Secrets of PEACE

by T. A. Hernandez

  “Thank you,” she said again.

  He shrugged. “You earned it.”

  They walked towards the apartments together. “Did you give him Collins’ package?” Zira asked.

  “Yeah. He’s going to pass it along to unit E-1 to look into. At the very least, they’ll be keeping close tabs on the rest of the Brotherhood.”

  “Good.”

  “I have a favor to ask,” Jared said. “What are you doing this week?”

  “Nothing. Why?”

  “I’m supposed to work with a group of recruits at the shooting range. I was wondering if you’d help out. You’re a better shot; you can probably teach them more than I can.”

  “Sure,” Zira agreed. They had reached her apartment and she unlocked the door.

  “Great,” said Jared. “I’ll see you tomorrow morning then.”

  Zira nodded. “Goodnight.”

  * * *

  Aubreigh still hadn’t returned from her job in the South Atlantic Region, so Zira sat alone in the cafeteria for breakfast the next morning. As she took a bite of her powdered eggs, she glanced around the room and noticed something unusual. Almost a third of the people in the cafeteria wore the green armbands of unit E-1, a strange phenomenon considering there were typically just a few dozen of them stationed in the compound at any given time. Unlike the other units, most of E-1’s members lived outside the compound and worked at various regional law enforcement offices across the country. She had no idea what so many of them might be doing here now.

  “Mind if I join you?” said someone behind her. Zira turned and found Jared standing there. She nodded and he took the seat next to her.

  “Do you know why there are so many E-1s here?” she asked him.

  “They’re doing an internal investigation.”

  Zira frowned. By her recollection, unit E-1 had done an internal investigation not even two years ago. “I thought they only did one every four or five years.”

  Jared shrugged. “I hear there’s been some tension about the rationing system lately, especially in the North Pacific Region. They’re probably here to look into that. It’s mostly a formality, keeps everyone happy. People out there still have a hard time trusting the government after everything that happened before the war. If they know we’re being monitored just like they are, they feel safer.”

  Having lived in the compound since before she could even remember, it was sometimes hard for Zira to imagine what things were like for those on the outside. She thought she understood this, though. Before the war, democracy had all but collapsed under the rule of the rich and powerful few, and many believed it was their greed and corruption that had caused the war in the first place. The use of nuclear weapons and robot soldiers had led to the destruction of entire cities. Radiation had left much of the land uninhabitable, and almost one third of the world’s population had been wiped out before a truce was reached between the war’s key players. Afterwards, the PEACE Project had been established as America’s governing body with the main objective of preventing such a thing from happening again, but that hadn’t even been three decades ago. The scars of the conflict were barely starting to heal, and Zira understood why some people might still mistrust their leaders.

  “What about us?” She lowered her voice. “If people knew what we do—they wouldn’t understand.”

  Jared shrugged. “I like to think they would. Sometimes the best way to protect someone is to just get rid of the threat. That’s all we’re doing.”

  “If it were that easy, we wouldn’t have to sneak around or worry about covering our tracks.”

  “Maybe,” said Jared. “Either way, revealing our mission files would be a threat to national security. Ryku always gives them some harmless informant files instead. The public is satisfied, and as far as they know, we’re just an intelligence organization.”

  “Probably better that way,” Zira said.

  “Probably, but some of the E-1s think we’re sweeping things under the rug.”

  Zira glared at the nearest person with a green band, a young woman sitting at the table in front of them. They could think whatever they wanted; at the end of the day, it was always the E-2 operatives who were called on to do what was necessary to keep everyone alive and safe. Suddenly annoyed by the sea of E-1s surrounding them, Zira drummed her fingers against the table. “You ready to go?” she asked Jared.

  “Yeah, we’d better. It’s almost time to meet the kids at the range.”

  The five recruits Jared had been charged with training were already at the shooting range when he and Zira arrived. They had some unexpected company as well. A small group from unit A, identifiable by the yellow bands around their left arms, appeared to be testing some sort of non-lethal weapon with the assistance of one of their robots. Members of unit A dedicated themselves to researching and developing advanced sciences and technologies that would prevent or protect from future conflicts. Two E-1s stood nearby, watching and jotting down notes on their CLs. Zira assumed that the weapon unit A was testing had been developed for their law enforcement needs.

  Turning her attention back to the task at hand, she demonstrated the proper grip for holding a pistol to a girl who couldn’t have been more than fourteen while Jared pulled up a ballistics chart on his CL for another. As she was moving on to work with someone else, Zira turned to see one of the E-1s staring at her. He was older than her, probably in his mid-twenties, with thick black hair and tawny skin. His dark eyes flickered back to the unit A robot as soon as she looked at him, but that wasn’t the last time Zira noticed him watching her. She could feel his gaze on her back through the rest of the training session and caught him glancing away several times. She thought about approaching him to ask what he thought was so interesting about her, but the group finished their testing and drove away before she got the chance. By the time Jared decided to let the recruits go, Zira wondered if she’d just been overreacting about the whole thing.

  She might have forgotten about the incident if the same man hadn’t shown up at their training session the next afternoon, this time alone. Jared gave him an acknowledging nod as he passed by, but didn’t seem too happy to see him there. “You know him?” Zira asked as they set up the range and organized their group.

