He closes up the bag of fruit and turns back to me, waiting for his new task. At the same time, my mother leans forward, her eyes pleading for me to keep Arluin from danger.
“I need you and Seonah to look for something,” I tell him.
My mother instantly relaxes with my words, realizing this is something he can do from the safety of Securus.
“What are we looking for?” he asks eagerly.
“With the link to Caelum you guys set up, can you see if they have a historical record? I want to know if there’s any information left from when Securus tried to make an above ground settlement in the past,” I tell him.
“As long as they keep the records in the same database we should be able to find it. I’ll tell Ms. Drok when I get to class. We’ll let you know when we find something,” he says.
I turn back to my breakfast. The food is full of the poison we have grown to depend on. While eating, I wonder if we will ever see the end of this stuff. Tailyn has been working on manipulating the poison, but her progress has been slow. As soon as the food is emptied from my plate, I leave the breakfast hall. Today will be a busy day, and there are a lot of stops to make. On my way to the staircase at the end of the hall, two men walk uncomfortably close behind me. Halfway to the door they speak to each other, intentionally being loud enough for me to hear.
“This bunch in Leadership is exactly like the last. They only care about themselves. I doubt they’re even really trying to get away from Caelum,” one of the men says.
I take a deep breath and continue on, doing my best to ignore them. While most of our people understand why we are being cautious, others are having a difficult time comprehending the complexity of the danger Caelum presents. We expected some level of frustration and these young men are merely venting.
“Yeah, you know that Kagen guy is plotting to get control over us. He probably made up all those stories about Aamon and the others. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s the one behind all of this and everyone that’s died,” the other sneers.
My hands tremble and my heart pounds through my chest. It takes every part of me to remain silent and keep walking. Venting is one thing, but they are going too far. My muscles tense as my body yearns to silence the two men. Still, I march forward.
“It’s pretty convenient that whoever ends up close to him dies. Just look at what happened with Aamon and Cale. Not to mention Merrick and Nyree,” the first man says.
My body refuses to take another step. I try to move forward, but the mention of my fallen friends stirs an overwhelming rage inside me. I spin around and pin one of the men against the steel wall of the hallway. Ignoring the workers coming to see the source of this commotion, my hand instinctively finds its way to his throat, applying pressure on his carotid arteries and trachea. With the pressure, I feel his breath and the blood flow to his brain slowing.
“Don’t you dare say their names again!” I growl at him. His friend steps forward, but one look into my eyes stops him in place.
My actions do not feel like my own. I order my hands to let him go, but they do not budge. The pain that has been building up since the Death Detail until now controls me. I am powerless to stop it. His eyes meet mine. They open wide in terror for a fleeting moment before beginning to glaze over. He is nearly unconscious.
“Kagen! Let him go,” my mother calls out, pushing through the growing crowd.
Her voice breaks the hold my pain has on me. My hands open, releasing the man. He falls onto his friend, barely staying upright. As his friend caries him off, my mother puts her hand on my shoulder and whispers in my ear, “Even if they deserve it, you have to be better than that.”
The more my anger fades, the more shocking the lack of control feels to me. I have been getting increasingly jumpy and irritable lately. Intellectually, I know my anger is a manifestation of the stress of our plight, as well as a toll taken from what I have been through. Still, that knowledge does nothing to help me control those feelings. Either way, I need to get a handle on this. Before leaving, I look my mother in the eye. “You’re right. It won’t happen again.”
I push past the stunned onlookers and run into the stairwell. Only now, as I completely regain my composure, do the potential consequences of the outburst hit me. We all know our people are getting impatient, but I cannot let anyone get to me like that. I must remember what is at stake. There are many more people who support what we are doing than the scattered ones who do not. We cannot afford to let things like this give anyone reason to turn against us. I will have to find some time later to talk with the workers and apologize to them.
By the time I reach the upper levels, my inner turmoil has subsided. That is a good thing because my next task will not be a pleasant one. The main corridor is nearly empty. A few other Leadership members have arrived, but most of the group, including Talia, is not here yet. I take my seat near the front. After what happened to Nyree, I cannot bear sitting in my old spot. Doing so reminds me too much of her. I take a deep breath to clear my mind. These meetings have always been annoying, although now they are not as bad as before. Not all of the Leadership members agree with our plans, but after Braeden killed Cale, the opposition has become much less vocal.
Talia enters the room and heads straight for me with a tense gait. She leans over to look me in the eye. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine,” I reply. Apparently, she was already informed of my outburst.
She puts her hand on my cheek and leans in close. “Kagen?”
My heart melts from her touch. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make things more difficult.”
“I can deal with that. Just don’t make me worry about you.”
The room quickly fills up, so Talia goes to her podium to start the meeting. She informs them of the general details of our scouting trip and then the council turns their attention to me. They repeatedly ask the same questions using different words. Even so, the meeting goes pretty much as planned. We intentionally omit the grave site, wanting to give them something positive to think about while we figure out what Caelum really knows. Even those who normally oppose our plans seem pleased with the news.
