I approached the glass, drawn by a force I was defenceless against. It was dark on the other side, but lit with intermittent floodlights. My gaze started at the bottom and then moved up, and beyond.
‘Oh my God,’ I said.
We’d always known about the communities. And about the rumours of a much larger community beneath the ground. But this … this was …
‘It’s the size of a small city,’ Quentin said beside me. ‘There could be a hundred thousand people living here. More.’
We watched as armed guards patrolled what appeared to be a combination of experimental zones, buildings and prisons. The area was massive and broken into grid-like sections. Some of the buildings looked like they belonged in urban settings, though they appeared deserted. To the right of the buildings was what looked like more laboratories and testing facilities; they were the size of football fields and made of dome-shaped glass. At roof height, long metal rods lined the ceilings, spaced like lanes in a swimming pool. Other zones looked more like barracks and, beyond that, row upon row of prisons. All with glass ceilings.
If the devil had a name, I was sure it was Garrett Mercer.
And this was where he lived.
I looked around the carved-out space, searching now at my eye level. Amid the dark black granite I spotted another glass wall adjacent. The lab we were in and whatever was behind that other glass wall overlooked a world where they played God.
‘Shit,’ I heard Gus mutter, reminding me I still had the phone against my ear.
‘What?’ I asked on autopilot.
‘Maggie, please get out of there!’ he pleaded.
Quentin seemed to rouse from his thoughts at that moment and turned to me. ‘Put him on speaker,’ he said.
I held Quentin’s eyes for a moment and knew he needed to understand, to know everything he could. I bit my lip, but nodded. ‘I’m putting you on speaker, Gus, and I’m not going anywhere.’ Not until I’d freed Dad from this hell. ‘So just tell me.’
He was rifling through pages and tapping on his keyboard. ‘Okay, okay. You know how we found those population documents on Garrett Mercer’s computer?’
‘Yes,’ I answered. I knew Gus had tried to follow the trail of information and had come up empty-handed.
‘It’s the reason they introduced the poverty tax,’ he mumbled.
‘Gus, what are you talking about?’ I snapped.
‘They’re selling a solution! They’re offering third-world countries a population control. Oh, it’s just so …’ He sounded sick. ‘For the right price, M-Corp can make a country stop breeding.’
The enormity of what he was suggesting was beyond comprehension.
Quentin paled. ‘How?’
‘Disruption,’ Gus said softly.
I shook my head. ‘But they … they can’t. Even if they had a disruption that could make an entire population test as negative, it wouldn’t stop them from naturally having relationships, especially when they aren’t truly negs.’ I glanced quickly at Quentin and then away. ‘Even if they think they’re negs, it doesn’t mean they are. Eventually they would realise.’
‘But that’s what I’m saying, Mags. They are really negative! M-Corp isn’t just disrupting the signal; they’re changing people’s pheromones so that they’re sending out a clear offensive signature. Their records show it has a ninety per cent success rate on those treated.’
‘They’re treating us like a virus,’ Quentin murmured.
My eyes found his. ‘Not a virus,’ I said, too many awful thoughts flooding my mind. ‘Like insects.’
He nodded, looking back out over the underground city. He gestured to the domed laboratories. ‘Those pipes are some sort of delivery system. If it were a time of war, they might be gas chambers, but they’re something else.’
I grabbed my side and bent a little, winded by my worst fears.
‘And it’s not just population control,’ Gus added. ‘From what I can see here, they have accounts with every major country’s defence departments, and even large corporations. They’re selling a highly sought-after service. Stripping people to nothing so all they are capable of is work. All the testing shows that once someone’s ambition for relationship and family is fully extinguished, they’re pliable in many other ways. Most of all, they have nothing to go back to, nothing to leave for, so they offer long term –’
‘Shh,’ I hissed, my ears catching a faint noise. Gus stopped mid-sentence.
Quentin stood, alert. He’d heard it too. We looked around, towards the elevator, then the entrance we’d come through. We heard another sound and realised it was the outer door. A red light flickered on above the decontamination room.
