“Yep,” said Bane. “They went marching up to that cell cocky as anything, opened it up... Nothing there!”
“But... much as I hate to agree with an EGD Colonel, ‘drooling madman’ about summed it up.”
“Perhaps he was faking,” suggested Jon.
“Didn’t look like it,” said Bane. “I s’pose you shouldn’t try to imprison a long-serving EGD Security Commandant in a Facility, whatever his state of mind.”
“Especially not one who stood there in court and told you he thinks your security procedures are rubbish,” I sniggered. “I expect he’s just sitting in a corner somewhere potting his imaginary plants and they’ll find him, but it’s still priceless!”
“That’s what he was doing at the trial, was it?” grinned Bane. “Well, y’know, I take it back. Anyone who can embarrass them this much can’t be all bad.”
He got up and went to rescue the coffees from the kitchenette, since I was glued to the screen, not that there was much to see. After the initial flurry of activity the officers mostly received updates and gave orders over their wristCells. The media crew, corralled at one end of the corridor, eavesdropped shamelessly with their big mics, informing us gleefully – and very quietly – when the first search turned up nothing and a second search was ordered...
By this point, even my attention was waning.
“He’s certainly got himself well hidden.” I stretched and sipped my rather cold coffee. “Why don’t you show me the first bit while we wait for them to find him?”
“Yeah, it’s pretty funny.” Bane grabbed the remote at once.
From what they showed of the media crew’s journey to the cell, the Detention Facility was built exactly the same as the standard type of Facility – only inside the two long inmates blocks was it different, with a long corridor of cells on ground and second floor instead of gym and dormitories...
But the expressions on the guards’ faces as they realised the cell was empty! One almost felt a teensy bit sorry for them. Impossible not to howl with laughter, though.
When we got our breath back and returned to the live broadcast the media crew stood in the parking area.
“Well, they’ve made it out of the building,” said Bane.
“I’m guessing the Colonel figured out the range on those mics,” grinned Jon.
“Probably,” I said. “I doubt they wanted to leave!”
The gates were shut tight and a couple of warning lights still flashed, though someone had switched off the deafening siren. Clearly still in lock-down. A couple of guards stood in one corner of the parking area, busy unscrewing an access panel and poking around inside a cavity a small child would’ve been hard pressed to squeeze into.
“They really can’t find him, can they?” I said in mounting astonishment. To get out of the compound entirely ? Especially in such a condition...
Switching back to EuroVee from Veritas after a lively praise programme we found the media crew haranguing the Colonel mercilessly as they tried to get some sort of statement out of him. Refusing to be drawn, he gave curt orders and the guards herded the crew back into their van. The gates were opened and through they drove.
“Since we have been allowed to leave it is clear lock-down is lifted.” The cameraman must’ve been plastered to the back door to get the newscaster in the lens. “Therefore, despite Colonel Gavreche’s refusal to comment, it seems safe to assume that the escaped prisoner is not within the Facility walls. We’ll bring you more as the news breaks, but now, back to our scheduled programming...”
Bane flicked the TV off, whistling softly.
“He’s actually escaped.” I shook my head in disbelief. “Properly escaped!”
“I don’t expect he’ll get far,” said Bane, “but he’s given them a red face, all right!”
“I don’t know,” said Jon. “All he’s got to do is get into the forest and they’ll have a job finding him.”
“He won’t survive out in the forest in his condition,” I said. “But if he goes into built up areas he’ll be caught. So, you’re right, if he’s still thinking at all, he’ll head for the forest. If he lies down and dies somewhere, they’ll have to keep his file open for years and years ‘cause they won’t know for certain he’s dead.” It would be his last act of defiance, to hide himself away somewhere, leave them guessing forevermore...
Bane was chuckling.
“So after delaying the trial by four months, he ensures it’s the worst trial in history, makes his confession only as a drooling madman, and despite being a drooling madman proceeds to disappear from a locked cell in a Detention Facility, probably never to be seen again. Margo, you’re right, it’s priceless.”
“They are never going to live that down!” Jon was cracking up as well.
“It serves them right,” I giggled, hugging Bane.
The door opened and Father Mark looked in.
“This is cheerful. Did I miss a joke?”
“Major... sorry, Mr Everington has escaped!” I told him.
“Completely given them the slip,” sniggered Bane.
“Disappeared into thin air,” said Jon, waving his arms in illustration.
Father Mark’s brows went up.
“I thought he was now a gibbering lunatic?”
“That’s what makes it all the more priceless,” said Bane, snorting with laughter. “A nutter has just walked through their security as though it wasn’t there!” He frowned suddenly, envy on his face. “Just shows. If you’re familiar enough with the system, it is possible.”
“We’ll find a way, Bane,” I said confidently. “We’ll sit down on Monday and we’ll crack it. You’ll see.”
Definitely a case of famous last words. Our little planning committee met on the Monday and hit a brick wall. A brick wall called Camera-room-now-manned-at-night, just like in a Detention Facility. Because with the camera room manned, it would require a firefight to get into the main building. A fire fight that, with no cover, we probably couldn’t win. And which would get many of us killed.
