by Gold, Amelia
Rescue
Hash and Pav come running into the morgue carrying an unconscious girl, who is dressed in a medical gown, between them. They are both soaking wet and it’s obvious that it has been raining outside.
“Who’s this?” I ask them.
“Another selected girl.” Iv tells me darkly.
“She’s not…” I don’t believe it. He’s done it again. “Isn’t there a way to rescue someone without killing them first?”
“There are. But this is the most convenient way to rescue someone.” Says the man who had refused to kill me when I asked him to back at the military base.
“Don’t worry.” Says Pav. “I thought he was nuts at first as well but now I can see why he’s doing it.”
“Cover her.” Hash says to Iv as he sets the girl down on a mat on the floor of our hidden room.
Iv covers the girl with multiple sheets while Pav brings over a medical drip. Iv ties a small chord around the girl’s arm just beneath the elbow and Hash delivers the spike of the drip into her vein. The chord is then removed and the bag is attached to the stand. They operate as a team and it’s obvious that this is not the first time they’ve done this together.
“Where did you get all this equipment?” I ask them.
“The hospital won’t miss what they don’t know they had.” Says Pav.
“You don’t feel even a tiny bit guilty that you’re taking supplies away from other patients?” I remark.
“Oh we got over the guilt of borrowing supplies about two days after we settled in here.” Says Hash. “You have to eat. You have to live. But we’re fugitives and we have no income to speak of.”
“We can’t even access our savings because that would be like telling the bank: Hey we’re back, we’ve escaped. You can go tell the government about us now.” Iv adds.
“And no one’s noticed that anything’s missing?” I ask them with disbelief.
“This hospital is huge. They won’t know until they do an inventory count and even then, the stuff we’re taking is so minor that they might not follow it up.” Hash replies. “Okay, I’ll admit that the medical equipment and the drugs isn’t minor but the food and some of the other supplies –”
“– Like printer cartridges.” Iv laughs.
“Yes that.” Hash rolls his eyes. “They’re not going to miss them. They have more important things to worry about.”
“You’re not going to give her the stimulant that you gave me?” I ask the good doctor.
“I can’t.” He replies.
“She’s in a worse state than you were when we found you.” Pav tells me. “If we give her too many drugs, it will kill her.”
“She’s going to have to wake up on her own.” Says Iv.
“Why was this necessary in the first place?” I ask them. I still haven’t completely forgiven Hash for doing that to me.
“It’s easier to rescue someone who’s ‘dead’ than it is to rescue someone who’s alive and conscious.” Iv tells me. “People don’t ask so many questions and they definitely won’t miss a corpse that’s being moved as much as they will miss a live person.”
“Was there another Zeb involved this time?” I ask them.
“Let me stress this one last time. Zeb wanted to stay back. We did not force him to.” Hash is irritated. “As long as they still think that he is a common Venry criminal, they will have to follow due process. And due process means that they cannot kill him in prison even if they wanted to.”
“But they could give him the death penalty.” I reply.
“That would only happen if there is a death to report. In case you haven’t noticed, they are not recording what happens to the Knax who are under their control.” Hash is being sarcastic again. I’ve not seen him this agitated before.
“He would have fared a lot better with us.” I mutter.
“He can do more for the girls in that prison.” Pav tells me gently. “These rescue operations are not easy. There are too many people to rescue and we can only move one person at a time. We need people like Zeb in the institutions that we are having to break into.”
“I’m going out. I’ll come back.” Hash gets up to leave the morgue. “Keep her warm.” He gestures to our patient.
I stare at his retreating back, speechless.
“He’s always like that whenever we save someone.” Iv tells me.
“It depresses him.” Pav agrees.
“Why?” I ask them.
“Because he knows that for every girl we rescue, there are at least five others who are dying somewhere.” Pav explains.
*_*
The others are all out doing stuff for the “resistance” so I stay back with the girl who was saved today. It’s hard to believe that someone could be in a worse state than I was but then I remember Lyth, who had become an empty shell, and Heth, who didn’t survive her operation back at the base. I should be grateful that I did make it but I can’t say that I am. Right now, I don’t know what to feel.
Caring for the girl has made it a lot easier for me. I don’t have to think about the things that I don’t want to think about. This isn’t like how medical care conventionally works. There are no monitors that she’s hooked to. There are no drugs being pumped into her system that will “get her better” (though she does have the same white paste on her injuries as was put on me back at the army base). Her breathing is so shallow that you have to put your finger under her nose to make sure that she’s still breathing and all she’s getting from the drip is saline.
This whole revival thing is completely up to her. We can’t tell if she will wake up at all. We don’t know how long she’s going to be out for and we can’t have too many girls down here so it’s really a race against time whether she does wake up. The others are still trying to rescue someone once every couple of days (apparently, Pav is actually very good at grand theft auto so they can use a different vehicle for each rescue). If one of the girls that we save has no hope, then Hash will be forced to do the thing that he hates the most in the world – help her to die. I keep trying to remind him that if he didn’t put them in the in-between in the first place, they might actually make it but he just shakes his head.