Someone was in there.
I grabbed Quentin’s arm and started pulling him towards the back of the long lab, putting as much distance between us and whoever was coming through that door as I could. I shoved him under a desk to the side of the main computers. After pulling the zip drive from the back of the mainframe, I joined him, ducking low and whispering to Gus to stay silent.
I didn’t realise how badly I was shaking until Quentin’s hands came over mine, his warmth settling me. It was amazing how calm he appeared. But then I realised it wasn’t so much a calmness as a resignation.
Did he think that city of negs below us was where he belonged? Where he would end up?
My eyebrows drew together. God, I wanted to tell him. I wanted to go back and change things. Everything.
We still had a few minutes until the decontamination cycle was completed.
‘You okay?’ Quentin whispered. ‘You’ve gone pale.’
My lips pressed together in a straight line as I made my choice. ‘You were right. This thing between us … It’s like nothing I’ve ever known and I’m so scared. But it was never fear that you were a neg, or weren’t enough – it was that I wasn’t. I’m not enough, Quin. I’m not kind, or thoughtful, or girly, or even all that caring.’ I glanced nervously at the decontamination chamber. I was almost out of time. ‘Most of all, I’m not honest. I made all these sacrifices, gave up everyone and everything to find Dad … Quin, I did something awful to you. I sacrificed you before I even knew you.’
His hand went to my face, cupping it gently, soothingly. ‘Maggie, whatever it is, I forgive you. Trust me when I say there is nothing in this world that could tear me away from you.’
I opened my mouth to say the words. Five little words.
You were never a neg.
But just as I did, the red light above the chamber turned green and we heard the door’s pressure valve release and slide open.
I squeezed Quentin’s hand. Reminding him to stay still and silent.
A single set of footsteps sounded on the marble floor. They reminded me of the clipped sound of Mr Polished Brogues in the parking garage. I concentrated on my breathing. I had the mute upgrade, so I wasn’t about to have a beep-off, but still … It was the principle.
We heard some papers being moved about and then the clinking of something like test tubes. I was too scared to look. So we remained hidden. Listening. With any luck, it was just someone who would leave again soon.
After a few more minutes, we heard the sound of a chair being rolled back and then a creaking sound as the person settled into it.
Then finally a voice. A man.
‘Please don’t hide all the way down the back with your friend. We don’t have much time before the others arrive.’
My M-Band started to vibrate. Before I could think about anything else, I stood, my legs shaking, tears already in my eyes.
He looked like a stranger, sitting in the black wingtip chair, white lab coat over what was a very nice steel-grey suit. Short salt-and-pepper hair. A rigidness to his posture and something missing from his eyes, something that made my blood run cold. But the thing that struck me more than anything else …
He had a nice tan.
‘Dad?’ I whispered.
But the lump in my throat had already answered one
question loud and clear. I knew now I would never find the man I’d been searching for, the man I’d spent two years trying to save. Was this what they had done to him? Had they changed him so much? Was there any hope?
‘Dad? Oh my God,’ I said, my voice trembling and my hand going to my mouth.
But as he stared at me, it hit me, what was missing from his eyes … It was concern. And worse. It was love. For me.
I thought of how Sam and Mom felt towards Dad now, and suddenly I didn’t know if the man I’d been hunting for had ever truly existed. If he had, he could never look at his little girl with such disregard.
He continued to stare dispassionately, waiting for me to start putting the pieces together. Once I started, it wasn’t as far from my consciousness as I would’ve liked. I knew that he was smart, that he’d worked hard as a pesticide specialist on pheromone disruption techniques.
I knew that night at Mitchell’s Diner that he’d stumbled across the neg disruption.
I’d just never considered that he …
A hand wrapped gently around mine. I hadn’t even heard Quentin stand. But there he was, beside me, supporting me. He had to be working some of it out in his mind as well.
‘We’re leaving,’ Quentin stated, turning us towards the exit.
