Ill-Fated (Ill-Fated Series Book 1)

by S. C. McMurray

  “TV on,” she said.

  Nothing happened.

  “TV on,” she said louder.

  It didn’t work.

  She sighed, “Of course.”

  She got up and manually turned on the TV.

  Immediately an image of the First General appeared on the screen. She hurriedly changed the channel but it was no use. It was a special broadcast, which meant he was on every channel. She shook her head and sat down on the edge of the bed.

  First General Thatcher stood at the podium imbued with the nation’s Coat of Arms, taking in the applause. He was speaking from what was known as the ‘Judgment Seat.’ A two-thousand seat amphitheater designed and constructed for one purpose, public executions. Like most Party structures, it was made of concrete and steel. On that afternoon, it was full to capacity with a swell of applauding hands.

  After a moment, he raised his hand and the clapping ceased. He was quite the presence behind the thin microphone.

  “To the United People of America, today we end a painful chapter in our young nation’s history. Today, we administer justice to those who were responsible for the tragedy in Satryapy Six. Today, we remember the loss of those who perished in the bombing and we vow to always remember their sacrifice by hunting down those who seek to divide this great union of people in this great land of America. A Union formed by the blood of our people, by the strength of our convictions, by the leadership of one party.”

  The crowd rose to their feet with applause.

  After a moment he quieted them again. “My fellow citizens, when I was a young man, I was hopeless. It was our military who ripped me from the streets and gave me a future. Through discipline and war, I learned the value of honor, through discipline and war, I became strong. My story is the same as many of yours. This nation, led by our great party, has given us hope and security.”

  Again the crowd interrupted him with applause and again he quieted them with just one move of his hand. “If that hope is to remain, if that security is to remain, then we, as a united people, must remain vigilant. The enemy is more than just these two traitors.”

  He gestured with his arm to the gallows behind him and the camera pulled back, revealing two masked criminals, waiting for their execution.

  “The authors of this tragedy will face judgment, but there are others. We can be certain of this…”

  At that moment, Evelyn felt like he was speaking just to her.

  “…They will be found and like the traitors before you, they will face their due judgment. Thank you, my fellow citizens and long live the Union.”

  The crowd of people rose to their feet with a roaring ovation. The First General turned from the podium and disappeared behind a blood red curtain, located to the left of the stage.

  The broadcasters cut to their leading Party analyst for commentary. A bald headed man with a navy blue tie and a chirpy young woman appeared on the screen.

  “Another rousing speech from First General Thatcher,.” chirped the young woman.

  “Indeed, Michelle, one of his best,” said the baldheaded man.

  “The crowd seems to agree with us,” the young woman added.

  The camera panned across the crowd still standing and applauding as if the First General was still on stage.

  With the ovation beginning to soften behind her, the young woman spoke solemnly. “Before we witness judgment, let us take a moment to honor and reflect on the lives of those who were lost in the tragedy in Satrapy Six.”

  A solitary piano piece began to play as the names and faces of the thirty-two people killed in the bombing scrolled across the screen. When the piece came to an end, the broadcast cut back to the analysts.

  The baldheaded man was appropriately downcast. “A tragedy from the truest meaning of the word.”

  The young woman nodded in agreement. “Yes.” Then turned to face the camera and her chirpiness returned. “But it looks as if the moment we’ve all been waiting for has arrived.”

  The broadcast cut to a shot of the two masked criminals being escorted to the gallows. “We will finally see the faces of those responsible of this heinous act of terror.”

  “They’re SPC.” Evelyn whispered to herself.

  Just then, Rillian entered the room through the door. “I can’t believe you’re watching that propaganda bull crap.”

  She suddenly felt guilty and turned off the TV just as the guards were about to remove the masks covering the criminal’s faces. “You’re right. That could easily be us up there.”

  “I know and I can’t stand to watch two innocent people die, just so Thatcher can send a message.”

