Dana turned to Mark.
“Right?”
Mark stared at him, his eyes innocent, child-like and full of confusion.
“Yeah, you can’t understand a word,” Dana laughed. The rest of the room also started chuckling. Only Clark, Sean, and I remained silent. Dana looked at Mark again and then started forward quickly, causing Mark to flinch and also causing more laughter.
Dana placed a hand on Mark’s hair and ruffled it. Mark cringed. Dana smiled, turning to me and motioning me closer.
“Come here, you can touch him,” he smiled. “Don’t worry, he’s not dangerous. He’s very tame now, aren’t you?” Dana turned to Mark, who could only stare back in complete confusion. Dana grinned and moved his arm from Mark’s shoulders. “It never gets old…” he chortled.
Dana grabbed my wrist, pulling me closer. He brought me to stand in front of Mark and then pulled my hand up to rest on Mark’s cheek. The former experiment moved away at first, but my fingers made contact with Dana’s insistence.
“Go ahead and touch him,” Dana assured. “He feels like a human and everything.”
“Don’t give him too much credit,” one of the men in the room laughed darkly. “He’s as machine as they come. Can’t feel anything, can ya?”
I cringed as I heard the talk and laughter. Mark did not react apart from looking around in confusion. It was a good thing he could not understand what was being said about him.
“He has a heartbeat, too,” Dana said, guiding my hand to rest over Mark’s heart.
I looked at Mark apologetically, but he only stared back. His eyes were so dark it was unsettling, but I didn’t feel any fear toward him. Just fascination.
“Here’s the best part,” Dana smiled. He pulled me away from Mark. “I would say that, most of the time, they’re dumb as bricks, but when given an order, they follow it, regardless.” Dana ran his fingers over my cheek. “Allow me to demonstrate.”
Before I could say anything, I felt both of Dana’s hands around my throat, pushing into my windpipe, causing pain to shoot into my jaw.
“Dana, what are you doing?!” Sean snapped.
“What the hell?!” a few others gasped.
Suddenly, Dana’s hands were gone and I stumbled backward into Sean, who held onto my shoulders to keep me steady.
“Just take it easy,” he told me quietly. “Slow breaths…”
I took a few deep breaths as I turned my attention to Dana and Mark. Mark was throwing punches and swipes at Dana, who continued to dodge, despite Mark’s incredible speed. Mark caught onto Dana’s wrist and pulled him closer, trying to knee him, but Dana grabbed Mark’s knee and pushed it to the side, trying to use his other hand to punch Mark, who ducked and tried to kick Dana’s legs out from under him.
Dana lifted his own leg to meet Mark’s, but Mark spun them both and pushed Dana up against the glass of the window behind him, holding him by his throat.
“Cease!” Dana ordered with a smile. Mark stopped immediately and stepped back. Dana laughed and straightened his suit jacket over his shoulders before turning to me. “He’s quite the fighter,” he chuckled. “Which is the reason I ordered him to protect you at all costs. Just a few simple orders that he understands, and he will fight until ordered to stop or until the person is dead. He’s really remarkable, being what he is.”
I was still coming down from the adrenaline high of being choked. I stared at both Dana and Mark, not able to fully take in what had happened until my head cleared. I stared at Mark, who turned to look at me before looking to Clark and Dana.
Surprisingly, Mark turned to me once more and took a hesitant step forward.
“Where the hell do you think you’re going, chink?” Dana chuckled, grabbing Mark’s shoulder and pulling him backward. Mark stumbled. “You obey your orders and that’s all, understand?”
Mark stared.
“Oh, right, of course you don’t,” Dana laughed, causing another round of laughter through the room. I looked around at the others on the security detail and then at Sean when I felt him sigh disapprovingly.
I was about to say something, but someone beat me to it.
“Dana,” Clark started, “can you please not speak so harshly of him? He has been very good to our family and to you.”
