The Seat of Power (The Securus Trilogy Book 3)

by Anthony Maldonado

  Even though we are obviously working, they make no effort to let us by. Instead, they stay shoulder to shoulder as they walk, blocking the path and pretending not to notice us. We move to the side to accommodate them, knowing we are supposed to be subservient. As they near us, the taller statuesque blonde on the side, intentionally steps toward our equipment. She bumps into the platform transport and feigns an overly dramatic stumble, sending her drink to the ground. The woman screams loudly, as if we attacked her.

  “What happened?” one of the men shouts, already balling his fists while staring us down.

  “This thing hit me,” she says, pointing at Sayda as if she were revolted by the very sight of her.

  The second man kicks the platform, nearly tipping our containers over. I lunge out to grab them before the boxes fall out and risk killing us all. As soon as I am able to stabilize the platform, a powerful blow lands across my back, flooring me.

  “Did I say you could move, you filthy boar?” he shouts while standing over me.

  I want nothing more than to fight back, but we cannot risk it.

  “No, sir. I apologize for the inconvenience we have incurred upon you,” I say in a formal and respectful tone, barely able to keep any sarcasm from my voice.

  “What, you think your fancy words impress us?” he shouts, becoming increasingly agitated. “You boars think you’re so smart. I should show you what good that is right now.”

  “He didn’t mean anything by it,” Hadwin interjects. “I don’t think he even knows what those words mean. He was just trying to sound like the native instructors.”

  The men turn to the women, and they all laugh.

  “Oh how cute, the little piggy is trying to mimic us,” the woman with the darker hair says in a voice one would normally speak to an infant with.

  “Let’s go, we don’t wanna miss the games,” the blonde woman says with a satisfied smile. “Leave these boars to their dugery.”

  I have to stop myself from laughing at her confidence in using a nonsensical word. She probably meant drudgery. Obviously, drawing attention to their intelligence is a sore spot for some of them.

  The man standing over me postures himself to attack, but does not. His pose is only meant to intimidate me further. Even though he does not frighten me at all, I flinch and cover my head. My contrived fear appeases him. The group of natives laughs as the man who hit me backs away to rejoin the others. I stay balled up on the ground while they finally walk away. We hear them belittling us until they are finally out of sight. For some reason they keep referring to us as boars. I suppose they use the word as some kind of derogatory term for the former occupants.

  “Are you okay, Kagen?” Hadwin asks, helping me back to me feet.

  “Yeah, that didn’t hurt,” I tell him with a smirk. “I was just pretending it did so they would leave us alone and you wouldn’t have to use your ninja skills.”

  He manages a laugh before we rearrange the equipment, making sure the containers will not tip over. On the way to the tower, the next natives we pass make a concerted effort to pretend we do not exist. Some of them even look as if the very site of us makes them nauseated. Every one of them appears to think as much of us as Braeden does. I expected this place to be different than what we are used to, but the degree of narcissism, ignorance, and hatred infecting these people is shocking. I can only hope that Arluin and Manav are not having as much trouble as we are.

  The back door and part of the surrounding wall are completely opaque. With only this area being shielded, the intent of the design is clear. They do not want to notice us coming into their space. Sayda gets in front of us, holding open the door to the first glass tower. When initially deciding how many of these poison boxes to distribute throughout Caelum, I was conflicted with placing them in their living quarters. The act seemed callous, but we need to make all of Caelum uninhabitable, even if its people survive. Now, with the way they have treated us so far, I am no longer conflicted. I do not care if they are all in here when we release The Agent.

  Once inside the building, we are greeted by an incredibly open space. With a three story tall ceiling and outer glass walls, this area feels like an extension of the park. We move along the edges, staying away from the buffet and bar set up near the center of the lobby. As the natives enter and exit the front doors, they all stop to grab something from both. Floating throughout the lobby are images showing new fashions and advertising sporting events. Keeping a straight face while seeing how frivolous and decadent they live is challenging.

