Something wakes me. At first I’m disoriented in the dark and startled. Then I remember where I am and freeze with bated breath. Is someone there in the tunnel outside my hiding spot? Gravel crunches. My heart begins to pound against my chest so hard I can’t breathe. I’ve been found! What am I going to do? What excuse do I have for hiding here?
Without warning the vent pops open. Before I can scream, Rafel’s face appears. “Come on, we have to get to our rendezvous point before the hubs are sealed.”
Exhaling, I offer him a shaky smile. With blind faith I follow him through the dust filled blackness to the mouth of the passageway. The hub beyond is dark and quiet.
Before we exit the tunnel Rafel hands me a small enforcer’s uniform complete with helmet and visor. “Put this on.” After stuffing my hair up in the helmet he takes my discarded clothing and tucks it under his arm.
A figure approaches from the hub and I clutch his arm. “Someone’s coming.”
“It’s okay, it’s only Link.”
Sure enough, Link enters the tunnel with a white shrouded bundle slung over his shoulder. “We best be quick, the other enforcers will be here any minute.” Dropping his bundle to the ground he reveals a dead person with long blonde hair. The sight and stench of her makes me gag. Her face is burned beyond recognition. Before I can wonder what he’s up to he and Rafel dress the woman in my discarded clothes. “Did you leave her tracking bracelet in the subway car?”
Rafel nods. “I tossed it in right before the explosion.”
“Good. All right, take Ocean to the meeting point while I place the body in what’s left of the subway car.” Link hoists the body onto his shoulder and hurries off deep into the tunnel.
“Visor down. Try to take long strides and whatever happens, don’t speak. We want anyone we come across to think you’re a man.” He turns and strolls from the tunnel like he’s just out for a leisurely walk.
Trying my best to appear casual I follow. “Where are we going?”
He lowers his voice. “We are going to make it appear like we are just a regular patrol checking to be sure everyone is in their homes, then as soon as I hear over the communications radio that your body has been found and taken to the morgue, we are going to make our way to the medical building through the subway system. It’s shut down because of the explosion so it will be a fair walk.”
In silence we wander up and down the deserted streets for a while. Without warning Rafel’s radio crackles. “All enforcers, Two-twenty-three recovered and identified. Morgue bound. Emperor back in the coven. I repeat Emperor back in the coven. Out.”
Rafel releases a sigh. “Good. The emperor has identified the body as yours and is back in his compound. That’s our signal to head for the medical building.”
We make our way back to the subway tunnel, past the wreckage of the bombed subway car and down the tracks. The inky black tunnel gives me the willies and I start at every little sound, from the air whistling down it, to the clumps of debris that still fall here and there from the walls and roof. Every shadow has me fearing a confrontation with an unsympathetic enforcer. My anxiety only worsens when we finally reach the well lite medical building. One mistake and we’ll be found out by the dozens of enforcers that wander here and there on their way to and from routine and extra patrols. We march down the halls until we come to the morgue. Rafel opens the door and ushers me inside with him. I hate this room, but I dare not protest where I might be over heard.
A body shrouded in white cloth lies on the table in the centre of the room. A man in purple gloves wearing a doctor’s smock looks up from where he is preparing the body for disposal. “Can I help you?”
Rafel speaks, “We were sent as a guard detail for Concubine Two-twenty-three’s body.”
“Oh, I see.” The doctor pulls the wrapping tight and then secures it with pins. “I’ll be done in just a moment here. I assume the Emperor wants a public disposal ceremony in the morning?”
“Yes,” Rafel answers and stands to one side of the door before motioning for me to take up position on the other side.
The doctor nods and fastens the last pin. “That should do it. I am assuming you two were sent here because the morgue camera is on the fritz again.” He frowns at the camera on the ceiling. “Damned thing never works, though I can’t see what anyone would want with a body. It would be better served to just lock the door and let you two go back to your patrols.” With a shake of his head he strips off his gloves and tosses them in the disposal. “Well, I’m done here, have a good night.”
