by Anne Tibbets
Premier smiled broadly. “Yes, of course.” Then she stood.
Ric stood at seeing her rise. I followed suit.
The woman with the tablet ushered Ric and me onto either side of Premier and then told us to smile. She stood about a meter away, held the tablet out, then tapped the screen a few times. “Got it. Thank you, Premier.”
“My pleasure,” she answered, and the woman with the tablet left the room from the same door she’d entered.
Premier sat back in the chair, and we sat back on the yellow sofa.
“Now, as I’m sure the admiral has already told you, we’re very thankful for your cooperation, Naya. You’ll be instrumental in saving millions of lives by sharing your immunity with the population of Flora, and the rest of the world.”
“Thank you. I hope that by sharing, I’ll also help save the lives of the citizens of Auberge.” I meant in preventing a war between the two corporations, but the comment struck such a nerve with Premier, it bothered me. She licked the corner of her mouth and sat back in her chair. “I mean, now that the threat of Bio-Tox 6364 is no longer an issue,” I clarified. “Maybe peace can be reached. There’s so much Flora can offer the citizens of Auberge.”
“Hmm,” she said, swallowing and nodding. “That is an interesting position.”
“I beg your pardon?” Ric looked as perplexed by her reaction as I felt.
“Well,” she began, standing from her chair and approaching her desk. “I see the admiral hasn’t been completely forthcoming with you about our plans regarding Auberge.”
“What plans?” I didn’t like the sound of this.
She sat at her desk and pulled her chair up underneath, then clasped her hands together, resting them on the glossy tabletop. “I understand there are two children within Auberge that you gave birth to, correct?”
“My daughters, yes.”
“Has it been biologically confirmed that they are, in fact, your daughters?”
“I— Well, no. Although I was told by a member of the Auberge board of directors that they were biologically mine.”
“Dr. Bennett, you obtained this information from your brother, Mr. Charle Bennett? Correct?”
“Yes,” he answered her. “How did you...?”
“From Delta’s initial reports, of course,” she answered him.
Sonya.
My mouth went dry.
Then, turning back to me, Premier said, “So, then, no actual DNA test has been performed on these children?”
“What does it matter if there’s been a DNA test?” I answered, a little sharper than I intended. “They’re my children.”
“And according to Mr. Charle Bennett, you were artificially inseminated, correct? Against your will? So it was an unwanted pregnancy?”
“Yes.”
“And Auberge has no records of the children, correct?”
“That’s correct,” Ric said.
“No blood samples, no palm prints. Correct?”
“Yes, but—”
“Then forgive me,” Premier said, unclasping her hands and laying her palms out flat against the polished surface, “but you have no DNA verification that they’re your legitimate offspring, so I’m unable to negotiate their release from Auberge.”
“No. Wait.”
“Besides which,” she continued, “according to Operative Delta, these children were born without proper citizen registration and are therefore not legal residents of Auberge. If Flora requests their release, we would, in essence, be announcing our part in facilitating your escape, and this will risk exposing our other operatives within Auberge and could quite possibly start a war before we are ready.”
It felt as if the air had been sucked from the room. My first instinct was to rush around her desk and shake her by the lapels, to knock some sense into her. Instead, I let go of Ric’s hand, feeling light-headed. “You can’t do that.”
“What about the operatives?” Ric asked. “Can’t they extract them? Just like they did us?”
“Extracting Naya, and by proxy you, Dr. Bennett, was in the interest of obtaining the immunity to Bio-Tox 6364. However, now that we have the inoculation, there’s no purpose for extracting the children.”
“Oh. I see,” Ric snapped, turning purple from the neck up.
I was stricken and utterly confused. The idea that I should have negotiated my children’s release from Auberge before supplying my blood had not been an option—they’d had soldiers with guns on us the whole time.
They’d never intended to help us at all.
I felt betrayed.
Used.
Again.
All that freedom and liberty meant nothing now. They were no different than Auberge. The realization felt like a dagger to the gut. My hands shook with anger. I clasped them together. “I’ll go get them myself.”
“Excuse me?” Premier blinked rapidly.
“I’ll go back in and get them myself.”
“I’m afraid that’s not possible either.”
“And why not? This is a free society. Or are you going to admit that I’m actually your prisoner?”
Premier’s jaw set and the friendliness melted from her eyes. “It would be inadvisable for you to reenter Auberge. Military action is scheduled in the next few days, and I cannot risk having the symbol of our salvation die by Flora’s hand. Especially while trying to save a pair of Auberge orphans. It would be a public relations nightmare.”
“They aren’t orphans! I’m their mother!”
“We’ve already established you don’t have DNA verification.”
“I gave birth to them. They came out of me!”
“What military action?” Ric interjected.
Premier appeared more able to answer his question than to deal with my emotions. She turned her attention to him and ignored the hot tears that had clouded my vision. “Thanks to Naya’s generous gift to the people of Flora,” she started.
