“That real enough for you?” he growled as he pushed me in the cell. “Don't make me regret my decision to go behind Markus' back!” he warned gravely, before leaving me to my own devices.
Back in the tiny room that had been my home for a month not long ago, feelings of uncertainty started to infiltrate my previously focussed thoughts. I had done it now. There was no turning back and that realisation hit me hard. I was on my own from now on until I'd achieve my goal. I would have to successfully convince my father I was going to side with him, claiming I just couldn't live in this strict Sensorian community and longed for more freedom. Yesterday, when Zack and I discussed my plan it had seemed so clear cut. All I needed to do was behave in a way that word would get out about my misgivings and doubts about living here. But, my outburst had come out of nowhere and I just hoped it was convincing enough for Rick to react.
I couldn't talk to Zack anymore as all communications would be monitored from now on, so I hoped to God he would keep his trust in me and wait for me to contact him again when I was settled in with Rick. It was going to be the most difficult thing I'd ever done. I had no idea how Rick was going to get me out of here, but I knew he would try some way or another, as long as our act had been good enough. I just didn't know when.
Zack came back in. This was going to be hard. The cameras were switched on, nowhere to hide. By now he would have informed Markus and he would be expected to do everything in his power to talk me down or at least find out what was behind this sudden relapse. They will question it and listen in very closely, as yesterday everything seemed fine. I would have to be super convincing for them to believe that it wasn't just a small crisis of confidence that could be fixed.
He sat down and ordered me to sit too. I ignored it and turned around facing the wall.
“What are you doing Eliza? What's happened?” he said in about the friendliest tone I'd ever heard him speak. If this was real, I would have cracked already.
“I'm not playing by your rules anymore. So you can't order me. It has no effect.”
He thought for a moment.
“Do you think we at least deserve some sort of explanation? Could you not have talked about it? Everything seemed fine yesterday?”
“I'm clearly a master in cloaking then. Or you are just a pretty useless Sensorian.”
Below the belt. Zack absorbed it, but I knew inside he was cursing me because his superiors will have him for his lack of astuteness. And Zaphire at that. I cringed inside with the thought of that because at least Zack knew what it was really about whereas Zaphire would be utterly confused. Zack picked up on it. He had to, as the observing leadership would have noticed too.
“Why did you feel hurt just now. Something is clearly bothering you, besides this show you're putting on.”
Clever.
“You think it's a show do you? What for? What would I achieve with that? I can't live within the rules of this community. Staying with my mum made that clear to me. Hence my request for our sudden return. I wanted to come back to the compound to check that what I felt was real. And it is. I can't do it. I was hoping to talk about it but it just all came flying out in the canteen. I hate it here. I hate that everyone knows everything you feel and watch every step you do. You've felt it from the start Zack. You must have.”
He cast down his eyes. He knew he would have to deal with Markus' wrath over this. He was going to face a lot of criticism. I felt sorry for him, but he had told me he could take it. He just hoped it was going to be worth it in the end.
“You've put me in an impossible situation, Eliza. You may not want to abide by our rules, but I do and you, frankly, don't have a choice. You are a Sensorian, whether you like it or not, which makes you subject to our laws.”
“Can you not just let me go back to mum? I will sign secrecy papers, I will do anything. I don't want to cause trouble for the community,” I pleaded, changing tactics, trying to sound as desperate as I could.
“No. You can't. Not anymore. You've overstepped the mark, we can't trust you. Not only would it set a precedent we're not willing to make, it would also leave you wide open to be targeted by Rick. I won't let that happen.” He paused a second and took a deep breath. “I have to confine you to solitary imprisonment for two weeks. Same rules apply as before. The start of that punishment will be when you decide to comply by the rules you've been set. If you decide to ignore those rules you could be in here for a very long time. We will reconvene after you have done your time, fully complying and talk about your future then,” he decided.
“For crying out loud, Zack. I'm a lost cause. What are you going to do with me?”
“I fully trust you'll see sense eventually. I know that deep down inside you are a committed Sensorian and we will prise it out of you. I'm disappointed at the moment, especially in myself. We should have seen this coming and dealt with it better.”
He sighed and stood up to leave.
“Undress. Leave your clothes by the door. Your prison clothes are on the bed.”
He had played his part well. The door shut behind him.
Silence.
CHAPTER 17
Zaphire
“That was unexpected,” Brody said in his calm as usual voice.
I was blubbing. I couldn't help myself. Crying was not my usual response but I just didn't understand how things had suddenly taken this U-turn. How had we not seen any of this coming? Brody put a comforting arm around me, trying to shield me from all the prying eyes. I didn't have the emotional strength to move, so we had just sat down on the first available table, which happened to have Jessica, Zack's bitter ex, sitting at it. She was gloating but I didn't have the energy to confront the stupid bitch.
“I just don't understand it. Has everything been a lie? She told me she loved me this morning. What did Zack do to her, or say? I don't get it!” I managed to utter in between sobs.
“Something must have been brewing for her to blow up like that. Think back. Did you spot any little signs, maybe when you were over at Alice's?” Brody mused.