After he leaves and shuts the door behind Rafel locks it from the inside. He removes his helmet. “Now to contact Sol.”
I take off my own helmet. “Sol is here?”
“No.” Rafel crosses to the body chute and removes the pack from his shoulders. From it he removes a length of string and a small weight.
“What’s that for?”
He grins. “Watch and see.” After tying one end of the string to the weight, he drops it down the chute and rolls out the rest. It bounces off the sides making a tinging sound as it slides down the chute. Rafel continues to let the string out until it goes slack. He waits holding the end, his head cocked like he’s listening for something. A couple of minutes later the string jerks and then is still. With a cocky grin, he begins to pull the weight back up. As he reels it in, a clanging sound gets louder and louder until the string pops free of the chute. On the end are two tin cans like the empty ones my grandpa used to measure the horse’s grain. Rafel unties them and then runs an end of the string through a hole in the bottom of each can and knots it. He winks at me. “Get ready to talk to your boyfriend, Ocean.”
Puzzled, I watch as he drops one end of the string attached to a can back down the chute. “I don’t get it.”
When the string once again goes slack, Rafel lifts the can tied to the remaining end and to my astonishment speaks into it. “Sol, it’s Rafel, over.” He switches the can to his ear, listens a moment and then smiles. Bringing the can back to his lips he says, “Yes, she’s here with me. Over.”
Is he really talking to Sol through a string and a couple tin cans? Impossible! “You’re not.”
“Shush.” Rafel puts the can back to his ear, listens a couple seconds and then hands it to me.
I put the can to my ear.
A muffled voice comes through. “Ocean, are you okay? Over.”
After a brief hesitation I put the can to my mouth. “I’m fine, Sol. Over.”
Rafel takes the can. “Everything is a go for first light if it’s dark enough outside the dome. Over.” He listens a moment and then begins to reel up the other end of the string.
“You’re not going to make me go back down that chute, are you?” Though I desperately want to see Sol again, I’m not so sure I want to repeat my last exit from Imram.
Rafel shakes his head. “No.” Once the other can emerges from the chute, he tucks the primitive walkie-talkie system back in his pack. “Now we head back to hub one and wait.”
“Wait for what?” I ask putting my helmet back on.
He chuckles. “We wait for the dome to grow light so that when Sol blows the hell out of it from above the city will be plunged into darkness.”
“I don’t understand.”
“There’ll be time to explain later, come on.” He dons his helmet, unlocks the door and then we are off back down the halls to the subway and hub one.
When we come to a nondescript dorm, Rafel looks both ways down the deserted street and then knocks on it. A woman opens it a few seconds later. “Freedom,” Rafel whispers.
She opens the door wider and ushers us inside. Link is sitting on a stool in the eating area. “Did you contact Sol?”
Rafel removes him helmet. “Yes, we are set to go at first light.”
I remove my helmet. “Is anyone going to tell me what is going on here?”
Link grins and hands me a glass of water. “Have a seat and we’ll explain it all while we wait.”
/>
After a glass of water I turn to Link. “You promised you’d save the Empress.”
A knock sounds on the door and he grins. “I did.” He heads for the door as Rafel and I sit in paranoid apprehension. Has my presence been discovered?
A male, a female and Link’s voice intertwine from the entranceway, but I can’t make out what anyone is saying. The door closes. Multiple footsteps come down the hall. My heart is pounding in my chest. I get to my feet preparing to run, to just where I’ve no idea. Link enters the eating area with two other enforcers in tow. When he smiles at me, I relax. These must be friends of the freedom movement.
With a sigh, I sink back onto the stool. A minute later I’m back on my feet when the smaller of the enforcers takes off their helmet. The Empress cracks a small smile when her darting gaze settles on mine.
“You’re alive!”
She favors Link with a nervous glance. “Yes, thank you. It seems both of us are presumed dead.”
