I secure the door behind me and face Miles. I've been dreading this moment ever since I was escorted out of the arena yesterday. Of course they're going to keep putting me in here with him; this is the only way they've gotten him to submit to violent commands. But I don't want to hurt Miles, and considering what he did to me yesterday, I certainly don't want him to hurt me.
I don't have time to worry about it, though. Miles has already started advancing toward me, doing some sort of martial arts combination. I take a deep breath and give myself a command.
"Mari, do a triple back handspring away from your opponent."
I flinch at the word "opponent." I never thought I'd consider Miles my enemy. I complete the back handsprings and expect to be several feet away from Miles, but instead, he's almost on top of me. I have to act fast.
"Mari, block the punch and flip him over."
I lash out and knock away Miles' fist, then grab his arm and use his forward momentum to flip him onto the ground. Immediately I feel bad, but then Miles swings his leg around and knocks me off my feet, and my regret turns into anger.
We both get quickly to our feet and face each other. Miles looks pained, and I'm pretty sure it's not from being flung to the ground just now. He aims a high kick at my head and I duck.
"Mari, knock him down.”
I spring forward, wrapping my arms around his waist and throwing the weight of my whole body against him, but I might as well be trying to move a cement wall. He reaches down and grabs my ankles, prying me off of him. Then he starts spinning me around by the feet with my face up, so I see the lights in the ceiling swirl by faster and faster as he swings me around. I think I know where this is going.
"Mari, upon release, shift your body to face downward, then tuck and roll on impact."
Miles lets go and I fly through the air, following through with the command I just gave myself. I nearly roll into the wall, but I stop myself just in time. I stand up and see that Miles is charging at me. I have to stop myself from rolling my eyes. Whoever is giving Miles these commands is an idiot. Normally, Miles wouldn't do something this stupid. Just before he gets to me I dive out of the way, causing him to smack hard into the wall and slide to the floor.
I gasp and rush over to him. It looks like he's unconscious. I bend down over him and promptly get kneed in the jaw. I stagger back, clutching my head and trying not to black out. Miles stands and looks at me apologetically before jumping up and planting both of his feet into my side. The force knocks me to the floor. The pain is so severe that I don't want to move, but I hear Miles running toward me so I manage to roll over so I can see him coming. He lunges at me, looking like he's going to flatten me with his body, so I bring my legs up and kick into his chest, sending him catapulting over me. The floor shakes a little when he hits the ground.
I crane my neck back to make sure he's okay and find him looking at me. His eyes flash. He noticed that I didn't give myself a command just now. Hopefully no one else did.
We struggle to our feet and again face each other. I'm waiting for him to act, but he doesn't move. I look over at the two way mirror. Have they decided this little session is over? I glance back at Miles. He stares at me for a few moments, then inexplicably, he smiles. It's a small smile, but it's genuine, and for the first time in months he almost looks happy. My heart soars and I smile back, but then suddenly, Miles' expression turns to fear.
His body jolts forward, but he holds himself back with immense effort. Several times his feet or arms jerk out of place, but he grunts and snaps them back to their position. His fists are clenched and his knuckles are white. He's sweating profusely and tears are streaming down his face. For whatever reason, Miles is exercising every ounce of self restraint against this particular command. Just watching him makes me feel horrible. I want to help him, but I'm afraid anything I do would break his concentration.
I'm about to run to the observation room to beg them to stop when Miles collapses to the floor. A few seconds later, the door opens and in walks the last person I want to see right now. Governor Plenaris strides across the arena, casually studying the unconscious heap of Miles on the ground.
"What was that?" I ask, nodding at Miles and trying to sound nonchalant.
"That," the Governor responds, "is something we need to work on." There is a touch of annoyance in his shrill voice. "I commanded him to kill you.”
Chapter 15
"What?" I yell, my voice echoing through the arena. "Kill me?"
"Miss Quillen," Governor Plenaris answers condescendingly, "I tire of your gullibility. Obviously we would have interfered before he actually killed you. This was only an exercise to see if he would follow through with the command. Apparently, he cares more about you than I suspected."
My cheeks flush.
"Or maybe he doesn't like killing people against his will," I counter.
"Maybe," the Governor replies, but I can tell he's not convinced. "Regardless," he continues, "I need you to come with me. We have some things to discuss."
I dutifully follow the Governor out of the arena. He’s fiddling with the band on his wrist which activates his personal Override system; the one he can use to control people without speaking. I feel slightly nauseous as I recall the night he used it on me, and I’m fairly certain he just used it on Miles. I hear a small sound and glance back at Miles. He's rubbing his head and he looks exhausted, but otherwise I think he's all right.
The observation room is empty when we enter. I assume the Governor assigned everyone elsewhere so we could have this private meeting. I'm a little nervous that he wants to speak with me alone, but then again, I'm always on edge when I'm around Governor Plenaris.
"First, I want to commend you for your excellent work with prisoner 568," he announces, turning to face me. "He has improved more in the combative commands over the last two days than the entire seven months he's been here."