  “I hear you.” Evelyn said. “But if they’re SPC, technically they did break the law.”

  Rillian was aghast. “Are you defending the Party?”

  “No, not at all. I’m just saying that they probably knew the risks when they got involved.”

  “Yes, we all do.” He responded as he pulled the hair dye from the plastic bag he was carrying. “But they’re being executed for a crime they didn’t commit.” He was getting angrier as he spoke. “It’s unjust and it robs them off the true meaning of their sacrifice.”

  “And what is the true meaning of their sacrifice?”

  “When the bottom drops out beneath their feet, those heroes will hang for all the quiet voices too afraid to speak, for all the faithful people living in fear and for all those who believe in a morality different than the one the Party forces upon us.”

  Evelyn thought about Lana and Clive and Selena and Everett and she felt sad. “You’re right, Rillian, it’s heartbreaking that only so few will know the truth.”

  That fierce determination Evelyn was starting to admire so much, blazed in Rillian’s eyes. “I intend to fix that.”

  “How?”

  “By helping you.” He took a seat beside her on the edge of the bed. “There is something special about you, Evelyn. You don’t see it yet but you will.” He pulled a pair of scissors from the bag. “Now, I think a foot ought to do it.”

  Evelyn grabbed her hair. “That much, huh?”

  “We can do more,” he said gleefully. “Shave you bald, and then tattoo your bare skin. You’ll be like one of those punk chicks.”

  “But then I’d have to borrow your leather chaps,” she joked.

  “I don’t wear leather chaps,” he said defensively.

  She smirked. “That’s not what Lana told me.”

  He sighed to himself. “That was only one time and I was dared to do it.”

  “Sure it was,” she made quotes with her fingers, “and you were ‘dared’ to do it.”

  Rillian smiled. “You just wish you could’ve seen it.”

  “I prefer not to go blind.” She responded. “Now, are we going to do this or what?”

  He snipped the air with his scissors. “I’m ready.”

  Evelyn pulled the sheet off the bed and handed it to Rillian, who cut a hole in it just big enough for her to slip her head through. She slipped it over her head and took a seat in the leather chair. Rillian stood behind her with the scissors.

  “Don’t butcher it Rillian, okay?”

  “Don’t worry,” he said with a sly smile, “I’ll be gentle.”

  He began and Evelyn watched her red hair fall onto the sheet then slide down into piles at her feet as Rillian scissored away at it. “Is it sad, cutting your hair like this?” he asked.

  “If it helps me save my parents and my friends, not one bit.”

  Rillian finished and to her surprise, he didn’t do a half bad job. Rillian wrapped up the hair in the sheet and tossed sheet and all in the trash can. They then went to the bathroom sink, where they applied the hair dye. When it was all said and done, Evelyn was staring in the mirror at a black haired version of herself with a pixie cut..

  “Do you like it?” Rillian asked from behind her.

  “It’s…different.”

  “Good,” he said with satisfaction. “That’s what we were going for.
”

  Evelyn turned from the mirror. “Let’s go.”

  “You sure?” Rillian was surprised. “You haven’t slept in a really long time.”

  “I tried, I can’t sleep.”

  “Too worried?”

  Evelyn nodded. That was part of it but she didn’t want to confess that when she closed her eyes all she saw was the young captain who had captured their friends.

  “The sooner the better, then.” Rillian grabbed the room key off the night stand, “I don’t want our friends to end up like those others on TV.”

  Evelyn grabbed the ID gun, loaded with Dr. Larkin’s ID, she pressed the point of its barrel against her wrist. She winced and pulled the trigger. “They won’t.”

  Fifteen minutes later, Evelyn was approaching the front revolving door of the bank. The only living people who worked at banks anymore were the security guards stationed at every entrance and at specific points inside. These were not police academy rejects with flashlights, these were former military personnel with training. They worked for the interior department and all wore the same dark green uniforms.

  When she was a child, she thought that the bank security guards were robots because they never smiled.

