Meta (Book 3): Rise of The Circle

by Reynolds, Tom

  The library is close by and open twenty-four hours a day, which is why it was originally suitable for an after-hours entrance. I enter the building through the main entrance and notice that it's very quiet in here, even for a library. Glancing down at the time, I see that it's past midnight and I no longer wonder why it's so empty in here. There's a student manning the librarian’s desk, busily reading a textbook and taking notes.

  The overnight shifts are likely to be staffed by students. I'd imagine that's because I can't think of few more thankless jobs than “overnight librarian.” She doesn't even glance up from her textbook as I walk by, too engrossed in her own thoughts as I head for the stairs. The elevator would be easier, of course, but the elevators have security cameras. Specifically, these elevators have security cameras that the facility has no control over, so it's better to stay off them. There probably isn't someone watching the feed live who would notice someone who enters the library but never leaves, but it's better to be safe than sorry.

  During the initial wave, one of the first big metahumans to have their civilian identity publicly outed was the victim of an accident. A man had been robbed at gunpoint at an ATM. When the security footage was reviewed later, they found footage from just a few minutes earlier when a metahuman had used the same ATM vestibule as what they thought would be a good place to activate their metabands in secret.

  The security guard sold the closed-circuit videotape to a celebrity gossip show and cashed out big time. Ever since then, people have been anxious to try to catch a metahuman activating their bands on video, even though the tabloids don't pay nearly as much for that type of video anymore thanks to all the potential legal trouble as well as the lack of mainstream public interest these days.

  The entrance I'm looking for is on the sixth floor, in the periodicals section. Even before the Internet, when the only way to look up old newspapers and magazines was to use these weird rolls of microfilm, I have to imagine this area was still deserted pretty frequently. There's nothing to “browse” here, just shelves full of rolls and rolls of film labeled with just the newspaper name, month, and year. If you're looking for something, you'd already know where it was before you ever came to this corner of the library. As I hoped, I find the locked door I'm looking for in the corner past the last shelf.

  I almost forget as I approach that there isn't a hand scanner here, just a regular old-fashioned key. Michelle made me put the key on my keychain in front of her so she'd know I'd always have it on me. I carefully glance around to make sure I'm not being watched, even though I haven't seen a single person in here other than the girl watching the first desk, and put the key into the keyhole.

  The door opens and reveals ... nothing. Just a small, closet-sized space that looks like it hasn't been dusted in a very long time. I step inside and close the door behind me. I never thought I was claustrophobic, but being inside the pitch-black closet that I'm essentially locked inside changes things a little. A pair of red emergency lights click on, and the ground beneath me starts moving. The elevator is slow, part of the reason being that it needs to remain completely silent until it’s past the six floors of the library. Even subtle noise could arouse the suspicion of library employees over time. The other reason it's slow is because it's so damn old.

  * * *

  After what feels like a two-hour ride, the elevator slowly comes to a stop. The elevator door slides open, and I step out. A series of motion-activated lights flicker on, and I realize that I'm in a portion of the facility that I've never seen before.

  The walls and floors are different, older looking. This must be where the original facility was built, before Michelle's expansions. I don't know why I didn't realize it earlier, since the library elevator is quite a long distance from the Blair Building. It's going to be a long walk, and at this point, I just want to get this all over with so I can go to bed.

  When I reach the intersection of the hallway where old meets new, I'm not surprised to find Michelle waiting for me with her arms crossed. She has the bored expression of someone who's been waiting for a long time.

  "Well that took you long enough. Did you walk here from New Mexico?" she asks.

  "How did you know that's where I took him?" I respond.

  "Connor. After all of this time, you still have to ask how I know these things? We don't like to intrude on personal lives-"

  "You mean like the time you started dating my older brother just to get close to me so you could find out who I was?" I shoot back before I have much chance to stop myself.

  I guess that had been boiling just under the surface for a while.

  "You know that's not true," she says, her voice filled with disappointment that I could even make that type of accusation still.

  "I'm sorry. I didn't mean that. It's just been a long night, and I don't want to delay this anymore. If you're going to kick me out, just do it so at least I can get back to my regular life."

  "You can't go back to your regular life. None of us can. Our regular lives disappeared forever the night you woke up with those bracelets around your wrists, Connor. You still don't seem to understand that."

  "Well, you won't have to worry about what I do and don't understand anymore after tonight," I say.

  "You really don't understand how we work at all, do you?"

  "You told me that if I did what I did tonight, then I wouldn't be allowed back here. It's pretty cut and dried to me. I don't know why you're drawing this out more than you have to."

  "You're missing the point. Do you really think you would have been granted access to that elevator if we were kicking you out tonight? You think we would have let you just come in here and wander the hallways alone? You're really not giving us the credit I thought you would have by now."

  "So I'm not kicked out?"

  "Follow me," Michelle says as she turns to walk down the hallway, back in the direction of her office.

