“Answer me!”
“Yes, sir,” we chorused, surprised and frightened into obedience.
Dana looked around again, his eyes sharp. He looked like an animal, intimidating the other members of the pack who were not falling in line.
After a few tense moments, Sean was once again at Dana’s side, trying to steer him out of the room, whispering to him.
Dana shook off his head of security and stormed through the middle of the room, between the tables, heading for the back door where the elevators were. Sean quickly followed, calling to him as the others in the room backed away from the leader of the Commission. Sean put a hand on Dana’s shoulder to try and stop him, but Dana turned and shoved Sean to the ground.
A few of the people who were close to Dana let out startled yelps and backed away as Dana loomed over Sean. I could not see Sean from my position, but Dana’s eyes were strong, boring into the other man, who remained on the floor, silent and still.
Dana left the room to go to the elevators, leaving us all in stunned and terrified silence.
* *** *
Clark and I were the first ones to arrive at the Bolt Campground the following morning, and we both were nervous and quiet, thinking about Dana’s outburst at the meeting. After the leader of the Commission had stormed out, everyone had been still for a long time before Mrs. Markus told everyone the meeting was over and we could go home.
But I dared not to speak to Clark or any of the other Commish Kids until I had gotten over the shock and worry that had settled in my gut.
“Hey,” he greeted quietly.
“Hey.”
“Did you turn off your phone?”
“Yeah,” I assured, showing him the black screen. I sipped the coffee I had taken from the house that morning and we sat in silence, shivering in the cold November air. There was a light dusting of snow in the foothills where we were, which made everything colder.
“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Clark finally whispered.
“A good idea? No,” I shook my head. “But we need to do it.”
“I don’t know if anyone will even show up after what happened last night,” he murmured. I turned to him seriously.
“Are you questioning things after last night?”
“I would be an idiot not to,” Clark breathed. “Dana was furious. He was dangerous before, but infuriated…I’m sure he could do a lot more damage.”
“I thought about this a lot last night. Dana Christenson is relatively unknown to the people. No one knows what he looks like, so if he were to show up and start commanding things to happen, I doubt that anyone outside the Commission would immediately follow orders. And besides, he has to be sure to keep the people as calm and peaceful as possible, and he can’t do that by pissing people off.” I sighed and leaned against the same boulder Clark was leaning against. “The people won’t accept the Sweeps being reinstated. It will cause chaos.”
“We already did a good job of that…”
“Hey.” I turned to him. “If you’re not for this anymore, then it’s best if you just leave now.”
“Leave?” he blinked. “And what? Pretend I don’t know what’s going on? That I didn’t help create this mess? Turn back to Dana and be his pet for the rest of my life, if he doesn’t decide to make me an experiment when he gets bored of me? Just like you, I’m stuck.”
I watched the varying emotions play over his features, the most prominent being fear. Of course he was afraid. I was as well.
The first person showing up at the campground distracted me. Sarah smiled nervously, rubbing her hands together, half from the cold and half from anxiety.
“Hey, Sarah,” I smiled.
“Hey, Lily,” she replied. “Clark.”
“We weren’t sure anyone else was going to show up,” Clark said. Sarah sighed and sat at one of the picnic tables near the bolder we were leaning against. She looked at her hands as she wrung them together.
“I wasn’t sure I was going to come today,” she admitted. She looked up at us. “But when I thought about it…all that happened was one little message sent to the people. A message that we don’t even know how they reacted to…and Mr. Christenson is reactivating the Sweeps…” She shook her head and closed her eyes. “I realized that that is not what America is anymore. Central assured the people when the Commission of the People stopped the Sweeps that the system was going to run clean…and now Dana is putting the Sweeps back into practice because he says that the people are afraid.” She shook her head. “Dana is afraid. He said the message is reaching nearly three hundred million people…and he’s just one man…”
I smiled and nodded in agreement, walking to the table and sitting near her.
“You’re right,” I nodded. “So much for the corruption-free government Thomas Ankell fought for…”
As we waited, more people showed up, and even three new faces appeared in the crowd. When fifteen minutes had passed past the meeting time we agreed on, Clark held up a note that he said was held down with a rock on the table, showing us where we needed to go.
Clark and I pretended to be just as confused about the map. We all discussed it thoroughly before making our way through the trees. Clark purposely led us on several different trails and I would correct him, telling him where we needed to go so that we would get everyone disoriented. This helped ensure that no one could easily remember how to get to the fort.
I was a little nervous about showing the others the fort, particularly since I did not know who had told us about the place and I did not want to doom the revolution at this early stage. But, particularly after the previous night, we needed someplace safe.
As we were walking, I turned around and told everyone to turn off their phones, pretending to suddenly remember about the GPS tracking. This also distracted them from the circle in the trail that led us back to the first fork, and allowed us to pass the other way without anyone taking notice.
When we finally got to the cave system where the door was, everyone was nervous about going inside, but Clark put on a brave face and ventured in, pretending to be as anxious.