  She worried about them. If they suspected anything they would act and the worst thing that Rillian and Evelyn could do was draw their attention.

  Evelyn paused before going in and whispered to herself, “I hope this works.”

  She looked back over her shoulder and saw Rillian approaching behind as planned, then pushed her way through the revolving doors.

  Once inside she didn’t dare to look up, she was sure that the cameras were watching but she didn’t want to give them a good look at her face.

  The bank was busy as expected. After Evelyn made it past the security guards at the entrance, who didn’t even give her a second glance, she was greeted by the hologram of a beautiful woman.

  “Hello citizen,” the hologram said generically. “Welcome to the First National Bank of Detroit. What can I help you with today?

  “I need access to my safe deposit box.”

  The hologram smiled politely. “Follow me, please.”

  Evelyn followed the ghostly hologram as it glided across the shiny tiled floor to a large metal door. There was a burly security guard standing next to it. Evelyn averted her eyes, she had a bad feeling about him. The hologram stopped at the door and turned around.

  “In order to go further, you must provide identification. You have two options. Option 1: Place your wrist in the scanner to be identified. Or option 2: Look into the retinal scanner to be identified. Which do you choose?”

  “Option one.”

  The holograph spoke gravely, “Before we go on, I am obligated to inform you that any attempt to forge access into the safety deposit area is against the law. Any failed attempt at identification leaves you viable for questioning from security personnel. Please acknowledge that you understand.”

  “I understand.”

  “Acknowledgment accepted.” The hologram’s perky smile returned. “Let us continue. You have chosen option one.”

  A panel slid to the side and a wrist scanner rose from the ground like it was a sapling growing into a tree.

  “Place wrist in scanner and wait until beeping sound occurs and light flashes, then step away.”

  The hologram folded her hands behind her back. Evelyn glanced over at the security guard. He was watching her with a curled eyebrow. She took a short breath and stepped forward hoping that the wrist scanner would work. She placed her wrist in the ring-like device. A red grid of lasers flashed upon her skin and the machine beeped. Then a green light on the top of the device illuminated.

  The hologram smiled. “Access granted.”

  The metal door beside her opened revealing an elevator. “Hello Dr. Larkin, you may step into the elevator.”

  Evelyn could feel the curious stare of the security guard upon her at the mention of Dr. Larkin’s name and she knew exactly what he was thinking.

  She is way too young to be a doctor.

  She didn’t dare look in his direction, she just tilted her chin up a bit and strode onto the elevator as if she was indeed an important person as the title before her name implied. The hologram followed her and she let out sigh of relief once the doors shut.

  Riding down the elevator with a hologram was just as awkward as riding with another person you didn’t know. Even the hologram refused to make eye contact. After about twenty seconds the elevator came to a stop and the doors opened revealing a pristine corridor lined with hundreds of tiny doors. It was like an upgraded and cleaner version of the locker-room at her school.

  “Is there anything you need from me, Dr. Larkin?”

  “No, thanks.” Evelyn answered.

  The hologram gestured for her to leave the elevator. “You may proceed. I will be waiting here if you need me.”

  Evelyn nodded and proceeded down the corridor.

  The safety deposit box she was looking for, 247, was located halfway down the corridor at about eye level. Evelyn pulled the key from her pocket and inserted it into the lock located on the front of the safety deposit box. There was a clicking sound and then the deposit box opened like a drawer from the wall and dropped until it was about waist high. The box was the color of brass and there was a touch screen located on the top.

  A message appeared on the touch screen: “Enter password to open.”

  Evelyn grumbled to herself. “Password? How am I supposed to know the password?”

  She sighed then typed in L-A-R-K-I-N. It didn’t work.

  She glanced down the corridor at the hologram. She was waiting patiently with her hands folded behind her back. Evelyn found her presence to be a little disquieting.

  Evelyn returned to what she was doing.

  “What can it be?”