  "Connor, I've been thinking a lot about what you said to me. I'll admit that I've been overly concerned with the secrecy of this place. That's still crucially important, but it shouldn't be the be all and end all when it comes to our policies. The world is no more ready for metahumans today than it was when they first started showing up all those years ago. They may never be ready for you. But the one thing that may help is offering the idea that at least some of you are beacons. You may not always be able to save the day or rescue the hostage, but you can still be the idealized versions of yourself that many of us never can. It won't be enough for everyone, but nothing ever will."

  "You can't please all of the people, all of the time? Is that essentially what you're saying?"

  Michelle stops talking to think for a moment.

  "Yeah, I guess it is. My point, Connor, is that what you did tonight was brave. It was the harder of two choices."

  "It wasn't harder for me."

  "I understand that now, and I understand that that's what makes you different, and it's ultimately why I wanted someone like you here in the first place. I thought our rules and guidelines would make it easier for all of you to deal with the situations you're faced with. Despite the fact that most people think they would love being a metahuman, I'm not so naive as to think that it doesn't take its toll.

  "You have the ability to help almost anyone in almost any situation, but even you can't be everywhere all the time. How do you deal with that type of pressure and that type of guilt? We'd hoped that by imposing the kinds of rules we do that it would help alleviate some of that pressure. We'd hoped that when there were people you couldn't help that at least you could place that burden on us, rather than on yourself. But I underestimated you. And if I underestimated you, I can be pretty sure that there are others here that I've underestimated as well."

  We arrive at the door to Michelle's office and stop. She glances at me before pressing her palm up against the security scanner and twisting the doorknob.

  I almost don't notice him at first when Michelle opens the door. I'm not expecting anyo
ne to be in her office, and even when he's not trying, he's still pretty good at not being seen.

  "Midnight?"

  He turns toward me and away from the wall of Michelle's books that he's been looking through. His cowl is off and his face is covered in bruises and abrasions, but they all look as though they've been tended to.

  "Hello, Connor," Midnight responds.

  "I ... I don't understand ..."

  "It's okay," Michelle says. "I know that before tonight you weren't even sure if Midnight was alive or not."

  "That's because he didn't reach out to tell me, even though he easily could have any time," I say, throwing a mean glance in Midnight's direction.

  "Connor, acting like this isn't going to help," Midnight says, his eyes piercing right through me.

  I'm not sure if he knows just how much saying something like that pisses me off at this exact moment, and that's what makes it even more infuriating.

  "I thought the idea behind this place was no more secrets between each other? That once I was in, things wouldn't be kept from me anymore?" I ask the pair.

  "It is, Connor. That's why you're here. Neither of us wants to keep you in the dark, and despite whether you want to believe me or not, this hasn't been some big conspiracy to keep you from knowing anything. This is the first time I've actually met Midnight face to face," Michelle tells me.

  "I brought Iris here," Midnight says. "I've been in communication with Michelle as of a few days ago. I had my theories about what was happening to Iris, but very little proof. All I knew for sure was that once she was out in the open again, it would only be a matter of time before Alpha Team came after her. I can't keep her safe, not on my own. This facility is the right place for her, at least right now."

  "Iris is here too? Am I getting pranked or something? All of this is an awfully big three-sixty from what I was told about this place when I came," I say.

  "One-eighty," Midnight says, almost under his breath.

  "Excuse me?" I ask.

  "One eighty. Three sixty would mean you were back where you started."

  This is exactly what I need: a math lesson from a guy wearing tactical armor.

  "Iris is here, and she's safe. We intend to keep it that way. She's resting, but The Physician has already been to see her. As you know, her powers are different from yours and the others here. They're somehow innate, not being tied to metabands of any kind. We're keeping her under observation for the time being, but The Physician is confident that she'll be able to power down of her own accord soon," Michelle tells me.

  She flicks a button on the laptop resting on her desk and one of the wall monitors lights up. On the screen is Iris, curled up on what looks like a hospital bed inside a small room. Watching her like this feels strangely invasive, and I don't like it.

  "So you're keeping her in solitary confinement? The cells on Silver Island were bigger than that," I say.

  "Not solitary confinement. We're protecting her," Midnight says.

  "From who?"

  "From herself. The hooks that Keane had into her mind ran deep. The physical distance between them is allowing her brain to begin healing itself. Control is returning back over to her, but she's still dangerous. Iris hasn't been herself in a while, and the transition can be jarring," Midnight tells me.

  "How long had he been controlling her?" I ask, running through my memory, trying to think of all the things I've ever said to her, wondering what Keane knows.

  "We're not entirely sure. He's only had the type of control he demonstrated at Silver Island for a short period of time, we imagine," Michelle begins, "possibly only an hour or two, but taking over her mind wasn't done overnight. It took weeks of effort to slowly break through her mind's safeguards, especially without alerting her to the fact that someone was literally trying to hack her brain."

