by R. K. Gold
"They chose to rebel against Red Eye and lost their water. They've been scavenging off our scraps and trying to destroy our infrastructure ever since."
"They're against Red Eye?" Jakobe asked, accidentally revealing a little too much about what he didn't know.
The guard's eyes widened momentarily, then a calm of understanding washed over him. He grinned and displayed a face that screamed "gotcha!" without moving his lips.
"Of course they're against Red Eye. Why do you think—"
"Enough, Foyle." The guard held up his hand and stepped toward Jakobe and Sedi. He crouched low so he was eye level with both of them and his face was out of the camera's sight. "You're from the East, aren't ya?" he whispered.
"East of here, not the East," Sedi butt in. Jakobe didn't say a word. He trusted Sedi to know the right things to say more than himself. After all, it was his blunder that blew their cover in the first place. Robe gave them strict instructions, and he managed to mess up every single one of them.
"The city?" the guard asked.
Sedi nodded.
"Who gave you permission to leave your post?" The guard turned to Sedi.
"Post? That's what we're gonna call it now? Thought we were supposed to at least pretend to have some semblance of neutrality." Sedi stretched out his legs, so they were off the bed and leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. "We were told there was a troublemaker over here we ought to get rid of. Told she might be making a run for the East. Someone I know Red Eye has had his sights on for some time."
"If you're gonna offer us Dez, I'm afraid it's too late. She's in our custody now, and we don't require your help anymore."
"That's child's play. I'm talkin' about the one Dez and her raiders report to. The one who always has her ear to the ground—who can get men and women inside Red Eye's inner circle." Sedi paused and noticed the guard's chest swell up as he held in a deep breath. "You know who I'm speaking of."
"You'll never find her. The Five have searched for her for decades. We've never come close."
"You've never had one of her agents before. You saw the mark, surely." Sedi put his two fingers to his face as an inverted V. "That's not a coincidence."
"They're lab rats. Nothing more. Just cause they spawned from the same experiments doesn't mean they're connected in any other way."
Sedi shook his head. "You think they're rats meant to be exterminated. You're missing out on their true value. The Face Gardner only works with them. You've been looking for her in places, not people. You don't find an enemy of Red Eye on her own. You find her when one of the few people she trusts makes a mistake."
The guard nodded and stood at his full height. It felt like a threat. A way of silently reminding them how much larger he was than them, and if this were some sort of trick, he would have no problem breaking every bone in their bodies.
"I think you two should follow me."
13
They followed the white halls to a metal elevator at the end. Jakobe had never seen a working one before—at least not one run by electricity. During his time in the abandoned cities back east, people mainly used the elevators to smoke, drink, or perform acts best not seen in public.
When the doors closed and the compartment rose, Jakobe stumbled. He leaned on Sedi, who held him still until he regained his balance. He felt like he was flowing. It made him feel dizzy. He stood in a static box where nothing moved, but he could feel the world falling all around him.
The doors opened, and he was the first to step out. The large guard walked in front of him, and Foyle stood beside him. He held the taser out for Jakobe to see but didn't push the button. The sight alone made the muscles in his back tense.
They were in a cave. The floor was metal, and the walls were reddish-brown stone. To the right was a glass room where men in matching red uniforms talked with one another. A few pointed at some of the devices being worked on. The center of the cave was a large metal contraption. Matching metallic hexagons stood opposite from one another. One nested into the metal ground, and the other hung from the ceiling. In-between the hexagons was a smooth, steel orb. It rotated in place, and as it moved the ground trembled.
Jakobe clenched his fists at first when he heard the static charge, expecting Foyle to jab him with the taser again, but it came from the contraption. The orb vibrated in place, and for a moment Jakobe heard running water. He looked around for any sign of water but couldn't see it. The orb nearly shook free. Twenty men and women in black and white coats ran around the device. Most were running to computers to try and turn it off, but a few brave ones ran to the device itself, pulling up latches and realigning wires.
The orb looked ready to break off. One of the men dove away, expecting it to crush him. The metal screeched and electricity hummed through the air. As the sound heightened to the point Jakobe struggled to even breathe, it died off. The machine exhaled, and smoke rose from the bottom hexagon. The same white coats ran to the device to cool it off.
The men and women in the glass room looked away, unamused by the failure. The half-giant entered the glass room first, and Foyle followed. Neither paid any attention to Jakobe or Sedi. Foyle looked too distracted by the company, walking in front of every uniformed officer, making sure they all saw him. He walked over to one man whose uniform was covered in various medals and pins. Before Foyle could get a word out, the man dismissed himself from the room and walked through the back door. Foyle's eyes narrowed in anger and scanned the room. When he locked on Jakobe and Sedi, he pulled his taser back out and marched toward them with his head down.
Thankfully, the guard reached them first and led them to the woman Foyle approached first when they entered, a tall woman with long white braids and beady black eyes. She looked at Sedi and Jakobe like she expected an audition and remained silent, waiting for them to present whatever they had.
"Vice Chancellor Vyle, I'm sorry to bother you with such an unimportant manner, but the potential cost of ignoring their warning felt too great," the guard said and wrung his hands together until his knuckles turned white. He looked down at his feet when he finished speaking.
