The Controller (The Securus Trilogy Book 2)

by Anthony Maldonado

  “Cale ran in and tried to tell Braeden everything. At the time Braeden was making a point to us. Cale didn’t understand until it was too late.” I let him figure out the insinuation.

  Arluin’s eyes widen. “Does that mean what I think it does?”

  “Yes, but for now no one else can know. Was there anything else in the message?” I ask, afraid of the answer.

  “Cale was asking to set up a meeting with the Patron of Leadership. He didn’t say anything important. I think he was saving that as his bargaining chip,” Arluin sends a copy of the file to our Codens.

  Arluin’s news is good, but does not take us out of danger. If the message was relayed to the upper levels of Leadership in Caelum, it would likely draw added suspicion to Securus. After reading the file, Talia immediately moves on. “We need you guys to do something.”

  “Name it.” Seonah is eager to help with Talia’s plan before even hearing it.

  “Did you block the communication to Caelum?” Talia asks.

  “Yeah,” Seonah answers.

  “Good. Keep it blocked, but I want you to send a message to back to the source in Securus. Make it look like the message came from Cale. Say he has arranged a meeting with Braeden Karun and everyone needs to come in one hour so they can be taken to Caelum,” Talia says.

  “We can do that, but who’s Braeden Karun?” Seonah asks.

  “He’s the Controller from Caelum, and they know he was here,” Talia answers.

  Talia catches them up before they leave to get started. Her plan is a good one, but if it is going to work, we need to move fast. I stay behind to fix the Leadership schedule. Using Talia’s clearance, I block the next hour of Cale’s schedule as a private meeting. That should buy us enough time so no one becomes suspicious of his whereabouts.

  After finishing, I rush out to meet the others. We only have a limited amount of time to set up the trap. We cannot risk any delay. If Cale was desperate enough to engage Braeden right in front of us, we have to assume the others will be even more brazen when they realize Cale is missing.

  Another thing worrying me as I race back to the stairs is how people will react when we do reveal Cale’s death. It will look bad. Even more so since we cannot announce the truth of how it happened, given most people do not even know Braeden was here. I shake the worry from my mind. We have a critical matter to attend to now. That problem will be dealt with when the time comes.

  Reaching the upper level, I slow my pace while walking into the quiet hallway. When turning the corner, the corridor ahead is not empty as anticipated. Sayda and Hadwin are both standing at the end of it, staring at the Coden in Sayda’s hand with puzzlement.

  “What are you guys doing up here?” I ask them, checking around for any more unexpected visitors.

  “I tried to find you earlier, but no one knew where you were,” Hadwin explains. “We did it!”

  “Did what?” I ask gruffly. We have no time for guessing games right now.

  “Our tracker is functional. We followed the first signal up to this spot,” Sayda explains, cutting off Hadwin to get to the point. “It says there’s another box behind this wall, but it’s a dead end. It might be within the walls.”

  Instead of explaining, I activate the remote control for the door, showing them the way in. Hadwin looks surprised as the hidden door is revealed but Sayda, on the other hand, is annoyed. She jams her finger into my chest to emphasize her question. “When were you going to tell us about this?”

  “Get inside, there’s a lot more to tell,” I say, pushing them in.

  I immediately close the door behind us. Inside, Arluin, Seonah, Talia, Radek, and another Guard are huddled in a group talking near the tracks. They stop and turn around when realizing I am not alone.

  “They were right outside the door. They got the tracker working. Apparently there’s a box hidden somewhere in here,” I explain. “Cale’s schedule is clear and the room is sealed, so we should be safe to continue.”

  “Okay, they can help too,” Talia says, waving us over.

  “What happened with Cale?” Hadwin asks.

  “Braeden shot him,” I answer, involuntarily wiping what feels like fresh blood off my face again. “It turns out Cale was working with at least three others. He tried to tell the men from Caelum everything, but Braeden wasn’t in a listening mood. He made an example out of Cale to us.”

  “Where’s Braeden now?” Sayda asks.