I scoffed, but she continued, “The inoculation is being circulated through Flora’s water system and will reach full population saturation in three days’ time. Once that’s finished, as per the decision of the peace summit that took place last spring among the world corporations, Flora will release a controlled warhead that will wipe out Auberge once and for all, ending over a century of economic conflict.”
“What do you mean, ‘wipe out’?” I gasped.
“Just what I said. So, now do you understand why I can’t let you back in?”
“What are you talking about? You can’t destroy Auberge!” I was shouting, on my feet. My whole body shook with shock and fury.
“Yes, I can.” Premier tapped her fingernails on her desk, as if she was impatient with us for being upset that everyone we’d ever known or loved in our lives was about to be blown to pieces.
“That’s millions of people!” Ric bellowed. “You can’t be serious.”
She sat still as stone, perfectly calm. “That’s twenty-three million people who tolerated government-sponsored human trafficking and the reengagement of the feudal system—which hasn’t worked since the Middle Ages. These people set into place a tyrannical government that reenacted slavery, ratified martial law, closed trade, closed sanitation and offered no representation with taxation—for multiple generations. To rehabilitate that many people, to rebuild that massive an infrastructure, would bankrupt Flora and deteriorate everything we have spent the last hundred years building.”
I couldn’t believe it. Thunderstruck, I could do nothing but stand there, gaping. “So you’re going to murder them? Because it’s cheaper?”
“They’re going to tear it down and start from scratch,” Ric said, red-faced.
“As callous as that sounds, yes,” Premier said. “That’s exactly what we plan to do.”
&n
bsp; “It’s genocide,” he seethed. “You realize that? You’ll go down in history as a mass murderer.”
This seemed to affect her harder than anything else we’d said so far. She inhaled sharply but covered her emotions quickly. “It’s what has to be done.”
“That’s a lie and you know it,” Ric said. “You’re just being lazy.”
Premier pulled her head back and squared her shoulders at this but offered no verbal response. There was none.
This seemed to infuriate Ric more. “You condemn millions to death, and you stand there like an obstinate child. What the hell is the matter with you, lady? Have you ever been inside Auberge? Have you seen the conditions? There are decent people trapped inside, just trying to make the best of a horrid situation, and you’re murdering them simply because you don’t wish to litter your streets with their filth.”
“I can see it was too much to expect for you to understand,” Premier said.
“Oh,” he shot back, “So once again, we citizens of Auberge are beneath you, failing to comprehend how hypocritical the society of Flora is—claiming to be Utopia, yet willing to decimate an entire society, simply because it is more convenient for you. Oh, Premier, I think we understand you perfectly.”
“Given the severity of your reaction to this news,” she said, “I’m assuming then that a press junket announcing your support of this plan is out of the question?”
“Fuck you, lady!” Ric spat, and he stood and kicked the sofa so hard he grunted.
At those words, the wooden doors opened, and two soldiers entered. They stood on either side of the door. Trev was on the left.
“Corporal Trevors,” Premier said to him. “You may escort them out now. See that Naya and Dr. Bennett have no contact with the press and are kept under tight security until they can be relocated.”
“You crazy bitch!” Ric shouted. “You might as well send us back to Auberge and blow us up with the rest of them!”
“Don’t tempt me,” Premier seethed, finally showing a crack in her stony exterior.
Fighting to remain calm, I stared at her square in the eye. “Is there nothing we can say that will change your mind?”
She shook her head. “No.”
I couldn’t believe it. The weight of my part in the planned decimation of Auberge felt like a noose around my neck.
Well, I’ve finally made good on my promise.
I’d told Ric’s brother that if Auberge was out to get me, I would get it first. “I’ll burn Auberge to the ground before I see my kids inside these walls,” I’d said.
And that was exactly what I’d done. By giving Flora my blood, I was the key to the annihilation of everything Auberge.
Well done. You got exactly what you wanted.
I sat on the sofa for a moment and tried to breathe while Ric cussed, fumed, ranted and raved.
Trev had approached him and was trying to talk sense to him, when suddenly I knew. It came to me right then what I had to do.
It was horrible. And it went against everything I’d ever wanted in my sorry and pathetic life. But it was necessary. A necessary evil.
“Premier,” I said calmly.
She looked away from Ric’s tirade for a moment and squinted at me.
“I understand,” I said, trying to keep my voice level. “I believe I understand why you should destroy Auberge. In fact, I believe if I was in your position, I’d do the exact same thing.”
Ric shot me a look of utter disgust.
“I don’t want to leave Flora City,” I said. “I find it too captivating, too lovely and perfect. I can see you’ve fought very hard to make Flora and the surrounding zones into a peaceful society of intelligent and cultured people, and I want to be a part of it. I’m thankful to you and Operative Delta, and to Flora for liberating me from Auberge.”
“Well, I see one of you is listening to reason.”
“Naya!” Ric yelled.
