When the video abruptly silenced, Dana sighed and set the phone down on the table.
“Okay.” He nodded once. “First thing tomorrow some men will remove the bars from your windows and doors. For now, we will cover all evidence that he was here. The Commission will have to make a statement in response to this.”
“You aren’t thinking of—”
“No,” Dana shook his head, cutting my mother off. “I cannot let my face be shown to the public. That’s for my safety as well as the safety of the Commission. We will have to have two or three faces representing the Commission.”
Dana looked at me briefly, smiling with dark purpose.
“Tommy,” he said, looking back to my father. “I want you to be one of those faces.”
“Me?”
“Yes. I think it’s important to let the people see a new face with the old ones. You will work with Danielle and Pat and you will calm the public down.”
“How do you plan to do that?” I challenged. “America, maybe even other parts of the world, saw someone with wings fly around a crowded parade. You can’t explain that away.”
“No?” Dana asked skeptically. “The American people will believe what we tell them.”
“Will they? If you say that the whole thing was a hoax, people will start looking carefully at the videos and they will question how it could be a hoax.”
“Lily,” my mother took on a warning tone.
“What?” I blinked. “I’m just saying this is not something you can explain away. People are frightened, and if you tell them there’s nothing to worry about, they won’t calm down, they’ll fight. They don’t want to be calmed like children, they want answers. They want to know.”
“Well, then, what would you tell them?”
Dana’s gentle voice startled me, and the question caused a bolt of fear to rocket through me. This was a challenge bordering on an attack. It was time for me to make my move. I was locked in a dance, both Dana and I hiding a gun behind our backs as we tried to keep the other just far enough away for the gun to remain hidden, smiling deceptively.
“Well…” I started slowly, organizing my thoughts, “I’m sure this will get attention internationally, so you can’t say it was an attack from another country trying to topple America because there will be backlash from other countries for finger-pointing…” I thought for a few moments. “But, if you say it’s a terrorist group, then the question will come up of how they have the technology to create someone who can fly, and then why they would try to pin that on the Commission.”
Dana waited patiently.
“Wouldn’t it be easier to say that you don’t know anything?”
“I suppose so,” Dana agreed with a nod. “But then that puts the expectation on us to come up with answers, when in reality, I do not intend to allow this to get any bigger. I fully intend to find this group as soon as possible and allow everything to settle back to normal.”
“Then tell the people that,” I shrugged.
“But if the Commission commits to such plans and statements, then that leaves us open for criticism. The people will find it strange that the Sweeps started and then the terrorist group suddenly appeared.” Dana looked thoughtful, though I knew he was just doing his part of our dangerous dance. “It’s obvious we have been looking for something already.”
“But these people came from inside the Commission,” my mother pointed out. “Were any of the people holding signs people who had not been broken out of the Commission?”
“No,” Sean shook his head.
“Their pictures have been going around on the emails,” I pointed out.
“Which means that the group already knew, mostly, who it was going to break out,” my father added.
“The fact that Mykail was involved makes me believe that this was all the experiments,” Sean interjected, glancing at Dana. “There would have been no other way for him to have known what was going on. It would have had to been the experiments who organized this.”
Dana looked at me, his eyes bright with electricity as he played the people around the table.
“Can the experiments do that?” my mother hissed, horrified. “Can they really gather and revolt?”
“It’s happened before,” Dana said. “But they never got this far. This is definitely a new kind of rebellion.”
“You think the experiments broke themselves out?” my father asked skeptically.
“Quite possibly, yes,” Dana admitted. “There is one experiment, in particular, that I am keeping my eye out for. Griffin was brought into the lab that day because of a seizure and when the security system went down, he escaped with the others. Griffin would be able to do a lot of damage on his own, but he had to have help from outside to pull everything off so seamlessly.”
“Do you have any leads?” my mother asked.
“I’m looking at the young people of the Commission,” Dana said, looking over at me, seeing if I would be upset. I remained calm, keeping up with our dance. “They were upset after the fiasco with Miranda and Julie. It holds true that they would try to do something against me. Youngsters are rebellious by nature.”
I tried not to grind my teeth at the mention of Miranda and Julie, particularly now that I had heard their real story.
“But they couldn’t organize something like this…” my mother shook her head.
“Never underestimate angry young people,” Dana chastised. “Ask your husband. His brother was only sixteen when he started harboring people across the border, wasn’t he?”
“Lily, have you heard anything from the other children of the Commission?” my father asked, choosing to ignore Dana.
“I mean, everyone was upset about Miranda, but I don’t think any of us are suicidal enough to go up against you,” I said, looking at Dana.
“You might be shocked at the stupidity some people possess,” Dana chuckled, reaching into his pocket and pulling out his buzzing phone. He looked at the screen before touching the receive button and lifting it to his ear. “Yes?” He fell silent, listening. “Alright, I’ll be there in ten minutes.”
He hung up.