We had unlocked the door previously, so we did not have to worry about a key, and it did not lead to a discussion or debate about who would be in charge of the key in the group. I knew that we had to be very careful about how open we left the fort, because it was very easy for someone to follow one of us to the entrances and find out where we were hiding.
A few people who had lighters tried to light the hallway we entered, but the flames did little to illuminate the dark passage. Clark and I felt along the walls, remembering that we needed to confuse everyone about how to get into the fort in order to keep us safe. The fort was meant to confuse as it was. A few of the small crevices to the side of the main passage led to dead ends and some led in circles, so we wandered around with the frightened Commish Kids and, just when we knew we had them agitated enough to not pay attention to where we were going, I led them down the real hall and into the main bunker, which already had the lights turned on.
For over thirty minutes, all that the others could do was run around the fort, shocked at the discovery and wide-eyed at everything. Clark and I played along, running up the stairs to the other spiral stairs that we had taken a sledgehammer to in order to distort them further and discourage the others from finding the power plant, though they were still accessible.
“Hey, Lily, where do those stairs go?” Kelly called from below.
“Nowhere,” I called, shrugging. “It looks like there was some kind of landslide or something. It’s just rock and rubble at the top,” I answered.
“Hey, guys, I found a note!” Cody called, entering the main bunker.
Playing surprised, Clark and I went into the main bunker as the other teenagers gathered. Cody looked over the note and read it out loud, though he struggled with the handwriting.
“The location of this fort must be guarded with your life,” he started. “All signals are jammed here, and there
are no bugs or cameras. Use it carefully.”
I had tried to match the handwriting to the original notes we had been receiving, hoping that it was convincing enough.
“How do we know Dana is not behind all this?” Matt asked.
“This is not his handwriting,” Clark shook his head, glancing at the penmanship.
“He could be changing it,” Matt said.
“Have you ever seen Dana’s handwriting?” Clark pressed. “Look at how quick this note appears to have been written. Dana’s handwriting is completely different when he writes quickly.”
“But, who is giving us these, then?” Melody pressed.
“I don’t know…” I shook my head. I wanted to know who the mysterious accomplice was more than anything, but another part of me did not want to know. While it was frightening to think that this person could be anyone, even someone who was trying to undermine the revolution rather than help it, I wanted to remain in the fantasy that this was someone we could trust completely.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Monday was dedicated to studying the blueprints of the Commission of the People in an attempt to find any way to break experiments out. However, after Dana’s speech, there was a different feeling around the Commission. Clark and I could feel the tension and worry. I was concerned that the USB would be found at the Censor Board and pulled out, therefore stopping the distribution of our message, but Clark assured me that the program behaved like a virus. There was no way for them to stop the message without shutting down and reworking their entire system, even if the USB was removed.
Clark was more concerned about seeing Dana again.
“I hope that he’s in a better mood when Leader Simon comes by…” Clark sighed quietly.
I straightened in my seat, remembering Leader Simon’s visit.
“Is Leader Simon afraid of Dana?”
“Of course he is,” Clark said, still looking at his laptop screen. “He’s not an idiot.”
“So, he wouldn’t try to stop us, then,” I continued. Clark turned to look at me, glancing at the cameras in the corners before leaning closer.
“Speak a little quieter,” he whispered. “And I don’t know, to be honest.”
“We could ask him.”
“Ask Leader Simon if he’s alright with us taking down the second most powerful man in the country?” Clark breathed incredulously. “Are you insane?”
“We could ask to meet with him somewhere else.”
“He’s the leader of the damn country. You think he’s easy to get close to?”
“You said he was afraid of Dana,” I pointed out. “If we told him we wanted to discuss Dana, then maybe he would be willing to help us, or at least turn a blind eye to what we’re doing.”
“Lily…”
“He’s the only authority over Dana!”
“He has no authority over Dana,” Clark snapped. “Dana has been running the show for a long time, telling Leader Simon what is acceptable and what’s not. Trust me, Leader Simon has no control over him.”
I backed away, thinking.
“But he has power over other areas,” I mused. “The military, the press…”
Clark glanced at me sideways and I sighed, rolling my eyes.
“We need to at least see if it would be a possibility.”
“And risk exposing us?” Clark ground out around his teeth. “Hell no, Lily.”
I remained still in my seat, admittedly pouting, before I stood and walked to the door.
“Where are you going?”
“Bathroom,” I lied.
He knew I was lying, but he did not bother to stop me. Neither did Mark as I walked down the hallway past the other conference rooms and into the hallways of the offices. Walking down the middle corridor, I approached the door I wanted and nervously knocked before I heard a soft “come in” from within.
Slowly opening the door, I poked my head into the office and smiled at the person sitting behind the desk.
“Miss Sandover,” Sean smiled, standing up and moving around the desk. “How are you?”
“I’m alright,” I said reflexively.
“Good,” Sean grinned, stopping a few feet away from me. “What can I help you with?”
