“Alright, you two have fun,” she said. “Clark, Dana wanted to talk to you when you were done showing Lily around.”
“Why?” he asked, a tremble in his voice. I felt my heart sink at the worried expression on his face.
“You’re not in trouble,” she assured with a light laugh. “He just wanted to talk to you about something. He didn’t say what.”
Clark nodded, his eyes dropping to the carpet. He turned away.
“Okay, I’ll see you downstairs later,” he murmured as he walked to the door. I followed him, looking nervously between Clark and his mother as we left her office.
“Alright,” she smiled. “Love you.”
“Love you, too,” Clark repeated mechanically.
I closed the door behind us as Clark began walking to the elevator.
“Anyway, that’s really all you need to know on this floor,” he said quietly. We rounded into the elevator corridor and Clark pointed to a placard on the wall. “If you are ever asked to go to an office, here is the map of the offices on this floor. There is a map on each floor.”
Mark pressed the button for the elevator when he saw us and we waited for one to arrive.
“The fifth floor is the Records Department. These are the other workers who file everything into the system about who was taken by the Commission.”
“They note everything?” I asked, knowing that both of the people with me would understand what I was really asking.
“No,” Clark shook his head. “Those are the basic files, just keeping track of families and who was taken on what date. They do not say anything about what happens to them after. Those records are downstairs.”
“But they can access the other records from their computers, right?”
“If they have the clearance, I would assume so,” Clark shrugged. We stepped into the elevator, Mark stepping in after us. “Seven,” Clark told him.
Mark pressed the button and the doors closed. I looked between the back of Mark’s head and Clark, uncomfortable.
“Floor six is more offices, mostly for those people who live downstairs.”
“People live downstairs…I mean…besides the scientists?” I asked.
“Yes, lots of people,” Clark affirmed. “The sixth floor is generally empty—it’s really just for show. If ever someone who does not know about the Enterprise projects wants to meet with those people, the sixth floor is where they meet. It keeps the other secrets of the Commission under wraps. Seventh floor is Dana’s office. Sean’s office and a few of the other people who are really close to Dana will also have an office up there. That’s another floor that is generally dead.”
“So, why are we going there?”
“Just so you know.”
The doors opened and once again, Mark stepped out, folding his hands in front of him and bowing his head, looking at the ground through his glasses as we walked out of the elevator and rounded the hall.
Clark led me down the halls, pointing out Sean’s office as we passed.
“So, if I need to talk to Sean for any reason, this is where I would go?” I asked. “Or does he have an office downstairs?”
“He has an office downstairs where you will more-likely-than-not find him. Otherwise, he is with Dana.”
We turned another corner and found the office that read Dana’s name. I hesitated. Clark turned to me when he realized I had stopped moving.
“What is it?”
“He’s…is he in there?” I asked meekly. I thought about how strange it would be to see Dana in an office as light as Mrs. Markus’ office. I had never seen what Dana looked like in natural sunlight…
“I highly doubt it,” Clark shook his head. “He’s never up here.”
“Are you sure?”
“No,” Clark admitted. “Do you want me to check first?”
“No,” I said quickly, realizing how silly it was that I was getting nervous. I was trying to get close to Dana to stage a revolution against him. I needed to come to terms with the fact that I was about to see him every day.
That still did not keep my heart from speeding up as we approached the looming door.
Clark knocked lightly and then opened the door.
As he predicted, the office was empty. I looked around the large, elaborate office and was, once again, surprised by the light and warmth of the room, particularly considering that it was the office of the leader of the Commission. He had a large desk and simple black furniture, including bookshelves lined with large, old-bound books, a sitting area with a glass coffee table, and even pictures of American landscapes hanging on the pristine white walls.
“This is his upstairs office,” Clark nodded. “There is one thing about this place that you should know.” He motioned for me to follow as he stepped around to the back of Dana’s desk, where his computer sat, the screensaver showing the seal of the Commission. Dana’s desk was clean, as if it was out of a catalogue.
Clark pressed a random key on Dana’s computer. The screensaver clicked off and the screen lit up with a fully-booked calendar of the month, showing the events for the day to one side.
“You can always access his updated schedule from here,” Clark explained. “You can access it from any computer in the Commission, because everyone is always updating his schedule, but this is the one place you can view it undetected.”
“Undetected?”
“See the cameras?” he asked, pointing to the corners of the room. I looked at the small black orbs. “They’re fake.”
“How do you know that?”
Clark hesitated and then took a deep breath, hanging his head.
“Let’s just say that I got brave once and wanted to show my mother what Dana had done to me…” he mumbled. “I asked Sean to show me the security footage from this office and he told me that there were no live cameras in here. I hacked into the security mainframe just to be sure.”
“You can hack into the security mainframe of the Commission?” I gasped.
“That’s not difficult,” Clark shrugged. “It’s the records that are difficult to get into without being detected.” He turned to the computer and clicked a few things on Dana’s schedule as I looked back to the cameras.
“So…Dana has been in this office…”
“I said rarely, I didn’t say never…”
“Are there cameras in his other office?”