The woman smiled and patted him on the shoulder. "Captain Fol, you worry far too much. I'm sure whatever these two prisoners have to say is more than worthy of my time."
"It's about the V child," Fol said. Jakobe looked at the giant. It was quite the contrast. The man who looked large enough to lift a truck unable to even lift his head in the presence of this skeletal woman. Vyle's white smile was the only youthful thing about her. Her pale face was covered in wrinkles. Her eyes had deep crow’s feet.
"The Dez girl? Great arrest. I knew it was only a matter of time until you caught her," Vyle said.
"It was these two prisoners who caught her for us," Fol said.
"Yet they come to me as criminals and not heroes? Bending to the will of that one?" she nodded her head toward Foyle and shot him a look of disgust. Foyle was far enough away to not hear her tone and pointed to himself. His face brightened from being recognized and approached the Vice Chancellor and the captain until Fol turned around and slowly shook his head. It was enough to warn Foyle to stay away, but a flash of anger filled his eyes, and he directed his rage at Jakobe and Sedi.
"We've been running their photographs through the Five's network. No one has been able to identify them." Fol lowered his voice. "They just informed me they came from the East."
"East of here—not the East," Sedi corrected him. Jakobe closed his eyes. Why did Sedi have to speak up?
"The city?" Vyle's eyebrows arched, and deep creases formed on her forehead. She looked back at Sedi and Jakobe with a newfound interest. "Who gave you permission to leave the Sedi?"
"Perhaps we can speak somewhere a little more private?" Sedi asked, looking around at the other uniforms in the room. None of them was outright eavesdropping, but calling attention to how many people were around them made Jakobe feel uneasy.
"I'll leave that decision to you, Captain," Vyle said to F
ol, whose cheeks brightened. He looked startled, as this sort of interaction had never happened before.
"If what they say is true, perhaps we should speak with the general as well," he whispered and scanned the room looking for him.
"The general left already," Foyle said, barging into the conversation and pointing toward the back door the man with the thick black beard exited through.
"He must be in the war room." Vyle tapped her wrist, and a red light projected a keypad up her forearm. She pressed a single button and shook the light away. "That'll give him enough notice." She led the way to the back of the room. Fol narrowed his gaze on Foyle, who passed the angry look on to Sedi and Jakobe.
14
The general was not as tall as Fol but carried a strength in his narrow gray eyes that could split rock. He hunched over the digital table in the center of the room. It displayed a map of the West. Jakobe recognized some of it from the map he found on his last raid with Lyo, but it was nothing compared to this.
"Vyle says you came here from the city to deliver news," the general said, not looking up from his map.
"They have information on an enemy of Red Eye," Fol said then bowed.
"Is that so? Can you confirm these findings?" the general asked and rubbed his thick beard.
"They helped us capture Dez," Fol answered.
"Yet they're your prisoners? Do you believe they are working together?" the general asked.
"With all due respect, General, we didn't mean to come here. Dez and her gang chased us. They shot up our truck, and if it weren't for the captain and his guards, we would've been stranded in the hills or dead. We didn't mean to capture an enemy of the state. We were just fighting for our survival."
"Do you have any idea what she and her camp have done to us?" The general waved his hand over the map, and an image of Cardinvale spread across the screen. "She cut off our water supply for two months. Still not sure how she did it. Red Eye didn't want to send aid in case we were compromised, so we had to break into our reserves."
He swiped the screen to show the network of underground pipes connecting Cardinvale with four other cities surrounding the mountain. The mountain was the hub where they all met.
"It's not just water at that point. When we break into our reserves, everything suffers. Our farms were cut off, and most of our crops died. We couldn't afford to waste water on our livestock either and had to calculate how much we could protect and how much we had to slaughter immediately."
"The attack may have only lasted two months, but we are still feeling the effects a year later," Vyle said. "We require all citizens to enlist for a minimum of four years. Very few are ever called to service Red Eye; most guard Cardinvale or scout for potential threats. Based on our calculations, total enlistment will take a devastating blow in a decade, and we will not recover for at least four years after."
"How're you able to calculate that?" Sedi asked and looked at the screen. He had a look of awe, wondering what else it could do.
"We have complete access to any information about our citizens. We need to make sure they are operating at optimal capacity at all times, consuming the proper meal portions for their required diet, drinking the correct amount of water, meeting their exercise requirements and, of course, reproducing so our city can maintain its self-sufficient strength," Vyle replied.
"And they're okay with all that?" Jakobe asked.
"Of course! They will do anything to stay an independent city. Cardinvale is seen as a symbol of strength and hope in the West. Our citizens know what an honor it is to live here."
"Aren't you part of the Five defending Red Eye, though?" Jakobe asked.
"Red Eye and Cardinvale have an agreement," Vyle cut in.
"What information do you wish to tell us?" the general asked. His tone cut through all the nonsense. It became clear to Jakobe they had to speak now or be thrown back in their cells.
"We think we can help you find the Face Gardner," Jakobe said. The room fell silent. All eyes turned from the general to Jakobe and Sedi, neither of whom moved a muscle.