  “We’ve talked a few times. His name’s Seth.”

  “What’s he doing here?”

  “I’m sure it’s just part of their investigation. They like to observe and make sure we’re not doing anything too dangerous around the kids.” He gave one of the younger boys a joking smile as he said this and handed him an enormous rifle. The boy grinned back, shaking his head.

  “I wish he’d go observe something else,” Zira said, but she tried to forget about Seth as she showed the recruits how to sight in their scopes.

  About an hour into the training session, Zira heard an unfamiliar voice call her name. She whirled around to see Seth waving to her. “Can I have a word with you?”

  Still skeptical of him and unsure if talking to him one-on-one was a good idea, Zira glanced back at Jared for direction. He was busy resetting targets and hadn’t noticed anything. With a reluctant sigh, Zira told the recruit she’d been working with to keep practicing long-range shots and went to Seth. “What do you want?” she said with as much civility as she could muster.

  “My name is Seth. As you may know, my unit is conducting a routine investigation into the activities of the rest of the PEACE Project.”

  Zira nodded, wondering whose job it was to investigate unit E-1. She decided it was in her best interest not to get smart-mouthed with him, though, and didn’t ask.

  “I just have a few questions for you,” he said.

  “Fine.”

  “I saw you here yesterday with this same group. At first I thought you were one of the recruits, but then I noticed that.” He gestured to the band around Zira’s upper left arm, which was solid black. Recruits who hadn’t graduated training yet had a white stripe running all the way around the middle of th
eir bands, regardless of which unit they were in.

  “I finished training three months ago,” Zira said.

  “I’m sorry if this sounds rude,” said Seth, “but you’re—small. You just look so young. I was surprised, so I decided to dig into your background a little more. It seems you graduated your training program early.”

  “Yes.”

  Seth raised his eyebrows. “Impressive. I’ve heard the training program for your unit is rigorous, both physically and mentally. You must be quite talented. Ryku obviously sees you as a valuable asset to this Project.”

  “Yeah, I guess so.” Zira held in a proud smirk.

  “However, since then, it seems you’ve accomplished very little,” Seth said. He abandoned any pretense of courtesy as his voice took on an obnoxiously superior tone.

  The change caught Zira off guard, and she struggled to find a good response. Seth stared down his long nose at her like she was a bloodstain on his perfectly ironed shirt. “You’ve done nothing, in fact. It makes me wonder what the point was of accelerating you through training.”

  Zira crossed her arms. “I wasn’t accelerated through training. I worked hard and did everything I was expected to, just like anyone else. And I’ve done plenty since then.”

  Seth gave her a small, pompous smile that only increased Zira’s desire to punch him in the face. “I see. But according to your file, you’ve been completely inactive all this time. Perhaps you’d care to explain what exactly it is you’ve be doing for your unit. Or maybe you could tell me why I’m not able to find any of that information.”

  Realizing her mistake, Zira clenched her fists and locked her jaw. She’d just told Seth exactly what he wanted to hear. While she hadn’t directly revealed anything she shouldn’t have, she hadn’t done a good job of concealing things either. Chairman Ryku was always going on about how important it was to keep the details of their missions secret, even from other units in the Project. Zira’s insides churned at the thought of enduring another one of his lectures; she’d only just recovered from her last lapse in judgment.

  And yet, Seth must know their work was classified. So why was he taking such an interest in her specifically? He’d asked about what she’d been doing since graduating from training, so perhaps he had a hunch about one of her recent assignments. Or maybe he just thought she’d be an easy target since she was still a new operative. She pursed her lips; he wasn’t going to get any more information from her. “If you have any questions about my file, you’ll have to ask Chairman Ryku.”

  Seth waved a hand. “Ryku will give me the same run-around he does every time we come to him with questions. I’m asking you.”

  “And I’m telling you I have nothing else to say. I’ve got work to do.” She spun on her heel and marched back to Jared and the recruits.

  “Right,” Seth called after her. His voice was so loud that everyone was sure to hear it even over the gunshots. “We’ll continue this later then? Excellent.”

  It was all Zira could do to smile at the recruit she’d been working with, trying to portray an image of calm and composure.

  Jared wasn’t fooled by the act. He came to stand beside her as she watched bullets rip through targets and bury themselves in the sand. “Is there a problem?” he asked.

  She shook her head, more out of frustration than to answer his question. “Ryku is going to kick me out of the unit for sure this time.”

  “What happened?”

  Not wanting to discuss the issue in front of the recruits, Zira simply said, “Later,” and went back to work.

  It seemed Jared didn’t want to wait until later, though. He called the training session to a halt well before dusk when they were scheduled to finish. The recruits seemed excited to be done early until Jared told them they would be jogging the five miles back to the compound. “No complaints,” he said as a few of the younger ones let out dismayed groans. “It’s a good opportunity to work on your endurance. Get going.” They set off as a group while Jared and Zira shut down the target system and loaded the weapons and ammo back into the pickup they’d come in.

  The truck set off at a cautious pace across the rough trail and Jared turned to Zira. “So?”