“Nothing mate. Absolutely zilch. Maybe I was too blinded by love and my senses obscured. I don't know. Markus is going to kill me.”
It dawned on me that it would be me and Zack who would get the blame for this. And rightly so, we should have picked it up earlier. We were in deep shit. By missing this we'd inadvertently blown our whole strategy to deal with Rick.
“It's not your fault Zaphy. Don't start blaming yourself,” Brody tried comforting me, unsuccessfully.
“Yeah right. You don't even believe that yourself. She's a newbie. We should have been able to read her better. I know it's more difficult with our kind, but we should have with her. I always noticed when she was cloaking. I just don't understand. Maybe we were getting too cocky for our own good.”
I had to speak to Zack. Find out what he said that had triggered the outburst. See what his take on the situation was, before we were called up by the leaders. I managed to pick myself up somewhat and we made our way to find Zack. Brody texted him and he replied almost instantly. He was in his room.
When we entered we found Zack sat behind the table with his head in his hands, surrounded by a cloud of frustration and worry. Not anger or confusion, I noted. I moved behind him and started giving him a neck massage, something he usually appreciated. He pushed my hands away though, stood up and started pacing. He finally looked up at me.
“We're fucking screwed,” he simply stated.
“Yeah. I came to that conclusion too,” I sighed.
I usually looked to my brother for solutions, but it looked like today he'd run out of ideas as well.
“We'll just have to go and face the music in a minute, Zaph. There's nothing that I can think of that explains this sudden shift in attitude and I'm sure if you'd noticed anything you would have said something by now.”
I nodded. I briefly thought about when Eliza confided in me about trying to somehow prevent her father from getting the death sentence, but
she had been truthful about her loyalty to us. She wasn't hiding anything, not that I could tell anyway.
“How could we have missed this? I just don't get it. Maybe she's just a master in cloaking, just like her father,” I suggested half-heartedly.
Brody nodded encouragingly but Zack slammed it.
“Then we were fools not to have picked up on that. Whichever way we look at this, the buck stops with me. Don't blame yourself Zaph. She wasn't your responsibility and I will make sure I reiterate that to Markus. I won't have you take any blame for this.”
“That's very sweet of you Zack, but we both know if Markus wants to impart blame or punishment, he will.”
Zack thumped the table in frustration.
“This is a fucking mess!”
“Was there anything you said maybe, just before her outburst? Something that triggered it?” I tentatively asked.
“I went over it a thousand times in my head. It was a simple order, one that she would normally just have done. She was a bit grumpy, but nothing out of the ordinary, I thought it was because she hadn't really wanted to leave you this morning or something. Nothing that warranted her reaction. It must have been simmering for ages and we just missed it.”
I believed him. He had said or done nothing wrong to change Eliza's attitude so dramatically. We just had to accept our oversight and bear the consequences.
◆◆◆
“I feel like I'm like seven years old and about to be told off for eating all the biscuits,” I whispered to Zack just before we entered Markus' office.
“You're going to feel worse than that in a minute, Zaph.”
Not very encouraging. I was actually trembling. Zack gently squeezed my hand and I knew he would try his hardest to protect me.
Michael and Markus both stood up and were clearly in an agitated state, but no Dullard would ever have guessed as their exteriors showed nothing but calm. Underneath were raging emotions and frustrations and we both shielded the best we could to abate the physical pain of them.
Markus lifted both hands halfway in the air and his face asked a thousand questions, eyes boring into ours.
“Explain please?” was the only thing Markus could say, I suspected, without bursting out in a rage that was clearly bubbling just below the surface.
“I'm sorry Sir. I don't have an explanation. I did not see this one coming at all,” Zack started.
Michael and Markus exchanged angry glances.
“Zaphire? Anything to add?” Markus directed his glare to me.
“No Sir. Nothing at all. No indication.”
Zack looked at me peculiarly. He must have picked up on my slight unease about what Eliza had told me about her wanting to somehow protect her father. No one else did though.
Markus uncharacteristically lost his temper momentarily, slamming the desk, breaking a cup with the force of it. He took a deep breath before he continued speaking.
“Is there any chance she'll snap out of this at all?”
He knew the answer to that.
“Not in any hurry. I'm sure eventually she'll comply and see sense but I have no idea when that will happen,” Zack answered dutifully.
“We have no time for 'eventually'. Basically what you're saying is that we have lost our main strategy for neutralising and capturing Rick.”
“Yes Sir. For now.”
Zack stood tall but lowered his head, eyes cast down.
Markus spun round sharply, frustration oozing everywhere. Taking another deep sigh he slowly turned back to face us, eyes glowering.
“I'm deeply disappointed in the two of you. You must have lost focus and I don't have to guess what caused that. I thought you could handle it, but clearly both of your attraction to this girl has cost us our strategy.”
Zack was about to protest but was silenced immediately.
“Don't say a word. We'll figure something else out concerning Rick, but that is of no concern to you both now. Zack, I'm dismissing you from your duty to train Eliza. You're no longer responsible for her. Desk jobs for the foreseeable future for the both of you. It will be a very long time before I can trust you on a mission again, if ever.”