How had the Major done it?
“What about those nonLethal grenades?” said Jon. “Are we sure they’re no good?”
“They’re really not nonLethal, that’s the problem,” said Eduardo, who’d joined us. “They’re fifty-percent-lethal grenades. So if someone’s going to throw a grenade at you, they’re a distinct improvement, but they’re not something we can use.”
“How quickly could we get across the yards and into the main building?” Kyle said. “If we were fast enough, we might catch most of the guards in their barrack room...”
“In your dreams,” said Father Mark. “You said yourself you saw a camera in the guard tower. They’ll know as soon as we take out the tower guards, before we’re anywhere close to being able to blow the gates. It’s not going to work.”
“And we’re not doing the whole firefight thing,” said Bane grimly. “People will die – on both sides, probably. That’s a non-starter.”
“And we’ve no element of surprise,” I said gloomily. “I bet they’re just waiting for our next attempt.”
“If it’s not possible, it’s not possible,” said Eduardo calmly.
“But we’ve hit them where it hurts!” Bane thumped the table in frustration. “It would be so nice to do it again!”
“Well, we haven’t come up with a single feasible idea this morning,” said Father Mark. “Why don’t we call it a day today.”
“Meet again tomorrow, perhaps with a few of the others as well?” I suggested. “Alligator and Pussycat, perhaps.”
“Simply for a brainstorming session, we might as well get quite a few of them on board,” said Bane.
In the end we got the whole of Animal team together, but every proposed idea was judged unworkable.
“We need more detailed information,” fumed Bane. “Some of these ideas might work, if we only knew enough. Is there any chance of getting Facility security information, Eduardo? I know you said no, but we really n
eed it...”
Eduardo looked apologetic – at least, as apologetic as he ever looked anything.
“They don’t keep that information on servers connected to the internet. They just keep it at EGD Security HQ and give hard copies to those who need to know. Facility Commandants, in other words. Of whom there are an insufficient number for the information to be readily acquirable. But I’ve had people questioning all the rescued reAssignees for any snippets they’ve observed, wittingly or unwittingly. I’m expecting that information in the post packet tonight.”
Bane’s discouraged expression lightened slightly.
“That’s good timing.” The post only arrived once a week. “Fingers crossed there’s something useful in that. Well, I think we may as well wrap this up. Keep thinking, everyone.”
“And praying,” I said glumly. Is it over almost before we’ve started, Lord? What are we missing?
Beep, beep, beep...
My alarm. Morning...
I forced myself to sit up at once, make my fertility checks and open my chart book to enter the results. Trying to be strict with myself and get into a proper routine. I’d kept my charts – slightly erratically – ever since I’d reached a certain age and Mum taught me how. A small, silent defiance of the EuroGov and the preservation of a valuable skill, all at once.
It’d sometimes seemed more than a little pointless, but now with my implant gone, and marriage on the horizon – Yey! Yey! Yey! – I was so glad I’d persevered.
Results noted, I flicked through the previous pages of the book. During our long journey I’d not even noticed when my monthlies stopped coming. More a blessing than anything at the time – but thankfully Doctor Frederick assured me that rest and regular meals would put things to rights in due course, nothing to worry about.
Due course hadn’t really arrived yet but a cycle of some kind was now becoming visible on my charts, so just to be on the safe side, I pencilled in a prediction of the next month. See which days might be good days for a wedding (Yey!). After all, if the next mission was indefinitely delayed...
A knock at the door.
“Margo?”
Bane. I stuffed the book under my sheet – then pulled it out again. He knew about this from seeing my mum’s book when he was little, surely – but perhaps I should make sure.
“Come in.”
He breezed in, dressed already, and plonked himself on the bed. Didn’t try to kiss me. After an unfortunate incident when I’d ended up sprinting from his room with a ravenous demon of lust chomping at my heels, I’d instigated a no-kissing-while-in-nightwear rule. He’d taken it with a good grace. Perhaps he’d also noticed the silver lining to the delay...
‘Don’t get me wrong, Margo,’ he’d said wryly, ‘I think you’re the sexiest thing on two legs, but when you remember our first time I want it to be with joy not guilt, and for that I am prepared to wait. Well, that’s the theory. We perhaps better had stop putting it to the test!’
“What are you up to?” he asked now, glancing at the book open in front of me.
“Just filling in my chart,” I said casually, trying not to blush.
“Chart?” He twisted his head to get a better look and stared at it uncomprehendingly.
“Fertility chart.”
“Fert... oh.” He frowned at it. “Your mum had one of those.”
“Yeah. Didn’t really matter for her, of course, she was stuck with the implant. But this is going to be quite important for us.”
“It is?”
“Unless you want say, fifteen kids in as many years and probably no wife at the end of it, hmm?”
He blinked.
“Uh... I s’pose I’ve been thinking more like... four or five over maybe... ten years and definitely a wife at the end of it! Um... what do you think?” He touched my hand rather anxiously.
