It felt like I’d been here for hours, though it was probably no more than one. I had a terrible sense of foreboding as I wondered what Cho would do to us. For starters, he’d interrogate us until he was convinced he had retrieved every piece of information he could get. That would be followed by lethal injection. Somehow, I guessed I shouldn’t be surprised to see my pathetic excuse for a life end on that note.
The door opened and General Cho strode in, face set in steely determination. When I saw who accompanied him, I gasped as a dagger plunged into my heart and my world twisted inside out. It was Ryan, in full Custodian uniform. He wore an expression so cold it could have been chiselled in ice.
They sat on the opposite side of the table.
“Lieutenant Ryan Hill’s presence surprises you?” Cho said. “Why? Did you forget he’s a Custodian undercover operative? Did it never occur to you that he ‘befriended’ you as part of his mission to infiltrate the resistance?”
I stared at Ryan, eyes wide in shock. I looked for some indication that he was the man I knew – the man I loved – a wink, a raised eyebrow, a turning of the corners of his mouth. But there was nothing – for all intents and purposes, he was a complete stranger. And that made no sense. A series of memories flashed through my mind of the days we went foraging together, when I saved him from the Skel, when he took a bullet for me, when I took one for him, and of our times at the gym. Don’t you realise how much you mean to me? he had said that day during the pouring rain. Even when masquerading as your brother, you reached out to me when no one else would, offering me true friendship.
There were the lengths he went to in order to hide the fact that I was an echolocator. Also, his constant attempts to convince me that we could share a future together one day in spite of my past and criminal family. I already told you there can be no future between us! I had told him one day. His answer to that had melted my heart. And I told you we can work through every obstacle we encounter together. My father is not opposed to our union. He is willing to talk to your father.
I looked into his eyes, my thoughts buffeted from side to side as though in a cyclone as I tried to ascertain whether he had conned me from the beginning or had been coerced into working with Cho at a later date.
That’s when it hit me. If he had been working for the chancellor all this time, he must be the one who sold us out tonight.
“Is this true, Ryan?” I asked, my vision blurred from brimming tears. “Were you playing us all this time? Was everything you said to me a lie?”
“The light dawns,” Cho said. His laugh was so condescending that I wished I could bury my fist in his face. “I knew from the beginning you would throw off the Round Room’s brainwashing techniques – you were too old for it to take complete hold. In fact, I was counting on it. Ryan here had already given me the names of several members of the Freehome Resistance Movement. The Underground was proving a much harder nut to crack. However, you uncovered a cell almost immediately after I sent you to find and infiltrate them. At first, I couldn’t work out why you turned them in, but Ryan explained it to me later. You stupid girl – you did it because they had no qualms about using assassination, arson, and murder to achieve freedom. Theirs was the only strategy that had a chance of overthrowing the chancellor. You also did me the massive service of revealing that one of the Specialist girls was a traitor. I must confess to being shocked when Ryan informed me that you brought Bhagya Singhe along to a Freehome Resistance Movement meeting. Watching the two of you set all of the Specialists free from reconditioning was disappointing, but of no great concern. You girls had already outlived your usefulness. Thanks to you, Chelsea, every known member of the Freehome and Underground Resistance movements and their families are being arrested and brought here for questioning.”
I kept glancing between Ryan and the general as he spoke, barely able to comprehend how badly I’d been played. There I was, running around with Bhagya, Romy, Jess and Liz, working feverishly to free the rest of our sisters from mental conditioning, completely unaware that Cho was monitoring us. How could I have been such a fool, so naïve? Crushed by the weight of my shame and failure, I hung my head, my resolve shattered and spirit broken.
Ryan cleared his throat. “When will the Japanese Militia attack Newhome, Chelsea?” There was a hard edge to his voice that made me cringe.
I didn’t reply.
“Your father is outside. Do I need to bring him in here to loosen your tongue?” General Cho asked.
“My father?” My voice came out as a croak.
“I had all your families arrested after you were brought here.”
“Arrested? Why, what have they done?” I made the mistake of meeting Cho’s gaze, and didn’t need Bhagya’s ability to know he would torture my father to make me talk. It was a wasted threat, though, since with most of the resistance leaders captured and with Ryan betraying us, there was nothing that I could say that they didn’t already know.
“It’s not what they’ve done; it’s what they know, and how they can be used. Now answer Ryan’s question, Chelsea – I know you don’t want to see your father hurt. When will the Japanese attack?” Cho said.
“All I know is what Ethan told us during the meeting, that the Militia will strike in less than a month if we fail to overthrow the chancellor.” My voice wavered as I spoke. I couldn’t believe our dreams and hopes for the future had been so obliterated so easily.
“What did Jones mean when he said the Militia will do ‘whatever needs to be done to ensure the virus can’t be released?’” Ryan said.
“I don’t know.”
“Are they planning to blow up the Genetics Laboratory? Or will they use a nuclear bomb?”
“I don’t know.”
“Come on, Chelsea. You asked Jones to come here, so you must be privy to his plans.”