  Zira described her conversation with Seth. To her relief, Jared’s face didn’t convey any sort of disappointment or annoyance with her as she spoke. She’d almost been more afraid of his disapproval than she was of Ryku’s. “I know I should have just told him to go to the chairman right away,” Zira said. “It just got to me, him telling me that I don’t do anything important.”

  “Because you still feel like you have to prove yourself to everyone.”

  He’d articulated her feelings better than she could herself. “Yeah, I guess so.”

  “The good news is that you’re not the first person to say something stupid in an E-1 investigation. And it really wasn’t that stupid.”

  “You think?”

  “I’d be surprised if Ryku even hears about this at all. Seth is—well, let’s just say that I don’t even think his friends like him very much. He’s the kind of person who has to have all the answers, whether it’s good for him or not. He’s done this sort of thing before. He’ll go straight to his chairman with whatever it is you said to him and make a big fuss over it. She’ll tell him she’ll look into it just to make him shut up, and it won’t go any farther than that.”

  “Oh.”

  “The bad news is that he’s probably not going to leave you alone for the next few weeks.”

  “But you said Chairman Ava wouldn’t take him seriously,” said Zira.

  “She won’t, but that’s not going to stop him. He’s very dedicated to his job. Just keep your head down and try not to add any fuel to his fire. He’s harmless. In a few weeks, E-1 will finish their investigation, and Seth will leave with the rest of them.”

  Zira nodded and stared out the windshield in front of her, contemplating Jared’s advice as the walls of the compound loomed closer. He was right, of course, but Zira had never been particularly good at backing down once someone confronted or challenged her. It was going to be difficult to keep her head down if Seth kept looking for...well, whatever it was he thought he was looking for.

  Zira looked over at Jared in the seat beside her. The golden light of the sunset pouring in through the window cast a warm glow on his dark skin and illuminated his eyes so that they seemed almost amber at the edges. Something stirred in the pit of Zira’s stomach, a soaring feeling that was both alarming and exhilarating at once.

  Jared caught her watching him and smiled. Zira turned away, trying to ignore the warmth spreading over her cheeks. “Something else bothering you?” he asked.

  “Nothing,” she said flatly.

  The truck parked itself in near the gate and Zira got out and began to unload the guns. They carried them back to the E-2 training facility and locked them up in the proper storage room. “Same time tomorrow?” Jared asked.

  Still preoccupied about her conversation with Seth, Zira hesitated a moment before answering. “Er—yeah, that sounds good.”

  “Unless you don’t want to,” Jared said, and his expression fell just a little. “I can work with them on my own if you’d rather not go.”

  “No,” Zira said quickly. “I’ll be there. I like working with you—them. I mean, it’s been good to help with their training.” Flustered, she turned to the door. Why was she stumbling over her words like this? “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  Jared bid her goodbye, and Zira hurried outside and made her way to the cafeteria for dinner. She spotted Aubreigh at a table and went to sit next to her.

  “I was hoping I’d see you here,” said Aubreigh. “How was your assignment? Did everything go okay with your new partner?”

  “Better than I thought it would, actually. Jared’s not so bad.”

  “See? I told you it would work out if you just gave each other a chance.”

  Zira sighed in mock exasperation. “Yes, you were right, as usual. How
were things in the South Atlantic Region?”

  “Good. Their distribution center was an absolute mess; that’s partly why all the E-1s are here. The rest of my team is still down there trying to sort things out.”

  “So why did you come back early?”

  Aubreigh glanced around and leaned across the table to whisper to Zira. “I’m not supposed to say anything because it’s not official yet, but they’re transferring me to population control.”

  “Oh, wow,” said Zira. She wasn’t exactly sure why Aubreigh seemed so pleased about it, but it must have been a step up from her previous duties. “Congratulations.”

  “Thanks. I think it will be a good change.” She got a message on her CL, glanced at it, and hurried to finish the last few bites of her dinner. “I’ve got to go—some mandatory training meeting for the new job. I’ll see you later.”

  She ran off, leaving Zira to finish the rest of her meal alone in what seemed to be a sea of unwelcome green armbands.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  The next few weeks passed without incident as Jared and Zira finished working with the recruits. Zira introduced Jared and Aubreigh, and the three of them ate meals together regularly now. Aubreigh seemed especially busy with her new job in unit A, but she still made plenty of time to talk to Zira, taking particular interest when Jared came up in conversation. She broached the topic directly one day as they sat outside enjoying the midmorning sun. “What’s going on with you and Jared anyway?”

  “Nothing. We’re friends.”

  A sly twinkle appeared in Aubreigh’s eyes. “You’ve been spending a lot of time with him. Every time I see you two together, I can tell he likes you.”

  “No he doesn’t,” Zira insisted, but she couldn’t help the smile that tugged at her lips.

  “Ah, see?” Aubreigh pointed to Zira’s face. “You get that look every time you talk about him.”

  “You’re imagining things.” Zira turned her head and pretended to be fascinated by the ladybug crawling across their bench.

  “Fine,” Aubreigh said. “You might not realize it yet, but you like him. I’ve known you too long; I can read you like a book.”