  We make our way to the side of the room where some stairs lead down to the service area. Hadwin stays with the equipment while Sayda and I carry our tools along with a poison box down. None of the natives waste their time in here. The only people we see are more faceless laborers on our way to the air filtration and conditioning units. Down here, the color and light have been drained from the walls, leaving us with more familiar surroundings.

  This time no one disturbs us as we set up the poison box. Even though the installation goes smoother, the process is more time consuming than anticipated. If we do not speed up, we might not be able to get to all the targets today. Considering the man we tied up earlier, that could be a problem.

  Sayda and I retrace our steps to Hadwin. We all quickly head out the back door, making sure to keep quiet. We do not want to draw any attention to ourselves. I keep my head down until we reach the next tower. Sayda again opens the door. As soon as I push the cart inside, I see something that paralyzes me. It can’t be, I think to myself, staring at a large man strolling through the lobby. I wish I were wrong, but his face has been seared into my memory, leaving no doubt.

  The man’s deep set, black eyes and bushy eyebrows are a stark contrast to most of the other natives who have cultivated more physically appealing characteristics. Unlike their casual demeanor, this man surveys his surroundings with purpose. His concentration and rugged exterior identifies him as the one true predator mixed in with a bunch of inbred, useless, dullards. Before he turns this way, I jump back and pull the others with me. The door closes just before his shrewd eyes discover us.

  “What is it?” Sayda asks with concern.

  “Malin was in there,” I tell her, almost choking on his name.

  “The leader of the Soldier Guards?” Hadwin asks.

  “Yeah, the one who wants nothing more than to kill me,” I reply.

  This is a huge problem for us. Malin has seen all three of us in the past. With his particular dislike for me, I have no hope of slipping past him.

  “Either I go in alone, or we come back to this one later,” Hadwin says, realizing he is the only one of us Malin may not recognize. When Malin saw him, he was near death, collapsed on the ground of the dark tunnel connecting Munitus to Securus.

  “Okay, but keep your head down, Hadwin,” I say, hoping Malin does not stick around for long. The part that worries me even more is we have no idea where he could be headed next. So much of my plan was counting on no one being able to recognize us. His presence here changes everything.

  Hadwin attaches the needed tools to his belt and picks up one of the boxes. We make him wait long enough to increase the chances of Malin being gone. Even with the delay, I am too nervous to even look inside again for fear he will see me. As soon as the door closes behind him, Sayda’s feet move as if her shoes were set on fire.

  “Don’t worry, Sayda, he’ll be okay,” I attempt to reassure her, even though we both know all too well how dangerous this is.

  “I can’t see him like that again,” Sayda says, referring to when he was in the infirmary on life support. “He means too much to me.”

  Sayda has always been full of fire and emotion, but this time is different. I have never seen her like this before. Finally admitting her true feelings for Hadwin has brought them together, but has also amplified her protective worry.

  “I understand how you feel,” I say while putting one arm around her shoulder, not knowing what else to say.
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  “I know it’s selfish of me to even think that when Talia is in their Detention Center,” Sayda says before I cut her off.

  I step in front of her to make sure she sees my sincerity. “No, it’s not. You’ve been anything but selfish. Whatever happens while we’re here, I need you to know how much I appreciate everything you guys have done for me. Without you both, I would’ve died or given up so long ago. We’re so close to freedom, and that’s only because of your and Hadwin’s selfless actions. Most of us could only wish our hearts were as good as yours.”

  Sayda turns away, not wanting to show her tears. They both do mean so much to me. I truly want to see Hadwin and Sayda survive, almost as much as I need to see Talia escape this wretched place. For now, all we can do is hope Malin does not catch Hadwin.