After we disperse, I head to stairs. Lunch time has already past, but I go to the lunch hall anyway. Inside, two people will be waiting for me. Finding them is not a problem. As soon as I maneuver through the outflow of people to get inside, a voice calls out to me.
“There he is! I thought those hemorrhoids were gonna keep you in bed all day, Kagen!” Hadwin shouts with a beaming smile.
I laugh and shake my head. For once, the embarrassment does not bother me. Knowing some things will never change actually comforts me. I join Sayda and Hadwin at their table on the far side of the room. Ignoring Hadwin’s joke, Sayda grabs the blonde hair from her shoulders, gathering it into her customary ponytail.
“Thanks for your heartfelt concern, Hadwin,” I tell him.
“Hey, I’m just looking out for my friend!” he explains.
“How was the trip?” Sayda asks, watching me closely with her crystal blue eyes.
“Helpful, but we need to make sure Caelum doesn’t know of that site before we move forward,” I whisper.
While we go over the details of my trip, Hadwin constantly reminds me that despite the residual limp from his leg injury, he could be useful out there. Every time he brings it up I involuntarily shudder. Thinking of him on the surface with a limp brings back the memory of being forced to watch Nyree unable to escape the mountain lion. Her prior injury slowed her down enough to cost her life. I cannot let something like that again. Seeing any more of my friends die would be more than I could bear.
“Did you guys make any progress tracking down the rest of the poison boxes?” I ask, wanting to change the subject.
“It’s slow, but steady. Every time we think we’re almost done, another one pops up,” Hadwin says is a serious voice. “Most of the newer finds are in restricted areas.”
“Any progress is helpful.
I have some time to help out before my next trip,” I tell them.
“The tracker’s in my office. You can get it now if you want,” Hadwin says.
“Sounds good, but I have one other stop to make first,” I tell him. “Did anything else happen while I was gone?”
“Not really,” Hadwin replies, missing my real point, as usual.
I look over to Sayda and am met by an icy stare intended to shut me up. I usually find comfort in the fact that some things never change with my friends, but this is not one of those things. Hadwin and Sayda do spend a lot of time together, but ever since Radek recovered, she spends almost as much time with him as well.
We all need to get to work, so before Sayda decides to do more than just give me a pointed look, I stop talking. Hadwin goes back to the Electronics Department while I head up the stairs with Sayda following close behind me. We are just outside the Research Department before she lets me speak again.
“Where are you going?” Sayda asks.
“To see Tailyn,” I answer as we head in our separate directions. At the door to Tailyn’s workstation, I stop and look over the recent changes. Ever since this project was given the highest priority, the equipment in here has doubled. Along with Tailyn, two other research workers scurry about inside amongst the many vials, pipettes, centrifuges, and Codens lining the metal counter tops. There are now two separate refrigerated storage areas with clear doors, both nearly filled to capacity. Their methods are beyond my medical training, though I know they are working on a way to subvert the poison in our food. The Healers focus solely on the treatment of patients and not on research. Tailyn notices me standing in the doorway.
“Hey, Kagen. You coming in?” she asks impatiently.
I erase the blank stare from my face and walk inside. “How’s it going?”
“Didn’t you get my message?” she asks. “I sent for you this morning.”
“No, I didn’t. Unfortunately, I was in a Leadership meeting,” I tell her. “So, what’s the news?”
“Well, as you know, the antidote manipulation was a dead end. We have a team trying new things with that, but nothing has shown any real promise. That’s the bad news. The good is we may have a breakthrough with the poison manipulation,” Tailyn says with a satisfied smile. Now that she has fully recovered from her own bout with the vitamin deficiency, her tanned complexion and dark hair seem as vibrant as ever. If she affected Jace so much before, I can only imagine what would happen now that her full beauty has returned.
“May have a breakthrough?” I ask.
“Well, it’s working well in our lab testing so far. We set up a series of testing solutions to simulate our own physiologic conditions from the gastrointestinal tract to the blood stream. The modified protein complex has remained stable in all of them. If this holds up, the poison component will be able to deliver the antidote while remaining otherwise inert,” Tailyn says.
“Excellent!” The news is encouraging, though we both now there is another step before we can declare this a success. “Are you ready for human testing yet?”
“Almost, we have a few more things to check to be sure it’s safe enough. But since we’re already exposed to this stuff all the time, I don’t think there’ll be any problems. If Leadership gives us clearance, we should be able to start tomorrow,” she says.
“I want to be in the first test group then,” I tell her.
“No, that’s not gonna happen,” she replies, shaking her head vigorously. “Talia said you would volunteer. She also made it abundantly clear that you are not allowed to be in the first testing phase.”
Like always, Talia is one step ahead. I can argue all day, but Talia will not change her mind, and Tailyn would never go against her orders. Instead of wasting our time, I thank Tailyn for the update and send a message to Talia. She will have to schedule another meeting to get approval for the testing. Unfortunately, since this concerns the Pellagra outbreak, I will not be able to get out of attending.
