“Mae, don’t move. We need to drive out of this tunnel and away before the bodies are discovered.”
My heart has jumped completely into my head. Great tears are welling up and rolling down my cheek onto the cold metal floor of the pick up
Along with those tears is a smile a mile wide.
LILY!
She has appeared out of the black doom, like a knight in shining armour from a fairy story. My sister has arrived, as calm and collected as she always is. Someone else must be driving because she is with me I can feel her trying to unlock the handcuffs while we move off around a very sharp bend. Through a heavy plastic curtain and into the coldest room I have ever been in.
As I sit up, the blood rushes away from my head and I am momentarily blinded by stars, unaccustomed to this new environment and off balance I am falling. Only to be caught by another warm, strong arm. I’d recognise that strength and physical beauty anywhere. The driver in this quickly hatched rescue plan appears to be Skye! Dressed in a white lab coat she grins mischievously as she gathers me in to a huge hug.
“Hi babe, you didn’t think I would leave you to cope alone down here did you?”
“How on earth did you become deeply involved with this?” I asked.
“Clearly this is going to be a long and quite disjointed story Mae, one which I will retell in glorious Technicolor, just as soon as this whole adventure ends. Let’s just say my Evo-gene has enabled me to be a gene detective, whilst yours has made you into a super human. I began asking questions of your disability on The Nest. One of my Internet searches was hacked into by The Resistance. They asked Willem to get in touch. I thought that you would work it out when you caught me in the Mono corridors, but I guess you had your own worries at that point. I was never going to the preparation cylinders. Someone from The Resistance forged my work details. Just as soon as I was posted to the labs I began running tests on our DNA. You can do that when you have all the technology at hand and of course the pre-planned opportunity to gain samples. Remember that I was very careful with your hairstyle before the Ascension test? The Resistance wanted to know why Natura had suddenly requested twins in the process and I wanted to help you to ascend. However, I have found out something quite startling. Your DNA does not match Lily’s completely. You both have a surprisingly exact, matching profile to a former Acer. The records state that she overpowered The Grid system. She fought the mind games as if she were conscious. Natura was so intrigued that she took her out of the system and allowed her to live, secretly monitoring her every thought and move through a system implant. She went on to have a family but died after a short virulent ‘mystery’ illness just after her baby was born.”
“Those babies were twin girls weren’t they? That’s why we were in the accelerated class. Natura thinks that we hold more power than usual and she got greedy. So why do I have that internal warning system when Lily has been free?” I pondered.
“No Mae, she had a boy. There is no record of him or the husband after that. Neither do we know how, where or to whom you were both born, there are simply no records. This is most unusual because every small detail has been catalogued meticulously in other areas of the scientific evolution. Not to record the development of our first ever twins seems incredulous if not suspicious... But you are right about the power, Natura is a greedy tyrant, leading me to believe that she knew and didn’t want to share!
“The other startling element is your one and only difference. You Mae, seem to have a mutation of the communication gene, an evolution of the gene pool again, Similar to the one that occurred as a reaction to the Black Death. Perhaps you can tell me how it works once this episode is over. But right now we need to continue with the next part of plan D!”
I had to tell them the whole story, the way that I can feed into the memories of a woman who I now know as my mother, to experience them as if I were the one taking part. I told them about my theory that the buzzing was a warning system. I then recounted the visions and horrors from my time with The Grid girls. Not a sound was released from either one of them until Lily finally crumpled into my arms.
“I thought we were here for a good reason, to add my knowledge to the void left us by the Evo-shift, thus making Intentionality stronger through my small contribution. They always talked to us about those small building blocks and each one of us being vital if the whole balancing tower were to stay upright! This was our next life challenge, to begin a life that would take us both into old age feeling confident and fulfilled,” whispered Lily.
Lily has had her world shattered. But how could I allow her to risk her life in the next part of the plan, still thinking that Natura was the good guy?
“During our educational preparations for The Harvest, we have then in effect been fattened for market like a prize pig. Our brains have been forcibly enlarged to provide a service but not the one we have been led to believe. Is this Grid just a big waiting room do you think? You have to admit it is genius in its sinister perfection,” contemplated Skye as I looked over aghast.
“Waiting room, torture room, I don’t know. I don’t have anything else to tell you. All I know is that once in the preparation cylinder there is only one way out and that is through the tunnel to be mechanically placed in The Grid. This also means that Grace and Summer are in there now, along with rows and rows of other young Acers. The Resistance promised to help if I could get them in. So that is what we are going to do. We are not going to wait for a plan from them that may or may not arrive. I don’t know how many of the senior Monos survived. We may have lost Willem forever in this fight. I am determined to do everything I can to limit anymore loses.”
“Mae I am not sure about Summer or Grace. They should have been taken already but there was some confusion over timetables. I overheard Julia passing out revised notifications to the guards just before she helped me to escape,” admitted Lily.