I didn't really do anything, I think. Just me standing there made Miles more susceptible to the commands. But if the Governor wants to give me credit, that's fine. I need to be on his good side for a little while longer.
"I'm interested, however, in knowing how exactly your relationship stands with our prisoner," Governor Plenaris continues. "When I received the reports of your involvement in his progress, I'll admit I was a bit surprised. I had assumed you mainly knew him as a captive knows their captor during your confinement with the Dissenters, but I took it upon myself to do a little research, and what I found was quite disturbing.”
One of the screens in the observation room flickers and suddenly I'm seeing a montage of Miles and myself when we were younger. We're talking at school, playing outside, spending time with his family. I swallow hard. I knew this was going to come up sooner or later. But what throws me off is the presentation. I know the Governor likes to be dramatic, but how did he put all this together and prepare it to play on that screen? Where does he get the time to work on ridiculous projects like this?
"It seems you two were childhood friends," he sneers. "How can I be sure you aren't harboring sentiments for this boy?"
I clench my teeth. I've rehearsed this story thousands of times, and it's partly true, but I still hate having to tell it to the Governor.
"Yes, Miles and I were friends," I admit, "but then he disappeared. I was angry at first, but eventually, I just forgot about him."
"I see," the Governor replies, an odd smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. "You didn't really care that he was gone, then?"
"Not really."
"So that would explain why you were so emotional when you saw him here."
The screen changes to the surveillance of the night the Dissenters attacked the air barge. The night I saw Miles for the first time after 3 years.
My chest tightens. I'm not at all surprised that the Governor came upon this footage in his "research," but seeing it replayed like this brings back all of the sensations I felt that night.
"Why did you leave me?" I hear myself say,
my younger face a mix of confusion and rage. "You were my only friend, and you just disappeared!"
"This is not the typical behavior of an apathetic girl," the Governor comments. "It appears you actually cared about this boy quite a lot."
"At that moment, yes," I respond evenly. "Up until that point I thought he was dead. I was surprised to see him and furious that he had become a Dissenter. Furthermore, I was exhausted that night, as well as slightly intoxicated."
"Interesting," Governor Plenaris mutters, turning to look back at the screen. "Ah, but this is my favorite part," he oozes with a cruel smile.
I force myself to watch the footage. Miles and I are conspicuously close to each other. Miles' expression is pure, sincere.
"Mari," he says, "I had to fight. I had to leave. But you have filled my thoughts every single day since then."
I watch him search my face and lean closer. I'm positive now that he was going to kiss me. But then I watch my body stiffen as the Override command comes into my mind. I raise my arm, aiming my gun at his head. The screen goes black, and I notice that Governor Plenaris is studying me carefully.
"It's clear that this Miles Paxton had feelings for you, and perhaps still does."
"I can assure you, the feeling is not mutual," I lie.
"And yet, you resisted the command to kill him that night."
"Yes, I did," I reply, looking the Governor in the eyes. "I also don't like killing people against my will."
"Miss Quillen," the Governor says, clasping his hands behind his back, "you have taken an oath to protect the Community and the Equality Movement. I must ask you, then, if it were necessary, would you be able to kill Miles Paxton?"
My mind races. Of course I wouldn't kill Miles, but I can't imagine that the Governor actually wants him to die - not after all the time and resources he's spent on him - that would be useless. He must just be looking for a declaration of loyalty, so I give it.
"Yes, sir," I answer, my mouth going dry as the words come out.
"Excellent," he says, smiling and relaxing a little. "Now, I need you to gather your things and report to the entrance in 10 minutes. You will resume your work with the prisoner next week when you return."
"Return from where?"
"Your team did such an excellent job gathering information from the North, I'm sending you all to investigate the East."
"What's in the East?" I ask, a little bewildered that he would suddenly take an interest in the withdrawn sector.
"That's what I'm sending you to find out," he replies, almost cheerfully. "We didn't take action against the North soon enough and they almost destroyed us. I would like to be forewarned if the East is conspiring against us."
I'm speechless. Sending us to the East seems like a rash and haphazard decision, especially since most of the Community doesn't even know that the East exists.
"Hurry up," the Governor urges, turning to leave. "Your transport will be leaving soon.”
The Governor walks out of the observation room, and I look back out at the arena. I almost scream as I see Miles standing just a few feet away, staring at the mirror, his face ashen. I glance down at the Override machine on the counter and see that it's still on, the microphone unraveled and activated. Miles heard our entire conversation.
Chapter 16
"Do we even know where we're going?"
"Nope, that's the fun part."
Tristan stomps away in frustration as Clint enthusiastically studies a map on his Transcriber. We're all loading up the air ship, the one we acquired from the North. We're taking a lot of supplies because we don't know how long it'll take to find the East.
Mostly everyone is excited to be going on this assignment, except for Tristan, of course, and Alia is a little worried about being away from Juro for so long. Otherwise, there's a general feeling of cheerful anticipation, even though it's likely that this mission will turn out to be incredibly dangerous.