“Yes, but only two, so there are a lot of blind spots,” Clark explained. “Okay, Dana has a meeting with the security detail today, so we need to have Mark downstairs in ten minutes,” Clark explained. He turned away from the computer and smiled. “Ready for the tour of the basement?”
“As I’ll ever be,” I nodded.
“You only saw the labs and some experiment cells last time. I’ll show you around the offices and such,” he explained, leading me out the door and back to Mark. When we got into the elevator, I saw Mark pull out his own elevator key to take us to the basement level after Clark told him where we were going.
I was silent on the descent to the basement, as was Clark for a few seconds before he spoke up.
“Mark, meeting in ten minutes,” he said simply. Mark nodded once, still facing the closed elevator doors. There were a few awkward seconds of silence before Clark took in a breath like he was going to say something. He stopped and closed his mouth. Confused, I tried to ask him with my eyes what was wrong, but a movement caught my eye. Mark slowly turned his head to look at Clark. He did not say anything, but he glanced at Clark from behind his glasses.
Clark let out his breath and shook his head, smiling.
“I’m fine…” he assured, as if Mark was a close, concerned friend and Clark wanted to assuage any worries he might have.
Now, I was really confused about the chauffer.
Mark was still for a few moments before he turned back to face the doors of the elevator, silent.
Once we reached the basement, Mark led us into the familiar hallway. It didn’t look any different from all the
times I had already been there, but knowing that I would be coming to that place every day gave me a new perspective on the dimly-lit hallway of elevator doors.
Mark bowed his head and turned, walking to the Commission meeting room. When he was out of sight, I shook my head.
“Does he not speak?”
“He can’t,” Clark whispered, walking in the same direction.
“What?”
“He can’t speak,” Clark said. “He’s a former experiment. Dana damaged his vocal cords and larynx. He can’t speak. He can’t really understand English, either.”
“He’s a former experiment?” I gaped.
“Now you have met the gift Dana gave to my family,” Clark said quietly. I stopped him.
“Wait, he’s Dana’s gift to you?” I repeated. “But…he looks normal. And he can go outside with you…”
“Next time we see him, I’ll show you,” Clark nodded. “There’s something about him that you didn’t see.” He jerked his head to the door. “Come on, I’ll show you around. We can talk when we’re in one of the conference rooms.”
I followed, annoyed that he couldn’t tell me more about the experiment right then. It was unsettling to realize that Mark, who had been driving us around and leading us through the building, who had patted me down as a security measure, had suffered under the Commission’s cruel experimentation.
“There are three doors out of the meeting room,” Clark explained. “You always want to take one of the two on the right,” he motioned to the doors. “The door over there,” he pointed to the left, “is where the scientists and other basement residents live. They are just dorm rooms.”
“Including Dana’s bedroom?”
“Yes.”
“Have you ever been in there?” I said slowly, not sure if the question would upset him.
“No,” Clark laughed. “I don’t really have a reason to go back there. I don’t even know what the rooms look like.”
I followed him to the door at the back right corner of the room. When I stepped into the hallway, I remembered the night that Dana had punished Clark for what at Archangel…I remembered him on his knees in front of me…
“That door,” Clark pointed to the door in front of us as we walked, breaking me away from the memories, “will lead you into the office area of the Commission,” he explained. “From here on, you will need your card to open every door.” He stopped at the door and stepped aside, motioning to the black pad next to the door frame. “Just wave your card in front of it.”
I waved my plastic-encased card in front of the pad.
I heard a click and the red light turned green, so I put my hand on the cold handle and opened the door, walking into another hallway that I remembered vaguely from past experiences.
“And that’s all it takes,” Clark nodded. “I’ll show you what it looks like when you need to use your hand or finger prints.” He started down the hallway and I followed, curious why we turned immediately left rather than continuing straight.
“Down this hallway are the conference rooms and a few of the offices,” he explained. “Generally, we will be hanging out around here. We’ll just pick a conference room that has no meeting scheduled and stay in there.”
“That sounds really boring,” I chuckled.
“It generally is,” Clark agreed with a smile. “I am happy I will have someone to talk to now.”
We came to the end of the hallway and Clark pointed to the hallway on the left. “That will lead you to the meeting room,” he told me. We turned to the right and I saw a large conference room to my immediate left and a door on my right with a name I didn’t recognize. Clark turned to the door of the conference room. “Here is where the schedule is posted for the rooms,” he explained, motioning to a screen next to the door. “The office staff will be in this room at five-thirty,” he showed me the note before moving to the next conference room, pointing back to the first office.
“That’s Sarah’s office,” he explained. “She’s pretty much in charge of the schedules and paperwork of the Commission. She’s really nice, but she gets stressed out really easily. If you ever need any pens or anything like that, just ask her. She has a stock of everything you could ever need.”
The office next to Sarah’s did not have anyone’s name on it, nor did the two doors after that one.
“Are some of these offices empty?”
