“It’s gotten worse. He ordered me to take care of it myself.”
Trent’s face darkened.
“You need to tell the board.”
“I can’t, you know that! He’ll amend the Project Nine report and I’ll be removed!”
“We can ask for a full investigation to challenge anything he submits,” he told her quietly. “They’ll give you a fair hearing if you tell them everything.”
Andreas scoffed.
“If you really believed that, you would have told everyone what Smith was doing to me the second I first told you.”
“But now it’s escalating, this is serious. We have to try―”
“You and I both know that Brenda is looking for a reason to remove me, Jason. She’ll refile charges the first chance she gets, and the board will classify me as a sympathizer whether it’s true or not!”
“And is it true?” Trent asked bluntly, his eyes boring holes into hers. Her lip curled in a sneer.
“Are you really asking me that? After everything that happened with David?”
“You didn’t exactly deny the validity of his theories.”
“I didn’t exactly support them, either,” she shot back, her temper flaring. “But he wasn’t a sympathizer, Jason, regardless of what everyone thinks. He was conducting legitimate research into a problem he believed existed―”
“I know what he was doing,” Trent told her. “I don’t see what this has to do with anything, it’s over.”
“But it’s not. I have…”
Andreas swallowed hard; no one knew the truth about the ration she was studying, but she felt like she didn’t have much of a choice.
“I have David’s test subject in my lab,” she blurted out, biting her words off as she watched for his reaction.
His face went pale.
“You really are crazy, aren’t you? If anyone finds out―”
“You’re the only one who knows,” she said. “The board destroyed all of David’s work, there’s no record that this ration was the original test subject.”
“That you know of,” Trent warned. “You’re playing with fire, Monica. Project Nine was ordered resolved, you shouldn’t be doing anything that could be seen as you ignoring the board’s decision. If someone recognizes that ration, you’re done.”
“This is a whole new project, and it’s based on different evidence.”
“I doubt the board will see it that way.”
“They will if I can complete my tests! I’ll be able to show them proof, but I need your help! You’re the only one I can trust, Jason, the only one who knows what’s really happening with me and Smith. I know you hate it, I know you hate me, but you were my closest friend before all of this. I don’t have anyone else.”
Trent closed his eyes for a moment, holding his breath, then he grimaced as he looked at her.
“What do you need?”
“Smith wants the population reduction pushed through so he looks good for Base One,” Andreas answered. “And I need more power for my lab so I can run the full system. He won’t even talk to me about it until I do what he wants, and if the board won’t agree to an eradication, he expects me to do it myself.”
“Right, and have them remove you for going behind their backs?”
“Smith said he would cover my ass. He’ll give me an executive order, something they can’t use against me.”
Trent raised a brow.
“Those are only for serious emergencies, Monica, there’s no way a standard eradication qualifies for something that extreme.”
“He said he’d find a way to make the situation fit the requirements.”
“Except for the fact that our current population report proves that a reduction isn’t an immediate concern. How’s he going to get around that?”
“I…I don’t know, Jason,” she answered. “That’s just what he told me.”
“I’m going to assume you’re only entertaining this insanity because you already have the order?”
Andreas averted her gaze, sighing heavily.
“No. Not yet.”
“You’re an idiot, then,” Trent huffed, shaking his head. “You’re risking a lot by even considering this—and you’re risking me just by talking to me about it!”
“I don’t have a choice, I need access to your lab to create a pathogen that will take care of the settlement. This is where the old infectious disease archive is stored.”
His eyes bulged.
“What?”
“I’m not actually going to make one!” she told him quickly. “I just have to bring him proof that I’m trying!”
“To what end?” Trent demanded. “You can’t buy time forever, you’re going to have to produce something eventually!”
“Not if things go the way I hope they will. If I can show him that I’m trying to do what he asked, hopefully he’ll grant me the extra power I need. I’ll be able to prove the defect David was exploring—once I deliver my results, Smith’s statement on Project Nine won’t matter.”
He nodded slowly, understanding dawning on his face.
“And he won’t be able to hold it over your head anymore.”
“Exactly! David’s name will be cleared and Smith will lose his leverage the moment I prove that the basis for the original resolution order was wrong!”
“If you prove it,” Trent corrected her. “That’s a big if.”
“I know I’m right, Jason, I wouldn’t be pursuing this if I wasn’t sure.”
“You can’t possibly be sure. You’re a scientist, Monica, you rely on factual, tangible data―real evidence, not unproven hypotheses.”
“All factual, tangible data starts off as unproven hypotheses, Dr. Trent.”
He gave her a long look.
“You know what I mean.”
Andreas took a deep breath as she studied his face.
“So will you help me?”
He muttered a curse, turning away from her and reaching for a file folder. He began shuffling the pages around, and she stepped closer.
“I wouldn’t be asking if I had any other choice, Jason.”
The seconds ticked by as she waited on bated breath, then she heard him sigh heavily.
“It’s too dangerous, Monica. I can’t do that.”
Her heart sank.
“Please, Jason! I’m begging you―”
He held up his hand to stop her.