I ignored him, keeping my focus on Premier. “I’ll gladly attend any press junket you have planned, speak on any news organization you wish and praise Flora and your decision to destroy Auberge...”
“If you’re serious,” she said, still squinting at me, “we can assign you a press agent—”
“If,” I interrupted her, “you give me something in exchange.”
“What the hell are you doing?” Ric gaped at me.
Premier sat back in her chair and pursed her lips. “And what’s that?”
“Give me three days,” I said.
She seemed skeptical. “Three days for what?”
“To extract my children from Auberge. If I’m not back by then, you may blow me and the rest of that cesspool sky-high. You can tell the press I died by my own hand, or whatever you like. I don’t care. But give me these three days, and I’ll go straight to the press outside my apartment door and tell them how thankful I am for your having saved me, and my family.”
Ric’s eyebrows pressed together tightly as he gawked at me. “No.”
“I’m only doing what I have to,” I said to him.
He looked confused beyond measure. As if I’d just carved out his brain with a blunt blade. He blinked at me and then his chest sank.
“Do we have a deal?” I asked her.
Premier still seemed suspicious. But the truth was, it would benefit her more if she let me try. She had more control over me if I was dead. If I failed in my mission to save the children and died along with the rest, I was certain her mind was already concocting the press release regarding my personal sacrifice for the good of Flora.
“We have a deal,” she said.
I stood and shook her hand.
“Three days.”
Chapter Twenty
We rode back to the apartment in silence—us and the two soldiers from Premier’s office.
Ric kept staring at me. We had a million things to say to one another but couldn’t because we hadn’t been alone since we’d left the apartment that morning. So we just kept staring.
Loaded expressions.
I knew I owed him an explanation, but he would have to wait until we were free of the soldiers. Until then, he had to wonder.
Per my negotiations, come the next morning, Ric and I were to be equipped with the finest technology Flora could provide, driven to the outskirts of the Floran forest, and we’d then have until sundown on the third day to locate and extract Adena and Clea from Auberge.
It hardly seemed enough time to locate them, much less get them out.
But that wasn’t my plan anyway.
* * *
When we arrived at the apartment, Trev and the other guard escorted us inside, then informed us that all ‘net connections had been severed. There would be no communication with anyone until after our mission was complete. As if we knew anyone in Flora to call and tell.
Trev nodded to me, a hint of guilt etched on his face, then he closed the door and I watched through the peephole as he and the other guard took up position in the hall.
Ric slunk into the sofa in the sitting area. He ran his hands through his hair. “You want to tell me what the hell is going on?”
“We’re not going in to find Clea and Adena.”
He blinked at me in apparent disbelief. “We’re not?”
“We have to stop them from destroying Auberge, whatever the cost.”
Ric tilted his head to one side. “How do you propose we do that?”
Sitting next to him on the couch, I reached for his hands. They felt warm to the touch and I ran my fingers across his palm. He relaxed, leaning forward so our foreheads rested against each other. “Do you trust me?” I asked. “Because this is going to get rough.”
He nodded slowly. Then looked me square in the eye. “I trust you,” he whispered.
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* * *
The next morning, Trev and Marc knocked on our door. Dressed in our Auberge clothes, minus Ric’s shredded shirt, we were escorted to the van, then driven to what we were told was the outskirts of Flora.
Near the edge of the city there was one building unlike all the others. It was shorter by several stories and the metal sheeting on the sides wasn’t shining and brilliant like the rest, but muted and flat.
Inside was a warehouse of sorts. It was packed full of military supplies, complete with black metal shelving units stacked on high with laser rifles, hand bombs, protective body armor and the same black domelike helmets the soldiers wore.
As Marc outfitted Ric with body armor and a laser rifle on the other side of the room, Trev helped fit me with mine, and then handed me a duffel bag full of simple food supplies: a few nutrition supplements and a long metallic bottle of water—enough for three days.
As Trev handed me things, he gave me instructions, the most important being how to use the weaponry. Don’t pull this. Always keep this dry, etc. “Are you even paying attention?” he asked.
I pulled my eyes away from the back of the room. There was a shelf stacked with hand bombs. “Yes. Yes. Keep it dry.”
He didn’t look as if he bought that but continued his prepared speech.
My eyes trailed back to the hand bombs.
When he finally finished his lecture on proper gun safety, I cleared my throat and whispered, “Hey, Trev?”
He pursed his lips.
“I need something specific,” I said.
He raised an eyebrow at me. “What do you mean?”
My eyes shot to Ric, who was receiving his safety speech from Marc. Turning my attention back to Trev, I asked, “Can you get something for me?”
He narrowed his eyes and whispered back, “What do you have in mind?”
“Well, remember you told me you’d gone to General Equipment and studied specialty weapons?”
“Yeah.”
“I wonder. Did you happen to study bombs that can neutralize biological weapons?”
His eyes grew wide.