It felt like a lifetime before the general finally replied, "How do you propose to do that?"
"We believe Dez has made contact with her," Sedi chimed in.
"Of course she has—do you have any new information?" the general asked.
"We were sent here from the city by Robe. He told us of your concerns that the Face Gardner has been infiltrating Red Eye's inner circle with raiders from the encampments. We have a known contact of hers in our grasps," Sedi said.
"And? She will gladly let Dez die. The raiders don't breed loyalty. They're survivors," the general said.
"That's why you should let her go. She knows we're all prisoners. If you let us go with her, you can keep an eye on her. You can see her camp, and when she returns to the Face Gardner, you will have your location," Jakobe said.
The general rolled his knuckles over the digital map. "This is what you've disturbed me with? A child and an old man from the city who want us to release our highest profile prisoner? I know you can't be working together because even the Face Gardner wouldn't be that clueless. Under no circumstances are we releasing Dez." The air felt heavy as he spoke. Jakobe felt his chances of ever getting out of Cardinvale dwindle.
"If I may, we've both had experience with people of her mark. We know they're connected, we know they're—they're drawn together somehow. We would never run from you. We know the consequences of running and would never dare betray you. We all serve the same side. The city is just as loyal as the Five is to Red Eye. The Face Gardner is the real threat, not Dez. Dez is dangerous, but why think so small—"
"Small? You think it's thinking small to want to execute someone who nearly destroyed our city? I understand your strategy. We thought of it ourselves. We know peace must go through the Face Gardner, but we are not willing to sacrifice our hold on this prisoner," the general cut him off. His voice softened the more he spoke. Maybe he was looking for a common ground to speak to Sedi on.
"Then don't give her or us a choice. Surely you have some tech that could ensure we obey," Jakobe said. He felt Sedi grip his wrist under the table and worried he made a mistake.
The general's face lightened. Jakobe didn't realize how tightly the air wrapped around him until that moment. "We could put a collar on," the general said.
"A collar?" Sedi whispered and rubbed his neck nervously.
"Give them a border they can't cross," Fol continued.
"If they run they'll drop on the spot, and we can have eyes on them at all times," Vyle added. The more they spoke, the more they agreed on the idea. Foyle bounced on his toes, wanting to contribute to the conversation, but every time he attempted to speak up, someone else cut in.
"Unless she knows it's a trap. She would never lead us to the Face Gardner. Best case scenario, she's a survivor and lives her life as long as she can in obscurity, knowing if she makes a move against us we'll slice her down on the spot. Worst case scenario, she's a true believer and leads us into a trap knowing it'll cost her life," Fol leaned over the map and scrolled through the Five cities.
"We know the Face Gardner has infiltrated the Upper Garden; we just haven't found out which of the ring guard is compromised. They came from Norberry though—would she still be there?" Fol knew the answer and waved Foyle off before he could offer a suggestion.
"She's already in our head. There's no way we'd be able to get accurate information on her if she knows she's being released with a collar," Vyle said.
"You can't let her know she's being released then," Sedi cut in. When all eyes were on him, he seemed most confident. He straightened his posture and continued with a fuller voice. "You want her to lead you to the Face Gardner; she won't do that if she knows she's being watched. So she has to think she beat you—she has to escape."
"You want us to let her escape?" Foyle cut in, sensing his chance to shoot down an idea, and walked to the map.
"How long has she been up for?" The g
eneral snapped his fingers at Fol. Foyle's grin dropped, and he backed away from the map, looking at the ground.
"She's been up just over two days. If we let her sleep now—even if she wakes up when we're tagging her, she'll think it's all in her head." Fol pulled up a camera feed on the map and a video of Dez strapped to a chair in a small, dark cell was in the middle of the screen. "She gets her sleep, feels recovered; there's an accident in the guard quarters. Maybe—" He pointed at Sedi and Jakobe. "Maybe there's a second escape. Draws all our attention away from Dez. She runs into you on your way out."
"Surely we don't need to spell out the consequences of what will happen if you betray us," the general said.
"We all serve the same side. The city in the storm and the Five all want the same outcome to this unfortunate conflict in the West," Sedi said.
Jakobe nodded. Just how much did Sedi know about the conflict? How much did anyone in the city know? Robe and the council worked out a way to send Jakobe west to disrupt Red Eye, but Sedi was a guard in a tiny prison block.
"There's not much risk if we can find the Face Gardner—any semblance of rebellion will be snuffed out," Fol said.
"We'll still have to deal with the backlash. Those who aren't fanatics will lay down their arms, but we'll need to keep our defenses up for a last-ditch effort. As for the plan—I'm not sure if it will work, but it's the most hopeful I've been in some time that we can make progress on identifying and killing the Face Gardner," Vyle said and swiped out of the video feed.
"How quickly can you set this in motion?" the general asked Fol.
"Once she's tagged, maybe two days to simulate the escape. We'll move these two down to maximum security. It'll make their overlap more natural, and she's more likely to trust them. We just need to establish a backstory that'll resonate with her. I'll watch the whole thing from Hanger B." Fol turned to Vyle, who looked deep in thought.