“I can’t do that,” Trent repeated, giving her a serious look. “But I can give you a few hours of my own time on the power net. I’ll be spending the next week reading through the guidebooks and waiting for these rations to finish developing, anyway, so I’m not using my whole allocation right now. It’s not like I can save it for later.”
“Thank you,” Andreas said, smiling gratefully. “I can’t tell you how much I appreciate this!”
“You haven’t heard my conditions yet.”
“Anything you say, I promise―”
“You have to go to the board about Smith.”
Her shoulders instantly sagged.
“We just talked about this! I told you why I can’t―”
“Will you let me finish?” Trent snapped. “I don’t mean now, so calm down!”
Andreas clamped her lips shut and set her jaw, bracing herself as she motioned for him to continue. He rolled his eyes and took a breath.
“Smith’s involvement is interfering with all of us, Monica. The longer this goes on, the worse it’s going to get. I know you have a lot at stake, but at some point, we all have to choose the greater good over ourselves. So in one week, regardless of what results you do or don’t have from this test subject, I expect you to go to the board and tell them what’s been happening.”
She swallowed hard, staring down at her feet for a long moment before sighing heavily.
“Is that all?”
“No, it’s not. You’re going to leave my name out of it—at no
point in time are you going to reference the source of the extra time on the power net. You’re not going to tell anyone, you’re not going to make a random note in your files. As far as everyone is concerned, this conversation never happened.”
“Of course.”
“I mean it, Monica,” he warned, severity in his tone. “I will deny any involvement if my name comes up, and I’ll press charges with the board for stolen time if I have to.”
“I’ll make sure no one finds out, Jason, I promise.”
Trent jerked his head towards the door.
“Then you better get out of here before my lab assistants show up. The last thing I need is someone seeing us talking.”
Andreas spun on her heel to leave.
“Monica?” he called, and she glanced over her shoulder. “If you manage to prove this, if this ends up being real, I want in. First access over everyone else.”
She smiled, excitement surging through her veins.
“Absolutely. Thank you, Dr. Trent.”
Andreas bolted from the lab, her heart pounding in her throat. She couldn’t believe what he had done for her, and she let out a quiet, triumphant squeal as she raced up the stairs.
“Are you okay, doctor?”
She froze, instantly stiffening as she straightened her shoulders. Noah was sitting on the landing outside her lab, and she erased her smile, replacing it with a cold glare.
“Yes, Mr. Meyers, everything is fine.”
“I waited for you to come back after you disappeared yesterday,” he informed her, accusation in his voice. “It was hours before I finally―”
“I was preoccupied with another task,” Andreas snapped. “Where’s the ration?”
“Storage. I wasn’t sure if you needed it―”
“What are you waiting for?” she shouted, throwing her arms in the air. “Go get it!”
†‡†
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Amber followed along with the group, doing her best to stop thinking about the incubation dome. She had wondered how the rations were grown all her life, but now, part of her wished she could forget it. It was horrible, especially knowing what she knew about Ayn.
She looked back over her shoulder. Brian was trailing behind even more than before, and she opened her mouth, preparing to call out, when she felt Paul’s hand on hers.
“Come on, little lady,” he grinned. “Don’t want to lose you, now.”
Amber grimaced, falling into step beside him as he led the group down into a dimly-lit tunnel that passed underneath the incubation dome. The walls on either side of her were completely bare, but every few feet, she could see the outline of doors that had been closed in with concrete. Ghostly voices echoed out, mingling with the sound of her footsteps, and she cocked her head, listening intently as the voices grew louder.
“The letter ‘A’, represented by two vertical lines of opposite angles connected with a horizontal line in the middle. ‘A’, for AAHHH-cetylcholine, responsible for opening sodium channels in muscle. The letter ‘B’, represented by a single vertical line with two half-circles stacked vertically on the right side. ‘B’, for BBBIII-ology, the study of living things …”
“The researcher training unit,” Paul said, noticing the puzzled look on her face. “Newling researchers live back there until they pass their accreditation tests.”
“What’s that voice?” Amber asked. “‘A’ for acetylcholine―is it a teacher?”
He shrugged.
“Sort of, I think. It has to be some kind of recording, I hear it every time I come through here no matter what time it is. It’s always the same voice, too―probably an auditory training program or something, they use a similar program to teach stuff to people assigned to certain jobs. I don’t know much about how it works for the researchers, though, it’s the one place that even I can’t go.”
The voice began to fade as they continued through the tunnel; they reached the other side, stepping out into a wide, round room with hallways staggered around its perimeter. In the center was a spiraling ramp that disappeared up through the ceiling above, and lined up neatly on one side were dozens of plastic platforms attached to wheeled carts. Restraint straps hung from the edges of the platforms, and Amber gulped as a sudden sense of dread flashed through her heart.
“What are those?” she asked, pointing, and Paul followed her gaze.
“Ration carts,” he told her as he headed for the middle hallway. “Lab ration storage is through that door over there, and the researchers use those carts to bring them back and forth between their labs.”
“What’s lab ration storage?”
“Where they store lab rations.”