  “He went back to Caelum. Cale’s conspirators will only get more desperate when they find out what happened. Seonah and Arluin are blocking their communication line with Caelum, but it‘s only a matter of time before they find a way around that. This is our only chance to lure them out before it’s too late,” I say.

  This part of the plan is going to get more risky. We cannot recall a large contingent of Guards without drawing suspicion, so we are going to have to set the trap ourselves. Since we have no clue who the other man involved is we cannot risk him being tipped off by any unusual activity. The only people we trust are already here. Stumbling upon Hadwin and Sayda helps. Now we should have more than enough people to make this as safe as possible.

  “I’m gonna take these two to the Control room to fix the security camera feeds,” Talia says, looking at me. That was one of the extra assignments I gave Arluin. They are going to run a repeating loop on the cameras so Caelum will only see routine activity whenever they decide to check in on us. We still have our own feeds hidden in the system, but if they buy the ruse, they will never even think to look for them. “Radek will help set things up here with you guys. I have Nyree checking the secret passage in the Deep Vents to make sure they can’t sneak up here any other way. She’ll come up afterward.”

  Talia, Seonah, and Arluin exit the room, leaving us to prepare. Radek gives Sayda a smile as she takes a position next to him. Hadwin notices and lets out an irritated sigh before turning back to focus on our trap. Our plan here will be simple enough. First we hide and lure them in. Then we overwhelm them before they realize what is going on.

  None of us look like Braeden, but Radek does have a similar build, so he will have to be the one we use as bait. He goes to a poorly lit spot and turns away from the entrance. In the shadows, Radek’s features are hidden well enough to obscure his true identity. The deception should hold up until it is too late for them. The other Guard, Edric, goes to Radek’s side, acting like he is Ulan faithfully attending to Braeden. Edric is shorter than Radek, similar to the difference between the men from Caelum. He also has a similar build, skin tone, and hair color to Ulan, so he should be able to play the part nicely.

  The rest of this area is too open for us to hide effectively. We need to stage an equipment transfer so the boxes of electronic pieces can serve as cover. The storage room behind the barrier at the end of the tracks holds more than enough pieces to serve our purpose. While we set up, a knock comes from hallway. The conspirators should not be arriving this early. The knock comes again, this time in a rhythmic pattern.

  “Open the door, that’s Nyree. Talia told her to knock in that pattern,” Radek says.

  I go to greet her as she comes inside. “Glad you could make it.”

  “You know me, I just love being up here so much,” she says sarcastically. “Really, I need to find a way to tell Talia no.”

  “Let me know if you figure that out because I sure haven’t,” I reply with a small laugh.

  After the boxes are staged to give us optimal coverage, we get into place and wait. Talia tells me over the communicator they have finished setting up the cameras, so Caelum is now in the dark. Unfortunately that means we are as well. Talia has access the live feeds from her office, but right now she is stuck in the Control Room. She cannot risk scaring off the conspirators by accidentally running onto them on their way here.

  Nyree and I hide off to the left while Hadwin and Sayda are on the right. There are six of us all together. That should be more than enough against three men, especially with both Radek
and Edric carrying their customary pistols. Unless the traitors have access to the Guards equipment, they should be unarmed.

  While we wait, I turn back to Nyree. “How did your day with Braeden go?”

  “Actually, it wasn’t too bad. He was quiet the entire time. I didn’t really have to show him around, he seemed to know exactly where he was going most of the time,” she says while peering around the corner toward the door.

  “Where did you guys go?”

  “Nowhere really. We went to a lot of the halls and down to the Deep Vents. He never asked about any of it. He did stop for a while near some of the ventilation and air filters. But I can’t imagine why he would care about that.” Nyree shrugs.

