by Greg Dragon
Rather than arguing, the empress stalked to her throne and plopped into it. “Fine. Guards, put her in the political prison until we hear from the Raters.”
The guards, two young, bulky soldiers with chiseled features, took my arms.
Vance’s mouth was tight as he watched. He didn’t believe the empress’s act either.
“What of the EPIC soldier, Your Grace?” the tribune asked. “This report says he has a pattern of questionable behavior recently.”
“This is the Integrant, yes?” She stood again and made her way over to him. “Hawking’s son, if I recall. Denoux was rather insistent with this one.”
“You murdered my dad,” Vance said.
The guard’s slap came so fast I barely saw it. Vance’s head whipped to the side, then he slowly turned back toward the empress with hatred in his eyes.
“Increase the intensity of his cuffs,” the empress ordered. “My instincts tell me there is still a traitor in your ranks, Integrant. Perhaps EPIC has outlived its usefulness after all.”
“We’ve done nothing but enforce your laws.” His voice sounded strained. “You know, laws—those inconvenient Standards that condemn murder. There are more direct ways than poisoned pills and assassins to get rid of innocent girls, you know.”
The empress slapped him this time. It echoed sharply against the white walls. Vance barely winced, but the guards must have upped the intensity of his cuffs even more because suddenly he arched his back and his face contorted in agony.
“He’s stark mad,” she said to the tribune. “Send him back. I have a surprise in store for him.” She waved a hand in dismissal.
The guards yanked me backward then, and I would have fallen if they hadn’t held on to my elbows so tightly. The last thing I saw before turning into the sterile white hallway was Vance, standing tall, head turned toward me, his face twisted in anguish.
And then he was out of sight.
30
Treena’s gone,” Poly guessed when he saw my face.
I just nodded. The other guys stood motionless, wanting to ask but unsure how.
“As in gone—” Neb said, “or dead?”
I slammed the door shut and slid the lock into place. “If she’s not dead yet, it won’t be long.”
“But why were you escorted back?” Daymond asked, eyeing what was probably a red mark on my cheek. I scowled and rubbed my wrists, trying to get rid of the pins-and-needles feeling the cuffs had left behind. I’d hoped that my outburst would anger her enough that she’d send me to prison with Treena. It didn’t seem like the empress to let a known enemy roam free. Something was definitely wrong here.
When I didn’t answer, Neb spoke up. “Did Treena really let a smuggler slip through?”
I pushed away a stab of irritation. “She did her job, and she did it surrounded by enemies. She’s done nothing to deserve what she’s getting.”
Semias pushed his way through the group to stand in front of me, arms folded. Someone had apparently freed him from his bonds now that Treena was gone. “She’s a red, Vance. She played you with that innocent act.”
“You know nothing about her.”
“Oh, and you do? After the disgusting looks you’ve been giving each other and your secret talks in the washroom? I bet you know everything about her. And I mean everything.”
“Shut up, Semias.”
“Seriously? You guys really thought Vance was training her?” He snickered. “Running errands together, always picking her for his partner, protecting his prize. And those early morning workouts? Yeah, I’ll give you one guess as to what exactly they were working out—”
My fist flew toward his mouth and would have smashed it in if Semias hadn’t been ready. He stepped to the side and threw a punch at my nose, trying to catch his balance. I turned my head just in time, and his hand grazed off me. With a growl, I lunged.
“Vance!” Poly yelled. “That’s enough!”
I landed on top of Semias, enraged, ready to pummel his face in. But he rotated midair and landed on his side, covering his head with an elbow. I jumped to one foot and kicked him in the ribs again and again, making him double over in pain. “Why were you supposed to kill her?” I shouted, putting all my weight behind the next kick.
“I . . . don’t . . . know!” Semias managed to say.
“Stop this, now!” Poly was behind me now, grabbing my shoulders in an iron grip. Hot anger pulsed through my veins. I slipped one foot behind his and shot an elbow to Poly’s nose. He grunted and released me.
Suddenly Neb was in my face. He positioned himself between me and Poly. Blood poured from Poly’s nose, dripping down his chin and mixing messily with the dark hair on his bare chest. There was murder in his expression.
“Vance, please,” Neb whispered. “You’re upset. Just—just go take a break. Okay?”
Jessop and Tensom dropped to their knees beside Semias, who was still moaning on the floor. The rage I’d felt at his words pulsed hot in my ears.
Poly stepped forward and grabbed my collar, his other hand clasping his nose, blood dripping through his fingers. His voice was ice-cold. “If you ever touch me again, I will kill you. Understood?”
My breath shuddered as I struggled for control. “Yes, sir.”
“Hold on,” Neb said. “What’s that?”
The room stilled. A thumping noise rang from the direction of the training room door.
Footsteps, dozens of them, banged their way down the steps.
Poly stiffened, looking at me with heavy dread. There was only one reason for the soldiers to come down here. It made sense now why the empress had sent me back.
I also understood why the commander had stationed us here. I’d suspected it for a long time and installed the deadbolt for that very purpose. This was the perfect spot for us—cool, hidden from society, and far beneath the tranquility of the Council Building.