“I must go babysit Leader Simon, now,” he groaned, standing. We all stood as well. “I will be seeing you tomorrow at the meeting. Tommy, Monday at lunch you will come to the Commission and we will discuss the statement for a press conference. I will set one up for Tuesday.”
“Alright.”
After seeing Dana out, I quickly had to escape my parents asking me if I was alright. I assured them I was okay and that I was just worried about Mykail and everything that had happened. Then I made a stupid excuse to get away from them by saying I wanted to take a shower.
Trudging upstairs, I closed my bedroom door and heaved a sigh.
“This is fucking crazy…”
My buzzing phone caught my attention and I reached into my pocket, answering it absentmindedly.
“Hello?”
“I must say, I underestimated you,” a familiar voice said with a dark chuckle. My eyes snapped wide and my breath caught in my throat. “Don’t hang up,” Dana ordered.
“What are you talking about?”
“You organized such an elaborate reveal and actually managed to put me in a situation I’m not entirely sure how to handle. Congratulations, Little Lily, you are progressing beautifully.”
“Are you still on about that?” I rolled my eyes. “I had nothing to do with the parade today. You saw the video I was taking with my phone.”
“Yes, by all accounts, that’s true,” Dana agreed, his voice dangerous and yet soft, like water. “However, you seem awfully calm about having Mykail gone.”
“What?”
“Last I was aware, you two were getting very close, and then you come to the Commission one day deflowered…you don’t need to be a genius to connect those dots.” My stomach flipped angrily. “And with how calm you are over his vanishing from your house, there are only two options I can see. Either you knew all along and,
therefore, know who is organizing all this, or you were the one to put him up to it.”
“For one, I didn’t know,” I snarled. “And two, I would never force Mykail to do anything.”
“As a pretty woman, you don’t need to force a man to do anything,” Dana chuckled coldly in a way that made my skin prickle. “All you need to do is give him a taste of paradise and he’ll go to the ends of the earth for you. But you already knew that, didn’t you, Little Lily? You’re not even aware that you’re doing it. That’s real talent.”
“Shut up. I told you I didn’t have anything to do with it, and that’s that.”
“That’s not that,” Dana said in a chastising tone. “Mykail was involved, you were involved with Mykail. Therefore, you have something to do with it. Don’t misunderstand, Little Lily, I am thoroughly impressed. I’m going to have to step up my game. I greatly underestimated what you were capable of.”
“Is that so?” I challenged, my tone mocking.
“Yes,” Dana chuckled. “But you have also limited yourself to Central, and that will prove to be very damaging for you.”
I could not stop the smile that moved across my lips.
We’ll just see about that, Mr. Christenson…
Chapter Fifty-Two
I was surprised at how much I relished in the chaos that was the Commission meeting the day following the parade. The Commission members were frightened by the appearance of the experiments and Dana had to admit that he had lied to everyone by not revealing that experiments had also been let loose, which led to higher tension in the meeting room.
I gloated in the fact that I had caused such panic and that the most powerful group of politicians in the world was finally starting to realize their mistake in supporting Dana’s experiments.
Dana continued to look at me from across the room. When I was not speaking directly to him or standing in front of him, I gave him a cocky half-grin.
I could hardly wait to see what the Commission meeting was going to be like the following week after phase two of our plan went into effect. Dana had been sorely mistaken when he thought we had limited ourselves to Central. He had grossly underestimated me.
Monday, I focused on the gossip around school dealing with the parade. The teachers tried to keep everyone from talking about it, saying that we should not jump to any conclusions until the official statement from the Commission of the People. When I got home from my afterschool time at the Commission, my father was waiting. He bombarded me with questions about the gossip around school. I told him a little bit of what I had picked up, but overall, I pretended to be uninterested as I trudged up to my room, ignoring the workers removing the bars from the door that had once led to Mykail’s room.
I already missed him. I had not had a chance to see Mykail on Sunday. It had been Clark’s day to visit the fort, since we were alternating to keep suspicion low.
Monday night, I could not sleep, feeling an excited knot in my stomach that I could not ignore. Dex, frustrated with my constant tossing and turning, finally abandoned the bed and went to sleep under the windowsill.
I managed to get about one hour of sleep before I was rudely awakened by my alarm clock. At first, I immediately regretted not sleeping. However, when I remembered that it was Tuesday, I quickly scrambled out of bed and dressed, anticipating what was meant to happen that day. Besides the Commission press conference, I had my own plans. Of course, there was no guarantee that things would go as I hoped, but judging by the number of people who had posted something on the internet and social media concerning with the Commission torturing people, which Dana had discussed the previous Saturday, I was feeling confident that the plan would work.
I went to school as though nothing was different that day. A few of the other Commish Kids nodded once to show that they were also waiting for the news that our plan had been successful.
I continued to watch the clock. In Mr. McDermott’s class, I glanced at the clock and smiled, knowing that it was about time we heard about another shocking incident.