“He didn’t tell us anything, not even how he was going to get into town.”
Ryan slammed his hands on the table. “Chelsea, I don’t think you understand the gravity of this situation. With the destruction of the resistance movement there will be no revolution. In less than a month, the Japanese will attack the town and quite probably destroy it. Do you want to be responsible for the deaths of ten thousand people?”
“I already told you everything I found out when we got back from the mission, Ryan–”
“Did you?”
“Yes! What reason would I have had to hold anything back? I thought you were one of us. I didn’t mention anything about a Militia attack because this evening was the first time I heard about it.”
“So who does know about it?” Ryan leaned a little closer.
“I have no idea.”
“Jones and Madison must know? Tell me where they are.”
“What?” The faintest sliver of hope penetrated the murky recesses of my mind – they escaped?
“Where are Ethan, Madison, and Nanako?”
“You didn’t you catch them?”
“Tell me where they could have gone to ground. Tell me where the resistance hides people.”
“I don’t know about any such places.”
“Then what are Jones’ favourite haunts?”
“Ryan, I met him for the first time three days ago.”
He sighed in exasperation. “Tell me how they got into town.”
“They wouldn’t tell us.”
“You must have some idea.”
I shook my head.
Cho swore in Korean, and I made the mistake of glancing at him. He stared at me with unconcealed contempt and barely restrained rage that sent a shiver through my body.
“Tell me–” Ryan began.
“Enough!” The general snapped. “Bring him in!”
The door swung open and a Custodian built like a tank dragged in an older man – my father. He sported a bruise on his cheek, his lip was split in two places, and he was much paler than I’d ever seen him before.
“What’s this?” I said, eyeing my father in horror. How could they d
o this to an innocent civilian?
The Custodian dragged over another chair and shoved my father into it. I sprung out of my chair, tripped thanks to the leg irons, and landed on my backside beside him. Rising to my knees, I took his face in my shackled hands and explored his bruises. I expected him to be shocked at my appearance or even angry at me for getting him into this, but he surprised me by taking my hands in his and giving them a firm squeeze.
“What did you beat him up for? He doesn’t know anything,” I said.
“Get back on your chair,” Cho said.
Staring daggers at him, I grabbed the corner of the table and slid back onto my chair, but kept a hold of my father’s hands.
“Actually, your father’s got everything to do with this,” the general said. “During our earlier interrogation of him and your mother, we quickly determined that it was his influence on your life that led you to reject the Founders’ teachings and become such a despicable radical.”
“I’m sorry for involving you in this, Father,” I said, holding his hands tightly as though they could still protect me like they did when I was a child.
“You have nothing to apologise for,” Father said.
“Mr. Thomas,” Cho began, “as discussing during our earlier interrogation, your daughter is a member of a group of radicals who were attempting to overthrow the chancellor! Worse, they allied themselves with the Japanese Militia who are planning to destroy Newhome within four weeks.”
My father didn’t reply.
“Mr. Thomas, unless you want the blood of Newhome’s ten thousand inhabitants on your hands, tell your daughter to tell us everything she knows about this pending attack and her associates.”
“Don’t tell them anything,” Father said.
The brawny Custodian slammed a meaty fist into my father’s jaw, snapping his head to the side and almost knocking him from his chair.
“Stop it!” I shouted as I helped my father remain seated.
“Then tell us where Jones’ trailer is, Chelsea!” Cho yelled.
“The trailer was outside the town the last time I saw it,” I said.
“Where?”
I glared at him.
Cho nodded and the thuggish Custodian struck my father again, eliciting a cry of pain.
“Outside the old Melbourne zoo!” I said.
“Did he bring it inside the town?”
“I don’t know.”
“If he did, where would he have hidden it?”
“Ethan didn’t tell us anything!”
The general grabbed his radio and gave orders for a couple of Bushmasters to be despatched to the ruins of the zoo. A waste of time, no doubt, since Ethan must have brought the trailer – or at least what it was carrying – into town two days ago.
“Was there a bomb in trailer?” Cho said.
“I only saw guns, food, and water.”
“Did you watch Jones’ people load it?”
“Yes.”
“Did you see everything they put in it?”
“No.”
“So they could have put a bomb beneath the weapons and supplies?”
“I guess so.” I glanced at the fresh line of blood trickling down the side of my father’s face, and wished I wasn’t hobbled by these irons and chains. With the intensive training in taekwondo I received from Cho and the Specialists over the past year, I reckoned I could take down the brute abusing my father, and possibly Ryan as well. But the general was another matter. He’d snap me like a twig.
“How did Jones and his people get the trailer into town?”
“I don’t know.”
The Custodian hammered my father in the jaw again. Like before, I caught him somewhat clumsily before he could topple from the chair. As he straightened up, I saw slightest sign of a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. My heart went out to him as I thought of all the things he taught Brandy and me over the years. Especially his criticisms of the chancellor and his oppressive ways.
“Stop it! You can hit him all day but I can’t tell you what I don’t know!”
Ryan stood. “We’re wasting our time, General. She doesn’t know anything. We’re better off interrogating Mal Li again.”