And above all, there was no escape.
“Weapons,” Poly said sharply. “Now.”
31
The prison cell was basically a large glass box with a metal sink jutting out from the wall and a tightly-made bed in the center. A hamster wheel would have completed the ensemble nicely. There was a tiny slit in the glass near the ceiling, barely wide enough for a hand to slip through. An oxygen vent.
The cool darkness didn’t bother me, but the silence kept me on edge. I hadn’t been truly alone in a long time, and it felt wrong. I sat on the bed, surprised at how hard it was, and pulled my legs in. My mind couldn’t shake that last glimpse of Vance. I’d give anything to feel his embrace right now, to feel his fingers gently stroking my hair. Where was he now? Would I even see him again?
“Feeling sorry for yourself?” a muffled voice said.
I leapt to my feet, looking frantically around for the source of the voice. “Who’s there?”
“Over here.”
The man’s voice came from the cell across the hall, but I couldn’t see anyone. Then a flicker of movement came from the distant bed, and I realized there was someone under it. A head popped out, and he climbed out and stood. It was an older man with sagging features and peppered hair that didn’t quite cover his 652 Rating. He wore a prisoner’s uniform: a gold jumpsuit with a black stripe across the arm. By the condition of the uniform and its wearer, they’d both been living across the hall for a very long time.
“I prefer sleeping under the bed,” the man said with a smile. “It’s softer.”
When I didn’t answer, his eyes flicked to my forehead and took in my Rating. There was no reaction—no surprise, no disgust. He approached the glass.
“So what did you do? Trip a monitor? Steal a transport and go for a joyride?”
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
He sighed. “First visitor in three years, prettiest in six, and she won’t talk about it. Figures.”
He was trying to get me to smile, but it wouldn’t work. The pain threatened to overwhelm me again. I put my head in my hands.
“Please,” I begged. “Just leave me alone.”
The man leaned against the glass, making his palms turn white. “Fine. When a lady says please, I obey.” He turned away and headed for a chair in the corner. “But,” he called over his shoulder, “whatever you did, I guarantee it’s not half as bad as my indiscretions.”
I wanted to collapse on the bed and let sleep capture my aching mind, but I knew I couldn’t sleep. I sighed. “Sorry. I’m just not in a talking mood right now. But if you are, I’ll listen.”
The man returned to the window and stood there, staring at me for an uncomfortable minute. Finally he said, “What did you say your name was?”
“I didn’t. It’s Treena.”
“Nice to meet you, Treena. You look as if you carry the weight of the world on those shoulders.” It almost set me off again, but I bit my lip. Hard. He chuckled bitterly. “I suppose we are in prison, eh? Not a place for counting butterflies.”
A bell rang somewhere overhead, and he stepped back like a robot. There were footsteps down the hall, and a guard appeared. It was the woman who had escorted me earlier. She opened a hatch to the strange man’s cell—I hadn’t noticed the hatch before—and placed something in it, then she closed it again. It opened from the inside so the prisoner could remove it. He popped the object into his mouth and swallowed.
The guard turned to me. “Your nutrition pill is still being prepared,” she said simply, then left.
“Ooh, you really ticked off the empress,” the man said when the footsteps disappeared.
“Why do you think that?” I asked.
“Just do yourself a favor and don’t take the pill when it comes.”
The realization hit. “You think it’s poisoned?”
“Whenever a pill is ‘being prepared,’ the prisoner drops dead in his cell. I’ve seen it happen. It’s the cleanest way to kill someone.”
I sat on the bed, stunned. A poisoned pill again. Why would the empress have me killed so secretly when she could have ordered an execution earlier? It made no sense at all.
“How long do I have?” I asked.
“They usually do it around midnight. Easier to dispose of the bodies.”
Midnight. I had a few hours, then. “So the empress wants me dead, but she doesn’t want people to know about it.”
“Probably. You must have a very interesting story to tell, young lady.”
I gave him a sideways look. “How long have you been down here?”
“Almost twelve years,” the man said. “I wasn’t always this chatty. I suppose you could say I’ve been saving up words.”
Twelve years? The horror must have been evident in my expression because he laughed.
“They won’t kill me. Sometimes I wish they’d just get on with it, but they can’t. The empress is still in love with me.”
If I had been stunned before, now I was horrified. Was this where they put the crazy people? Or maybe his captivity had caused his insanity. Twelve years in prison could definitely make a man believe the empress was his girlfriend.
His mood quickly became somber. “I know. It sounds insane. Maybe this cell has rotted my mind. But I swear to you, the empress and I were in love once.” His expression softened. “She even nominated me the Ratings councilman.”
I raised an eyebrow. “You were her lover and Ratings councilman?”
He snickered. “Were is the right word. As soon as we stopped seeing eye to eye—which was all about her eye, apparently—she tossed me in here like a piece of refuse. Appointed some idiot to my post and forgot about our years together.” He shook his head. “It’s what I get for leaving my wife and child for the empress. It only took a few years for the fates to return the favor.”