“Sounds good to me. And this is how we achieve that,” I tapped the chart.
“Okay, tell me.”
“Um... well, there are three different checks and when you put the results together it says about ninety-seven percent accurately whether I’m fertile or infertile on that particular day.”
He stared at the chart some more, thinking this through.
“So if we’re not ready for another kid... we have to not... you know. On a fertile day.”
“That’s the idea. Obviously it’s not ninety-seven percent if we don’t stick to what it says!”
He shot me a sidelong look.
“I don’t know, I may be going to miss that implant more than I thought!”
“Oh come on, if we can wait months to be married – and belong completely to each other – we can wait a few days out of every month for the sake of belonging completely to each other.”
Bane scratched his chin and frowned.
“Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for belonging completely to each other, but... couldn’t we belong to each other completely with the implant in... or something?”
“No,” I said firmly. “I mean, if we still lived in the EuroGov we’d have to make do, but we don’t. We don’t need to withhold any part of ourselves – including our fertility – from the other by artificially blocking a child.”
“But you’re still talking about...”
“Yes, we can use my natural cycle to space our children responsibly, but we don’t need to lie to each other with our bodies – don’t need to say, I give you everything when actually, right then and there, we’re not. That’s what this is about: it’s about saying I love you so completely I will not keep anything back to put pleasure before our oneness. D’you see?”
Bane thought about this for a minute.
“It sounds kind of... beautiful when you put it like that. It’s sticking to it that bothers me. We haven’t exactly been finding this waiting easy!” A smile tugged at the corners of his mouth – picturing me bounding out the door like a startled deer in a decidedly unchaste state of dishevelment?
I did not want to talk about that!
“Well, it may be five kids, then!”
He laughed.
“It might just be! Well, explain this chart thing to me.”
“Um, well, this line’s body temperature, that’s an important indicator. And the other two checks... um, look, I’ll tell you about them after we’re married, okay? I could even teach you how to perform them,” I added slyly.
He stared at the chart for a moment and clearly drew more from it than I’d intended because he gave me a burning look and said rather huskily, “I do believe, Miss Verrall, that you just invited me to do something very indecent to you.”
Shifting behind him to hide my scorching-hot cheeks, I wrapped my arms around his shoulders and said softly in his ear, “But it won’t be indecent once we’re married, will it?”
“You’d better get off this bed quick, or I’m going to insist you teach me right now!”
I gave him a gentle slap on the arm.
“It’s my bed. You need to leave.”
“Yes, I really do! All this talk about making babies...”
He dragged himself off the bed and made a rather hurried exit.
Bane had... cooled off... by breakfast time, though he kept raising his eyebrows at me and muttering ‘Babies?’ at inopportune moments.
“I’m missing something,” said Jon, as I accidentally snorted coffee up my nose and started choking on my toast.
“Yep,” agreed Bane imperturbably, patting me on the back.
“I won’t ask, then.”
“Good decision. You okay, Margo?”
“Fine,” I gasped, prodding the coffee-sodden remains of my toast before scooping it into my mouth. Mustn’t waste food. “Okay, I’ve finished, let’s get over to the conference room.”
I was intercepted in the hall by a layman juggling an armful of post.
“Miss Verrall? Package for you.”
“A what ?”
“Package. A small parcel. Here...”
For me? Who on earth? My heart leap
t in sudden, painful hope. My parents?
I reached for the large, fat white envelope, but Bane got there first.
“What if it’s a bomb!” He looked like he was about to chuck it out the nearest window just on the off chance.
“What?” Father Mark had left the dining room just behind us. He pretty much snatched it from Bane, felt it, flexed it, sniffed it, put it to his ear and shook it gently, then handed it to me.
“It’s a book.”
“Oh,” said Bane.
The layman – George, wasn’t it? – was rolling his eyes.
“If you’ll all stop panicking long enough to let me get a word in, Eduardo’s lot have examined it already, opened it and everything. It’s perfectly safe.”
“They shouldn’t have opened it!” I said. “What if it was dangerous?”
Father Mark’s turn to roll his eyes.
“It’s their job, Margo.”
“To get blown up instead of me?”
“Yes, actually.”
I frowned. Never really thought about it quite like that before. S’pose no one forced them to do it.
“Oh, well, um, thank you... George, right?”
“You’re welcome.” He hurried into the dining room with his load.
I peeled up the already opened envelope flap and pulled out... a slightly smaller package and another, empty, folded envelope. I pried open this second package and tipped the contents out. Father Mark was right, a book. A very large format hardback, no dustcover, corners bent and scuffed and a title in an extremely utilitarian font stamped into the plain cover, illegible with age. I tipped up the envelope and shook it, but there was no letter.
What on earth...? Why would my parents...?
What was it? I opened it up and flicked to the title page. More hideously utilitarian type.
EGD Security
MANUAL OF SECURITY PROCEDURES
(STANDARD FACILITY)
– to be followed by all Commandants
This manual:
- is the property of the Facility Commandant.
- is not to leave the Commandant’s possession.
Liberation (I Am Margaret Book 3) Page 12