The Seat of Power (The Securus Trilogy Book 3)

by Anthony Maldonado

  He pounces on top of me, pinning my arms to the side before cocking his arm back to punch me. I jerk my head to the side, causing his fist connect with the steel floor. The attacker pauses long enough from the pain in his hand for me to get my arms free. Even so, I cannot get him off of me. He is too strong. So instead, I reach out and pull him closer to me. With no room to put his full weight into the punches, they lose some of their power as he refocuses on my exposed ribs.

  Realizing my intent, he stops punching and moves his forearm onto my neck. The pressure suffocates me. I look for help, but none comes. Arluin is still unable to get up from the floor, and the man I knocked out earlier is back up, keeping Eldin occupied. The pressure in my head builds. Dark spots mix with sparkling lights to cloud by vision. If I do not do something soon, he is going to choke me out.

  My hands futilely attempt to pry his forearm from my neck. On the brink of unconsciousness, I remember the special compartment recently built into my belt, mimicking the one Radek keeps his spare knife in. My right hand slips from his forearm, reaching for my belt. I take the hidden knife and stab my attacker through the bicep of the arm he uses to choke me. The pain causes him to release the pressure, allowing air to fill my lungs.

  He sits up, clutching at the stab wound. While he is unbalanced, I lift my body off the floor, throwing him to the side. The man does not recover until I have pounced on top of him. He reaches for my knife with his uninjured arm. Before he can grab my weapon, I stab him through his extended hand. Now he is crippled by injuries to both upper extremities. When he retracts his skewered hand, my knife instinctively finds its way to his throat. Up to this point, the crowd has been getting louder and louder during our fight. Seeing my lethal intent, their morbid cheers halt.

  For a moment, all I hear is my own racing heart and the voice in the back of my mind urging me to finish this monster. This bastard’s gotta be one of the Agents of Guidance. He was gonna kill you and your brother. If Eldin wasn’t around, he probably would’ve succeeded. He deserves to die. My knife pushes down, drawing blood from the man’s neck. The sight of his pain only makes the whispering voice in my mind grow louder. Finish him. No one will blame you. They all saw what he was doing. Even if he isn’t an Agent of Guidance, he must be punished. My muscles tense, preparing to plunge the blade through his carotid artery and jugular vein.

  “Stop, Kagen!” Arluin cries out.

  His voice drowns out the whisper in my mind. I sit back up, pulling my knife away from the man’s neck. A mixture of confusion, anger, and surprise covers the faces of the people around me. Even now, the urge to finish the attacker has not disappeared. It is not until I see the way Arluin looks at me do I regain control. Instead of killing him, I get back to my feet and kick the man directly in his midsection, knocking the breath from him. By now, the other two men have also given up their fight with Eldin. They stand motionless, watching me with the same look as the rest of the crowd.

  “You two, take these three men to the Detention Center. They can bandage their wounds down there,” I tell the Guards, not wanting to add to the infirmary’s burden. The two guards hesitate for a moment, angering me further. “If you don’t go right now, I’ll make sure you both join them.”

  As the Guards lift the man to his feet, I step toward the other two, lowering my voice to a whisper. “As for both of you, I suggest you follow your friend here voluntarily or I’ll find you when no one’s around to stop me.”

  I hold my knife high enough so they can see the blood staining the blade. They both lower their heads as the Guards carry their friend away.

  “As for the rest of you,” I say, turning my ire to the crowd of people around us. “What’s wrong with you? I’m gone for a few days, risking my life to free you, and this is what you do? Cheer on while we tear each other apart?”

  “What do you expect when you and Talia both disappear, abandoning us while your cure infects all of Securus?” one of the women in the crowd yells back at me.

  “Disappear?” I scoff at her. “I was on a mission to Munitus, nearly dying in an attempt to gain us an ally against Caelum while you sit here within the safety of these walls.” My voice begins to tremble from the frustration. “And Talia, she didn’t lock herself away. She warned Leadership not to release the cure until it was fully tested. While I was gone, those bastards from Caelum snuck into Securus and abducted her. That’s where she is right now, in Caelum’s Detention Center, fighting to keep them from killing you all. As soon as we were both gone, Eyra convinced Leadership to distribute the cure before the testing was complete, against Talia’s orders. So you tell me, who’s abandoning whom?”

  Before anyone has a chance to process what was said or reply, Eldin and I help Arluin to his feet and make our way to the stairs. When we reach the stairwell, my mother catches up with us. Tears fill her eyes as she reaches out for Arluin.

  “What happened?” she asks.

  “They were badmouthing Kagen and Talia,” Eldin explains. “Arluin stood up for them, and it escalated from there. I was up here to see someone else before dinner when it happened, so did what I could to help.”

  “Thank you, Eldin,” I tell him with a grateful look. Just like before, things would have ended badly without him. “Before you go, can you deliver a message to the Research Department for me?”

  I whisper in his ear. He appears surprised, but does not question me. Eldin leaves us to tend to Arluin while he delivers my message. I bring Arluin up to my quarters. I have some medical supplies stored in Talia’s side office to tend to his injuries. Thankfully, the damage appears superficial. With a good night’s rest, he should be functional in no time. Though, with our mother hovering over him, getting rest may not be so easy.