The information whizzed through my head at a breakneck pace. “That’s quite a sad story,” I said, hardly feeling sad at all. The man really did deserve what he’d received. And yet there was something about him that felt strangely important.
“Sir,” I said slowly. “What’s your name again?”
“Jasper,” he replied.
I nearly fell off the bed, catching myself just in time. “J-J-Jasper?” I stammered.
He seemed alarmed at my sudden shock. “Have you heard of me? Do they talk about my work with the Ratings?”
He left his wife and child . . .
“Was your wife’s name Lanah?” I asked quietly.
The color drained from his face. It was all the answer I needed.
“Ametrine,” he whispered.
32
It was strange, talking to my biological father while awaiting death. He told me of my mother, how she’d been young and beautiful when they’d met and married. He’d been a top-ten graduate, just like Dresden, and he’d graduated from the Leadership Academy’s technology department.
“I helped design the first techband,” he said proudly. “Took me from the academy to councilman’s assistant in one year.” I told him about the empress’s new punishment law, and his smile faded. “She promised she’d never use punishment mode as a weapon. Should’ve known she’d break that promise, too.”
We fell into a thoughtful silence. It was ironic that I’d survived Semias’s poisoned pill only to die here, the same way, in the same prison as my biological dad. A part of me wished I could get to know him a little better, to find out more about my parents and my past.
No, you don’t, I told myself. He abandoned you.
“What do you think of the Rating system now?” I asked cautiously. “After living down here for so long, I mean.”
He gave a deep sigh. For a moment I wasn’t sure he’d heard me. Then he said, “I think it’s the most sophisticated and chilling system of control known to man.”
I thought of the empress and the diamonds embedded in her forehead. I thought about Dresden’s record, about my mom’s struggle for a green Rating, and about Vance and his clan. I thought about the tower and how it felt to dangle from the top, terrified of the hard pavement eighty-two floors below.
“I knew it back then, too,” he continued. “Even as a councilman I still had my doubts. I know it’s why she threw me down here. We both knew that my ambitions were different from hers. I don’t know what’s worse—that I doubted my own nation’s government or upheld a system I didn’t believe in.”
“I’m not sure I really want to know this,” I said slowly, “but how did your relationship with the empress come about?”
I learned they’d been paired up at the academy and that Jasper had just finished a round of testing on the new techband. She was young and intelligent, one of the top graduates of her year. He skipped over much of that part, his face coloring a bit. I thought about my mother, a young newlywed in medical school then, and glared at him.
“It’s not something I’d expect you to understand,” he said, noting the look on my face. He paused, suddenly very interested in a loose string on his sleeve. “How is your mother, anyway?”
“Lanah remarried,” I said, the bitterness creeping back into my voice. “Her husband has his sights set on becoming the new Integration councilman.”
“Really. That’s incredibly ironic.”
“He’s an egotistical jerk. But she can’t have another divorce on her record without taking a huge hit on her score, so she refuses to leave him.”
“I’m truly sorry to hear that,” he said. “She deserves so much better. I hope she can forgive me someday.”
My mind floated back to the night she’d given me his stone. She’d defended him. He was right. She deserved a different life.
I fingered my stone necklace. Its giver was right in front of me now. I could finally ask him the meaning behind the gift. But something held me back. I didn’t need to ask what his intended message had been because it didn’t matter. What matte
red was the meaning I brought to it. This stone had probably started out as a rough, angled chunk of rock and been sanded and polished over time.
“Are you really sorry?” I asked.
His eyes glanced up in confusion. “Of course. I feel awful.”
“You realize that your stupidity has affected many people?” I asked, suddenly sounding a lot like my dad. Well, my stepfather.
“Yes, I know. Especially you. I’m so sorry, Ametrine.”
“If you’re truly sorry, you need to get us out of here.” My mind was forming a plan. I just hoped it wasn’t too late.
He gave me a puzzled look. “Don’t you think I would have escaped by now if I could?”
“There must be a way,” I said stubbornly. “You’re a scientist. Is there a way to break the glass?”
Jasper shook his head. “I’ve tried a hundred times. It’s coated with an unbreakable substance called LiquiPlas. It was developed by my mentor at the academy. It won’t shatter, no matter the force raised against it, and it’s completely heatproof.”
“What about the slot at the top?” I gestured to the air hole. “Wouldn’t that weaken the glass somehow?”
“Tried that, too. Stacked the bed and the chair and tried to climb up. It didn’t work, and the guards bolted the furniture to the floor after that.”
I sighed. There had to be a way or I was dead.
Dead.
A surge of excitement rushed through my veins. That’s it.
“How long after taking the pill did those prisoners die?” I asked, trying not to shudder.
“It was instant,” he said. “They starved them all day, so the pill took effect immediately.”
“Did the guard wait around until they fell to the floor and then remove them?”
I saw the flicker of realization in his eyes. “Yes. She usually waited until they collapsed, then she called for a guard to remove the body.”
“It’s worth a try,” I said.
He swallowed. “But if you fail—”
“What else can they do?” I asked bitterly.