Felicity was the one who called attention to it. Since she sat in the back of the room, she was looking at her phone constantly, checking for any update over her profiles of social media. When she finally found one, she gasped and caused me to whirl around.
“Felicity?” Mr. McDermott said slowly. “Are you looking at your phone?”
She did not say anything for several long moments. It took every ounce of my self-control not to break out in a wide smile. I looked at Becca, Taylor, and Jill, who were all smiling about Felicity being caught on her phone rather than what she was looking at.
“Felicity,” Mr. McDermott said again, adopting a stern tone.
She looked up quickly, her face horrified. That caused our teacher to be taken aback.
“Are you alright?”
“…it happened again…”
“What?” Mr. McDermott pressed.
“The Stanford Parade…” she slowly elaborated. “They were there…”
Even through her vague description, everyone knew what she was talking about. Quiet murmurs broke out over the room and I looked at my group of friends, trying to act just as surprised and confused.
“Okay, everyone, calm down,” Mr. McDermott called. “I know that what happened on Friday was confusing, but with the amount of publicity it got, it makes sense that there will be some copy cats that will try to catch onto the tail of that fame. What we need to do is focus on what we’re doing here and not buy into the fear tactics of this radical group. Felicity, put the phone away and let’s get back to what we were doing.”
It was the first time I had heard Mr. McDermott so serious.
When the bell chimed and students flooded into the hallway, it was clear that Felicity was not the only one who had seen the news on her phone. The students were abuzz with gossip. Taylor fished out her phone. As we stepped into the crowded and loud hallway, she began reading the article to us.
“The seventy-second annual Stanford Parade honoring the beginning of the Second Revolutionary War witnessed a terrifying spectacle during the second half of the parade. A large group of people masked in Thomas Ankell guises marched in front of the dedication float with signs resembling those seen in the Central Liberation Parade last Saturday. Fliers were thrown from cars, denouncing Central and the Commission of the People as murderers of the true revolutionaries, claiming that they are making weapons out of humans for the purpose of another world war.
“Pennsylvania Street was cleared immediately and several people in the demonstration were arrested, though so far police have been unable to identify any as those who were in the Central Liberation Parade. Members of the Commission of the People are scheduled to make a statement about the incident at the Liberation Day Parade at two p.m. central time…”
No one was going to class. Students were grouped near walls, looking at various electronic devices and reading the article, or watching some of the news reports that were coming in from the recently-cleared Pennsylvania Street.
“Can you believe it?” Jill hissed. “Another strike against the Commission. What is going on here?”
“But did you see the guy with wings? Something is going on in the Commission obviously,” Taylor said. “I wonder how these people got the signs and fliers…maybe the group is a lot bigger than they thought. Maybe they are all over the country, like the Coalition or the CCLF…”
“Do you think?” Becca gasped.
“Lily, what’s going on with the Commission? They must be freaking out about this,” Jill said, turning to me.
“It’s a little chaotic…”
“Is it true?” Taylor asked. “The whole weapons thing? That they’re making weapons out of…people.”
“I…you know I can’t talk about anything that happens in the Commission…”
That was more than enough of an answer.
While I was happy to see that Jill and Taylor were suddenly thinking more about the message we had put out to the peo
ple, I was more thrilled that the fliers had made it to the parade safely. I had been concerned that Yi Ling would be captured before she had a chance to get the fliers from the Sweeps van to the parade office. Mark had coordinated the eighteen members of the Eight Group and had found out who was going on Sweeps to other areas of the country. Using the machines in the fort, we had printed as many fliers as we had paper for and divided them among the various parades. While the parades really only lasted through the following weekend, we were sure that we would cause enough of a stir to get people rallying behind our movement.
I was more anxious to see how Dana had my father and the others handle the press conference, since they had only two hours after finding out about what happened in the Western Region to think up what to say in response.
When I got to where Mark was standing, I smiled and lifted my hands up to him. He hesitated and then grinned, giving me a high-five. Clark joined, also giving me an enthusiastic high-five before we were driven to the Commission.
For the first time, I was not nervous about Dana calling me in to talk to him. I was not entirely sure that he would, considering that the press conference was just finishing and it was possible he went with my father and the others. Clark seemed to feel the same way. He was not anxious at all as we went through the security checkpoint, which was still extensive—in ways more so since the parade. Even Mark was thoroughly patted down before being allowed in the basement of the Commission.
I was trying not to smile at the chaos we had created.
A small part of me cringed when I pulled out all my late homework, briefly catching glances at the horrible grades I had received. The former perfectionist student I had been hated seeing the bad marks. But a bigger part of me was advocating that school didn’t matter and I needed to focus on the revolution.
My phone buzzed on the table. I had never gotten a message or call inside the Commission that I did not plan on. Clark seemed surprised as well.
I saw a text message scroll across my screen.
Come to my office.
The number associated with the message was 5—Dana’s private cell phone.
Inside, Pt. 2 Page 44