Iv is the one who explains it to me when she comes back from her errand.
“By killing them when they go to rescue them, they are actually protecting us.” She tells me. “They are protecting this whole resistance. Also, they make it so that the people running these “programs” can see that the girls are dead before they take them. That way if the girl survives, she knows that they are not going to try to find her.”
“He didn’t do that with me.” I recall. I was moved before anyone saw me. That was why Zeb had to fake my cremation.
“Your rescue was different.” Iv shakes her head. “It was personal.”
My rescue was much riskier than any of the other rescues that they had performed. They didn’t wait until I was in such a bad state that they couldn’t give me the stimulant to wake me up. They got me out when I was relatively “healthy”. They didn’t let the guards see me dead first before they moved me. They also didn’t leave anyone back at “headquarters”. They had gambled their entire resistance on my rescue.
“Are there other groups out there who are doing what we’re doing?” I change the topic because I don’t want to think about how close my friends had come to getting themselves killed for me.
“There probably are but we don’t know about them. It’s not like we’re advertising our rescues either. There are lots of resistance-like groups but they all do different things. There is a group that provides financial assistance to Knax who are on the run. There is another group that tracks survivors and tries to reunite them with their families.” She explains.
“I think he should take a break.” I remark.
“Who? Hash?” She laughs. “Ours is the smallest resistance in terms of size and he wants to keep it that way because he thinks that the bigger you are, the more likely you will be found
.”
“He’s not a machine though.” I reply. “I don’t think he sleeps anymore.”
“It’s difficult for him to admit when he needs help.” She tells me. “Pav understands some of what Hash feels but he doesn’t understand all of it. When Pav agreed not to shoot us, one of the first things that Hash did was to promise me that neither of us will ever be in a position where we can be used by the army again. He takes our survival very seriously.”
“But it shouldn’t be his job.” I exclaim. “We’re all in this together.”
“No operation can be run without a leader.” She shakes her head. “We might not call him “Sir” or “Boss” but the reality is that he is our leader. He was the one who came up with the idea for these rescue operations and he feels a strong sense of failure when something goes wrong.”
“How do we make him see that he’s not alone?” I ask her.
“He’s not when you’re here.” She tells me.
Did she just imply what I think she’s implying? I decide to push that thought to the back of my head. If there was something to be said then Hash should be the one to say it.
“She’s coming around.” I go to our patient and I squeeze her hand.
“Where?” She gasps as she comes to.
“You’re safe now.” Iv smiles at the girl.
“How?” She stares at us as she’s never seen either of us before in her life.
“You probably don’t want to know all the details but we got you out.” I tell her. “They can’t hurt you here.”
“Who are you?” She asks us, some comprehension showing on her face.
“I’m Myc and this is Iv.” I point to myself and Iv.
“I’m Zara.” She says.
“Do you want to tell us what happened?” I ask her.
“I don’t think you want to know.” She replies.
“I do know.” I pull up my top and show her a faded burn mark on the side of my torso – this one was not sustained at the base but inside the prison by one of the inmates that I had to accompany. It’s almost completely healed over but still very obvious as a marker of trauma. “At least, I know some of it. But I don’t know all of it. You can tell me what you know.”
Raid
We are raided by the Imperial Police at four in the morning. They are the secret service of Hven and their presence here is not an accident. They must have been tipped off by someone and we’re all looking at each other in the uncomfortable mutual conclusion as to who it would have been.
“Which of you is Myc?” Asks the lead agent.
“I am.” I raise my hand.
“Myc.” Hash whispers in protest.
“How could you do this to us?” Iv is shouting at Pav.
“I don’t know that I can explain it in a way that you would understand.” He replies.
“You need to come with us.” The agent tells me.
“And you can go kiss a cow.” Iv is shouting at him.
“Watch your mouth, Knax.” The man warns.
“They haven’t cuffed us.” Hash says to Iv. “Think about what that means.”
“They don’t need to. They have guns pointed at us.” She replies.
“This is different.” Says Pav. “If they were being hostile, they would have all their guns trained on Myc to force us to do what they tell us.”
“I’ll come with you.” I tell the lead agent.
“So am I.” Says Hash.
“No you’re not.” I tell him.
“You’re all going to come with us.” Says the lead agent. We’re very lucky that there are no recovering girls with us this morning.
Iv looks like she wants to murder Pav and Hash’s eyes are thoughtful as I turn to follow the police out of the building.
“You can release the morgue attendant.” I tell them. “He’s not part of our group.”
The attendant, who has been supportive of us and has never told anyone that we were here, is allowed to return to his job of attending and we are taken into a large helicopter.