  She thought about the little she’d gathered from Dr. Larkin’s room. He liked music, hunting, reading…he played football at Harvard! With hope she typed in H-A-R-V-A-R-D, but once again it didn’t work. She sighed in frustration and the hologram noticed.

  “Is something wrong?” She asked. “Do you need my assistance?”

  Evelyn shook her head adamantly. “No. I’m fine.”

  That seemed to have appeased the hologram for the moment, but Evelyn knew she was running out of time.

  She focused on the touch pad and whispered to herself, “Come on Evelyn, think, what else was in that room?”

  She thought of the bear skinned rug, but she didn’t even know where to begin with that. She thought of the piano and that led her to the biography of Mozart that was in his collection of books. She typed in M-O-Z-A-R-T, but it failed as well.

  Evelyn sighed inwardly and glanced at the hologram who was watching her more intently now. Beads of anxious sweat were forming on Evelyn’s brow and on the verge of outright panic, she closed her eyes and racked her brain.

  Suddenly, she remembered the horticulture book that she had used to access the hidden room in Dr. Larkin’s cabin. Quite quickly, as if someone had sent a message to her brain, she saw the image of a vase of wild flowers sitting on a long dark oak dinner table. There was a tug at her heart as the answer escaped her lips unabated.

  “Trifoium.”

  The holograph began to glide to her, but Evelyn remained calm. She typed in T-R-I-F-O-I-U-M and the safety deposit box opened just as the hologram reached her.

  “Is everything alright?”

  Evelyn smiled at her. “Yes. I just had a mental block for a moment.”

  The hologram smiled then retreated back down the corridor. Evelyn waited until the hologram was hovering at the elevator before reaching inside and pulling out a leather bound book.

  “A journal?”

  She contemplated opening it right there, but the camera at the opposite end of the corridor was enough to make her think twice about that. Instead she pressed it under her arm and headed for the elevator. The doors opened and she stepped in. She was foll
owed by the hologram.

  “Did you find what you were looking for, Dr. Larkin?”

  Evelyn squeezed the book against her side. “Yes.” She hoped so, anyway.

  “Good,” the hologram replied.

  The doors shut and the awkward ascension began, though Evelyn wasn’t as anxious now that she had successfully broken into Dr. Larkin’s safety deposit box. She was aching to open the book and look inside but the hologram was way to close.

  Finally, the elevator dinged indicating that they had reached the ground floor. She exhaled a breath of relief. She would be out of the building soon and away from the hologram’s diligent eye. The doors opened, but Evelyn was greeted by the open palm of the burly security guard.

  “Halt!” he ordered.

  Evelyn froze and the sense of relief she had been feeling vanished like a thief in the night.

  His fierce eyes beating down on her, the security guard asked, “What is your name?”

  “Dr. Larkin,” Evelyn answered as coolly as possible.

  He glanced down at the book in her arms, she pulled it closer to her chest. When his eyes narrowed upon it, Evelyn knew she had to act.

  “Sir, why are you questioning me? I have broken no law.”

  He scoffed. “I am the law in here.”

  Her heart sank into her stomach. She’d liked the bank’s security better when they were just robots.

  “Hold out your arm,” he ordered.

  Evelyn switched the book into her other arm and held out her left arm. The guard grabbed it like it was a twig in his hands. She didn’t like how vulnerable she felt in his firm grasp.

  She glanced over his shoulder and saw Rillian coming through the front revolving door, but what could he do? The guard motioned to another guard who wheeled over a portable retinal scanner.

  “A doctor huh?” He asked sarcastically, as though certain that she was lying.

  She was beginning to tremble in his grasp and she couldn’t help it.

  “Open your eyes wide and look into the scanner.” He ordered.

  Evelyn swallowed hard and did as directed. After a few seconds the machine beeped and she stepped away. An image flashed on the screen of his scanner and he stared at it for a second in disbelief then loosed his grip of her wrist.