“I never said that he wasn’t,” Dana shook his head. “But, some things are just fact. Speaking of being good to people, I even told Danielle that if she wanted Mark for something more exotic, she was more than welcome to, but she might not feel anything…”
The men around the table started laughing even louder.
“Alright, Little Lily, I need to have a discussion with Clark. The rest of you are excused,” he motioned to everyone in the room. “Mark,” he turned, “take Lily to conference room five.” He held up five fingers and pointed out to the hallway. Mark nodded and bowed his head. He walked over and motioned to the door, guiding me into the hallway.
I spared a glance at the nervous and frightened Clark. He tried to smile, but I could not smile back.
Mark led me to the dark conference room silently, opening the door for me as the lights came on.
I put my backpack and purse down, starting to feel the stress already wearing me down. I turned to Mark as he bowed his head to me and began to leave.
“Mark!” I called quickly. He turned back. I hesitated, unable to stop staring at his eyes. They were so dark, so different, and I knew I should not have been staring, but I could not stop myself. “I…” I started, not sure what I wanted to say.
He waited patiently. I wanted to say so much to him, to ask him questions, but he could not understand me, and he would have been unable to answer even if he did understand. I felt my mouth open and close uselessly several times before I sighed heavily.
“I’m so sorry…” I whispered, looking him in the eye. He cocked his head to the side slowly, trying to make sense of the words. I felt my heart break. I slowly walked toward him and he stepped back a half-step, watching me carefully. I lifted my hands peacefully and then placed them on the sides of his face. He stared at me, his confused eyes darting between my eyes, my arms, and the floor.
“I’m so sorry…” I said again, looking at him seriously, hoping he would understand.
His eyes settled on mine. He understood. He was also trying to tell me something, I could see the dilemma in his eyes. He opened his mouth and my heart sped up. He closed his lips again and his eyes fell to the floor once more, but then he opened his mouth yet again.
I could do nothing but blink at him as he tried to communicate.
His hand grabbed my right wrist, pulling my hand to his neck, just below his jaw, pressing the pads of my fingers against a line of rough skin under the ridge of his jaw.
Those were the scars that kept him from speaking. That was the evidence of Dana stealing his voice.
I felt tenderly along the scars, the tears welling in my eyes.
“I’m sorry…” I repeated, once again glancing at his face.
He pointed at me and nodded, which confused me and made me believe he could not understand me at all. He then pointed at his ear before pinching the lobe and then dropping his hand.
“What?” I whispered, confused.
He hesitated, looking around and then motioned for me to come closer, but since I was standing so close already, I was extremely confused.
“I’m sorry, what?”
He pointed at me again and I realized he did understand the two words and he was trying to reply. He then pointed at his chest before reaching up and rubbing his earlobe again. I guessed that was the experiment sign language that meant everything was alright. I smiled and nodded. His face lit up and I smiled wider before I could stop myself. I didn’t know how old Mark was, but his face had a child-like quality to it for being that of a grown man. His dark eyes were suddenly very expressive and full of life.
Clark was at the door and I quickly backed away from Mark, dropping my hand from his shoulder. Clark looked between
the two of us worriedly.
“What’s going on?” he asked suspiciously.
“Nothing,” I said quickly. He looked skeptic. “Um…are you sure he doesn’t understand what we’re saying?” I asked, pointing at Mark.
“He understands basic things,” Clark nodded. “Why?”
“I told him I was sorry for what happened in there,” I said. “And then he started motioning to me that everything was alright.”
“Well, those are simple words,” Clark shrugged. “Besides, he doesn’t know what they were saying in there.”
“That doesn’t make it any better…”
“I know.” Clark looked at Mark and nodded once.
“18:30,” he said clearly. Mark bowed his head and stepped out of the room, positioning himself outside the door.
“What was that?”
“That’s when he’s taking us home,” Clark explained, dropping his backpack to the ground and sighing. “Dana says he is sorry that he does not have time to chat with you today because he has meetings until ten,” Clark added, malice dripping in his voice.
