by AR Colbert
“So...” he said, grinning before taking a small sip of his still-too-hot tea and wincing. “I’m guessing you might have some questions about that meeting this morning.”
“You could say that.”
“Lay them on me. I’m an open book.”
I thought for a moment. Where should I begin? I wanted to know more about the missing people. Why did they assume the Outsiders were to blame and what were they planning to do about it? I also wasn’t sure why I was selected by Felix to be his Director of Outside Relations. Yes, I was a prominent figure in Classen City’s television programming over the last couple of weeks. That’s why the citizens would support me. But wasn’t that also why I’d be a horrible liaison for the Outsiders? I was too easy to recognize. And especially after what I’d done to Frank, they’d see me as an enemy. Unless...
Another memory crashed into my mind, and I knew the first question I needed Felix to answer. “Okay, let’s start at the very beginning. A few weeks ago at the Harvest Dinner, when the Protectors came to arrest Mr. Gadson, you told me to stand down. Why did you care? Why did you want me to hide my emotions and pretend everything was okay?”
Felix set his cup on the cart and leaned forward, resting his forearms on his knees. “I thought you had questions about the meeting.”
“I do. But my questions start before that. None of this makes sense, really, unless there’s more to the story than what you’re letting on. So tell me again, honestly this time. Why did you choose me as your Director of Outside Relations?”
“As I said,” Felix sat up again, business-mode engaged. “The public is very fond of the actions you’ve taken against the Outsiders in recent weeks. You, more than anyone else—”
“Stop. Just stop. I don’t want your politician answer. I want the truth. And if you can’t be honest with me...” I shook my head, unsure of what to say next. “Maybe I should be more direct. Answer this. Do you have existing relations with the Outsiders? Not Classen City. But you, personally. Do you have existing relations with anyone from the Outside?”
Felix didn’t respond, but I could feel his answer plain as day.
“You do.” My eyes narrowed as I examined his expression more closely. He swallowed, but otherwise maintained a perfectly still and confident exterior.
“I don’t understand. If you’re friendly with the Outsiders, then why on earth do you have an inner circle comprised of people like Dimitri the Warlord and Justice Hines who would love nothing more than to wipe them all out? What is your endgame, here?”
Felix glanced at his watch, then turned around to check the door.
“I thought you wanted to chat, Felix. You said you were an open book. So talk if you’re gonna talk, or leave if you’re not. I’m not going to sit here and take up your time if you have somewhere else to be.”
I stood and set my cup down on the cart beside his. I didn’t need him. I had other ways of getting answers, and other people who were willing to take action.
“Claren, wait.” Felix stood as well, pain flashing across his face. He was definitely wrestling with something, and I wished he would just spit it out. He wasn’t going to be able to hide things from me. I had the upper hand in this situation, and we both knew it, even if I still wasn’t sure why.
“Yes,” he said, closing his eyes. “I do have indirect relations with a couple of settlements Outside.”
“Why wouldn’t you just tell me that upfront?”
“It wasn’t time, yet.”
“Not time yet? According to who?”
The entrance to the study burst open and none other than Dax O’ Neil stomped inside, scowling at me all the way from the door to the cart where he helped himself to a cup of tea before plopping down in the chair beside Felix. He turned toward our host, who didn’t look surprised at all to see him, and muttered, “Sorry I’m late.”
I tried to wipe the shock off of my face, but the whole dynamic of the room shifted with Dax’s entrance. Did Felix know Dax was aligned with the Outsiders? Did he know how much Dax hated me for betraying his people? Even as we sat together in the riches of Senator Walsh’s mansion, I could feel the target Dax had mentally painted on my forehead. He wanted me dead. What was happening?
Felix glanced between us and sighed. “You two have obviously met, and in the interest of full disclosure, I want to point out that no one in this room is an enemy.”
Ha. Easy for him to say.
“Claren, I’ve asked Dax to lead security for your team.”
Dax dropped his gaze, unwilling to meet my eyes. It was probably a good thing, because the look on my face might have burned him alive.
“No.”
It was all I could think to say. If Felix was unaware of Dax’s involvement, I wasn’t going to be the one to expose him. I’d gotten enough people in trouble for working against the state. And despite Felix’s confession, I still wasn’t sure whose team he was really on.
“No?” Felix quirked up one eyebrow. “He’s young, but I know you all have some history growing up together in Morton borough. I wanted you to have someone you could trust.”
“That history is exactly why he can’t be on my team. We, uh, didn’t get along in school.”
“Bull. Now it’s my turn to be direct. I said no one in this room is an enemy, meaning we’re all working for the same side.” Felix glanced behind him at the closed door once again, then lowered his voice as he continued. “I know your history, but honestly, you need to get over it. Dax is one of the few Protectors we have working for the Embers, and he’s the only one I can convince the Leaders to accept as your security lead, based on your history in Morton. So please, try to look like friends while we’re in public. And at least be civil to one another while we’re in private discussions like this. I deal with enough temper tantrums in the Leadership.”
“Wait. Did you say Embers?”
Dax and Felix both looked at me, their expressions somewhat softer, though Dax was still bitter, softened by his own grief rather than mine.