*_*
Pav is silent because, as the traitor of our group, he’d said more than enough. Iv is trying not to say anything because she has come to regard him as more than a friend and if she opened her mouth, she probably won’t be able to shut it. I’m silent because the view is breathtaking – the whole city of Hvin is spread out before us. And also because I really don’t want to think about what might happen to us from here on.
Hash is the one to ask the question that we’ve all been avoiding. “Okay Pav, how does handing Myc over to the Imperial Police help our situation?”
“You know that the Uri peace delegation have been granted entry into this country, right?” Pav replies.
“So?” I ask him.
“They are going to try to negotiate a resolution to the conflict.” He explains.
“You think that the president will use us in his negotiations.” Says Hash.
“The president needs someone like Myc on his side.” Pav nods.
“What do I have anything to do with it?” I ask him, annoyed that someone is once again trying to make a decision for me without even telling me.
“You’re the only person that both the Venry and Knax general populations respect enough that they will actually listen to what you have to say.” He replies.
“What makes you think that anybody is going to listen to me?” I ask him, not seeing his point.
“What could be so bloody important that you would terminate our rescue operations?” Iv asks him with rage in her eyes.
“Do you have any idea how close we are to civil war?” Pav exclaims.
“War?” Hash asks, reflecting the surprise in each of us.
“Okay, let me ask you one question.” Says Pav. “Who has the most to gain out of this sorry mess that you’ve named the Aurora?”
“The guys at the top.” I remark.
“Okay, besides them.” He replies, impatient.
“The army.” Hash says with understanding.
“Exactly. You have no idea how powerful the army has become from this exercise.” Pav agrees.
“You think they’ll try to stage a coup?” I ask him.
“It’s a possibility.” He nods.
“You think that if I talk to the peacekeepers, we might be able to avert an armed conflict?” I ask him.
He nods, not daring to say what’s on his mind – what’s on everyone’s mind: This will never work.
“You shouldn’t have compromised our rescue operations.” Hash says quietly. “And you especially should not have compromised Myc’s safety and her identity.”
“I don’t know what more we can do.” Pav shakes his head. “Saving girls slowly one at a time. That doesn’t solve the problem.”
“In case you haven’t noticed, we didn’t set out to stop the Aurora. No one can. It’s too widespread and people are running these programs on their own.” Hash’s tone is becoming harsher.
I agree with him. For the girls who have become enslaved, there isn’t one Aurora. There are many Auroras happening at the same time throughout Hven.
“But we have a real chance here.” Says Pav. “Possibly our only chance – before this conflict turns this country into an active warzone.”
“You come into our lives with guns blazing. And now you want to negotiate for peace? Do you realise how incredibly stupid and hypocritical that sounds?” Says Iv without sympathy.
Negotiation
I am sitting opposite the most hated man in Hven (at least amongst the Knax), President Vann. I have no idea what I am going to say to him. I know what I’d like to say but of course most of those words cannot be said.
“Have a drink.” He says pointing to the glass of water in front of me. We are inside the mansion that is the presidential residence.
“I’m not thirsty.” I shake my head. I know he’s not stupid enough to poison me in his own kitchen but I don’t want to engage in pleasantries with him.
“You don’t look s
urprised to be here.” Vann observes.
“What did you want me to say to the peacekeepers?” I ask him.
“That you want peace.” He smiles.
“And what do you not want me to answer?” I ask.
“I want you to answer everything.” He replies.
“But you’re not going to like some of the answers that I’m going to give them.” I tell him.
“Then change the way that you give those answers.” He replies. “You and I, we both want the same thing.”
“What do I get out of it?” I ask.
“I would have thought that avoiding a war would be compensation enough.” He raises an eyebrow.
“Not if I don’t live to see the peace that it brings.” I counter.
I know how it works. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that he’ll get rid of me (and probably Hash and Iv too) the moment we are no longer useful to him.
“What? You think that I’m going to make you a martyr?” He chuckles.
“It’s what I would do.” I shrug. Not the martyring bit but the killing everyone bit.
“It’s what Vinn would do.” He counters. “But I am not Vinn.”
“You two are brothers. You really expect me to believe that you’re that different from him?” I ask him.
“You know that you just equated a soldier with a politician?” He replies with a smirk.
“I am calling it for what it is.” I tell him. “You promoted the idea and he implemented it. You’re as bad as each other.”
“We can place the blame later.” He says. “Right now, we deal with the problem.”
“I thought we were the problem.” I reply, dryly.
“You’re part of the problem.” He admits. “But not the whole problem.”
“What was the point in killing us?” I’m not able to stop myself from asking.
“Your people. You know too much.” He replies with honesty.
“You mean we’re over-educated?” I ask him.
Vann nods. “I have not met a Knax who does not at least have a university degree. You might not use what you know to start a revolution but there are people who will.”
“How does my speaking to the peacekeepers help you to avert this revolution that you’re talking about?” I ask him.