Natasha and I walked side by side towards the main entrance of the EPA. I tried to breathe in an attempt to steady my racing heart, but it was pointless. I had to embrace the adrenaline. The metal of the gun was now warm against my leg. With every step, it reminded me of its presence. Natasha cleaned up well. Her hair was straightened, and I was surprised at how much longer it was when it wasn’t up in the chaotic bun. We both wore business heels, but nothing too flashy. I was glad that we wouldn’t be together because we looked like twin assassins or something. Our jet-black hair was identical.
It felt so odd to be here in Washington. I looked around at the massive sandstone and marble-clad buildings and realized this was where it all began. Owen lived here for almost a decade, and now I was back in his turf to finish what he started.
We were maybe one-hundred feet from the entrance. I used my finger just to double check my earpiece hadn’t fallen out. It was so tiny I didn’t even know it was there. Natasha looked at me midstride.
“You ready?”
“Yes,” I breathed the words.
“We are in position in the parking lot,” Grey’s voice said in my ear. “Rachel, do you have your ID?”
“Yes,” I replied softly. I didn’t want anyone to hear me talking to myself.
“Megan,” Lucas began, “how is everything up there?”
“All is well. Still in meeting.”
“Remember, only respond if you think you are being spoken to. We don’t want to jumble ourselves up in a situation like this.”
None of us answered Lucas’s reminder. We knew what to do.
We neared the revolving door, and I split off to the right.
“Good luck,” I whispered to her. She winked back at me, smiling. After hearing her and Grey plan this out together, I could tell she lived for moments like these. I walked over to a bench nearby and sat down. Now I had to wait, but more importantly, I had to listen.
The feed went silent for fifteen seconds.
“Good morning,” I heard a male voice say.
“Good morning,” Natasha replied. Her voice was louder than the man’s in my ear, and I had never heard her speak in this tone. She almost sounded delicate.
“Empty all of your belongings into this bucket and step through the metal detector, please.”
I heard nothing. No beep, just silence.
“Have a good day, officer,” she said.
Good to know. It was one officer—not two.
In the background, I heard the faint clacks of her heels against the floor.
“Good morning, how may I help you?” a female asked.
“Good morning to you, too,” she said politely. “I actually have an interview with Ms. Walling. She told me it was on the second floor, correct?”
There was a pause. It made my gut wrench.
“Oh, okay. My apologies, I was just a little taken aback. They haven’t hired in the archives in over a year.”
“Guess it’s my lucky day, huh?” Natasha chirped. I smiled in reaction. She didn’t miss a beat.
The receptionist laughed. “Why yes, I guess so. Let me call her line to tell her you’re here. What is your name?”
“Natasha Ericsson.”
“Thank you, Ms. Ericsson. Just give me one moment.”
“Great, thank you so much.”
“That’s my girl,” Viktor cheered in my ear. “Using her real name like a badass.”
I restrained the urge to chuckle. Another pause.
“Hi, Megan, there is a Ms. Ericsson here to see you for an interview. Shall I send her up?”
Silence.
“I’ll send her right up,” the receptionist said.
“Thank you so much,” Natasha said, and I began to hear her heels again. “Oh! I almost forgot, I need a huge favor if you don’t mind.”
“Here we go,” Grey said. “It’s show time.”
“Pardon me?” the receptionist sounded caught off guard.
“I’m so sorry, I don’t want to be a bother to you, but I wanted to see if I could print off my letters of recommendation anywhere in here?”
“Uh, not really,” she answered. “There’s a FedEx Kinkos down the street. That might be your best bet.”
I smiled because I knew what was to come.
“Ah, I’ll even pay you for the paper,” Natasha pleaded. “I’ve just worked really, really hard to land this interview and my printer broke at home. I don’t want to waste four years of school on one little mistake.”
“Well…I mean.”
“All I have is this flash drive, and the two letters of recommendation are the only things on there. You have a printer here. You would be the biggest lifesaver if you could. Literally, all you have to do is just stick this in your tower and print it. It’ll only take twenty seconds.”
“I was your age once,” the receptionist cackled. “Sure, just hand me the drive and I’ll print it for you.”
“Ah! Thank you so much. What’s your name?”
“Evelyn.”
“Evelyn, you are a miracle worker! Whose boss do I have to sweet talk to get you a raise?”
They both began laughing together.
“You’re such a good liar,” Viktor complimented.
“She didn’t lie,” Grey said. “It will only take twenty seconds.”
A moment later I heard the printer spit something out.
“Here are your letters.”
“Thank you again, wish me luck!”
“Ms. Ericsson!” the woman called out. “You forgot your flash drive.”
“Oh my God, I almost forgot. Thank you again, Evelyn.”
“Take care and good luck,” the receptionist wished her well. The clacking of her heels began again, and I could hear Natasha’s breathing. She was worked up. The footfalls stopped, and I heard the ding of the elevator.
“Grey, did it work?” she asked, breathing heavily.
“I’m in,” I answered.
“Thank God,” she sighed in relief.
“Natasha,” Lucas began, “Megan’s office is the first one on the left. Go there. Rachel, you’re on deck, followed by Viktor.”