“I did,” said Felix.
“It was always a running joke,” Dax added. “But as this becomes more of a movement, we decided it was time to create an official name for who we are and what we stand for. And after we lost Cato,” he paused for a moment to glare at me, “it was clear what that name needed to be. We are the Ember Society.”
“The Ember Society,” I repeated in a whisper. My brother came up with the moniker before any of this even seemed real. I was not the only one grieving his loss. But hearing the words from Dax warmed my soul a little. A small piece of Cato lived on within the movement, and I knew he would have been so proud to be remembered for something he’d cared so deeply about.
And my other question was answered as well. Felix was a good guy. He was a part of the Ember Society movement as well. But was I? Would they allow me to help after all the problems I had caused for them?
“Okay,” I said, trying to fit the pieces together in my mind. “So if you’re both working for the Ember Society, then you obviously know about my involvement there as well.” Felix nodded. “And if you’ve appointed me as your Director of Outside Relations, then I take it you are not interested in destroying them. So what is going on with all these missing people?”
“They’re joining us,” Dax said with a grin. Even his grin seemed more like a sneer than a smile. But he was telling the truth. I could feel it.
“That’s great! But why are we bothering with any of this? Maybe we should all get out of here too. Have you been out there, Dax? Is it as nice as Frank made it all out to be?”
Dax frowned. “Almost. There are still some things that need to be worked out. And I said the missing people of Classen City were all leaving to join the Embers, but that’s not entirely true.”
I looked at Felix. “What do you mean?”
“Dax has been able to confirm most of the citizens who have gone missing, but there are some still unaccounted for. Hopefully with you in this official position w
e’ll be able to get to the bottom of what’s really going on. But we’ll need you to keep the Leadership out of the way until we can get everything ironed out. And as you saw with Justice Hines yesterday, that won’t be an easy task.”
“I see.” Apparently I would be staying in the Center a little longer than I’d anticipated. “But what if I can’t? Even Justice Hines could see that I was in over my head this morning.”
Dax scoffed and shook his head. But Felix leaned forward and rested his hand on my knee. “Claren, I think you’re the only one strong enough to do this. I just wish you believed in yourself as much as I believe in you.”
CHAPTER 4
Tamara knocked on my door the next morning holding a navy blue pantsuit, and for some reason the idea of wearing a pantsuit struck me as hilarious. I don’t know if I was low on sleep or if my mind just hadn’t caught up to my new reality yet, but I couldn’t suppress my laugh. Tamara furrowed her brows.
“Good morning, Ms. Greenwood. I brought you some clothes for your orientation today, but I’m happy to find you something more... to your taste, if you prefer.” The poor girl pushed a loose strand of her light brown bob behind her ear, waiting uncomfortably for my response.
“Oh Tamara, I’m sorry. That looks fine, thank you. I didn’t mean to laugh, it’s just that if you knew what my last couple of weeks have been like...” I shook my head, giggling again. “This is all just wild. I promise I’m not crazy. At least, I don’t think I am.”
Tamara didn’t look reassured, but she hung the clothes neatly in my closet. “Mr. Walsh asked me to tell you that breakfast will be served at seven-thirty. He hopes you will join him before you leave this morning.”
I took a breath and managed to maintain a straight face. Nothing was funny about it. The whole situation was awful, really. I must have been delirious. But I needed to snap out of it and focus on today.
“Please let him know I would be happy to, thank you.”
I figured if I was going to be staying around a while, I may as well try to enjoy myself. Jean was an excellent chef, after all. And now that I knew Felix was on my side, I wasn’t nearly as opposed to enjoying his company. Though, I don’t think I enjoyed it quite as much as he did.
I’d hoped to learn a little more about what I could expect in my training, but Felix was reluctant to talk business much at the table. He was friendly, but our conversation was light and surface-level right up until it was time for me to leave.
“You’ll have a lot of people clamoring for your attention today,” he warned before I walked out the door. “Stick close to Emilio.”
I’d hoped he would be there for introductions, but Felix had several other meetings lined up and wouldn’t be able to join me. So with very little information once again, I rode alone five blocks down to the municipal building we’d met in the day before.
The same attendant, James, was waiting for our car in front of the building. He grinned as we rolled to a stop and I decided that I liked him. He was probably in his upper sixties, with graying hair and permanent smile lines etched into his face. But most notably, he had really kind eyes.
With so many of the Leaders I’d encountered, I wasn’t sure who I could trust. They had been so thoroughly trained as politicians that I couldn’t even perceive what was real versus the feelings they wanted to reflect. James, on the other hand, stood out as refreshingly authentic. Of course, he was a Worker, not a Leader.
“Good morning, Ms. Greenwood,” he said as he opened my car door.
“Good morning, James.” I paused for a moment to peer up at the monolithic building towering before me. “Do you have any advice for me before I go in there?”
James’ eyes crinkled in the corners. “Just be yourself.”
I raised one eyebrow, earning myself a chuckle from the kind old man. “I’m not so sure being myself will get me very far here.”
“You’ll get a lot farther than if you try to be someone else. Let them adjust to you. Don’t bend yourself for them. Bending too much is how people get broken.”