We had to have a quick briefing on the East yesterday, most of us only had a faint idea that the sector even existed. There wasn't much to learn, just that they separated from the Community during the Equality Movement because they chose equality through physicality over equality through ability. It was pretty much what I already knew from reading my ancestor's journal. Still, Cassidy was so overwhelmed when they gave us the details that she almost cried.
I glance around as we make our final preparations to leave. Alia and Liam are talking quietly next to the entrance of the ship, Joby is trying to stop Cassidy and Tristan from arguing over a box of extra clothing, and Brice is pointing something out to Clint on the Transcriber. Brice and Alia were added to the expedition because of all the survival experience they gained while they were in the North. And because Brice persuaded Clint to let them come. I'm hoping Brice doesn't try anything with Alia. The last thing we need on this trip is added drama.
"It seems like the smartest thing to do would be to visit the area where the East used to be before they split," Brice tells Clint. "That way, we might find some evidence as to where the new settlement could be."
"That's a solid idea," Clint replies.
I agree. Having a set destination is far more reassuring than just launching off and wandering in a vaguely Eastern direction. Cassidy sets down a crate of capsules and walks over to me.
"Remind me why we're trying to find the East again?" She asks.
"The Governor wants to make sure they're not planning to attack us," I respond automatically, but I can't help but feel that maybe the Governor has ulterior motives.
"Weird," she comments. "Seems like he should have tried to figure that out a long time ago."
"Yeah, maybe he's been busy with stuff," I say. Like attempting to turn Miles into a killing machine, I think darkly.
"Come on guys, let's get going!" Clint yells, motioning for everybody to board the air ship. "I could go by myself, but your inferiority might actually be useful," he adds.
"Do I really have to go?" Tristan whines.
"Yes," Clint responds, but I can tell he's considering leaving him behind.
We carry in the last of the supplies, set the auto pilot coordinates and take off. I peer through the transparent floor as we fly over the city and notice the new structure Adrian mentioned they were being forced to build with the Override. I'll have to check it out when we get back. I'm watching the rest of the Community pass below us when I feel a hand on my shoulder.
"How have you been?" Brice says, smiling down at me. "Is prison life as exciting as they all say?"
"Who says that?" I ask, turning slightly so that his hand falls off my shoulder.
"I do," he responds easily, not at all deterred.
"It's pretty draining, actually," I concede. "How about you? Was the Community as wonderful as you remembered it?"
"No," he responds. "I never realized how lame people are. They never take responsibility for themselves."
"What do you mean?"
"Whenever somebody makes a mistake or can't do something right, they always blame their Amplifier. It's never their fault."
"This happens a lot?"
"All the time," Brice asserts. "But anyway," he says, lowering his voice, "I have a question about Alia."
"No," I answer quickly.
"You don't even know what the question is!"
"Look Brice," I say, "I don't know what happened between you two in the North, but she's clearly chosen Liam. You seem like a great guy, but I don't think you have a chance with her."
Brice takes a deep breath. "Wow. You are very blunt."
"It must be my Amplifier," I joke. Brice smiles a little.
"But what if ?—"
"Hey Brice!" Clint calls from the front of the ship. "I need your sharp eyes to take a look at this!"
Brice shakes his head as he goes over to help Clint. Maybe I was a little too direct with him. Although, some harsh words might just do him some good.
I look around the ship. Cassidy is absorbed in counting out Nutrition cap
sules. Tristan is sitting next to her, absently unraveling thread from a shirt. Liam and Joby are asleep, and Alia is staring at the floor. I walk over and sit down next to her.
"How is everything with Juro?" I ask gently.
Alia's face lights up. "Mari, it's wonderful," she exclaims. "I was so empty before, but now I feel like my life has purpose, you know?"
I don't know, but I nod my head anyway.
"I'm just worried the Governor's going to take him away," she continues. "It's been a few weeks, but I doubt he's forgotten about him."
"Maybe I can help keep the Governor distracted," I remark, figuring that if I actually succeed in my plans, Governor Plenaris will have much bigger things on his plate than relocating General Remington's son.
"How are you doing?" Alia asks.
"I'm okay, I guess," I respond. "Although the prison can be really depressing sometimes."
"You've been at the prison?" Alia says intensely, suddenly very interested.
"Have you seen Prisoner 568?" She whispers.
"You mean Miles Paxton?"
"So it is Miles," she remarks, nodding to herself. "I had heard rumors that he was captured. Is he as terrible as everyone says?"
"No, it's just Miles," I reply, wondering why Alia is talking about him like this. "You remember him, right? He was in school with us before he disappeared."
"Yeah," Alia responds, "but he always seemed really weird to me. I'm not surprised he turned out to be a maniac."
"He's not a maniac!" I protest.
"Mari, why are you defending him? He's trying to bring down the entire Community."
"Well, maybe he's not the bad guy."
"That's a pretty bold thing to say, especially coming from a Restrainer."
The Restrainers: Third Book in The Amplified Series Page 7