Cho looked up at Ryan, either irritated or displeased – or both – and then removed a Smartphone from his pocket and placed it on the table in front of me.
“Unlock it,” he said.
A terrible sinking feeling pervaded my being. There was no way I was going to give Cho access to our mobile phone network. Who knew what kind of trouble he‘d cause if he could ring our members? I glanced at my father, knowing what it would cost him if I refused to cooperate.
“You draw the line over the phone?” Cho said, eyebrows raised. “Let’s see how long you can hold out, shall we?” He nodded at the Custodian muscle, who drew back a meaty fist.
“Okay!” I said, reaching quickly for the phone. Not because my will to resist was broken, but because I realised Ryan must have told him how to unlock the phones already. What gave it away was the general’s expression – not one of determination but of curiosity. He wasn’t trying to force me to unlock the phone, he just wanted to see how long I’d let my father be tortured before I caved in.
I pressed my finger on the sensor and tossed the phone across the table.
Cho pocketed it, went to the door, and wrenched it open. “Put them back in their cells,” he said to the pair of Custodians standing in the corridor outside. As those men came in, Ryan and the burly Custodian hurried out after the general.
I tried to cling to my father, my eyes locked on his bruised and battered face, but rough hands forced us apart and he was marched from the room. I remembered Ethan had said there would be casualties if we instigated a revolution, but I thought he was referring to members of the resistance movements. It never occurred to me that my own father would suffer such a fate.
“Come!” The second Custodian grabbed my arm and dragged me towards the door.
As we went, I couldn’t stop thinking about Ryan. It was like he was a completely different person, cold and without any shred of compassion. Why didn’t it ever occur to me that Ryan could be working for the other side? All the same, I couldn’t shake off the suspicion that he was being coerced into helping Cho. I went over everything Ryan said during the interrogation, searching for any sign that this could be the case, but found nothing.
The Custodian pushed me into a tiny cell with nothing but a metal toilet and washbasin. Slumping onto the floor, I went back and examined every moment I’d ever spent with Ryan – had I seen only what I wanted to see? Did he play me this whole time? Whether or not that was the case, I should have realised Cho would continue to monitor me after Suyin was killed. How could I have been so stupid?
Chapter Fourteen
~ Ethan Jones ~
I got the impression that this evening was never going to end. Darkness reigned outside the Bushmaster’s windscreen, the sun having set almost an hour ago. Sparsely placed streetlights did a poor job of illuminating the street outside. I could just make out the sheer faces of towering apartment blocks, as well as the dark forms of Custodians as they rushed from apartment to apartment, turning them inside out in their frantic effort to find us.
From time to time, the sympathetic Custodian team that had taken us under their protection returned to Bushmaster when they needed to move it to a different location. I wanted to stand and stretch – my muscles ached thanks to over-exerting myself during the frenzied gun battle earlier.
Buckled into her seat, Madison was fast asleep, overcome by a combination of painkillers and exhaustion. Nanako sat beside her, monitoring her temperature with gentle touches to her brow, and looking at me in concern every time the Specialist groaned in her sleep. If she fell into a high fever and became delirious, we would be hard pressed to stop her crying out.
The rear hatch opened and Sergeant Turan climbed in, closing it behind him.
“The Custodians searching near the western gatehouse
just reported finding an empty trailer in the garage of a ruined house. They said it’s not from here. That yours?”
“Yeah.”
The sergeant moved to the seat beside me. “The Patriot wants to know what was in the trailer and where you put it.”
“Does he now?”
Silence.
I sighed. “Relax, sergeant, I was just winding you up. We brought small arms, grenades, claymores, anti-tank missile launchers, night vision goggles, and supplies. We hid the stuff where no one will ever find it.”
“A town this small? They’ll find it.”
“They won’t.” I had hidden everything in the Bushmaster, and that was somewhere no one would look.
“Okay, I’ll take your word for it for now. Next question – did you bring any bombs or explosives?”
“No.”
“That’s the truth, right? The Patriot was quite insistent that you tell us if you did.”
“We didn’t bring any explosives, sergeant. I mean, come on, our own families live here.”
The sergeant nodded and turned to leave.
I grabbed his arm. “Wait – why’s the Patriot asking all these questions? Does he have something in mind?”
“He’s just collecting information at the moment.”
“Can we meet him, or at least talk to him?”
“That’s up to him, but don’t hold your breath – none of us have met him.” The sergeant climbed out and the hatch clanged shut again.
My phone suddenly started to vibrate rhythmically. Someone was ringing me.
“I thought we’re only supposed to text each other?” Nanako said as I took out the phone.
“It’s Chelsea,” I said, noticing that the caller ID was Late Bloomer. Mal Li had given us a list of everyone who had received one of the phones, assigning each person a nickname to hide their identity. Not that it mattered any longer. I had no doubt that General Cho had made one of the captured insurgents to reveal the identity of each person by now.
Forager - the Complete Six Book Series (A Post Apocalyptic/Dystopian Series) Page 133