A desk job! Forever! That was my personal form of hell. It would kill me!
“Permission to speak, Sir?” Zack tried.
“Granted. Make it good.”
“I take full responsibility, Sir. This is entirely on me. Please reconsider Zaphire's punishment. Her brief wasn't to look after Eliza's mental state, that was mine and mine alone. Please take into account the excellent record she has on all of her previous missions. This was just one mistake.”
“A mistake that may cost us our way of life and threaten all of society.” Markus paused for what felt like an eternity and none of us dared to say anything. Even Michael kept schtum. “I'll reconsider Zaphire's fate after we've sorted this mess out and work out a different strategy. But I'm not promising anything.”
“Thank you Sir,” Zack managed to say convincingly but I knew he was struggling with his own destiny. He hated desk jobs just as much as me and I could just about imagine how much he was cursing Eliza underneath all of it. I hoped Zack had convinced Markus enough to let me go up North at least and join them there, maybe even return to work in the field sooner rather than later.
I wondered if I dared ask to see Eliza, but I decided against it. I would try when Markus had calmed down somewhat.
We turned to leave the room but Markus hadn't quite finished yet.
“And you're grounded. Indefinitely. And no alcohol allowed.”
I caught Zack's eye and to his horror, almost burst out laughing.
“Markus? We're nearly twenty years old! You can't ground us!” I said indignantly with half a smile.
“Can't I now?” His voice low and threatening. I didn't quite know where to look and wished I hadn't said anything. “The both of you are my responsibility as I am still your carer. So long as you live under my roof you will bloody well abide by my rules. Understood?”
There was no point arguing with him. We'd just have to endure it for the time being.
CHAPTER 18
Eliza
Footsteps approached and I heard the jangle of keys. It wasn't Zack though. I would recognise his walk and particular jangle even if I hadn't heard it for years. I wondered who was behind the door. I didn't have to wait long as the door swung open and a tall woman in her forties strode in. I had seen her around but hadn't been introduced to her yet.
“Stand up.”
Her first words were authoritative but not harsh.
I decided to obey, as I wanted to find out what she was doing here.
“Good girl,” she said a little patronizingly. “I was warned you may be uncooperative, but this is a good start. Thank you,” she continued.
I waited, unsure as to what to make of her.
“I'm Vivian Johnson, but you'll call me Ma'am. I'm your new trainer as Zack has been relieved from his duties concerning you.”
She monitored my reaction closely and I tried to cloak my disappointment as best I could. I didn't want to be an open book to her. She smiled a little.
“My speciality is to see through the most difficult of disguises. Very few people can cloak from me and I can tell you now, you're good, but not that good so you might as well give up.”
This wasn't good. Not good at all. Under no circumstance did I want her to find out what my plan was or suspect there was something suspicious about my actions.
“In fact, it makes me wonder how Zack and Zaphire did not pick up any vibes of discontent from you in the days leading up to the little stunt you pulled in the canteen. Care to explain?”
I stayed silent. I decided I wasn't going to cooperate with this woman. It was too dangerous. She needed to be out of here, the sooner the better. I sat down on my chair, and folded my arms, trying to think of nothing so I could give nothing away.
“Right. I see you're not ready to talk. I wonder what you respond to better; punishme
nt or reward?”
Again I didn't even consider her question; instead I tried to think about what animal she reminded me of.
“As I want to start off on the right foot, I will start with reward. I'll come back tomorrow and we will talk. After that you may start your period of isolation if you comply with the rules. If you cooperate tomorrow, I will reduce your time to 10 days.”
She reminded me of a fox; clever and sly.
“Miss Mankuzay,” she nodded and left me to my own thoughts.
I felt sad that Zack wasn't my coach anymore, but I knew it had been inevitable. I had openly goaded both Zack and Zaphire for not having predicted my outburst, and Markus clearly blamed them. I probably won't see Zack now until I'm able to contact him again, hopefully with enough information to stop my father's plans. I had learned Zack's phone number off by heart, an old pay as you go mobile that had been out of use for years.
I forbade myself to even think about Zaphy. I would explain everything to her after the mission, but I couldn't cope thinking of the despair she must be feeling now. I simply couldn't go there, I had to be strong and block it out.
Food came and was taken away again. I couldn't eat. I practised my Vision Hacking on the girl who took my food away by quickly touching her hand. It was easy to hack in and I was pleased to find as she jerked her hand away, the vision didn't disappear straight away. I still needed a lot more practice though to even attempt a remote hack but I was making progress. This extra gift could come in very useful indeed, especially as Rick wasn't aware I had it, and even in our compound only a few people knew.
I watched my hour of television and as I didn't have any books to read I just went to bed. Morning took forever to come, but it did. And so breakfast arrived, and left again hardly eaten. I practised some more VH on the unsuspecting boy who was responsible for my food today. Then I nervously awaited Vivian's inevitable arrival.
She came. I didn't co-operate. She left, this time with a threat of punishment. No reward.
The Sensorians: Trust Page 7