“Roger that,” Rachel said.
I began navigating the system as fast as I possibly could. We only had one real shot at this, and it would be a shame if I let it slip out of our hands because the meeting released for lunch too soon, or something of that nature. Originally, we were going to just hack into the system from Megan’s computer in her office. She informed us that the receptionists’ computers had access to the security feed, but hers didn’t. That was beneficial to us because the closer we could get to the area we needed to be in, the better. I needed to do two things, one of which I would do after Rachel was in the building. I didn’t want to alarm anyone too soon because that could be disastrous. The second, and most difficult, was to disarm the metal detector. Either that or I could get it to glitch right as she walked through. She was trying to bring a weapon into a federal building, and it was up to me to make it happen.
This was much more difficult than what I did at the airport. Being in the mainframe was like being a kid on a playground with an unlimited amount of toys to choose from. Now, I was taking shots in the dark. I found an encrypted ping in the event log from just three minutes ago. Someone walked in on camera, and it sent another. It was the metal detector. The ping Natasha’s walkthrough sent was quite different from the one I was looking at. I switched tabs to the cameras and saw that the person who had walked through had to do it again. He must have walked through with something metal on him.
Damn it. In reality, I couldn’t do much with these pings. Sure, they were received by the event log, but the event log didn’t ping anything back to the metal detector. It was entirely one way. I began scrolling far into the history of the event log.
“Grey, how’s it looking?” Natasha asked.
“Could be better, but I’ll find a way.”
“You will,” she encouraged.
Suddenly, I
found something new. It wasn’t a ping at all. It was just a system status, or a setting. It was a code. It pinged the code once late at night and then early in the morning when it was reset back to normal. Then, the frequent pings of people walking through restarted.
It must have been some form of sleep mode when the public was no longer allowed in the building. That made perfect sense. I had to use that coded system setting late at night and send it to the metal detector now, so Rachel could get through undetected.
“Give me five minutes, and I’ve got this,” I announced.
No one said a word. I used a program on my computer to decrypt the code. I had to make sure that what was extracted was the raw command that would turn the detector to sleep mode. I began typing faster and faster. I wiped some sweat off my brow.
Almost there…
I knew it was going to work, and excitement began to bubble up within me. It was the closest I felt to normal since Owen died. I still couldn’t believe he was gone. It made me want to cry just thinking about it. All the memories growing up in Midlothian together would be just that—memories. Wherever he was, I just hoped he knew how much I admired him. As corny as it sounded, he was my hero. My best friend did so much good in this country, and I still felt honored to this day to have assisted him in his escape from the feds.
I never fully grasped the possibility that he might wind up dead. Guilt soaked into my mind all day long. I felt so horrible for having been the one to suggest to him the idea of going to Atlanta. It was me who planted that seed in his mind, and I didn’t know if I’d ever be able to forgive myself. The polls went up by twelve percent. The Convergence Party was now tied with the democrats, and I smiled at the thought. I knew Owen would be smiling, too. That was the only reason he went along with my plan—to revive his dying party—and it worked. Even if it was just a little bit, it worked.
Since he died, I wondered sometimes if he could hear my thoughts. Well, my brother, if you could hear this right now, just know I did everything you told me to do that night. Everything. No matter what happens, I would keep my promise I made to you that night on the terrace. Brothers kept the bonds they made—in life, and in death.
The command code was decrypted. I found the way to input settings on the metal detector, and I typed in the code I just found. The moment I entered it in, it pinged the identical encrypted code that the detector would ping when it was set in its sleep mode.
“Rachel,” I said. “It’s time to go.”
I stood up without hesitation.
“Are you sure it will work?”
“Positive,” Grey’s voice eased the knot in my gut.
I swallowed hard, and it felt like there was a rock in my throat. The air outside was cold, but my body felt like it was on fire. I walked towards the revolving door, as confidently and nonchalant as I possibly could. The beige-stone building towered over me, with its gigantic pillars running down the length of its crescent shape. I guess the government needed such a formidable-looking structure to hide its deepest darkest secrets.
That all ended today.
I arranged some curls in front of my face before I walked into the door. I didn’t want to be recognized before I had the chance to do what I needed to do. I took a deep breath and stepped in the revolving door. Immediately, the autumn cold was replaced with the warmth of inside. The same officer who greeted Natasha was there to greet me. He stood up from his seat behind a chrome counter and outstretched the bin to me.
“Put your belongings in here, ma’am.”
He sounded docile enough. Breathe. There was nothing to worry about. What belongings did I even have? I placed my pre-paid phone and my EPA ID inside. I had nothing else. How embarrassing and unusual for a female in 2016. I turned to face the metal detector, and I prayed inside that Grey was right. I held my breath and walked through.
Nothing. No beep.
“Yes!” Grey shouted in my earpiece.
Next step. I walked across the marble floors, with my heels clacking just as Natasha’s had. I saw the receptionist who I presumed to be Evelyn, and I began to walk past her.
“Excuse me,” she called out. “Do you have an appointment?”
I smiled. “No, I work here.”
She gave me a confused look.
“ID please,” she stuck out her hand behind the counter.