“Yes,” Clark nodded. “At one point people worked in there, but I guess they couldn’t really handle the Commission…No one has filled the positions since.”
“But…what happens to people who quit the Commission after working down here?” I whispered. Somewhere in the pit of my stomach, I already knew the answer.
“Take a guess…” he hissed, looking at the schedule of the next conference room. “Not this one,” he shook his head, moving down the hall.
As Clark was about to move toward the door of the next conference room, there was a tapping to our right. I turned and jumped out of my skin. Dana was there, his glasses off, staring through the conference room glass. All eyes in the crowded conference room were on us.
I took a deep breath when I saw Dana motion for us to come in the room. I glanced at Clark who nodded, an apologetic look in his eyes.
Clark led the way, holding the door open for me.
“Good afternoon, Little Lily,” Dana smiled. “Is Clark giving you a good tour?” He didn’t wait for an answer. He turned to the rest of the room. “Everyone, this is little Lily Sandover, Tommy Sandover’s daughter,” he introduced me. “She is the reason I called this meeting. I want you to keep her safe here at all costs. She has recently been the target for some of the children of the Commission who have nothing better to do with their time,” he explained. “She will be staying down here with us every day after school until the threat goes away.” He turned back to me. “There are a few people you should know.” He pointed to Sean. “You already know Sean, my head of security.”
I nodded to him and he smiled warmly.
“Hello again, Miss Sandover.”
“Hello, Sean,” I smiled, feeling nervous under all the eyes in the room.
“That is Jim,” Dana pointed to a man who raised his hand to get my attention. He was a young man with a very soft face and hyper-blonde hair. “He is in command of the security for the cells and wards of the Enterprise labs.”
“Do you want her to have clearance into the back?” Jim called to the leader of the Commission of the People.
“Level B,” Dana nodded. “She can go back and take a look, but she cannot access Ward Ten, the Dome, or the cells themselves.” He looked at me seriously even as he answered Jim’s question.
“Very good, sir.”
“Over here is Sarah, she’s the organization back here,” Dana said with a wink. She was beautiful with curly auburn hair that cascaded around her in such a perfect way, it made me jealous of her good looks. She smiled shyly, which left me wondering how a girl who seemed so innocent could work in such a dark place.
“These boys over here,” Dana called my attention as he motioned to the three in the room that had sunglasses on, one of whom I recognized as Mark, “are a few of my elite security force,” he smiled. “Mark, of course, you have already met. He is Clark’s gift.”
I looked at Mark, who dropped his head in a small bow.
“They don’t speak, and they don’t understand almost anything you say that’s not an order, but they are loyal and they are strong,” Dana explained. “As with Clark, I have put Mark in charge of your safety. He is your personal bodyguard. However, the other two, Sam and Dale, will also be your bodyguards if I need Mark for any reason. They’ll just quietly loom in the corner. You’ll get used to them.”
Dana smiled and reached toward Mark, who shied away, but Dana still placed his hand against the side of Mark’s head.
“They are adorable, aren’t they?” Dana grinned. He stepped in front of the other man, blocking my view, and reached up with both hands, car
efully grabbing the sides of Mark’s glasses. “I am willing to bet, Little Lily, that you have never seen one of these before…”
Dana stepped away, Mark’s glasses in his hands, and I understood why Mark had been taken into the Commission of the People.
He was not like anyone else I had ever seen before—only heard about. I hadn’t given much thought to his slightly darker skin, but now that his eyes were revealed, I realized he was someone from Asia. His eyes were narrow, shaped like almonds above high cheek bones. With the exception of his jaw, the lines of his face were soft, not nearly as angular as Caucasian men. His nose was smaller, flatter against his face, and his lips were narrower.
Mark dropped his eyes to the ground and Dana shook his head.
“No, no, no,” he scolded gently, reaching under Mark’s chin and lifting his head. “Let her get a good look at you.”
Mark looked at me, his eyes innocent, gentle…frightened. I looked into the almost black eyes, admittedly fascinated. Dana was right, I had never seen an Asian before, not even on the news. Very rarely, the political tensions of Asia were covered in American news, and even then it was a brief note before moving on to something more prevalent in America. I had only heard about what they looked like by rumor.
I was staring. He looked so different and yet so similar. For some reason, it shocked me how similar Asians appeared to us considering the way they were generally spoken about.
“He is quite the specimen, isn’t he?” Dana chuckled. “His face was the least chinky of the batch, which is why he’s allowed to go out with his glasses. Though, we try to limit his outside exposure.” Dana placed his hand against the side of Mark’s face. “Got him out of a large, hidden society in the Western Region about eight years ago. They had been hiding underground in a destroyed, quarantined area ever since the population cleanse of the Second Revolution. Made quite the little society down there.” He grinned at Mark and wrapped an arm around his shoulders. “They don’t understand English, though. I gave them normal names because theirs were too damn difficult. In Mark’s case, I made it so he can’t speak. I couldn’t understand a word he said and all he did was yell. But, like any good slant-eye, he can fight, which is what we programmed into him.”
Inside, Pt. 1 Page 36