  “You should know better than getting in a fight like that,” I tell Arluin.

  “I know, but they wouldn’t stop, and other people were starting to listen to their nonsense,” he says remorsefully. “I’m sorry about Talia. I’m sure they just have some more questions like last time.”

  “I wish that were true.” My gaze turns to the floor with the reminder of Talia’s terrified eyes when she was abducted.

  “That’s not the first fight he’s been in since you were gone,” our mother says, giving Arluin a pointed stare before turning back to me. “I’m just glad you’re back. Everything will work out soon. It’s just a matter of time before we figure out how to get Talia back. How’d the trip go?”

  My mother does her best to sound upbeat and confident. I know it is just a show for me, but somehow her reassurance helps.

  “Not good, but we did make contact,” I say, cringing from yet another bad memory because of the deadly trip. Wanting to change the subject, I turn to Arluin. “What else did you learn from the decrypted files?”

  Even in his current state, Arluin is perceptive enough to see that now is not the time to push for details of my expedition, so he temporarily lets me off the hook. I decide to do the same for him, but we will need to talk about this new propensity for fighting.

  “We decrypted the entire Methods of Guidance protocol. All the files are on my Coden, but it’s in my quarters,” he answers.

  With our mother here to watch over him, Arluin does not need me to tend to him. So I slip out and head straight for the stairs. Those files could hold information vital to finding a way to get Talia back alive.

  Chapter 18

  On my way down to get Arluin’s Coden, the collective gaze of many worried people follows me intently. Word must have already spread about what happened to Talia. For once, they truly understand the predicament we are in. Instead of wasting time attempting to ease their fears, I march straight to my old quarters. Right now, their feelings do not concern me.

  The crowd of people only gets larger further down the corridor. Some offer words of encouragement, though the sadness in their eyes makes their messages feel empty. Cramming through a group of people congregating outside the door to my family’s quarters becomes even harder t
han maneuvering through the narrow tunnels in The Caves. The walls and our people close in to suffocate me.

  Even with the door closed behind me, muted voices seep through. The sadness from those in the hallway flows in under the door and mixes with my own despair. I fall onto the nearest bunk. On top of Talia being abducted and the Controllers imminent threat, being here forces me to think about something I have been desperately struggling to come to terms with. Securus is not the only thing irrevocably changed over these past few months.

  Dealing with the loss of my friends as well as my own brushes with death has affected me more than I care to acknowledge. Now, my anger and resentment are gaining control over me much more often. My family and friends have noticed. They have not said so aloud, but I see the angst my behavior causes in their eyes. They are waiting for me to deal with this in my own way. The problem is I do not know how. Fighting against an external foe is infinitely easier than battling internal demons. I shake my head to refocus my thoughts. There is no time for this now. Not with Talia being held in Caelum and the rest of Securus falling ill in her absence.

  Arluin’s Coden is right where he said it would be. He hides it in plain sight, neatly tucked under the blanket covering his bunk. Arluin’s Coden now looks more like Seonah’s than the ones the rest of us use. To help with the extra assignments they have been working on, she increased his Coden’s capabilities to handle the job. After pulling apart the octagonal tubes attached to the outer cylinder, a translucent screen appears.

  After scrolling through a few empty folders and files, I find where Arluin stored the decrypted files. The first one to jump out at me is labeled, The Founding of Caelum. I open the file, but only mangled, hieroglyphic writing appears. Apparently this is not the file he was referring to when he said he had more to show me. I move on the Securus folder, and open the file labeled, Methods of Guidance. Instead of a blank screen or unreadable entry, a neatly organized document appears. Even though I already knew he decrypted this portion, having this document on the screen in front of me feels shocking. The words spell out Caelum’s devious plans right before my eyes.

  Methods of Guidance, Securus edition

  Since the founding of the outlying colonies, it has been a priority to maintain control over production while preventing the occupants from resisting their role in our society. After the initial failed attempt to control Castellum, it was deemed too dangerous to allow any of the occupants to have any knowledge of Caelum. In order to protect our way of life, this protocol has been devised to maintain order and ensure the reliability of each colony’s production.

  1. The first and primary method is the threat of The Agent. Unlike the other colonies, the occupants of Securus have extremely limited access to the surface. In order for this threat to be most effective, some of the occupants placed on teams to work on the surface must be exposed to The Agent. The resulting deaths will serve to reinforce the dangers of leaving the facility.

  2. The next method is the promise of advancement to Caelum. Select members of Leadership will be granted access to Caelum, under the guise of a death by The Agent. Despite this promise, the transferred occupants will not be given full access to Caelum, allowing us to maintain the purity of our sanctuary. The transferred occupants will assume responsibility for any undesirable tasks unable to be managed in the outer colonies.

  3. A more aggressive method shall be employed by the Controller of Settlement Resources directly on the head of the colony. Each case will be at the discretion of the current Controller of Settlement Resources. Compelling their cooperation may entail a direct threat focused on the Leader, their family, or who/whatever else is deemed necessary.