  “I can.” A sense of dread fills me. Now it all makes sense, I think to myself. I already knew he did not come here to get more information for the review. He never asked about anything related to that. His whole trip was about control. He was looking for ways to control us and apparently, to make sure he could eliminate us if needed. There is only one reason he would be looking at innocuous areas throughout Securus. He must have more of those boxes or something similar to them placed around the facility, and wanted to make sure they were not tampered with. With how well their uniforms made the men from Caelum fit in with our people, they could have snuck in long ago to put them in place. That means we are much closer to death than I thought. It seemed like he was near a decision to keep the colony going, but knowing this combined with his early departure, I am not so sure.

  “Don’t make me ask,” Nyree says, annoyed by my silence.

  “He was checking on his failsafe plan. Remember the box from The Caves?” I ask. She nods and waits for me to continue. “It sounds like he was checking to see if his other hidden devices were still in place.”

  Nyree hits the box in front of us, mirroring my own growing frustration. The worst part of it is we are completely at his mercy. Our only hope is that he delays his decision long enough for us to find a way to neutralize this hidden threat. My mind remains occupied until the door to the hallway opens, instantly grabbing my attention. Whoever is out there obviously has a controller for the door. That is concerning. I peer around the piled equipment and am left aghast by what I see.

  A single man steps inside before closing the door behind him. Maybe he heard of our plan and is coming to help, I tell myself even though the idea is preposterous. There is only one way he could know. He stops to look around the room. When seeing Radek with Edric, he calls out to them.

  “Braeden, my friend, I’m so glad you agreed to this meeting,” Wakil says, now walking toward them. “The others are delayed since we weren’t prepared to meet so quickly. They should be here in twenty to thirty minutes. Where’s Cale?” Wakil stops in place as Radek turns around to reveal himself.

  The others come out from their positions to surround him. I am barely able to stand and am too stunned to walk. Wakil is the last person I ever expected to walk through the door. He has always opposed Cale and has been Talia’s biggest supporter. How could this be? There has to be some mistake. I do not want to believe it. He has been involved in Leadership for longer than the rest of us have been alive. Why would he turn his back on us now?

  “Dead,” I answer his question, finally shaking off my surprise and finding my voice. “And, no, it’s not what you think. Braeden is the man who shot him.”

  Wakil turns to me when I speak. He regards me with his old, friendly eyes with a look meant to engender sympathy. It is far too late for that.

  “Kagen, I can explain,” he starts to say.

  “Don’t think for a second you can talk your way out of this,” Sayda shouts, cutting him off.

  Radek and Edric come to search him for weapons. Satisfied he has none, they move him to the supply room. He looks to Nyree hoping for an ally, but she turns away in disgust. Despite her protest, I have Nyree come with me into the supply room to question Wakil while the others get back in their positions. With only two men left, the rest of them should have no trouble if the others arrive while we are in here. I signal Talia through the communicator to tell her who came. She is even more shocked than I was to find out it was Wakil. She has me leave the communicator in transmit mode so she can listen to his explanation.

  Wakil looks for a place to sit, but the room is nearly empty except for the table in front of me. Nothing else remains except for four bare walls and a flickering light above. So, he walks around the table to lean on it while we talk. Even through the haze in his eyes, I see his mind churning, looking for a way out.

  “Where’s Braeden?” he asks.

  “He left right after he cleaned Cale’s blood off of him,” I tell him, intentionally mentioning the graphic detail.

  “Then all is lost.” Wakil leans further onto the table, as if it is the only thing keeping him from falling.

  “Why would you betray us like this?” I slam my hands down on the table in front of him.

  “I’m not betraying you, I’ve been trying to save you this whole time,” he says. His words remind me of how Aamon would always claim he was doing what was best for Securus.

  “And how’s that?” I ask.

  Nyree stays quiet next to me, listening as Wakil tries to explain. “I’ve seen this before and so has Braeden. Last time he was here, he played the role that Ulan did so well this time. He was the assistant to the Controller when they came and killed Talia’s mother. Mr. Vaden wanted to free Securus. They knew that, so they broke him. After they killed his wife, they told him Talia would be next.”