My father simply shook his head and raised his right hand steadily, giving us a clear view of his gun, which he pointed at me.
‘At a guess,’ he grinned cruelly at Quentin, ‘I’m willing to bet you’ll behave as long as I have this pointed at her.’ His smile widened, making my insides turn, and he glanced curiously at me. ‘You on the other hand …’ He shrugged. But I knew what he was saying. My father didn’t think I’d try to protect Quentin if he had the gun directed at him instead of me.
He’d always said I took after him.
Twenty-eight
In all the hundreds of times, no, thousands, that I’d envisaged, prayed for, planned, dreaded and feared this moment, this particular scene had never occurred to me.
My mouth was so dry I wasn’t sure I could speak.
‘You’re Mr Mitchell. You work here,’ Quentin said. It wasn’t a question. He turned to me, his brow furrowed with concern, and squeezed my hand. ‘I’ve met your father before. At the M-Corp offices in New York.’
Mr Mitchell? I wanted to be sick. He’d named himself after the diner where all of this began.
Dad saw my reaction and the corners of his mouth twitched in amusement. ‘I prefer to be based in New York, but there are times I must oversee things down here. Your father is not going to be happy with you when he finds out what you’ve been helping Maggie with.’
Quentin stiffened at the mention of his own father. ‘You mean, finding you? I’m sure I can explain.’
‘Were you ever a neg?’ I asked Dad, my voice cracking on each word.
‘No more than him,’ my father said, jabbing the gun towards Quentin.
Saliva rushed into my mouth and I swallowed down the bile. Tears brimmed in my eyes and something I suspected was my heart felt like it was being drowned from the inside out. Like a coward, I stared at the ground as I could feel, almost hear, Quentin’s mind trying to make sense of it all.
‘You know I’m a … a neg?’ he asked cautiously.
My father snorted. ‘You’re as far from a neg as I am from the helpless prisoner Maggie here always wanted me to be.’
I flinched at his words.
‘I must admit, I always wondered, Maggie. That night at the café, I knew you were hiding something, but even if you had … Well, I never imagined you’d put the disruption to such … use.’
‘You planned it all.’ My words were a plea for him to tell me I was wrong. That he was not a monster. That the things I’d done hadn’t all been for nothing.
‘It’s a new world and tech is its king. I really wish you’d left things alone.’
Anger started to build and I welcomed it. I needed it to stop the world falling from under my feet. ‘You disrupted yourself! You left us to deal with everything. Mom works off all your debts!’
‘Yes,’ he said. ‘It was the perfect way for the government to issue me with a new identity.’
I half laughed, sick to the bone. ‘I thought you were dead, or stuck in one of the cells. I did everything, gave up everything!’ A tear fell down my cheek. ‘I hurt so many people, left innocent people behind when I could have saved them. Lied.’ I looked at Quentin, who seemed to be lost in thought. And I knew none of his thoughts could be good.
‘Yes, you did. All to find me. I’ve watched, Maggie. At first it was pathetic, but then you recruited that man and things became a little more interesting.’ He meant Gus. I couldn’t believe Dad had been watching everything the whole time I’d been searching for him. ‘Of course, once I figured out you were determined to continue on your path … well, I was intrigued to see if you had it in you. And then your big plan.’ He gestured again to Quentin. ‘It was smart, I’ll give you that. But your mistake was going to his house.’ He shook his head. ‘Bearing a bullet wound no less. You’re lucky you made it out of that place alive.’
I glared at him.
He didn’t care. ‘Garrett was onto you the moment he laid eyes on you. Not to mention you gave away the fact that you’d hacked his computer.’
‘The mouse,’ I mumbled.
‘The mouse,’ my father agreed.
I pressed my lips together.
‘Your mother had been smart enough to change your surnames to her maiden name, so you disappeared for a while, but after you caught Garrett’s eye it wasn’t long before he discovered who you were. He asked me if I’d spoken to you since my extraction.’ His eyes narrowed and I saw the chilling depth of his wickedness. ‘I didn’t appreciate the interrogation, Maggie. So I assured him I would deal with the problem. And here we are.’