“What?”
“Exactly,” Clark nodded. “I am going to show you around more of the Commission, and we have to go to the lab before we get too settled,” he sighed, motioning for me to follow him.
“The lab?”
“Yeah…remember that bag Cassie at the front desk gave to Mark?” he asked. “You have to get your tracer chips put in.”
“Tracers?” My heart sped up. “Are you serious?”
“Unfortunately,” Clark nodded. “You’ll get three, one in the ankle, one near the joint of your thumb, and the other on your right shoulder blade.”
All I could do was stare at Clark for several long moments. Each child was given an identity chip behind the right ear shortly after birth. Central assured everyone that it was not a tracer, but that it was used for medical purposes in case of accidents or other complications. I was pleased to realize that the chip behind my ear was not a tracer, but that did not quell the fear at having three tracers accessible to Dana Christenson and the Commission of the People put in my body.
Clark placed a comforting hand on my back, urging me to take a step forward and breaking me out of my stupor.
“Come on…” he whispered. “I’ve done it before, it’s pretty simple. I’ll be there with you.”
“You will?”
“Yes,” he assured. He led me out of the conference room and we stopped just outside the door. I threw a quick glance at Mark, who was standing very still at his post, staring at the ground. Dana had never given him back his glasses, leaving his eyes exposed.
“Down that hall,” Clark pointed to the hall we were facing, as we stopped at a corner, “is just more conference rooms, so we’ll head back this way and I’ll show you the other offices before we head into the lab.”
At the mention of the lab again, my brain froze, only able to imagine the tracers being put under my skin with the added sickening knowledge that Dana could find me at any point in time.
Mark fell into step behind both of us as we walked to the other hallway I had not explored. There were three open corridors on the right side of the hall, one at the beginning, one at the middle and one at the very end.
Clark led me, pointing to the occupied offices on the left wall, telling me about the people in each office.
We turned into the arch at the end of the hallway and walked down the corridor, Clark pointing out more offices and people that I would need to know. But as we neared the end, a large door with a sign that read “Library of the Commission of the People” stood alone.
“A library?” I asked, pointing at the door.
“The last two doors over here are the doors to the library,” Clark nodded. He opened the door, leading me in. There were tall bookshelves illuminated by bright lights in the cavernous room. While the library was not the biggest one I had seen, it was one of the most beautiful. The tall shelves were made of dark wood and each aisle had an old-style rolling ladder. There were large second, third, and fourth levels comprised of balconies with beautifully ornate banisters and sweeping spiral staircases.
“What’s in here?”
“All kinds of things,” Clark answered, looking around the books. “Documents and books of the Second Revolution, pre-Secondary Revolution things…several things that they have not allowed in the Central Library.”
“So, on top of taking in the people who were dangerous to the security of America, the books were confiscated, too?”
“Sometimes, the books were more dangerous than the people,” Clark told me seriously. He looked around the cavernous room. “I’ve always wanted to go through these and see what is in here, but I don’t even know where to start.”
“There’s so many…”
“Come on.” Clark jerked his head out the door and I followed to where Mark was waiting for us. The three of us walked to the end of the hallway, turning right and walking to another door on the left that read “Commission of the People – Records.” My heart skipped a beat.
“This is the Records room,” Clark nodded, his voice strained. I stared at him for a long moment as he nodded. “As you can see, this room is completely secure. Card, fingerprint, and retina scans. There is a camera at every angle pointed at this door.” He motioned around the hallway and I looked up, trying to spot the hidden cameras. “No blind spots. No way to get in without the proper clearance.”
Clark turned away and was about to say something when the next door on the left, across from the middle corridor, opened and two familiar people stepped out.
“You really have been treading a very fine line, lately,” Dana said dangerously as he stepped out after the other person.