I nodded. “Those are wise words, James. I don’t want to feel broken anymore.”
“Good luck,” he said, closing the car door behind me.
Once inside, I was immediately greeted in the lobby by a younger man, probably in his upper twenties.
“Claren? I’m Emilio Raya. It’s so good to finally meet you.” He eagerly extended his arm to shake my hand.
“Hi Emilio. It’s nice to meet you, too. What do we have in store for today?”
He smiled nervously and began walking quickly back toward an elevator door on the far side of the lobby. “Well, there’s kind of a lot to show you. Ms. Frasier asked me to get you all caught up on the project we’ve been working on. But before we go up, how comfortable are you with technology?”
“Technology? I mean, I know how to turn on a television. And I can work a stun gun. That’s about all I’ve ever been exposed to.”
Emilio let out an awkward, high pitched giggle as he stumbled with an ID badge around his neck. He slid the badge through an apparatus attached to the outside of the elevator and punched in a code on a set of numbers on the face of it. The doors opened and I followed him inside.
My heart raced as the elevator moved upwards. I’d heard my mom speak of elevators when I was younger— they were used at the medical center where she worked. But I’d never actually ridden one before. That plus the anxious excitement I was picking up from Emilio had my blood pumping way too fast for such an early morning.
“Well prepare to learn about a lot more,” he said.
The anticipation built as we slowly rose five floors to the top of the building, and I couldn’t wait to find out what I would see on the other side of the doors. Finally they opened and I stepped out into a dull hallway lit by old fluorescent light fixtures hanging from a dingy drop ceiling. I was less than impressed.
I followed Emilio down the hall to a nondescript metal door with the same set of numbers on the wall beside it.
“What is that for?” I asked.
“What is what for? The keypad?” Emilio pointed at the numbers. “It’s a security measure.” He looked at me like he was speaking to a child. He wasn’t kidding when he said I’d have a lot to learn. “The project suite is locked to anyone who doesn’t have special access. You’ll be assigned your own code after you meet with HR.”
I nodded. This was already more technology than I was accustomed to. Our country had gone back to the very basics after the Great War. The people had access to too much technology before. Too much information. Too much power. And power seemed to bring out the worst in people. That’s how the war was started.
Once the dust settled after the war, the New American government outlawed technology for most of the population. We had televisions where we could watch our city programming, and the medical centers had some advanced equipment for the Healers to use. But that was all we really needed. The Leadership provided anything else we could possibly require.
The keypad gave a whiz and a click, and the door opened into a bright white lobby. Clear plastic chairs lined two walls on either side of us, and a shiny white desk with some sort of illuminated screen built into the top sat at the back of the room. Attached to the wall above the desk were large, shiny, navy blue letters spelling out TRIPLE-T. Two doors made of etched glass stood on the far wall as well, one on each side of the desk.
My jaw dropped. “Emilio, this is...”
“This is just the lobby,” he said with another high pitched giggle. Then he cleared his throat and pushed his dark tousled hair back from his forehead with one hand. His nerves weren’t helping me to feel any less anxious about what was ahead.
“So first things first,” he continued. “I need to give you a basic rundown of the functionality of Triple-T. It stands for Thought Transference Technology, and the Leadership—primarily Emmaline—wants to use it to track the Outsiders. I’ll show you more inside, but basically we will be listening in on th
e Outside settlements in order to prevent future attacks on our people.” He spoke quickly and ended abruptly, his mouth resting in a straight line.
“So she wants to spy on them?” I asked.
“Uhh, yeah. Pretty much,” he said with a shrug. “Follow me and I’ll show you how it works.”
Using his ID badge again, he unlocked the door on the right, and I followed him into another hall lined with doors.
“This is where our researchers’ offices are. And over here is where we keep our original prototype,” he said, unlocking another door on his left.
Inside was a table and two chairs. Two gray winter hats sat on the table.
“Have a seat.” Emilio gestured to a chair and sat down opposite me. “So these hats are some of the earliest devices we were able to use to communicate wordlessly. Through a complicated process involving magnetic imaging and stimulation, we are able to transmit thoughts from one brain to another without speaking or writing a single word.”
My belly did a flip as I examined the hat in front of me a little more closely. Who would want people to have access to all of their internal thoughts? This was nuts.
Emilio must have noticed my hesitation. “Don’t worry. These early prototypes only go one way. And you will only be able to hear what I want to convey to you. Ready?” He pulled the hat over his head.
I picked mine up to examine it more closely. From a distance it looked like a wool knit hat. But it felt like a synthetic material in my hands. It wasn’t as heavy as I expected it to be. Then again, I half expected it to be lined with magnets. It was flexible, but I could definitely feel some wiring inside.
Emilio nodded at me from the other side of the table. “Go ahead. You can trust me.” His eyes were sincere, so despite my reservations, I slowly pulled the cap down over my hair.
Nothing happened at first. But before long I could hear some faint clicking and whirring. Then it hit me.
Can you hear me?
I did hear him. It was plain as the nose on his face, but I didn’t hear him with my ears. It was in my head. And it wasn’t in his voice. It was just the words. I nodded emphatically and Emilio smiled across from me.