  "So now what?" I ask.

  "We're going to be keeping her under observation tonight. We'll see how she's doing in the morning and figure it out from there."

  25

  The next morning I wake up early when I hear a text message come in on my phone. I could sleep through my alarm clock for an hour straight with no problem, but the little ding of a new text message wakes me up immediately for some reason.

  The message is from Michelle. She's asking me to meet her outside the Blair Building, not inside, which is already strange. What's even stranger is that she texted me like a normal person. She didn't use a messenger or an encrypted message or anything like that.

  * * *

  Michelle told me before I even got here that she'd have a place for me to go during the fall break. It feels like cheating to have a long weekend off after barely even being here a week, but I'm not complaining. The reason Michelle told me she'd find me a place to stay is two-fold. The first reason is that I can't stay on campus. The dorms are closed down and everyone is kicked out essentially. There are places to stay in the underground facility, of course, but staying there would mean basically having to lock myself in. No coming and going as I please when the campus is supposed to be completely empty.

  The second reason she told me she'd have a place for me to stay is she doesn't want me going back to Bay View City. It's become a very dangerous place for metahumans, and just by being there, I'd be taking a lot of risks, according to her.

  I'm not entirely sure how, maybe I've got some mind control powers myself hidden somewhere, but I actually manage to convince Michelle that going to visit Derrick in Bay View City would be the best course of action. Along with that had to come a promise that I wouldn't use my metabands under any circumstance. I agreed and even offered to leave my metabands at the academy if that would make her feel better about the whole thing. She refused, though, saying that even though the academy facility is about as secure as anything can be, it's still not perfect. There's not much someone could do with my metabands if they got a hold of them, but the one thing they could do without even trying is prevent me from using them.

  The safest place for my metabands is on me. Well, not actually on me, more like phased slightly out of sync with our dimension, but still the same idea. Still, the gesture of offering to leave the metabands behind seems to have been what pushed her over the edge into letting me go. It also helps that if I was going home, she'd be able to give me a ride and see Derrick herself. I'm not above using my brother as a carrot to get what I want.

  Michelle insists on not telling Derrick that we're coming, citing some presumably nonexistent paranoid idea that doing so would somehow jeopardize the entire operation. What I really think is that she just wants to surprise him and doesn't want to admit it.

  Despite them being useless at the academy, I haven't gotten out of the habit of carrying my apartment keys with me everywhere I go still. Maybe it's just the nice reminder that somewhere else in the world I have a place to sleep that isn't two feet away from one of the worst people I've ever met, or maybe it's just habit. In either case, Michelle is excited to find out that I have them on me since that means we can head straight upstairs without Derrick knowing we're here. This does little to convince me that she doesn't just want to surprise him and, for some reason, feels like she has to use the security excuse to justify it.

  We both remain completely quiet during the elevator ride up. It's one of the few times I've seen a genuine smile on Michelle's face. She's actually having fun, as hard as that is to believe. I put a finger to my lips as the elevator slows and we reach the top floor.

  If we weren't sure if we would catch Derrick by surprise or not, we're pretty damn sure now. The apartment looks like the rest of the residents of the building have started using it for garbage storage. There are pizza and Chinese takeout boxes piled high in the sink, empty beer cans, dirty clothes, leftover food. It's so disgusting that it takes a few seconds for me to notice the grossest thing in the room: Derrick sitting on the couch in his underwear, looking like he hasn't showered or shaved in a week, headphones in and completely unaware that we're in the room. I smirk as I
realize that this is the perfect situation to sneak up and scare the crap out of him, but before I have the chance, Michelle steals my thunder.

  "What the hell happened here?" she yells.

  Derrick jumps so high that he almost looks like he can levitate. He rips the headphones off and turns to us. His eye contact bounces back and forth between the two of us before finally settling on Michelle, the one of the two of us who isn't laughing hysterically.

  "What are you doing here?" Derrick asks, suddenly aware that he's barely wearing any clothes, as he tries to cover himself with some couch pillows.

  "I didn't know you wore tighty-whities! Didn't you grow out of them when you were like eight?" I ask.

  "They're not the same ones!" Derrick yells back at me, totally picking the wrong question to address first.

  "What happened?" Michelle asks again, even louder this time.

  "I wasn't expecting anyone," Derrick says as he runs to his bedroom, presumably, and hopefully, to get some pants.

  "You weren't expecting anyone? That's your excuse for this? Were you not expecting anyone literally ever again? Because that's about the only reason all of this makes sense," Michelle says.

  Derrick reemerges from his bedroom wearing a pair of shorts and a ratty old t-shirt. For some reason, these strike me as probably being the cleanest items of clothing Derrick has access to.

  "Sorry, I just ... you know ... thought I'd relax a little bit," Derrick says.