  Chapter 26

  The wait for Hadwin to return feels agonizing. My eyes are unable to move from the ground for fear of seeing what may have happened to him. Soon, Sayda runs out of patience. I am barely able to keep her from running inside to find him. Not long after she resigns to waiting some more, the door opens. Sayda and I both anxiously turn around. Instead of Malin coming to kill us, Hadwin casually strolls out.

  “Man, I’m good. You know how good?” Hadwin asks. Before we reply he continues. “Real good!”

  Sayda jumps into his arms and pulls him down for a kiss before punching him for making us worry. Her relief is fleeting though, since we all know the danger has not passed.

  “Was he in there?” I ask Hadwin.

  “No, he went out the front when I came in.”

  With Malin not wearing his normal armor, he is not likely to be on duty today. That means he can be anywhere. We have no choice but to stick to the laborer paths while we continue on to the next tower. Each time we enter a lobby we are careful to stay inconspicuous and watch out for Malin. By the time we finish the first set of towers, it is already well into the afternoon, and we still have another set to get to. Of course, the towers are not the only targets left.

  “This is taking too long,” I tell the others, looking at the remaining poison boxes. “We should split up.”

  “That’s a bad idea,” Hadwin warns.

  “He’s right Haddie,” Sayda says, reluctantly agreeing with me. “What if they find the worker we tied up? We need to finish as fast as possible.”

  “But Sayda,” he starts to protest before stopping, knowing she will not accept the reason for his reluctance.

  “I’ll be fine, you just take care of yourself,” she says.

  “Okay, Hadwin, you take these and put them in the turret towers,” I say handing him a bagful of special Persuaders. We knew there would not be enough of the poison boxes for our needs, so the research department used some vials of The Agent our old Leadership had stored to put in these devices. The Persuaders are much more compact than the poison boxes, but also have less of The Agent in them. They are useless for large spaces, though they should work well for smaller targets.

  I push the cart over to Sayda. “Finish setting up the remaining towers. I’ll take the rest of the Persuaders to the water supply and sport fields.”

  With that, we part ways. I do not like leaving their side, but deliberately reserved the most dangerous assignment for myself. Hadwin and Sayda will be headed to areas normally used mainly by the laborers. To get to where I need to go will force me to walk amongst the natives. Considering how they reacted to our presence earlier today, the task is not one I look forward to.

  With the bag of Persuaders slung over my shoulder, I walk between the towers, toward the main path. When the sun is again on me, I stop and look around for Malin. At the moment, he is nowhere to be seen. I ignore the manicured park and head to the side of the second row of glass towers. I keep my head down, trying hard not to get distracted by the dancing sunlight reflected by the towers’ glass panels. Behind them and past the Leadership Palace is where the water filtration center is located.

  The outer building housing the machinery used to purify their water is similar to the one containing their air purification systems, inconspicuous and out of the way. The natives seem to prefer these areas be kept out of sight so they do not have to be bothered with the inconvenience of real work. Thanks to Dehan, getting past the coded entry is not a problem. A few laborers are near the back of the facility, but none of them pay any attention to me as I walk past the humming machinery and head up the skeletal stairs. The second level consists of a series of thin metal walkways surrounding the open vats used to store water used within Caelum.

  Not wanting anyone to see me lingering up here, I keep walking while subtly pulling out the Persuaders, dropping one in each of the three vats. These ones contain a water soluble version of The Agent taken from the boxes we found near the pools. No one seems to care what I am doing. The ease of planting the bombs inside the water supply worries me. Wanting to get away before my luck runs out, my pace increases to a near run by the time I reach the door. Once outside, I force myself to stop and take a deep breath. I suppose a single laborer attracts less attention that three of them carrying a load of equipment. Even so, that was almost too easy.

  Pushing aside my suspicion, I move on to the sport fields. According to Dehan, they are one of the most popular locations for the natives to congregate, making it a prime target. The fields are on the far side of the city, so to get there I need to go past all of the glass towers. Every step of the walk seems to take too long. We need to limit our exposure, but this city is much bigger than it appeared on the schematics.