I handed it to her, and she examined it through reading glasses that sat on the edge of her nose. I grew nervous when she didn’t hand it back. She stuck it under a machine. I watched as a purple light shined down on the ID, and she looked at it again.
“All right, here you go,” she turned around and handed it to me. She shot me a weird glance.
“Thank you,” I said, turning around to head towards the elevator. The clacking of my heels was so noticeable it irritated me. Just another thing to draw attention to myself. When I made it to the elevator, it felt like an eternity for it to open. Once I was inside, I hit the button for the second floor and let out a huge breath. I was exasperated. Now, I understood why Natasha was breathing so heavy when she reached it. My nerves were on edge the entire time.
“I made it,” I gasped.
“Bravo, Rachel,” Viktor complimented.
“Briana, your ID just saved my ass. She put it under UV light and it still worked.”
“That’s what I’m here for, amiga,” she chuckled.
“Grey and Natasha, thank you so much for getting me in here.”
“Don’t thank me,” Natasha said. “It was all Grey.”
“She’s too kind,” he added humbly.
Ding.
The elevator opened. This floor was like I had just taken a time machine back to the nineties. The carpet was a faded coral, and the wallpaper was light yellow. I remembered Lucas’s instructions.
First office on your left. There were a few women on the right in their cubicles, but they weren’t paying any attention to me.
I gently pushed opened the first door on the left and saw Megan and Natasha sitting across from each other.
“Long time no see,” Natasha said.
“Tell me about it.”
Megan sat there with her perfectly straight, white-blonde hair and remained expressionless. I wondered if she was as nervous as I was. The almost hot metal against my outer thigh was a constant reminder of what I was about to do. I didn’t say a word to her. Her lips were pressed together, and she stared back at me with blue eyes that were searching my own.
She nodded her head and stood up. Natasha revealed a soft smile.
“We’ll see you on the other side,” she said and gave me a nod. “I know how much Viktor wanted to do this himself one day, but it wouldn’t be right if it was anyone other than you.”
My breathing became more pronounced as the time slipped forward. It was hard to grasp that this was even reality…but undoubtedly, it was. The pain I had endured was real. Owen and my mother were gone, and I couldn’t get them back. The aching feeling in my gut returned, and I harnessed it. I controlled it and didn’t let it control me. I was finished being the victim. The people I loved were ripped out of my life, and there was only one thing left to do—to make them pay the debt for what they took. Blood for blood.
I placed my hand gently on Natasha’s shoulder.
“Thank you,” I said, gently. “I’ll see you on the other side.”
Megan stood beside me and waited until I said my goodbyes to open the door. I noticed her chest rising quicker than normal. She was nervous. My heels were silenced by the carpet, and I was thankful. Veronica probably thought she had won, and that she had nothing to worry about. Unfortunately for her, I was just down the hall, and in a few moments she would be face to face with me—the woman she stole everything from.
“Viktor,” Natasha’s voice sounded in my earpiece. “It is time to come.”
“I’m on it,” he answered.
Megan turned a corner and I followed her around it. We began down an elongated hall that seemed to stretch out
forever, and there was a single, opaque glass door at the end of it.
“Is that it?” I whispered.
“Yes.”
My memories of Owen began to flood my mind. The day at the café when I had the courage to first approach him with my idea, the conversation we had in the pool in Miami, and the night on the beach. There were so many others darting around, all of which were precious to me.
My steps were measured, and as we neared the door my heart began to race. I knew if Owen and my mother were here, things would be different. I wouldn’t crave the revenge so ravenously, and in all my conversations with him, there was one thing I remembered above all else. What I was about to do, this wasn’t for me. This was for everyone. Every life that was lost in the Confinement, and all the families that were torn apart—this was for them. If we didn’t stand up for our freedom, who would? That was what I had realized throughout this journey, from Owen and Viktor, was that this wasn’t an isolated incident. This had been going on for decades, only reaching its pinnacle in the time after the Confinement. All the elites were in on this, and they couldn’t care less. They had the power and influence to keep us subdued forever. We were the last hope for this great country, and I would be damned if I sat back and watched our citizens get piled into Camps by the hundreds of thousands. No, that would never happen again. Not on my watch.
We were ten feet from the door, and I caught a whiff of Megan’s perfume. Her long, blonde hair flowed side to side with her every step. She was well-built, and we had similar figures. I knew she was a big part of Owen’s life, and on a personal basis, I was jealous. I wanted to say something snide. Last night, I finally had the courage to ask Grey how long she was with him. They were together for five years. I remembered on the drive to Orlando he had mentioned that he only had one girlfriend since he was twenty-one. They were together less than two years ago. It hurt to know they were an item for so long, but I also remembered Owen’s words. He loved me. I felt the same way about him, and part of me wondered if I would ever feel the same way about another man again. I pulled it together as we reached the door, and I swallowed my pride. Megan had agreed to help us, and without her, I wouldn’t have been standing in front of the boardroom door right now. I would still be lying in bed, wallowing in my grief. She loved Owen too, just like I did…and I knew that he was probably half, or all the reason she agreed to help us. I had to show some respect for that.
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