  4. The first three methods will be known to some of the occupants, so in case of an uprising, we need to employ more subtle methods to ensure stability. In accordance with this, as a backup method of security, we added a pair of engineered substances to the standard nutrient mix supplied to the settlements. The first component will rapidly deplete the body of vitamin B3, inflicting a Pellagra-like illness. This illness will become fatal unless the reaction is deactivated. The only way to do so is with the second component, which binds to the first, inhibiting its function.

  The deactivating component is inherently unstable except when bound to the depleting component. A continuous supply is necessary to maintain equilibrium. Because of this fragility, the occupants will never be able to alter its structure or function with their available resources. More specifically, they will never be able to wean themselves off of the mix by administering the deactivator alone. The substance will disintegrate without the support of the complete mix.

  The stable component is more vulnerable to alteration. In anticipation of this, we have engineered it such that an alteration intended to deactivate its core function will lead to a severe hemolytic anemia. This will prevent the occupants from subverting this method of control as well as alert us to the attempt.

  As a precaution, we have developed a detoxification protocol. This protocol was deemed necessary by the Patron of Leadership to ensure this method could never affect the people of Caelum. This method proved quite useful during the attempted escape by the occupants of Securus in the past. We have no reason to believe it will be any less effective in the future.

  5. An additional external threat has also been deemed necessary to reinforce the dangers of venturing away from the settlements. Some of the indigenous carnivorous animal species have been genetically altered, making them significantly larger and more aggressive. Unfortunately the animals have turned on each other, limiting their effectiveness. However, they have shown a remarkable preference for human prey, making this method somewhat viable.

  We are currently experimenting with adding manipulations to several smaller animals as well. The primary goal is to make an otherwise harmless nuisance poisonous. We have been able to improve their sensory detection, allowing them to easily detect and attack any occupants that come across them. So far, we have employed the use of moles, fish, and snakes. The need for additional animals is being investigated. A detailed report will be made upon the completion of our testing. This is expected to be most useful in ensuring Methods of Guidance protocol number seven remains undetected.

  6. While the prior Methods of Guidance are continuously active, if they become insufficient, more forceful actions will be employed. The next method is the Agents of Guidance initiative. Within each colony, we have placed a bloodline of occupants tasked as our Agents of Guidance. If activated by the Controller of Settlement Resources, their primary goal is to create discord amongst the occupants and report to the Controller’s assistant. Upon completion of their service, they will be offered advancement to Caelum indirectly, keeping the facility’s Leadership caste unaware of this initiative.

  7. If our privacy or security is ever threatened and the other methods fail to contain the threat, we will proceed with eliminating the current occupants. Each facility has numerous containers strategically placed in their water supply and air filtration equipment. If activated, these containers will release The Agent directly into the facility, cleansing it of the threat. The containers are remotely activated and have internal controls to protect against manipulation. Of note, this was particularly useful in retaking Castellum.

  8. If the occupants are able to deactivate these containers, the next step will be a direct invasion by the Soldier Guards. The weaponry available to the settlements is closely monitored and restricted. Therefore, the occupants should pose no significant threat to the cleansing team.

  9. While there is no reason to believe the occupants could ever survive methods of guidance protocols one through eight, the original Controller of Settlement resources ordered the development of long range weaponry designed to penetrate and eliminate the entire usable structure of a colony along with any occupants inside. This was deemed preferable to allowing any occupants enough freedom to infect the other colonies with rebellious inclinations.

  Destroying one of
the colonies would impose a prohibitive disruption in production. The site would be rendered unusable. More importantly, it would take a considerable amount of time and resources necessary to locate an alternative location and to rebuild, placing an unnecessary burden on Caelum.

  We now know the limited capability of the colonies’ occupants renders this method superfluous. However, since the weapon has already been produced, it remains available in case of an unforeseeable occurrence.

  10. Future improvements: While these guidelines are more than sufficient to maintain order and control, additional methods are currently under investigation. While multiple new methods are in the developmental process, one in particular holds significant appeal.

  Our researchers are developing a genetic manipulation sequence that will potentially turn the occupant’s dependence on Securus interminable. This manipulation will create an extreme sensitivity to surface conditions such as direct sunlight and selected natural airborne pollens. Any occupant exposed outside of an upgraded bio-suit will theoretically develop severe skin reactions from any direct sunlight and anaphylactic shock from pollens. The reaction is expected to be rapidly lethal.

  This would be of great long term benefit since even if the occupants discovered our existence, they would remain dependent on the facility we allow them to inhabit. Escape of freedom would never be an option they could consider.

  When this method is perfected, the Controller of Settlement Resources will oversee the testing and distribution. Further improvements will be added as they become available.

  Reading through this document is difficult. I have to take numerous breaks to stop my hands from shaking. Even with everything we already knew about Caelum, the callousness laid out in their Methods of Guidance stuns me. This should not be a surprise, but seeing their disdain for us written out makes it even more frightful than when the Controller was here to threaten us. To some level, I hoped his threats were exaggerated. Knowing he did not embellish a single detail only adds to the cold calculation in his eyes. He made no idle threats, because there it is, everything we feared and have already experienced written out in a single emotionless document.