have, or that my people are far weaker than they are. Regardless of what we talk about now, my people will still be beaten and killed while yours enjoy the results of our work. You are not here to be a friend to the Midlet. You will never be my friend.”
Quilen rubbed his face, as if it would give a change of perspective.
“You are unlike any citizen of the Upper Levels,” he said. “So was Azazel.”
“Good,” Reena snapped. “And stop saying his name.”
They sat in silence for some time. Quilen kept comparing her face to the image of Azazel that haunted his mind. The passion when he screamed For the Midlet, just before his death. She had the same look in her eyes. She would obviously die with the same strength. He wondered if he could ever contain a strength like that. He had certainly never felt it before.
His thoughts wandered, briefly forgetting about his own circumstances and considering what it would have been like to grow up amongst people like Reena and Azazel. People who loved each other so intensely that they thought nothing of themselves. He thought about himself as a father and his own family, and how he would have been different if he was surrounded by the kind of honor and loyalty the laborers held.
It seemed like a fantasy. He reasoned to himself that that kind of love couldn’t really exist. Surely they were all only thinking of themselves, too.
“How did it happen?” Quilen said, somewhat dazed.
After a moment, Reena responded, “how did what happen?”
“Your husband,” Quilen said. “Your family. You said that men like me killed them. What happened?”
Reena was silent. She wanted nothing more than to scream, rip open the barred door of her prison unit and beat Quilen until he was unconscious. The rage in her head was deafening.
But at the same time, she thought about her husband. She thought about honoring his memory in a way that no other laborer had been honored before. As if telling this man from the Upper Levels would show him how evil and distorted his world really was. The sorrow and love in her heart pushed against the rage. Not causing it to disappear, but rather to prove that it was justified.
And she couldn’t help but feel like there was actual concern in Quilen’s voice. She couldn’t be sure, but he didn’t seem to be quite the same smug fool that she met in the interrogation room months ago.
“His name was Barus,” she finally said, giving in to the memory of her husband. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly, trying to quiet her heart and mind just slightly, so that she could speak about him the way he deserved.
“He was the kindest and bravest man I have ever known. We knew each other since we were very young, and I loved him in a way that overwhelmed me. And he loved me in a way that told me I would always be his.”
Tears welled up in her eyes, overflowing onto her cheeks. She sniffed and wiped her face.
“We were married, and soon after that I was pregnant. The Leaders give no special treatment to anyone in the Midlet. Even before I was pregnant, our bellies were never full. But because of the baby, I was always starving. I was not allowed any extra food.
“For a while we would simply ask other men and women in the Midlet for a little bit of their allotted Food Substance. But as my belly grew, I could never eat enough to be satisfied. Even with what others would give us, Barus would give me almost his entire portion. At the end of each night, we were both still starving.
“Barus and I worked with live resources, which meant that we were often close to the vats of Food Substance. I was so hungry that I started sneaking food out of the vats during my assignment shift and would take some back to our sleeping unit. I knew I could be beaten for it, but I was just so hungry.
“Barus tried to get me to stop, saying that he would give me all of his, and that he would find food somewhere else. But I wouldn’t listen. I assured him that no one would know, because I was getting it directly from the vats and not from the delivery tubes. No one else was near me when I did it.
“But I wasn’t caught by the allotments, or based on the portions I would receive at the tubes. Apparently someone told one of the leaders that they thought I was sneaking Food Substance. Not because they knew I was doing it, but just because I stopped asking for portions from others.
“We were lying in bed one night and the door to our sleeping unit crashed open. Three control officers rushed in straight to our bunk. We didn’t know what was going on – we were terrified. Barus tried to fight them off, but they stunned him long enough for two of them to pin him down and for the third to hold me down.
“Finally, one of them charged me with stealing Food Substance, and I just couldn’t speak. I knew it was true and I cou
ldn’t lie, but I couldn’t bring myself to admit it. I braced myself for the blows I was going to receive, knowing full well that they would beat me at least enough to kill our baby.
“But before they started beating me, Barus cried out. It was me, he screamed. Over and over. Don’t touch her, it was me. He called them names trying to get their attention away from me.
“And it worked. The officer who was holding me dropped me to the floor and walked over to my husband. He had turned off his Stunner, and he just started hitting him as hard as he could. I ran over to stop him, but he pushed me aside. The officers holding Barus let him go when they saw he wasn’t going to fight back. One of them came over to me and pinned me down with his knees, but turned my face so that I had to watch. Don’t worry, Reeny, as long as you’re safe, Barus said.”
Reena paused, allowing sobs to escape. Her face was wet with tears no matter how often she tried to wipe it with her dirty sleeve. She held her breath to force herself to continue.
“The first officer kept beating him, and the other officer joined in. Barus’ face was covered in blood. They were laughing, like they were enjoying it. I kept screaming, telling them to stop, telling them that they were killing him – but they just kept hitting him. Even when he slumped over on the ground, they kept hitting him.
“I don’t know how long it went on, but by the time they let me up, he hadn’t moved for a while. His face was completely bashed in and there was blood everywhere. I just sat there with his head in my lap, screaming for him to breathe, for him to talk to me.
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