He winked at her teasingly, and she scoffed.
“I figured that much. I mean, what’s a lab ration?”
“Test subjects. The researchers are always working on new rations strains—a few keep their test subjects in their labs, but the rest are held in ration storage.” His eyes brightened. “It’s not part of the normal schedule, but do you want to see?”
Amber remembered a tiny snippet of conversation from her time with Ayn; he had said that he had been a test subject, and the thought of witnessing yet another horror of his life made her stomach turn. She opened her mouth, preparing to decline, but Paul was already walking that way.
“Come on, everyone,” he called as he moved towards the hallway on the far right. He stopped in front of a blue door marked ‘LRS UNIT I’; there was a small sign on the wall beside it that read ‘Authorized Personnel Only’, and he stepped forward, positioning himself to block the words from view as he addressed the group.
“Here’s a little tidbit of wisdom for you all: better to plead ignorance and beg forgiveness than to ask and be denied. Unless you’re dealing with Executive Smith, that is,” Paul added quickly. “Now, did anyone happen to see a sign?”
His eyes were wide with feigned innocence; the group giggled but no one spoke up, and he grinned.
“Perfect. Follow me.”
The group filed in one by one, congregating near the doors, and a brunette woman sitting behind a desk in the corner leaped to her feet.
“What are you doing in here?” she demanded, a surprised look on her face. Paul stepped towards her, gesturing dramatically as he bowed.
“Everyone, meet the gorgeous Ms. Jen. She has the extremely important job of keeping track of the lab rations for this area. Our researchers would be lost without her ability to manage so many at once, so remember that in the end, she’s really the one person we owe everything to.”
He lifted his hand to his mouth as he doubled over and dissolved into a sudden fit of coughs.
“And she’s single,” he choked out, glancing at the woman and giving her a quick wink, and her face turned red.
“You’re not supposed to be in here,” Jen told him, her eyes sparkling. “You know this isn’t part of the tour.”
“But I needed to see you,” Paul answered as he flashed a grin, and she laughed.
“Be quick about it,” she said. “You’re going to get us both in trouble.”
He nodded as he stepped forward.
“You heard the lady,” he said, motioning for the group to follow. “Come on, we don’t have all day.”
They moved out of the entryway, and Amber caught sight of the main room. It was surprisingly small―there were no piers in this one, but the walls were lined floor-to-ceiling with rows upon rows of square doors that looked similar to the ones that had covered the incubation chambers. These were bigger, though, and instead of being made of darkened plastic, they were completely opaque. White lights dotted the ceiling above, their cold, narrow beams illuminating a large piece of machinery in the center of the room. Thick, insulated cables connected four mechanical arms that were neatly folded up on either side of the contraption, and more of the wheeled carts she had seen outside had been stacked up nearby.
“Lab ration storage, in all its
glory,” Paul called out, putting his hands on his hips as he looked around. He raised a hand to point at the rows of small doors. “For the benefit of our little friend who asked whether the rations spend their whole lives in the incubation chambers, these are full-sized slots, like the ones you’ll see in the ration dome. Much bigger.”
Amber glanced towards the tall machine.
“What’s that?” she asked. “Is that how they get down?”
Her voice rang out in the room, echoing up towards the ceiling before fading, and in the darkness of the storage slot, Ayn’s eyes snapped open. His heart skipped a beat―though the voice was faint, he would recognize it anywhere.
Paul grinned.
“Exactly, Amber,” he answered. “Smart and beautiful! The rations are placed on those platforms over there, then this machine—referred to very creatively as the lift—lifts them up to the slots. The arm retracts and―”
The main door suddenly burst open, interrupting Paul’s response, and Amber turned to see a gaunt, flustered-looking man enter. His dark labcoat was emblazoned with red letters that said ‘lab assistant’; he froze for a moment when he saw the group, his eyes growing wide with surprise, but he quickly looked away as he stepped towards the desk.
“Jen, give me slot 56.”
Ayn strained his ears, trying to hear what was going on. He wasn’t completely sure, but he thought he heard Noah’s voice asking for slot 56. A sudden wave of hope surged through his veins. Amber was here, she was going to see him. She would know that he was still alive. He held his breath as he listened.
Amber watched Jen’s fingers fly over her keyboard, then the woman pointed at a scanner beside the desk.
“I need your access code, Noah,” she said. Noah stepped close and held his arm out, and the mechanical lift instantly came to life.
“If you all take a step back, you’ll get the chance to see the lift in action,” Paul called out, a twinge of excitement in his voice. “Usually only personnel get to see this, so consider yourselves lucky!”
Amber tilted her head back, watching as the lift’s arm rose up into the air. Far above her, she could see one of the slots slide open, and the lift stopped as it began inching forward. A loud thunk rang out as the first clamp moved into place, then a light gasp went up from the group as the edge of an orange platform appeared. The next set of clamps grabbed hold of a rail along the side as more of the platform moved out of the slot, then it was finally free, suspended high above them. The lift stopped for a moment, its motor humming as the gears shifted.
CENTER 82 (RATION) Page 11