  Suddenly I wish I had not left the communicator on. Talia did not need to find out like this. She already had enough to deal with before learning Braeden was the man who killed her mother. There is no shielding her from the awful truth now. I want to leave this place and go to her, but now is not the time. I take some comfort in knowing if anyone has the strength to deal with this kind of unexpected revelation, it is Talia.

  “What does that have to do with what’s going on now?” I suspect he brought up the emotional story to distract me. I will not let his ploy work.

  “They know. They always do. Braeden knows Talia wants to free Securus. He will break her or destroy us. That’s what they do. I’ve been trying to get you to see that.” Wakil’s eyes swell with tears. “I don’t want to see Talia suffer. And I don’t want to see the end of Securus. There’s only one way this doesn’t end with disaster. We have to revert to the way it was.”

  “That door is long closed and you know it, Wakil,” Nyree says with anger in her voice.

  “That’s why I was trying to open it back up. To that end, I supported your idea for the scout team, although I didn’t expect either of them to make it back. I knew they would die, making the surface known to be too dangerous. When that didn’t work, I came up with the idea for the researchers to stop eating our synthetic food and test out the garden food on themselves, knowing they would become ill from it.”

  “Wait, you almost killed your own granddaughter for this?” I say, perplexed by his lack of humanity.

  “No, I knew it would never come to that. I’ve known for many years we are dependent on the synthetic food. Long ago they tried to escape this place. Once, they even set up a settlement on the surface. But everyone died because the food here is necessary for us to live. I knew you would figure it out eventually. That dependence could be a way to make the others realize we don’t have a choice. You’ll see for yourself when Tailyn finishes analyzing the gruel. There’s no way to get past it. Caelum has made sure we cannot live without it.”

  “We’ll see about that,” I say. “But even if you thought our plans were doomed, why would you help Cale? His plan is infinitely worse than ours.”

  “I know that.” Wakil pauses to wipe a tear from his eye. “That’s why I convinced Cale not to contact Braeden directly. His messages went to an old friend of mine that was transferred to Caelum long ago. He was helping me stall them until this review came. I wanted to be there when he spoke
with Braeden so I could mitigate the damage he would cause. Braeden knows I would do anything to keep this place alive.”

  His explanation makes sense in a perverse sort of way. Like Wakil, I use the table to keep me up. Nyree sees the hesitation creeping into me and continues to question him. “Who else is involved?” Nyree looks back to me. She must know the names that are to follow as well as the effect they would have on me.

  “The only ones I know for sure are Ardal and Aamon. They were already collaborating with Cale since before Mr. Vaden was killed. They have not spoken of anyone else,” he answers.

  “Did you get them access to the computers in the Detention Center?” I ask, already annoyed at the very mention of their names.

  “No, that was Cale. He set the connection up with Ardal’s help.”

  I am out of questions and cannot look Wakil in the eye any longer. Stepping to the side, I turn away from Wakil and Nyree to quietly speak into the communicator. “Are you okay, Talia?”

  “I’m fine.” The slight tremble in Talia’s voice tells me otherwise. My heart cracks along with her voice. I struggle with the desperate urge to go to her. Hopefully the other traitors get here soon, so we can be done with them, and Talia will not have to deal with this alone for much longer.

  Her emotional wounds are not the only new problem though. Wakil’s firm belief in the futility of our efforts greatly weakens my confidence. After all, he has the most experience with the people from Caelum by far. His warning combined with knowing Caelum’s poisonous boxes are spread through Securus has us on the brink of annihilation.

  I step out of the storage room, immersed in growing uncertainty. Even if the future is unclear, what needs to be done now is not. I need to make sure Aamon and Ardal are finished with their scheming once and for all.

  Chapter 23

  I turn off the communicator as Nyree binds Wakil. We leave him locked inside the supply room. We know who the other conspirators are, but wait to see how Ardal plans to get by the Guards watching him. Hopefully, they do not have a way to get Aamon out of the Detention Center without Cale’s help. As soon as those two are caught, we will launch an investigation into the overseer who freed Ardal. Once we have everyone involved, they can be locked up so we will be done with them forever. None of them will ever leave the Detention Center again.