It has taken only five minutes for Skye, Lily and I to decide our next move. We are to travel on that pick-up vehicle of doom to Skye’s lab where we can get an electronic message to both The Resistance and to Julia and Elizabeth. Immediately after that we will travel to the preparation cylinders. Lily and I will be handcuffed together, to give the impression that Skye has retrieved us after finding that the Mono tunnel servicing men had been overwhelmed. She has supposedly responded to their plea for help. Skye will leave us at the cylinders to return to her post so that no one is suspicious. Julia and Elizabeth should by then be waiting in the cylinders to prepare us for the torture. We will not be sedated or tightly restrained. Our headsets will not be connected and therefore the Ascension test cannot be transmitted to us. Once inside The Grid we will wait.
Hiding in plain sight until Natura makes her next move was Lily’s idea. She is so clever and measured in her thoughts. Always thinking in a way that others do not. She sees opportunities where others see walls. We still don’t know why Natura particularly wanted us both so urgently. Our job on the original plan was to unplug The Grid girls after Natura had been stripped of her ruling status. However this plan depends on the survival of my fellow passengers on the sub. I am prepared to wait only a few hours because something about this urgent search for Lily and me makes me suspicious. Skye has also told us about a planned power surge tomorrow. My guess is that Natura is trying to keep The Resistance out and knows about their planned timings.
At least I can move on, with the reassurance that I have Lily in my sights, plus Skye is safe for the moment. I keep sending a searching pulse message out to Willem, but he has not responded. Lily says not to worry as she definitely saw his tracker move destinations just before she left the safe tunnel to rescue me. The identity of his rescuers is a mystery. We can only hope that The Resistance got to him first.
Forty
As I kissed Lily farewell, I tried to talk myself through the horror of what was to come and hoped that my ‘real time dream’ was in fact a scandalously scary nightmare, made up by the delusions of a seriously distraught separate
d twin. But my instincts tell me that my story is the truth, and the details that Lily has been fed about this next step being the route to Intentionality, is in fact a lie. I do not yet know why those girls are lined up like that, but they are certainly not in a queue. We will not be travelling at speeds necessary to tie us down, in order to be shuttled into our fantasy destination, inside the safety fencing that guards Intentionality.
She was exceptionally strong-willed as we parted company. She glanced at me just once before she stepped inside the preparation cylinder. As the large, metal sliding door closed, I gathered myself and proceeded towards my designated room. Julia came to meet me, manual in hand as she had never been asked to prepare an Acer in here before. This was to be a reassuringly different experience to the slick, efficient preparation my mother had faced. However, had Lavina not forgotten to give my mother that sedative, Lily and I may not be here fighting this battle for the freedom of the Acers and Monos now!
Julia moved through the manual slowly, with the shaking hands of someone not prepared for the enormity of the situation they were facing. She repeatedly opened her mouth to speak but just as quickly changed her mind. I in turn began to search my mind for the best way to make a lasting connection with this girl, who had saved my sister from going into The Grid for real and who was living with the false assumption that her father would walk through the door with the rest of the Mono party from The Nest.
“Thank you, Julia, for saving my sister, it was a very brave thing that you did for a near stranger.”
“Oh it didn’t really feel like we were helping a stranger, my sister and I spent hours watching you both on the surveillance cameras on The Nest,” replied Julia, slightly embarrassed by her admission of snooping.
“We were both completely enthralled by the idea of twins. No one had ever seen real life twins before in our time. The cameras only showed us staggered glimpses of you in your daily routines, so we made up stories to explain what you were like as people. I am afraid to say that Lily was our favourite, she looked sweet and gentle and so very protective of you. We adored the way that Lily would forget her schoolbooks and kit bags but never seem the slightest bit bothered. You always seemed so gloomy and troubled, even though everyone was trying to help. Not at all like the person in front of me now.”
Dark and gloomy! Come to think of it yes, that is probably how those buzzing warning sounds made me look and feel. They have gone now, even as I am approaching the end of the preparation procedure. Not a whisper or a hum to be heard.
“Mae I need to know about my father. Was he the other person with you? We had an email that said two passengers had made their own way to the Spa.”
How do I tell an already stressed person, who has no mother that her father was killed underwater by a torpedo sent from the very place meant to keep her and her family safe? How do I tell her that his body remains at the bottom of the sea, trapped and unreachable? That his last wish was to tell her that he loved her endlessly but that she needed to know the truth. Is this the right time? Would there ever be an appropriate time?
Julia needs to think clearly and with purpose. She is in danger just as much as me. She has broken rules and trusts, more alarming to me is that she and her sister are deceiving Natura. I will not put her in more danger. Knowing will make no difference to the Grand Acer’s situation at this time but not knowing will increase this lovely person’s chance of getting out unheard and unseen.
“Your father did not come with me. I was helped by a very strong and gifted Mono called Willem. If you find him or see his name on The Grid system, please help him he is vital to this takeover.”
“ALL CHAPERONES ARE TO INITIATE THE TEN SECOND COUNTDOWN SEQUENCE. ONCE INITIATED ALL CHAPERONES MUST EXIT IMMEDIATELY.”