Link pulls out a stool for the former empress to sit. “It’s simple really. A group of us ambushed the emperor’s death squad of enforcers in the changing room. We stunned them with their own guns, and then dressed them as the empress and the official’s wives. I concocted the idea that they should at least have the dignity of dying with hoods over their heads to insure we could pass them off as the emperor’s intended victims. With their mouths gaged there was no way they could refute the claim.”
“So the emperor put to death his own loyal enforcers?”
“Yes.” Link winks. “Actually, the empress and the others were disguised as the very enforcers assigned to escort them to their deaths.”
I can’t help but shiver at the thought. “And you staged the explosion in the subway to rescue me?”
Rafel nods. “I took your tracking bracelet, threw it in the subway car and then set off an explosion after I hid you in the ventilation system. I had to be quick because I knew I only had two minutes before the tracker showed up as removed on the security monitors. After I placed your bracelet I ran like hell knowing the bomb was set to go off in thirty seconds. Once the chaos died down Link placed a dead body in your stead so it looked like you had been blown up.”
Again I shiver. “So now what’s the plan? We can’t all hide out in the hubs forever. It won’t take them long to find us if they do a dorm to dorm search.”
Link looks at the clock on the wall. “We don’t need to hide out here forever, only two more hours and then Sol is going to launch an attack on the dome.”
I can’t help but snort. “An attack? With what, pitch forks and a horse?”
Rafel chuckles. “No, with a whole lot of dynamite.”
Stunned, I stare at him opened mouthed. Okay, I didn’t expect that. He’s got me there. “I still can’t believe he talked to us through a string and a couple tin cans.”
Link snickers. “It was your grandfather’s idea. I can’t believe it actually worked either.”
“What about my Ma and Petie? Will they be safe?”
Rafel gives my hand a squeeze. “Everyone has been told to make their way into the subway ten minutes before dawn. We think they will be safe in the tunnels from the blasts.”
“You think?”
He smiles, but the sentiment doesn’t quite reach his eyes. “We’re sure.”
I think on the plan for a moment. “But the emperor will be able to track the mass exodus to the subway. He’ll send enforcers to stop them.”
“By the time the enforcers get to the tunnels everyone will be safe and the dome will be under full attack. You see, all the enforcers patrolling the hubs tonight are freedom fighters.” Link gives me a mock salute. “Your army awaits.”
I frown at his playful address. “So what, everyone hides out until the city is in ruins and then runs for it? What about the thousands of enforcers loyal to the emperor?”
“That would be where we come in,” the empress interrupts. “I believe we are to be the inspiration for everyone to fight them.”
Before I can ask the empress to explain Link stands. “We’ve a lot of work to do in the next two hours. Ocean, first I need to show you how to use a Taser...”
Chapter Thirty-nine
Link, Rafel, the empress and I scurry along the darkened streets of the hub. We have less than twenty minutes to reach the medical centre before the first planned explosion. When we enter the subway tunnel I wrinkle my nose at the stench of charred metal and fried electrical circuits. At least the subway runs on electricity and not the old way of diesel fuel. The explosion not only has knocked out most of the power in the hubs and shut down the subway, but what little fire it caused was easily put out, leaving the tunnel passible by foot. The little bit of smoke which still lingers burns my nostrils and makes me want to sneeze, but I resist knowing we must remain quiet.
When we finally reach the tunnel to the medical centre we have no need for stealth. Trying to appear like normal enforcers, we march down its shadowy green lit corridor to the main building. Medical personnel and the occasional enforcer pass, but thankfully pay us no mind. We pass through unchecked and head for the pageant building. Two enforcers guard the door into the building.
One stops us before we can pass between. “Who goes there?”
Link holds up his wrist band to the fellow’s hand held scanner. “Enforcer Eight-sixty-nine, reporting for high security recon at the emperor’s command, sir.”
The enforcer checks the identification and nods. “What about them?”
“The emperor assigned extra help in case something foul was at foot, sir.”