“You don’t need to know everything,” Sean groaned, rolling his eyes as he turned to face the leader of the Commission. “Let me handle some things on my own. If you’re always looming over me, I can’t do my job properly.”
“Why? Do I frighten you?” Dana smiled coldly. I shivered, even though the smile was not directed at me. Sean barked a laugh.
“No, I just get sick of putting up with your bitching when you see the way I handle things,” Sean quipped. I was surprised to hear the talk between the two, since I always thought Sean would never talk back to Dana. “I hate putting up with you all the time. Why don’t you find someone else to bother and let me do my job?”
Dana laughed and placed a hand against the side of Sean’s face—a hand, I noticed, Sean did not flinch away from.
“I love it when you get bossy…” he praised, his voice dripping with honey in the same manner he used when seducing someone. I shivered again. I wanted to understand what it was about Dana that made him so powerful, so easily adaptable to what everyone wanted to the point where he could convince and seduce anyone to do what he wanted.
Dana dropped his hand and sighed heavily, shaking his head.
“This is not me monitoring you as your boss, this is me monitoring you to see if I can trust you, and if I can’t trust you, then you will have to be replaced,” Dana said as if it was a mere inconvenience.
“Okay,” Sean shrugged, a smile on his face, “but good luck finding someone who will put up with your shit. I’m going to be hard to replace.”
“Very true,” Dana agreed. “It will be difficult…but don’t think it’s not possible,” Dana warned with a dangerous smile and a mischievous glint in his eyes.
I was unsure what to think of Sean’s reaction to the conversation that implied he could be tested on or killed. He did not seem fazed by the idea.
“You need to trust me a little more, Dana. I have been here for seven years. Name the last employee who was not an experiment to stay with you that long,” Sean challenged with a raised eyebrow.
“You know I can’t,” Dana chuckled. “Why don’t you come to my office around midnight and we can discuss this further?” Dana breathed, stepping forward and running his hand along the lapel of Sean’s suit. I blinked, s
urprised to see Dana openly flirt with another man.
Sean just laughed and grabbed Dana’s wrist, pushing it away with a playful grin.
“Don’t you have work to do?” he scolded. “You have a meeting in five minutes. You might want to clean your office,” he added as he started walking toward us.
“Sean!” Dana whined. “Why don’t you ever play with me anymore?”
“I’ll play with you when you stop being such a spoiled brat,” Sean laughed over his shoulder. “Trust me a little. I’ll talk to you in the morning.”
Dana grinned, and his eyes fell on me. He winked once before slipping into his office, closing the door.
“I’m sorry you had to see that,” Sean rolled his eyes as he approached us.
“Sean…” I started slowly. “Dana just said he would replace you…you could become an experiment…”
“He didn’t mean it,” Sean shook his head, glancing at the closed door. “It’s taken me over three years, but I know how to read him pretty well. I can tell when he is serious and when he’s just playing. He really enjoys making people squirm. He’s just in one of his moods today.”
“And still you talk to him like that?” I gasped. “That’s dangerous.”
“Dana and I have a very strange relationship. He threatens to make me into an experiment at least every other day. He started doing it about two years ago. As you can see, I’m still here. He likes keeping people around who don’t put up with his shit. He finds it refreshing.”
Sean looked at Mark and then reached into his suit, pulling out a pair of sunglasses.
“Mark,” he called, handing the sunglasses to the former experiment. Mark stepped forward, accepting the glasses with both hands and a small bow as Sean placed a comforting hand on Mark’s shoulder. The head of security then glanced at Clark and me.
“Have you had your tracers put in, yet?”
“No…” I murmured, my stomach churning again.
He took a deep breath and nodded quietly before he leaned down to me.
“Just so you know,” he whispered, “Dana does not have access to the tracers. Only I do.” I stepped backward, not sure if I should feel frightened or relieved. “He will only be able to trace you if I am with him. That’s what the argument was about. He no longer has access to that clearance level.”
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