Before returning to the Leadership meeting room, there is another stop for me to make. I leave the Research Department, heading down the stairs. When the plain white numbers on the wall displays the right digits, I leave the stairs, entering another corridor. It has been some time since I was here last. The constraining hallway is similar to all the others in Securus with plain walls, warm lights overhead, and a lighted track along the floor. The artificial lights are meant to simulate the sun’s rays, but after experiencing the real thing, this substitute does not even come close. Before, these hallways seemed open and soothing, now they feel nearly as cramped as the smallest tunnels in The Caves. Yet another thing Caelum forces us to endure.
In this particular hallway, there are not many side doors lining the way, making the area more secure because of the limited points of entry. The corridor leads up to a wide, locked door with a plain white sign labeling the area inside: Electronics Department.
Like it does everywhere else in Securus, my identification unlocks the door. Having unlimited access to our facility is a benefit of my position as Talia’s personal advisor, or her ‘boy toy,’ as Radek once said. Thinking of Radek distracts me. I make a mental note to check on him later since I have not seen him in a while. He has made slow but steady progress recovering from the effects of the animal attacks as well as the gun blast he sustained while we hunted down Aamon. A less robust man would have never survived the injuries, but he has endured.
I open the door and refocus my attention. I used to wonder how it was possible for us to keep getting the supplies we need for all of our electronic equipment. That wonder ended when Mr. Vaden gave me the answer. Most of the raw material needed comes from Caelum. It seems odd that they would go through the trouble of harvesting the materials themselves, but gathering it for us is better than having to make the pieces themselves. As the thought runs across my mind another jumps in front of it. We supply them energy and electronic components, but that doesn’t mean they collect the raw materials themselves, I think to myself. The materials could be coming from Munitus. Is that their burden?
I enter the dim main corridor of the Electronics Department. At the end of the hallway, glowing light from the larger storage area feels like a beacon to draw in our workers. I walk past numerous doors with different department labels on them. Each one has been adorned with a clear portal, revealing workers inside, busy with creating the things needed to run Securus and supply Caelum. Every room has different equipment meant for its own specialized function. The manufactured pieces pass through most of them before they are complete.
I stop at the border between the work and storage area, looking over to my left. The area behind me appears to be a simple bare wall, but looks can be deceiving. With the right access code, the wall opens up. Inside waits a hidden elevator to deliver finished equipment up to the transfer room situated at the end of the rail tracks on the Leadership level. The secret elevator is not why I am here now though.
In front of me lies another door, except this one does not have a window to see inside like the others. I knock on the door and wait for a reply. The door does open, but the man inside remains seated at his desk. Despite the interruption, Hadwin does not stop working. He does not even peel his eyes from the computer screen lighting his face. The distracted and restrained reaction is definitely unusual for him.
“You look busy,” I tell Hadwin while walking into his office.
Hadwin turns around when hearing my voice. “Yeah, we’re running close to a deadline. My guess is this shipment’s all going to Caelum.”
“Where’s the tracker for the poison boxes?” I ask.
He pulls it from a drawer in his desk. “It’s all yours.”
Hadwin shows me how to use the device before returning to his chair. Seeing him behave this seriously is weird for me, especially since he seemed normal earlier today. Not wanting to disturb him, I turn to leave. Before the door closes behind me, he lets out a deep sigh.
“What’s going on?” I ask,
pausing in the doorway.
Hadwin hesitates. When he does turn toward me, his eyes stay directed downward, looking at his hands in his lap. “It’s…I don’t know what to do.”
Something really important must be on his mind for him to be acting so differently than his usual upbeat and jovial self.
Chapter 4
Hadwin has a remarkable ability to be a clown in the face of almost any adversity. Knowing him for as long as I have, there could only be one thing capable of making him behave this timidly.
“With Sayda?” I almost want to kick myself as soon as the words come out, knowing how Sayda would react if she knew I brought it up.
“Yeah.” Hadwin looks up to me while slumping over in his chair. “I want to talk to her, but every time I even get close to bringing it up, she changes the subject. I guess she’s just not ready. It wouldn’t be so bad if she didn’t spend so much time with him.”
His words stun me. I always assumed Hadwin was the one procrastinating. The possibility of Sayda avoiding the subject with him never even crossed my mind. “Are you sure she knew what you were hinting at? You can be vague sometimes.”
“No, she knew. There are times when I feel a connection. The problem is, those are the times she pulls away,” Hadwin says.
“Well, you can’t force her to be ready. If you think about it, it’s not surprising she would need some time. We’ve all been through a lot. Watching over both of you guys when you were in the ICU was really hard on her,” I tell him, searching for a good reason why she would avoid the subject. “Give her some time. It’ll work out.”
“I guess. Has she said anything to you?” Hadwin asks.
“No. And I haven’t pressured her much for any information since the idea of eating through a straw for the rest of my life isn’t very appealing,” I say with a small chuckle, hoping to lighten the mood.
The Seat of Power (The Securus Trilogy Book 3) Page 4