‘How the hell did you track me all this time?’ I asked.
He smirked. ‘By having better contacts than you. Or more accurately, the same contacts – they are simply more loyal to me.’
‘Travis,’ I whispered, hurt by the betrayal. The friendship I’d thought we were forming had been just another lie.
Dad nodded.
‘And Norton before him?’ I asked, wondering now about the contact we’d used before Travis.
Another nod. ‘Though he’d become too demanding.’
Had my father had anything to do with Norton’s disappearance? Had he killed him?
All this time I’d been so sure I had a handle on things. That I was in control of my world, moving pieces around as I saw fit. I’d lived with regret and self-loathing, but at least I thought I’d done things well. I thought of my phone still lying on the floor under the table. Was Gus still on the line, listening to all of this? Oh God, had Gus been in Dad’s pocket too? That thought spiralled and cut deeper than I could’ve imagined.
‘For a time, it was an entertaining set-up.’ My father was still talking. ‘I sent you on wild goose chases to keep you occupied. Believe it or not, I thought if I gave you enough dead-ends, you’d lose interest and leave it be. But then you went and upped the stakes,’ he said, regarding Quentin thoughtfully.
‘Will someone please explain to me what the hell you are talking about?’ Quentin was almost shaking. It wasn’t anger, but a need to be informed. Now. ‘What was this plan?’
‘She never told you about disruption, did she?’ my father said.
‘Yes,’ Quentin said defensively. ‘It changes ratings. Like a much improved lust-enhancer.’
‘Did she explain what I used to do?’
‘Pesticides,’ he answered shortly.
My father smiled at me and I closed my eyes briefly. ‘Well, Maggie. I can see he didn’t make things too difficult for you.’ He rolled his eyes. ‘I made pesticides that taught insects not to mate. To read negative signals from one another and be repulsed. When I decided to start experimenting with human pheromones, Maggie here was my little assistant. The last night we ran a trial, I dis
covered the formula to create the same reaction in humans.’
‘You make people negative,’ Quentin said, appalled.
My father shrugged. ‘I don’t often do it personally, but I provide the ability for others to do it, yes. It’s a valuable service. You’re a smart kid, think about it – industry is up because matters of the heart and the desire to mate do not distract workers. Armed forces have a higher than ever volunteer record, keeping our country and private sectors secure. And our future is protected. Countries with overpopulation, low resources and economic weakness come to us and we help – we can slow down population growth and provide the potential for a better tomorrow.’
‘You disgust me,’ I hissed.
He chuckled condescendingly. ‘I’m sure it won’t keep me up at night.’
Before I could speak again, Quentin took a daring step forwards, jabbing his finger at my father as my breath caught in my throat. All I knew right now was that my father was not who I thought he was. He was dangerous and capable of untold horrors. I didn’t want Quentin any closer and I grabbed his arm, pulling him back.
Quentin shook his head sharply and held his ground. ‘You’re taking people’s choices, their lives, from them!’
‘We are. For the greater good, sacrifices are often made. For Maggie’s greater good, you were one of those sacrifices yourself.’
Quentin looked down at our still joined hands. ‘Maggie?’ he asked. But he’d already figured it out. When I didn’t respond, he added, ‘The testing?’
I nodded, unable to speak.
He swallowed. ‘I was never a neg.’ It wasn’t a question. He dropped my hand.
‘And you’ve been doing her bidding ever since,’ my father rubbed in.
‘What about the synthetics?’ Quentin asked.
My father laughed out loud. ‘Maggie could’ve been giving you five millilitres of water for all it mattered. The point was that by dosing out disruption to you, she held all the power. She owned you.’
I heard Quentin’s gasp as my father told him the truth in its most unforgiving light.
‘Maggie …’ Quentin shook his head and started to press the screen on his M-Band. ‘Turn it on.’ When I didn’t move, he yelled, ‘Turn it on now!’
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