“I’ll have to scan them, too,” the enforcer says holding out the scanner.
Sweat trickles down my brow beneath my helmet. The empress and I don’t have tracking bracelets now. We will be found out.
Just as Rafel holds out his arm an explosion rocks the building.
The enforcer holding the scanner stumbles under the force of the shock. “What the hell is going on?”
Link waves us past him into the pageant building. “The emperor was afraid of an uprising which is why he sent us to guard the communications area. You best hurry and see what’s going on outside. We’ll take care of the communications security from here.”
To my relief, the two enforcers hurry down the tunnel for the medical building. We rush to take the broadcast booth before they return. Link Tasers the lone enforcer in the booth while Rafel drags the two men monitoring all the security and communications systems in Imram away from their posts.
“Ocean, get out of that uniform. You too, Empress,” Link orders while he secures the fallen enforcers and helps Rafel tie up the other two men.
The Empress and I tug off the uniforms and toss on a couple of concubine robes as a knock sounds on the door. Link opens it, admits a couple of camera men and then locks the door behind them. The men set up the cameras and then direct the Empress and I to the podium already set up for the emperor’s special announcements. “In three... two... one... you’re live.”
Looking into the camera I repeat the speech Rafel has coached me to say. “Citizens of Imram, I am Number Two-twenty-three, Ocean Delany. I am not dead, nor is the empress and the official’s wives. They didn’t order the deaths of the minority girls, the emperor did. There is a rebel movement at foot and the empress and the other officials’ wives are on our side. I have been to the outside, the world is liveable. The emperor doesn’t want you to know because he wants to keep us all prisoners to his every whim. He plans to complete his goal of a mass ethnic cleansing by giving all minorities the Black sickness shot and the rest of you a placebo.” I pause for dramatic affect and then raise my voice, “I say to you there is freedom beyond Imram’s walls! Are you ready to fight for it? Are you ready to once again be free? Your only chance is to flee immediately to the subway tunnels and wait there for instructions from rebel freedom fighters. If you do not seek refuge in the tunnels I cannot vouch for your safety when the survivors on the outside come to help us. I will
pray for your safety.” For emphasis I fist pump the air on the final words I yell into the camera. “To freedom!”
“Three... two... one... and we’re out.” The camera man shuts off the camera and the empress and I quickly slip back into our uniforms.
Link gives my shoulders a squeeze. “Well done, Ocean. Are you finally ready to fight and lead your people to freedom?”
With the firm resolve I’ve never felt before I draw myself up tall. “Yes.”
He herds us all to the door and unlocks it. “We need to hurry now. The plan is to blow up the emperor’s, the official’s hubs and then the pageant buildings first, to give us time to arm the rebels and for Sol’s group to breech the power and water hubs.”
We flee down the tunnels with less than ten minutes to make it to a safer area. We enter the waiting room on the lowest floor of the medical building when the first outside explosion rocks Imram. Rushing to the window I peer out. Debris is falling from above. Looking up I’m shocked to see huge cracks spreading across the dawning artificial sky of the dome. Another explosion trembles the ground and huge chunks of sky begin to rain down on the city. It’s awe inspiring and terrifying at the same time.
Enforcers scramble through the streets as debris showers down among them. A large light on wheels is rolled out into the square. Its wide beam is pointed skyward. Movement from above catches errant shafts of reflected light. Squinting, I puzzle the strange apparition above. A spark ignites and then launches away from the object. More of the same happens all across the black patch of real sky studded with stars. The flying object drops lower, directly into the beam of light and for the first time, I understand just what kind of attack we are under. Men hang from giant cloth kites as they light and drop flaming objects which explode as they hit the buildings and concrete below.
“What is it?”
Link stands at my shoulder. “It’s our friends using hang gliders to drop sticks of dynamite.”
A moment later Imram goes dark except for the lone spotlight. Clutching the windowsill I stare into the inky darkness. “What happened?”
The Emperor's Concubine Page 24