This is it, the countdown that I have experienced before. This time I am prepared. No tethers, more importantly no connection to that monitor. It means I can escape if I need to without being brainwashed. I have been thrown a lifeline by my mother and I am going to use it.
As the digital numbers on the display in front of me reduced all too quickly, I searched for Julia’s hand. I squeezed as Willem always had, to show reassurance and empathy. However as I connected with her soft clammy skin an overwhelming, warm feeling flowed along my arm and out through my fingers. It felt like an itch but on the inside of my skin, moving from behind my neck radiating down and branching out. Julia jumped a little at first just as I felt the itch reach my fingertips, then she stared into a space behind me. After no more than a few seconds she focussed back at my face. Her expression became impossible to read, her skin was as white as the corridor walls, and I observed a slight tremble in her eye and bottom lip. As my chair initiated its final movements towards the exit tunnel she managed to mouth…
“Thank you for showing me the truth. Don’t feel ashamed, it was what he asked.”
The doors closed suddenly behind my headrest.
She was gone.
What did she mean, it was what he asked; did I communicate to her somehow?
What did I show her?
Forty-one
To: [email protected], [email protected],
cc: [email protected],
Subject: change of travel plans.
Message: The group booking has arrived at the agreed service entrance. Luggage and documents to follow. I will need the clearance code to proceed further. Two of the party members have been taken ill during the journey. I politely request authorisation for an immediate medical consultation.
From Luke
[email protected]
“Life lived a different way!”
Forty-two
To: [email protected]
Cc: [email protected]
Subject: re change of travel plans.
Message: Hi Luke, It’s a real pleasure to hear from you and a relief to know that you have found the service entrance. We are extremely glad to be welcoming your VIP party. I have already assigned a medic to your party. She will be more than capable of assisting your guests. I plan to welcome you myself into The Intentionality Spa and Conference Centre. Please make yourself comfortable. I am the only employee with knowledge of your specific timetabling needs, so I would appreciate your patience in waiting for my arrival. Please do not be persuaded to venture into the Spa with another member of staff.
From Julia, Head of Reception
[email protected], [email protected]
Forty-three
The room is cold and still as I remember. The temperature is clearly being controlled artificially. The lighting is dull. My surroundings are as I expected, but what is new to my senses is the mechanical hum of the Ascension screens, pumping out questions and pictures to The Grid girls. Due to my ability to move out of the restraint position, I can clearly see that the rating process is working here as it did during the test. Lily and I are positioned just below the roof. None of the chairs are active at this point, on this level. All lights from the chairs in the four or five layers directly below me are golden. The girls are working at full capacity. However the girls on the floor are not rating at all. I can assume that they are in a rest phase.
We are in rows of ten; in front of me there are nine other rows. I can see at least one full layer below, which adds up to a horrifying amount of new Acers in suspended animation. Surely they cannot all come from Alpha Nest. I have only ever noted a maximum ten girls ascend at any one time during the twice-yearly harvest.
“Mae I can see your chair shaking on its support. Stop moving we are supposed to be hiding,” communicated Lily.
“How long do you think we will be here? I am already feeling uncomfortable,” she added.
“During the short time that I relived the life of our mother, I felt that she was definitely here for many cycles of the test before her rest period. She never saw anyone leave. The only voices were the guards who checked on her vital signs. I can tell you this though. A power surge
is due in just a few hours and I guess we will see some sort of movement around about that time.”
In that warm, comfortable cocooned environment, we both drifted in a world in between alert and daydream. Not necessarily sleep but heavy headed muffled isolation. I became aware that I was being spoken to, around two sentences into a conversation.
“… so you must either get out of those chairs, or plug yourselves in to remain invisible in plain sight, however we don’t know what Mrs Alder’s rehabilitation program will do to you both.”
No one could even nearly reach me up here with that tone of hoarse voice, and laboured thinking. Then it became obvious to me that I was receiving a message through my Evo communication pathway, which meant it was only one of two people. The first had a higher pitched voice and could not know that sort of information about Mrs Alder because she was quite literally as much ‘in the dark’ as I was. The other I had been thinking about moments before, half preparing myself for the grieving process. I had been thinking about the worst that could have happened to him with such a sudden and catastrophic loss of his blood. Then I had begun hoping on the positive side that he was collected by The Resistance, allowing him to be treated by a medic and of course there was always the possibility that Nurse Spendlove was on her way. However, never in that thought process was there the guess that he would be communicating to me anytime today.
“Willem it’s such a relief to hear from you. I hope you don’t mind me saying that you sound horrific. I only tuned into half of that instruction, sorry,” I replied.
There was a long silence then, enough for me to consider the possibility that I had been hallucinating. Nothing seemed to be happening to anyone or anything near me. The girls below still seemed to be in darkness, no light from their display screens or the hum of the speakers. In front, behind and above me life seemed to be ebbing away as ‘normal’ in this prison.
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