“Well, I actually wanted to ask you a few questions…” I started nervously. He motioned for me to sit as he moved back around his desk and resumed his seat. I sat down in the only other chair, not bothering to look around the simple office.
“Is this about Saturday’s meeting?”
“No,” I shook my head. “Well…yeah, kind of…”
Sean sighed and shook his head. “I told you Dana was getting bored, and he hates being restricted. Just when he was about to get the first problem worked out, this popped up, and he’s chained to his work again. He was just throwing a tantrum.”
“A tantrum that might cost the lives of hundreds of people,” I pointed out solemnly. Sean sighed and glanced at his computer, his eyes distant.
“I tried to convince him otherwise, but…he insisted.”
“Did Leader Simon have any part in reinstating the Sweeps?”
“…no,” Sean reluctantly answered. “That is what Wednesday’s meeting is about.”
“Why didn’t Dana ask Leader Simon about the Sweeps? Central swore that the Sweeps would never happen again.”
“Dana is throwing a tantrum and trying to get Leader Simon off his back,” Sean tried to explain. “If he can convince Leader Simon that this is in the best interest of the country, then Leader Simon would agree.”
“But, if Leader Simon says no to the Sweeps…then Dana can’t reinstate them, right?”
Sean hesitated.
“…in theory…”
“Dana would do it anyway,” I sighed, not asking a question as much as stating a fact.
“He tends to get what he wants.”
“Does Leader Simon really agree with everything Dana does down here?” I whispered after a short silence.
“I wouldn’t say he agrees to everything,” Sean corrected, his eyes distant around the room. “But…he isn’t about to say anything against Dana.”
I nodded slowly.
“Don’t worry,” he assured. “Leader Simon is not in any danger from Dana. In a few days, Dana should get over himself a little and he won’t be as testy.”
I looked over Sean carefully before asking my next question.
“Do you care about him?”
“About who? Dana?” Sean asked, blinking at me.
“Yes, do you care about Dana?”
Sean was still for several moments before letting out a long breath and looking at his desk, as if the answer would present itself on the papers in front of him.
“Why do you ask?”
“Just the way you talk about him,” I said. “You can tease him and talk about him easily, but you don’t seem to worship the ground he walks on. It’s like you can see past that spell he casts over people.”
“No,” Sean shook his head. “That works on me just the same as everyone else, but I don’t hunger for power. I don’t want anything more than what I already have. I just want a job to do, a goal to accomplish. I don’t need anything else. And it took me a long time to finally get the nerve up to stand up to him as I do now,” he chuckled.
“Do you understand him?”
“Not at all,” Sean groaned. “And I don’t really think I want to,” he admitted with a broken laugh. “I don’t make excuses for him, or say that what happened to him all those years ago made him what he is and, therefore, he should be forgiven for his actions. He’s cruel, and he can be downright evil. I know that.”
“So why do you work for him?”
“Self-preservation,” Sean said. “I am stuck, Miss Sandover, just like you.”
“You are the one closest to him,” I hissed. “Why don’t you do something about it?”
Sean closed his eyes and shook his head.
“What would that do?” he asked. “It wouldn’t accompli
sh anything. It would only bring rise to a new leader of the Commission. And with Eyna close to being done, it will be almost impossible to stop the Machine of Neutralization project, regardless of Dana’s influence.”
“He’s almost done?” I gasped.
“He’s getting close to being finished, yes,” Sean confirmed. He smiled and leaned forward in his chair, laughing. “And now I’ve said too much.” He looked at me with warm, comforting eyes. “Is there anything I can do for you?”
“Oh, actually, I was wondering if it would be possible for me to meet Leader Simon when he comes on Wednesday,” I said innocently. “I haven’t met him before, and I really want to.”
Sean turned to his computer and moved his mouse before turning back to me.
“Well, you should show up just as the meeting is finishing…” he stated slowly, thinking. “You might be able to catch him on his way out. I can ask him if he would be willing to stay and meet you, if you would like. We have to work with his security team, so as long as they don’t have a problem with him staying a little longer, I don’t see why it wouldn’t be possible.”
“Could you ask?” I breathed hopefully.
“I will ask his security detail.”
“Thank you so much!”
“You’re welcome. Is that all you needed?”
“Yes, sorry, I didn’t mean to disturb you,” I nodded, standing.
“Oh, no, it’s no problem,” he assured. “If you ever need me, you can come here. Or just call me. My number is in your phone.”
“Thank you again, Sean.”
“You’re welcome,” he repeated. “Oh, and Miss Sandover,” he called to me as I started to turn away. “Try and stay away from Dana until he’s in a different mood, okay?”
“Okay.”
I felt a little guilty using Sean, but I fully planned on finding out if Leader Simon would be willing to turn a blind eye to the rebellion until we had support from the people. I did not tell anyone my secret plan, thinking about how I wanted to approach the subject with the leader of our country and how I could do so without anyone noticing. I did not discuss it with Clark or Mykail, deciding that I didn’t want to deal with them trying to talk me out of it.
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