  Once I pass the towers and all of the satellite buildings behind them, the terrain sweeps downward, giving a clear view of the rest of Caelum. They have a large spread of athletic fields, each one distinct from the others. According to the schematics, there are training facilities off to the side, but most of the people prefer the sport over tedious training. The larger grassy fields are filled with moving dots that must be people. While there are many people in the fields, the majority of the spectators are congregated on the steps of a canopy-covered coliseum carved deep into the ground. That is where I am going.

  There are three ways to get down to the lower level, but both the open air elevator and escalator are fairly busy. Wanting to avoid the natives, I veer off to the side and head down the seemingly endless stairs. I see why they do not take this option since it would be rather arduous for anyone not used to the effort of climbing multiple flights very often.

  When I am halfway down, I notice a pair of younger men point in my direction before deciding to come up the stairs. At first I am not sure they were really pointing at me, until they get close enough for me to see the look in their eyes. The stairs are wide enough to accommodate all three of us, but avoiding me is definitely not their intention. They talk loudly, pretending not to notice me. I move as far against the rail as possible, but it is not enough. The larger of two men thrusts his shoulder and elbow into my midsection, knocking me back.

  “Oh, I didn’t see you there?” he says with no attempt to sound sincere. “Damn boars are almost invisible sometimes.”

  “What you got in the bag?” the other man asks, picking it up from the stairs.

  “Just some tools and replacement parts, sir,” I say, doing my best to sound submissive.

  From this position, I could easily get enough leverage to knock over the closer of the two men, sending him tumbling down the stairs. Stopping myself from doing so becomes even harder when the native holding my bag lifts it over his head.

  “Maybe I should help you get this to the bottom,” he says with a wicked grin.

  “Please don’t, Mr. Karun was adamant I finish the repairs quickly. He has some other tasks for me afterward,” I say, desperately looking for something to keep him from throwing the Persuaders. The fall could easily disable the activating receiver or even worse, set the bombs off.

  The mention of Braeden’s name causes the native man to hesitate. I was hoping the Controller’s power spread beyond the palace walls.
Judging by this man’s reaction, it must. He defiantly throws the bag onto the stairs before they both move on, laughing at me the entire way. I carefully check each Persuader for any damage while holding my breath. It would be safer to put on my respirator, but doing that now would be way too conspicuous.

  Luckily, none of the Persuaders have been compromised, so I descend the rest of the stairs and head to the canopy. More of the natives intentionally push or bump into me as I walk past, but none of them bother me any more than that. Now standing on the upper edge of their coliseum, I survey the circle of concrete seats descending into a central pit. All of the natives packed inside have their eyes fixed on the pit below. Their voracious cheers echo upward, sending vibrations through the ground beneath me.

  I try to keep my eyes from the central pit, but they still manage to find their way to the disturbing source of the native’s entertainment. They watch as two men and two women fight each other. One man and woman are obviously natives of Caelum, while the others wear the same blank uniform as me. As expected, the natives are viciously beating the other two. Diverting my eyes and anger is difficult.

  Dehan warned me that this was one of the favorite sports of the natives. They get laborers from the Detention Center and send them into the pit to fight against a native. The outcome is always the same. The laborer dies. Seeing their brutality in person somehow makes this even worse. Apparently, when there are none of us available, they will fight each other, but those matches have strict rules and never have any casualties.

  Not wanting to get too caught up in Caelum’s brutality, I remind myself of why I am here. The Persuaders should fit easily into the lighting compartments built into the concrete steps. When we activate them, this arena will be shut down for good. Two Persuaders should be more than sufficient, so I place one on each side within the center row of seats. Of course, while I move through the arena, more than one of the natives challenges me to fight them in the pit. Their offers are tempting, but nothing can keep me from my task. With this area covered, we are getting close to being ready. Hopefully Hadwin and Sayda are also making progress.